Matthew 11:16-30
Who Are You Meant to Be?
James Sledge July 3, 2011
I have seen a number of newspaper articles lately about how our struggling economy is not creating many good jobs, the sort of jobs that sustain the middle class, that earned America the nickname, Land of Opportunity. That got me wondering, what is it that makes a job a good job? What attributes must it have?
Invite responses.
Naturally a good job requires a decent salary. There is some minimum necessary to live, to make ends meet and support a family. And so money matters, matters a lot for many of us. But then again I’ve had a couple of jobs that I do not think any amount of money could have made me keep doing for very long. And so money can’t be the entire answer.
The status of a job matters to some. I saw a “Dear Abby” letter the other day from parents asking how to handle people who said disparaging things about their daughter who was finishing up her Masters of Social Work. Apparently among their circle of friends, one does not aspire to become a social worker.
That reminds me that when I was in high school, I got really into horses. At one point I became convinced that I wanted a career as a farrier. For those who don’t know, that’s someone who shoes horses. I’m pretty sure my parents were happy when I dropped the idea. They expected me to go to college, not trade school, and my change of heart also spared them having to deal with the question, “So what’s your son doing these days?”
From the very beginning of Presbyterianism, our theology has had something to say about what makes a good job. It says we all have a vocation. The term vocation is not synonymous with occupation. Rather it means a calling. I know that some people think of certain people, pastors and teachers and nurses and such, as having a calling, but our theology says that everyone has a calling. Callings may or may not come with salaries. Parent is a calling. And certainly people end up in jobs that are not really their calling, but we say that God has a calling or callings for each of us.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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.”
Now Jesus is not talking about work, or not just about work. The yokes and burdens he addresses are the rules, the expectations, the faith, the religiousness that shapes all of life, work included. And so we might expand my original question from what makes a job a good job to what makes a life a good life?
Of course Jesus’ words about yokes and burdens are not uttered in isolation. They are prompted by a visit from some of John the Baptist’s disciples. John is in prison, but having heard the things Jesus is doing, he sends followers to Jesus to ask if he is indeed the Messiah they have been awaiting.
After John’s disciples depart, Jesus turns to the crowd and extols John to them. But then, Jesus seems to become frustrated. “But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’”
Jesus is referring to children playing games. At first they play a wedding game, a happy celebration, but their playmates refuse to join the festivities. Then they play a funeral game, mimicking the professional mourners employed in ancient funeral processions, but their playmates will not join the dirge either.
Jesus blasts his contemporaries who heard John the Baptist’s call for repentance and strict adherence to God’s commands but rejected them as too severe and difficult. Yet they saw Jesus dining with tax collectors and sinners, inviting these “low life” into the kingdom, and they were appalled that he would have anything to do with such folk. Jesus is speaking to his “generation,” the religious folk of his day, but the descendants of that generation are still very much alive. We still find both John and Jesus offensive in their own ways.
Any pastor or church leader who dares sound or act too much like John will soon find herself looking for a new congregation. And any pastor who starts filling the pews with prostitutes, ex-cons, and addicts will likely suffer the same fate. We expect religion to make us feel better without asking too much of us. But we also expect it to uphold conventional notions of propriety and morality. No funeral dirges, but not too much dancing either.
The people of Jesus’ day were much more religious than most of us are. Unlike us, they did not separate out parts of life, work, government, etc. from the religious sphere. But for all their religiousness, both John and Jesus proved problematic for them, as they still do.
The words “religion” and “religious” are words with a lot of meaning, connotation, and baggage. On the one hand they can speak of the innate human drive and desire most of us have to draw near, to connect with the divine. But “religion” and “religious” also speak of the systems we devise to put God’s seal of approval on the things we like. This religion features athletes praying for their team to win. It is the easy alliance of faith with the flag as congregations wax patriotic in the middle of worshipping God. It is being good and respectable and imagining that God likes us more because of it.
Our innate religious desire to know God can help open us to God’s presence in Jesus, but the religious systems we devise and manage are often offended by the genuine presence of God, whether thundered by John or mediated through the amazing grace of Jesus.
And somehow that brings me back around to my questions about what makes for a good job or a good life, both profoundly religious questions.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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.”
I think Jesus helps answer my questions about a good job and good life, but it is easy to misunderstand him. Our culture’s understanding of “easy” is too much about ease, doing nothing, expending no effort. We’ve forgotten other meanings of “easy;” pleasant, relaxing, not overly hurried. Easy on the eye, easy to wear, and easy read, none of which imply no effort.
And the Bible translators might have helped us more as well. The word they translate as “easy” more often means suitable, useful, worthy, or good. And to my ear, suitable, worthy work sounds like a calling, a vocation. Jesus isn’t calling us to a Lazy Boy faith practiced with feet up and remote control in hand. He is inviting us to follow him and discover the work, and the life, that truly suits us, that we are called to, that is our vocation.
But very often, conventional religion fails to drawn us into the life Jesus desires for us. Churches too often have traded discipleship for belief and membership. We have made faith more about doctrines, creeds, and heaven than about following Jesus.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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 suits you, is just right for you, and my burden is light.”
Take on Jesus’ yoke and learn from him. Think about the work Jesus did, the way he lived. His life certainly wasn’t “easy” in the sense that we usually use that word. But his life was precisely who he was supposed to be, the life he was meant for, that fit him to a tee.
What is the work and the life that you are meant for, that fits you to a tee? Jesus says that you learn it from him, from his teachings and from the example of his life.
Most of us know someone who has a miserable job, maybe even a miserable life. They put in the minimum at work, arriving as late as possible, doing as little as possible, and leaving as early as possible. But I have seen such people go on a mission trip and throw themselves into their work. They work all day long in rough conditions and oppressive weather and don’t seem to be least bit exhausted by all their effort. Perhaps they have discovered what Jesus means by “easy.”
Who are you supposed to be? What are you supposed to do? What sort of work and life really suits you, fits you to a tee? If you’re wondering at all, Jesus has some interesting thoughts on the subject.
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