Dawtmi unau hna, Happy Sunday po!
Tuzing Weekly Online Sermon a kan hrawmhtu saya Salai Ngai Maung cungah tampi kan i lawm. Amah hi Laitlang Matupi khua in a si, PCU ah (Ph.D.) in Religious cawng cuahmah lio mi a si. Bawipa nih thluachuah pe chin ko seh, tiah thlaza kan cam piak!

LEARN FROM ME

Text: Jeremiah. 6:16; Matthew. 11:29

First and foremost I am very grateful to God for adding me new life. Secondly my heartfelt thanks go to readers who are giving the time to read this homily. It is actually a golden privilege for me, and I am very proud of it.

This morning the message that I am going to share is focused on “Learn from Me” or “Learn of Me”. As we have already heard and read the passages which are invitation to Israelites and all of us at present day as a whole.

When we read Matthew 11, we can see the six accents in the voice of Jesus. Matt 11:29 is the accent of compassion. It invites us to learn from Jesus (in Greek, it is written “Mathete ap emou”. In the great Irish Poet, W. B. Yeats wrote “can one read God by toil? He gives himself to the pure in heart; he asks nothing but our attention”. Yes now, Jesus just invites us to take His yoke upon our shoulders, He asks nothing from us but our attention is required. The way to know God is not mental search, but by giving attention to Jesus Christ, for in Him we see what God is like.

Jer. 6:16 is the oracle with an invitation from the Lord. The people are invited to “stand at the crossroads” or perhaps to consider the various ways of life open to them, they should then follow the right way. They should reflect on the ways of iniquity namely the way of life and faith, walked in by their ancestors which was the way of the covenant. They should also reflect on the path of the good (Ps. 1). In this passage, Lord’s invitation is met by the solemn pseudo liturgical “we will not” that is why Israelites faced so many difficulties in their lives. The negative affirmations followed by curse. But the positive affirmations would be followed by blessing. What would be our response to the invitation of our Lord?

There is a legend that Jesus made the best Ox-yokes in all Galilee and that all over the country men came to Him to buy the best yoke, that skilled could make. In those days, as now, shops and carpenter’s shops in Nazareth had their signs above the door is “my yoke fit well”. It may well be that Jesus is using a picture from the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth where he had worked through out the silent years.

Jesus says “my yoke is easy”, the word “easy” is in Greek, “chrestos” means well fitting. In Palestine ox yokes were made of wood. The ox was brought and the measurement was taken, carefully adjusted, so that it would fit well. In the same way, I hope today is well measured and adjusted and fitted well in Seminary for working in the fields of our master.

Christ has a yoke for our necks as well as a crown for our heads. To take Christ’s yoke upon us is to put ourselves into the relation to servant and to subject to Him, and then of conduct ourselves accordingly, in a conscientious obedient to all His commands and a cheerful submission to all His disposals. It is to obey the gospel of Christ, to yield ourselves to the Lord, Christ Himself drown yoke in before us, for He learnt obedience. Christ fitted our yoke well, it is laid on us in love, and love makes even the heavy burdens light. When we remember the love of God we know that our burden is to love God and to love man, then our burden becomes light. The burden which is given in love and carried in love is always light.

In conclusion, Christ’s commands are in our favor

-          We are yoked to work, and therefore must be diligent

-           We are yoked to submit, and therefore must be humble and patient

-          We are yoked together with our fellow servant, and therefore must keep up the communion of saints

The yoke of Christ is easy yoke, not only easy but also gracious, the yoke of pleasantness (Pro. 14:6). We must come to Jesus Christ as our teacher, and set ourselves to learn from Him, Christ has erected school/college and has invited us to be His scholars. We must enter ourselves, associate with His scholars, and daily attend the instructions He gives by His word and spirit. We must confirm to what he did and follow His foot steps (I Peter. 2:21), we are required to learn from the example of Christ.

We must learn of Him to be meek and lowly. As the lowliness and the meekness are the characteristic of Christ, it must also be the hallmark of us which requires Christ himself because we could never learn of Christ without Christ himself. To learn the characteristic of Christ, we need Christ Himself. He is the teacher as well as the lesson, guide and way and all in all. Let us learn from Jesus, so that our burden would become our song.

Mother Teresa once said “my job is to wipe out the tears from human eyes”.

At the cross Jesus claimed “It is finished” which is often misunderstood by taking that it is the painful cry of our Lord. It is not so but the bliss which is the greatest joy of Jesus Christ our Lord. When the task is being carried on may be with trials and temptation but when it is completed, the joy that we had is great.

                                                                 So be learned from Jesus

                                                            

                                                                  Blessed and be a blessing!

                                                             In Christ

                                                                       Salai Ngai Maung