Some people say, and some people think, “It’s hard to be a Christian.” <\/p>\n
But I don’t think they are corrrect.<\/p>\n
Instead, I think the Christian life is not hard at all; it is remarkably easy. Unless we decide to make it hard. Which a lot of people do.<\/p>\n
Jesus said, \u201cmy yoke is easy, my burden is light.\u201d The gospel is \u201cgood news.\u201d Jesus talks about loving God and loving people. And so it all comes down to that, and really, that is not complicated, it is not hard to figure out. It is simplicity itself: and it doesn\u2019t mean warm fuzzies. \u201cLove your neighbor as yourself\u201d How? \u201cif your enemy\u2019s animal has fallen into a pit, help him get it out.\u201d And “If you are compelled to go a mile, go two.” And “Turn the other cheek.” Love is not a warm fuzzy; it is sometimes, perhaps mostly, a cold choice: you want what is best for the other. You do to others as you\u2019d have them do to you.<\/p>\n
\tThe Christian life has been described as difficult. Repeatedly from pulpits around the world, Christians are told, \u201cIt\u2019s tough to be a Christian.\u201d They are endlessly taught that there is a cross to bear, that discipleship is costly, that lives must be given up for the sake of the gospel.<\/p>\n
\tBut such an attitude creates an odd paradox with Jesus\u2019 words that his yoke is easy and his burden is light (see Matthew 11:28-30). Yet elsewhere (Matthew 16:24-25) his words tell us that we must take up our cross and follow him. But then, although we are told that we must give up our lives, we\u2019re also told that whoever loses his life will find it. And finally, the Greek word that gets translated into English with the word \u201cGospel\u201d means simply, \u201cgood news.\u201d How can becoming a Christian be considered good news if it means a life of burdensome discomfort?<\/p>\n
\tReligion lives and breathes asceticism; that is, there is within the religious, the thought that in order to become closest to God, pleasure must be sloughed off. Christians give up chocolate for Lent, though some joke about giving up liver. Monks and nuns, the priests of Catholicism and the Bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy give up marriage\u2014and thus sex\u2014and are counted especially holy. Those who arise early, who spend hours in prayer, who take vows of poverty, who wear sackcloth, who sleep little and work much, are considered the most righteous of all. The more they chose to suffer, to go without, to experience deprivation, the more closely they are believed\u2014and believe themselves\u2014to be closer to God.<\/p>\n
\tAnd yet, Jesus said his burden is light, his yoke is easy.<\/p>\n
Like the old saying from the old story, “He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”<\/p>\n
\tDid Jesus redefine easy and light to mean miserable and hard? I don’t think so. But perhaps love really is difficult for some folks. Maybe they really do find their brother a bothersome load.<\/p>\n
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