Rest, hope and help. (Proper 9)

     Zechariah 9: 9-12, Matthew 11: 25-30

 

When my grand-daughter Rose was about three we had a family holiday in Suffolk. Suffolk is, famously, rather flat and so on the Sunday morning we decided to walk the short distance to church from the house where we were staying. After about 5 minutes, Rose was flagging and complained “I need to be there now. I only have TINY legs. You need to carry me”.

 

I’m sure there are times we can all sympathise with Rose. When the journey seems long. When our legs feel tiny. When we need help & we want someone – something – to carry us.

 

I think that’s why the poem “footprints in the sand” is so popular.

In case you haven’t heard it, or you’d like to be reminded of it, it goes like this:

 

One night I dreamed a dream.
As I was walking along the beach with my Lord.
Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life.
For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand,
One belonging to me and one to my Lord.

After the last scene of my life flashed before me,
I looked back at the footprints in the sand.
I noticed that at many times along the path of my life,
especially at the very lowest and saddest times,
there was only one set of footprints.

This really troubled me, so I asked the Lord about it.
"Lord, you said once I decided to follow you,
You'd walk with me all the way.
But I noticed that during the saddest and most troublesome times of my life,
there was only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why, when I needed You the most, You would leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you
Never, ever, during your trials and testings.
When you saw only one set of footprints,
It was then that I carried you."

 

The poem resonates with many people because there are times when we all need to know that we are not alone on our journey of life.

But the truth is we don’t need to wait until we look back on our lives to know that God is with us.

 

If we know how Rose felt on our walk, if our legs feel tiny and the way seems long and hard, there are words of great hope for us in our readings today.

 

Zechariah, the prophet, is speaking out to people who have suffered long decades of hard journeys and deep yearning.

 

God’s people of Israel have suffered. In 587 BC the armies of Babylon invaded the land, defeated the armies of Israel, destroyed the temple in Jerusalem and took many of the people into exile in Babylon for more than 40 years.

 

Now the people have returned to their ruined city and Zechariah is promising them that God has not abandoned them.

He tells the people ‘your king comes’ to give peace, hope and a relationship of love. One day God will reign and God’s people will know justice and restoration.

 

No wonder that when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey some 570 years later, on what we call Palm Sunday, some people saw God’s promises of love and care finally fulfilled.

 

And Jesus himself, in our reading from Matthew’s gospel, tells his followers that the kingdom of God comes close to all of us when we most need is and when we will let it.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.

 

When we feel at our smallest and our weakest, sometimes that is when we can be most receptive to the presence of God’s love shown in Jesus in our lives.

  

Then Jesus speaks words which have strengthened and sustained people for generations. There are words we often use as an invitation to take the bread and wine of communion:

‘Come to me all you that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest’.

 

When we most need help – when life makes us weary or when worries burden us, Jesus offers to help us and give us rest -  to carry us.

 

Then Jesus says something that might sound bit odd at first:

“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.”

 

You might think of a yoke across the shoulders of two animals pulling a plough –

In which case a yoke sounds like something uncomfortable and restrictive.

But Jesus is offering his yoke – which he says is light and not a burden.

Being yoked to Jesus is another way of saying he will be with us, right beside us. He won’t leave us, and he will help to pull us through the heavy places of life.


I pray that the love of Jesus will be with us all through every part of life, helping us when the load is heavy and carrying us when our legs are weak.

 

So may we grow ever closer to God. Amen.

 

 

 

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