Easy

My favorite part of a song has to be the part where all the other instruments drop out except the drums and vocals. I think I like it because it draws your attention to what’s being said and it offers an opportunity for the audience to participate by singing the lyrics back as loud and as bad as they can. I don’t know what musicians call this part, but I call it my favorite part. That’s what everyone should call it from here on out, Nick’s favorite part. That would be awesome.

I know I used this in my last blog, but I want to use it again.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give rest for your souls. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I’m about to do something that I normally don’t like doing. I’m about to use a dry dusty word that is going to require me to explain what I mean. I feel as though we Christians operate with far too many presuppositions in how we present Christ to people. Did you catch the word? Presuppositions; what we already assume to be true. For instance, trying to get someone to believe that they should trust Jesus because the Bible says he is the Son of God. When we say that we are assuming that the Bible is true, and that is has authority to tell us what we should believe. Do you see the problem? What if someone says, “Well I don’t think the Bible is true, I think its made up.” I do think that the Bible is the word of God and I do think that you can believe and trust Jesus because the Bible tells us to, but maybe we’re getting ahead of ourselves in terms of communicating the person of Jesus to others.

I was listening to some Jacky J (Jack Johnson) this morning and there’s a line in a song that almost made me label him as a prophet. “Love is the answer for at least most of the questions in my heart. Like why are we here? And where do we go? And how come it’s so hard?” I found myself saying, “Yeah Jack, me too.” I don’t know what Jack Johnson believes about the world we live in, but I do think that we can agree on what people long for and how we should be treated. Maybe in a general way, maybe not even specifically, but there’s bound to be a connection there.

I think that the most appealing thing about Christianity is…Jesus. No, seriously. The way that Jesus lived and the way he taught us to live is probably something most people can agree on as being a beautiful way to live. A life spent loving people, forgiving people, giving yourself to what’s right, compassion, humility, integrity. These are things that people can generally agree on as being things that make this world…better.

That’s what Jesus is saying in Matthew. He is saying, come follow me, learn from me, live the way I live. A yoke was understood to be the teachings of a Rabbi. When you took their yoke upon you, you held to their teachings. Holding to the teachings of Jesus will bring rest for our souls.

Maybe how we convince people to trust Jesus is to show them Jesus. Groundbreaking. Maybe less time reading books that prove historicity of Christ and more time spent reading the Gospels would do our world some good.

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God and God in him. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.” 1 John 4:16-17