Put the Load Right on Me

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.  — Galatians 6:2

To bear the burden of another is not merely to help someone out in need.  That is a work of Christ as well, and pleasing to God.  But look what it says, "and so fulfill the law of Christ".  Certainly Christ's law is to love one another, but Christ's law is the law that governed Christ, that made Him our Substitute, the anti-type of the scapegoat that bore away the guilt of a nation and a people into the wilderness, into forgetfulness.  Christ is the Burden-Bearer:  Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus is our High Priest.  Consider the ministry of Aaron, the high priest:   And you shall set the two stones on the shoulder pieces of the ephod, as stones of remembrance for the sons of Israel. And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord on his two shoulders for remembrance.    ... And in the breastpiece of judgment you shall put the Urim and the Thummim, and they shall be on Aaron's heart, when he goes in before the LORD. Thus Aaron shall bear the judgment of the people of Israel on his heart before the LORD regularly.

As the high priest of Israel bore the nation upon his shoulders and over his heart, so Christ bears us.  Yes, He carried our iniquity, but He also stands in for us in everything.  Do we struggle with fear?  Jesus will bear it.  Were we abused, misused, mistreated?  Jesus will bear it.  Are we burdened with guilt and regret?  The Lord will carry it.

He can carry all that we will give Him but only what we give Him.  There is a price, of course.  As we are freely forgiven, so we must freely forgive.  As we have been given much, so of us much is required.  As our burdens have been borne, so we are called to bear the burdens of others.  First Peter tells us we are "... to be a holy priesthood ... a royal priesthood".  In other words, we are to stand in for others, to bear the burdens of those around us, to carry the fears and the failures of those who will relinquish them to us.

Christ asks us to take His yoke and bear His burden, which is lighter and easier than our own.  How can that be?  It is hard to explain but easy to see.  I pass my burden over to Jesus.  He can bear it easier than I because it is mine and not His.  Someone else passes his or her burden over to me.  It was a horrible weight to that person, but in passing it to another, some of the subjective magnitude goes away.  It is easily bearable for me no matter how personally and with what empathy I enter into it.  I carry only the objective weight.  The subjective is, more or less, lost in the surrendering.

To take His yoke upon us means to step into the work of substitution alongside our Lord.  We cannot live in isolation — as appealing as that is to a lone wolf like me.  He calls us to the communion of the saints, to drink from the same cup —  the same cup as Jesus, but also the same cup as our brothers and sisters who are battered and tormented by the wars and tribulations of life.

I say often that we should be careful with whom we share our troubles, careful of the prayer partners we choose.  You cannot ask just anyone to pray for you — it is foolish to do so.  But there are those we can recognize as burden-bearers.  We know them when we meet them.  With those who are yoked to Christ, we may share our deepest sorrows.  They can be counted on to carry away our load and free us from the burden — not that we might be unburdened but that we might be free to step in and lift up someone else. 

Just look at how many who name the Name of Christ stumble and fall.  It may have happened to us or not, but surely we can understand the temptations of another, even if only by proxy or likeness.  When we see someone struggling, perhaps a prominent person, should we mock and ridicule them for their weakness, or should we seek to take up their burden?  It may not be possible to contact them personally and offer to shoulder the load, but we can speak to the Father and ask Him to allow us to stand in in bearing that addiction, that pressure, that terror for the one who is brought low and fallen.   It is our duty, our priestly duty, and it is not limited to those who are called to full-time ministry or to a particular vocation.  All believers are called to this ministry, to be yoked together with Christ, the Burden-Bearer.

Crazy Chester followed me, and he caught me in the fog.
He said, "I will fix your rack, if you'll take Jack, my dog."
I said, "Wait a minute, Chester, you know I'm a peaceful man."
He said, "That's okay, boy, won't you feed him when you can."

The Band -- The Weight