Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Here is a morsel of common sense that may help us understand something perplexing that Jesus said. This bit of wisdom is in Ecclesiastes 4:9, 10: "Two are better than one, ... for if they fall, one will lift up his companion. But woe to him who is alone when he falls, for he has no one to help him up." That is so true; if you want to climb Mount Everest, take someone with you!
But now shift gears to a perplexity in the words of Jesus that troubles many people. He says in Matthew 11:28-30, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, ... My yoke is easy and My burden is light." And yet He also tells us that the way to eternal life is so narrow (thlibo, Greek) that "there are few that find it" (Matt. 7:14), and He urges us to "strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able" (Luke 13:24).
Sounds like a direct contradiction, doesn't it? We have to strive, we have to deny self, we have to resist strong pressures of temptation, we have to obey God's law when our sinful human nature doesn't want to, and on and on. The disciples were so overwhelmed with all the sacrifice that is necessary if one wants to go to heaven that they asked in bewilderment, "Who then can be saved?" (Luke 18:26). And then Jesus said frankly that it's "impossible with men [but] possible with God."
Now shift gears back to our little tidbit of common sense in Ecclesiastes: "Two are better than one." When you choose to enter in at the narrow gate, you never walk the path alone. "I have been crucified with Christ," says Paul (Gal. 2:20); you are never crucified alone. You may think your trials and self-sacrifices are painful to bear, but you never suffer Gethsemane alone; you always kneel down with Him. You never carry that heavy "burden" alone; the reason why Jesus says His burden is "light" is because He does the lifting. Very true! But if you don't believe the Good News, then it seems "heavy" and "hard" for you! And that could be the problem.
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: June 28, 1998.
Copyright © 2017 by "Dial Daily Bread."
