Overburdened

Overburdened

Jesus said, “How terrible it will be for you experts in the Law, too! You load people with burdens that are hard to carry, yet you don’t even lift a finger to ease those burdens.” Luke 11:46

There is one word that describes Jesus’ strong message aimed at the Pharisees and teachers of the law: hypocrisy. Time and time again he tells them that their actions do not match their teaching. He excoriates them for looking good on the outside but inside are “full of greed and evil”. He says they “neglect justice and the love of God.” They love to be noticed in the marketplace; they teach others but are unteachable themselves.

Jesus uses a picture common to the customs of the day. They “load people with burdens” in the same way a person would load up a donkey, camel or other beast of burden to the point where it could hardly move. As they traveled down the road, the owner would walk alongside, carrying nothing himself, berating and beating the animal if it slowed down or stopped, with no concern for the animal’s feelings or welfare.

The religious leaders had encumbered people in the same way, with “burdens too hard to carry.” The NLT paraphrases it this way, “You crush people with impossible religious demands.” There are two ways they did this. First, they would insist on “eye for an eye” punishment for any infraction of the Law. They had forsaken justice and mercy, having boiled God’s word down to a list of moral duties that they themselves were not able to keep. In other words, they had forsaken humanity itself.

It goes without saying that we need laws and guidelines for life. We need guide rails to keep us on track and to prevent us from falling over the edge. But when the law becomes more important than people, we have created an idol of the law.

This is what the Pharisees did with the Sabbath. When Jesus healed on the Sabbath, they accused him of breaking God’s law. Jesus healed a paraplegic who had never walked. The man, joyful over his healing, picked up his mat (the bed upon which he slept and from which he begged), and began to walk home. Because it was the Sabbath, the Pharisees singled him out for judgment and criticism. No rejoicing that God had healed a suffering man, only idolatrous worship of “the law”.

This led into the second way in which they loaded people down. Not only did they elevate the law over human need, but they added their own traditions to it. A person could not carry a burden on their shoulders on the Sabbath, nor with their “left of right hand”, but if it could be carried with a single finger, this was allowed. They accused Jesus’ disciples of “doing work” on the Sabbath when they took a few grains from a stalk of wheat to eat. They were “harvesting” on the Sabbath.

But Jesus tells them that they load people down, doing nothing to actually help them carry the very loads they have created. The limit of a Sabbath day’s journey was 2,000 cubits (about 1,000 yards) from a person’s residence. The religious leaders created their own loophole. They would tie a rope across the end of the street, the end of the street became his residence, and he could go 1,000 feet beyond that.

These loopholes, of course, were reserved only for the religious elite. For the common folk they would not even lift a finger to “ease those burdens.”

Imagine a church that has a small storage shed on its property. It is discovered that a homeless young man has been sleeping in it over the winter. He also has a relationship of several years with both the church and its pastor but did not have “permission” to sleep in the shed. Now imagine that one or more of the church leaders discover the situation. They immediately react with “this cannot happen!” The young man is expelled from the shed. Oh, and no further ideas are floated about how to actually help the young man.

Is it possible that we, too, load people with burdens and do not lift a finger to help them?

Imagine a church where people are taught that evolution is evil and demonic. That church hosts a “Creation Seminar” and invites area pastors and churches to attend. But, as it turns out, the seminar does not simply show evidences for a Creator. It is a diatribe against any view other than 6,000-year-old earth. It forces anyone who disagrees to be seen as an outsider even though neither the Bible nor Science advocate for such a young earth.

Is it possible that we, too, load people with burdens and do not lift a finger to help them?

More importantly, though, is what is currently taking place at our southern border. Yesterday, a Federal career attorney with the Department of Justice actually got up and argued before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that the following met their interpretation of "safe and sanitary" for children:

1. Providing no bedding and forcing the children to sleep on a concrete floor
2. Lights on 24/7
3. Cooling the room to extremely low temperatures (the infamous "Freezers" are kept at about 55, it's unclear the exact temp involved here but everyone agreed it was cold)
4. Providing only an aluminum "blanket"
5. Refusing to provide soap
6. Refusing to provide toothbrushes or toothpaste

Reread that list. Now imagine if anyone treated your child or grandchild this way. How can anyone make the arguments that this is an acceptable way to treat a child. How can any of my fellow citizens be okay with this? And, more to the point, how can any follower of Christ support an administration willing to load this ugly, sinful burdens upon innocent children? This is tidal wave of evil that a great many are cheering, or pretending does not matter.

Yes, it is possible. We are loading people with burdens and not lifting a finger to help them.

Here is how Jesus said he helped those who are burdened:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest. Place my yoke on you and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble, and you will find rest for your souls, because my yoke is pleasant, and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Jesus takes our burdens. Let us be like Jesus.