Culturally Irrelevant

part 3 – a burden

When I’m wearing the yoke of constant intimacy with Christ (abiding in the vine), carrying the load that I’ve been given is a joy. I have the grace for it. But when I carry that load, or more than I’m given, from any other “yoke”, I get outside that place of rest in Christ and begin to strive and strain. I start doing things my way, in my strength. That’s where burdens come in.

In the original language of the New Testament, this word burden, or “baros”, meant a difficult or imposing requirement. That’s different than the “load” mentioned before, which is a measured weight that is meant to be carried, like freight being loaded onto a ship. A burden is unmeasured and unfitting. It restricts movement and makes it difficult to be productive.

There are three different types of burdens that I see in scripture: 1) the weight of sin, 2) the traditions of men, and 3) difficulty during trials. In this post I’d like to stick to the first two. Paul covers the first one in Galatians 6: “Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently. But watch yourself, or you also may be tempted. Carry each other’s burdens…” (vss. 1-2) Here, burdens are moral faults or the burden of sin. Sin is a self-imposed burden that breaks my intimacy with Christ.

This kind of burden is like a broken arm. The rest of my body may be just fine, but that one area of pain takes all of my attention and keeps me from doing anything else. Untreated sin is a festering wound that cripples my ability to walk in faith with God and in relationship with others. Until the burden of sin is removed from my life, I can’t fully experience life in Jesus.

So a burden can be self-imposed through a choice to get tangled up in sin, and it can also be imposed by those in authority. Leaders in the body of Christ are meant to guide and serve, but often they make decisions out of their emotions or past paradigms and place requirements on people that are not from God. When a leader relies on sources other than biblical truth and the leading of the Holy Spirit, the result will usually be an unmeasured response that imposes a difficult requirement upon others. The pharisees were famous for this, and the early church battled it constantly.

Fortunately, the New Testament gives us examples of heavy burdens appropriately being withheld from the church. In Acts 15:28, the Jerusalem council sent a letter to the Gentile world telling them “it seemed good to us…not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements.” This is similar to the way Jesus speaks to the Church of Thyatira in Revelation 2:24: “But to the rest of you who are in Thyatira, who do not hold this teaching (who have not known the deep things of Satan, as they call them) I place no other burden on you.”

I’m constantly checking my life for extra burdens. I’ve discovered that I am constantly in the state of adding burdens to my own life and the lives of others, even if it’s in very small, almost imperceptible ways. But the Holy Spirit is in the business of constantly removing burdens and weights. At this point in my life, I’m tired of carrying heavy burdens in my own strength. My only desire to is be yoked to Christ, carrying the load he has given me. Everything else in my life can take a hike!

…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. (Heb 12:1-3)