The Ultimate Burden
By John Gavazzoni

Nearly as far back in my life of consciously walking with the Lord (He has always walked with me, regardless of my state of consciousness, and during both my regenerate and unregenerate days), I have pondered Jesus' sweet, comforting and encouraging words, "come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls, for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." (Matt. 11:28-30 KJV) [At the end of this article, check out the quotation from Jonathan Mitchell's Translation of the New Testament.] In my over-the-years much pondering, while our Lord's words resonated deeply in my spirit, I struggled with understanding what I could take away with me of practical confident assurance.

It seemed obvious to me that the Lord was certainly not promising a life of discipleship characterized by general ease (though He did mention "easy"), that is, a life unburdened by hardship of any sort, isolated from pain, heartache, disappointment, persecution, misunderstanding, attacks upon body and soul, and the like. If He did, then Peter was wrong to warn fellow believers, "beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing has happened unto you," or Paul's valuation concerning "the sufferings of this present time." His experience included being severely beaten, dragged out of town dead or nearly dead, having upon him the sentence of death, hedged all about, despairing of life, and fightings within and fears without.

The yoke that belonged to Christ, which He invited His disciples to take upon themselves, certainly was a yoke that included being hated and despised by the religious and civil authorities of His day, with the general populace, which was fully aware of His acts of pure goodness, finally, at the end, not raising any protest to His being officially condemned to death. He was left to bear His burden completely alone, except for the comforting presence of His Father, which finally, bearing humanity's sense of being abandoned by God, He was briefly denied even that.

So what kind of easy yoke and light burden was Jesus talking about? After all these years, it finally dawned on me to check the context. Yes, context, context, context, is a primary rule when seeking to interpret scripture. In this case, immediately preceding the verses we're dealing with, He spoke of only the Father knowing the Son, and likewise, only the Son knowing the Father. Look it up. Do your pondering in context. Doing so myself....finally, I came to the conclusion that our condition of laboring and being heavy laden is the ultimate burden of struggling to know God, with Him hiding from us in our quest. God, as an OBJECT of our search, is, as such, unknowable. Yet we are meant, most certainly, to know God: "and this is life eonian, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent," said Jesus.

I had missed connecting two dots during all those years of pondering. The first dot was having been already taught by the Holy Spirit, that we can only know God by God's own knowledge of Himself, which amounts to the Father knowing the Son, and the Son knowing the Father. The second dot was the context I speak of above. It's long been known by theologians, that God can only be known by Him revealing Himself to us. The initiative belongs completely with Him. No unveiling Himself to us by the communion of the Holy Spirit, and there is no knowing of Him. I suppose, though most of my readers already know what kind of knowing I'm writing about, but let's make it clear again: it's not a conceptualizing knowledge. It's not a mere intellectual assent to biblical facts ABOUT God. It's that knowing that comes from the intimate experience OF God. It's "gnosis" in the Greek.

Though theologians have long agreed that the initiative belongs to God, I've not read from any that this involves God knowing Himself in us, granting us to share in that knowledge. We look upon the Son through the eyes of the Father. We look upon the Father through the eyes of the Son. "Oh, God," as Stacy Wood would say. This belongs to the ancient doctrine of deification. In the end, we shall all be so filled with all the fullness of God that Godness shall become the quality of our being. We shall be brought into that communion of the Holy Spirit by which God knows God.

Until then, I believe the ultimate burden is our craving need to know the Lord while being frustrated in the extreme to do so from our end. I'm not saying that you, as one whom the Father has drawn to Christ, have no such sublime knowledge. The way it usually works....and I speak from much experience.....we spend much time trying to figure out God, until the mind of the flesh becomes sufficiently exhausted, and then the Lord, in pure grace, pulls aside the veil, and we see a little bit...."as through a glass darkly" (better, as in a cloudy mirror.) I once gave up on knowing God....completely gave up....and THEN, as never before, He revealed Himself to me as "The God of all grace."

"So everyone come here, toward Me!--all those constantly weary and exhausted from toil and labor, as well as folks having been caused to carry a load, and continuing burdened down--and I, Myself, will refresh you and cause you folks to rest. At once lift up My crossbeam (or: the yoke which is Me, the balance beam that comes from and pertains to Me) upon you people, and instantly learn from Me, because I am (or: I continuously exist being) mild-tempered (gentle, kind and considerate) and humble (low) in the heart, and you 'folks will find refreshment and discover rest in and for your souls (the whole inner person; the mind, emotions and nerves)' [Jer. 6:16] You see, My crossbeam (or: the yoke which is Me; the balance beam that comes from and pertains to Me) is useful and kindly obliging, and My load (the burden that is Me and which pertains to Me) continues being light (not heavy)." (JMT)