Tony Baker Meditation
Psalm 103:1-10, Isaiah 40:25-31, Matthew 11:28-30
| WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12 , 2012 | |
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It’s pleasant to picture Jesus, walking through sunny lanes, offering this consolation. Would he have said this, though, on the way to Golgotha? Cross over his back, falling to one knee? Could he have turned to Simon of Cyrene and said, “Come to me and take my yoke, for my burden is light?” Is the burden of Christian discipleship ever really light? Was it for Simon? Was it for Mary, to whom the prophet said, “Because your soul has magnified the Lord, a sword will now pierce your heart?” And is it for us? Discipleship is a weighty thing. I suppose I wish Jesus had said, “Come to me, and you won’t have any more burdens.” But the burden of the disciple, whether she bears her own or someone else’s, is the cross of Christ, and not the millstone of despair. To bear a cross is to follow in Christ’s footsteps, and thus to carry the weight of creaturely life toward the miracle of resurrection and ascension. The cross-bearing is already an ascension of sorts, and so even when it grows heavy, we confess that our burden is light.
God of Heaven, you walked through the heaviness of earth in order to gather our bodies and souls to yourself. Give us grace to live in your Incarnation, so that our heavy feet might also even now dance with the lightness of your divine steps. It is in the name of the Christ, whose cross we bear, that we also pray. Amen.
Anthony Baker, PhD |
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