The task Jesus gives us will always be exactly the perfect size

By Dean Collins

What size do you wear?

I’m not prying. I’m just trying to be helpful. I am both wired and somewhat trained to be helpful. But I will admit that sometimes I don’t live up to my training or gifting and I end up making things worse and not better. The most likely time I fail to be helpful is when I try too hard to fix things.

The problem is that when I try to fix things, I tend to overreach. My desire or, worse, obsession to help can lead me to step into areas where I’m probably not the right person. I don’t have the skills, patience, or talent to help everyone with everything. But on a bad day, I might try.

I suspect that some of you good people with good intentions, especially those who choose to follow Jesus, can fall into the same trap. We might start with the right motives and end up over our heads. Before we know it, we’ve taken on burdens bigger than we anticipated and tasks that don’t fit our gifting or our responsibility.

The right fit

So back to the size you are currently wearing. I don’t need to know a number or even whether it’s S, M, L, or XL. The thing we both need to know is whether it fits well. We’ve felt the discomfort of a fit that is too restrictive or so large that it won’t stay on.

All the way back to the Garden of Eden we learn that we have work to do. Even before things went badly for Adam and Eve, there was work. And after the fall the work got harder. Over the centuries and throughout history various systems of government have been tried. Some have been overly oppressive and restrictive and some less so. Yet as perfect as we desired them to be, all of them come with restrictions and permissions. The problem we have, even in a land of freedom like America, is that we have imperfect people running the government. We also have imperfect people as citizens. And try as we might, we have not overcome our imperfections.

The right allegiance

On a good day we who have chosen to follow Jesus remember that we are citizens of a different kingdom both now and later. But in the current moment, we happen also to be citizens of the country where we reside. So how do we deal with our allegiance? Ultimately it goes back to the right size or fitting. Jesus said at the end of Matthew chapter 11 that he has a perfect size. It’s not a coat, which we would probably prefer. It’s a yoke. I don’t like the sound of a yoke. Yokes are for oxen who have work to do.

It seems that in the here and now and as citizens of a new kingdom, we have work to do as well. We can either wear a well-fitted yoke, a poorly fitted one, or try the American way and just assume we can do it all ourselves without one. Independence is a big thing in the kingdom where we live now.

The right yoke

Back to my problem. The days when I feel the most fatigued are also the days where I feel the most burdened. It’s on these days when I might even resemble a martyr trying to do it all myself. But then I remember to check and see which yoke I chose that day. Without fail, whether deliberately or accidentally, I pulled the wrong yoke out of the closet. I need to mark them better. Maybe I’ll go find my old wood-burning kit in the attic and burn the words “well-fitted and easy” so I will remember to get the right one. Or maybe I should always make sure the light is on in the closet so I don’t make the same mistake of grabbing the wrong yoke.

There is work to do. And it’s important work. It’s even helpful work. We just need to remember to focus on the right work partnered with the right person, Jesus. He is the one who called us to work. He is the one who made the yoke. He is the one who both gifted us and continues to equip us by his Spirit. He promised rest. He promised to meet our every need. We should probably take him up on his offer. We don’t have to carry all the burdens. He made the offer to lots of us. Actually, his offer is to all of us.

His plan on his time and in his way will result in work/life balance and even abundance.

Your time with God’s Word
‭‭Matthew‬ ‭11:29-30‬ ‭ESV

Photo by Daria Volkova on Unsplash

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