2026-07-05 (Iain) Surrendering to our closeness

5th July 2026: Surrendering to our closeness

Our Gospel has some of the most familiar and comforting words in the bible: Come to me, all you who are weary and are 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." Beautiful words about a gentle and humble Jesus which are easy to take for granted and miss how revolutionary this would have been to his hearers, where the large majority of the Jewish population were living under an oppressive Roman colonial power, weighed down by heavy taxation, many close to financial destitution and just surviving from day to day. On top of this their religion added an extra burden of hundreds of rules and obligations they were required to fulfill, in order to please and placate God, creating a terrible extra weight for the poor to carry.

And here Jesus is offering an alternate understanding of God, a God who is gentle and humble of heart; a God who will provide rest; a God, who in our Zechariah passage, though victorious and a King, will ride on a donkey, displaying none of the military might associated with power. But this passage also explores who gets this new vision of God: It is not the ‘wise’, the intelligent, the successful but the ‘little ones’ – (Anawin – outcasts – those on the margins of society). Jesus berates his generation saying they failed to be joyful and celebrate when they had reason to be joyful and they failed to mourn when they had reason to grieve – basically that they are missing the moment, & that whatever the message they were incapable of receiving it: John came neither eating nor drinking, preaching repentance and you say, 'He has a demon'; and I came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!' ignoring the acts of mercy and healing Jesus had done.

And this is where the passage gets contentious, when Jesus thanks his Father that he has hidden things from some – the wise (sarcasm here) & intelligent and revealed things to others - the little ones- because it clearly indicates an element of choseness – a word that has been misunderstood with terrible results – and you just need to listen to some of the internal talk in Israel with talks of Goyhim and Amaleks needing to be destroyed as a way of justifying genocide.

This completely misses the foundational point of choseness in the Bible is that it has nothing to do with worthiness and should never lead to a sense of entitlement or superiority over others. In fact biblical tradition goes to great lengths to show that God chooses the unworthy, the weak, the sinful, and the broken. So Choseness is all about grace and has nothing to do with the worthiness – how often we read the bible, we say our prayers, we go to church – it is all about Grace. We need to be humble enough to surrender to our choseness, to surrender to God’s mercy, forgiveness and unconditional love, to surrender to our belovedness, to our choseness. It is only then that we can communicate choseness and belovedness to everybody else, that mercy, forgiveness and infinite, unconditional love is available to others. When we recognize the extent of God’s grace we are able to fulfill our calling to Act Justly, Love Mercy and Walk Humbly with our God.

Once we understand that it’s all grace then humility naturally follows. Humility is to do with earthiness, being grounded and secure in our identity, our belovedness, , our acceptance, our choseness. Then the need to play ego games stops – there is no need to run around getting plaudits or lording it over people. We can act justly: be professional, competent and fair in our work and lives, love tenderly: be compassionate & open hearted to the suffering of others and walk humbly with our God: bow down before the mystery of God – that there are some things we may never understand. Joseph Campbell, who I will come to later said: Life is not a problem to be solved but a mystery to be lived. And our choseness is a mystery, one to be lived rather than solved. So surrendering to our choseness, to our belovedness is a foundational step for us, but surrendering to our choseness is hard for the intelligent and wise because it pulls the rug under any sense of superiority or worthiness, which is why it may be less of a leap of imagination for the little ones.

And what Jesus says to those who surrender to their choseness, to the grace of God, is that god doesn’t add to their burdens but provides rest: ‘’Come to me, all you who are weary and are 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."

The word yoke is often associated with beasts of burden, and donkeys, as well as oxen, were used to plough the land in in 1st Century Palestine. On occasions with particularly heavy ploughs there would be a double yoke so that two donkeys could walk side by side sharing the burden of a heavy plough going through stony and arid land. I wonder whether Jesus is suggesting a yoke designed for two, alluding to the idea that he will walk beside us, sharing our burdens. Similarly, on a human level it is good to share our burdens with a trusted friend or friends who will walk beside.

Judith, in a reflection a few weeks ago, talked about God consistently telling people to not be afraid. Joseph Campbell, famous for his work on myths/stories in different cultures and religions describes how there are common and recurring themes, which he called the heroic / transformative journey where people are lead to a cave, or a dark forest, or a crossing where there is something inside or the other side that induces fear, but in all these stories it is where our fear lies, whether it is in a cave, or dark forest or crossing to the other side, that is where our greatest treasure dweells, where healing and freedom lies. Carl Jung supports this idea when he said, ‘ Where your fear is, there is your task’. It is certainly the case with Jesus and his journey towards the Cross. Campbell says that the myths/stories also suggest that to enter the cave, the dark forest, or embark on the crossing, a companion of sorts, whether spiritual, human and in some cases an animal, is needed. And it does seem that the God of the Bible often leads his people to a place of fear, asks them to go towards it, saying do not be afraid for I am with you. And we have been given in Jesus and the Holy Spirit a God who is not only for us and in us but walks along side us. I also think it is good to have a trusted friend or friends to walk alongside as we enter fearful places. As Pope Francis, the previous pope, said, ‘Having faith does not mean having no difficulties, no suffering, but having the strength to face them, knowing we are not alone.

So let us live the mystery of our choseness, by surrendering to our belovedness in God so that we can share and communicate to others their belovedness and face our fears, knowing that God walks with us in those dark places. Amen