Living Outloud: Under the Weight

We connect Rehoboam’s failure and Judah’s forced burdens with Jesus’ promise of a “light” burden, showing why following him means trading weights, not living weightless. We unpack yokes, crosses, rejection, and allegiance as practical, hopeful paths of discipleship.

• Rehoboam’s arrogance contrasted with God’s lighter rule
• What Jesus means by an easy yoke and light burden
• Yoke as surrender of direction and pace
• Burden as carrying good for others
• Love your enemies through dignified nonretaliation
• Take up your cross as daily self-denial
• Expect and endure the burden of rejection
• Fear God over human power
• Confess Christ as an act of allegiance
• Gratitude and resilience when discipleship feels heavy

Let us know what you find in your own study!

Chapters

• 0:00 Launching From 2 Chronicles
• 2:06 Rehoboam’s Pride And The Split
• 3:06 God’s Lesson On Burdens
• 4:06 Matthew 11 And Jesus’ Yoke
• 5:21 The Yoke Explained With Oxen
• 8:21 Burden Means Serving Others
• 10:41 Starting A Matthew Study
• 11:56 Love Your Enemies In Practice
• 16:31 Turn The Other Cheek Reframed
• 19:01 Take Up Your Cross Daily
• 20:11 The Burden Of Rejection
• 22:21 Fear God Over Man

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:23

This is Living Out Loud, the portion of the Out Loud Bible Project podcast where Kelsey and I, that's Kelsey. Hello. And I'm I. We get into the reading that we uh dove into earlier in the week and talk about what we can do practically about it. How can this actually affect the way we live? If you did not listen to the previous episodes from 2 Chronicles, I'd recommend you do. Um, that will just help to give a little more context here. We're launching off of the Thinking Out Loud Thought for the Day from the last episode and want to just go deeper with it because I think it deserves a bigger conversation. By way of review in 2 Chronicles 10 through 12, we saw the rise of a new king, Rayoboam. And he started his reign with this rather foolish plan that God was behind the whole time, working out the way things work like God does, you know? Um, but Rehoboam took some bad advice and told the people who were now his new subjects, now that he's the new king, he's like, Oh, well, you think my father placed heavy burdens on you? Well, guess what? I'm more of a man than he ever was, and I'm gonna place heavier burdens on you. And he thought he was awesome. The people thought he was a jerk, and the kingdom split. They're like, fine, we're gonna go find our own king.

SPEAKER_00: 1:37

So, like, just side note, maybe don't listen to advice from bros.

SPEAKER_02: 1:41

Yeah, your your bros that you grow up with maybe not the best counselors for you. Um, so side note, good advice. Find some older people who've been around a minute and know people better than you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53

Have some wisdom and glean from that wisdom.

SPEAKER_02: 1:56

And uh I mean, I've read this story before. We've even kind of read this for in 2 Kings back in the podcast, like because this is kind of a retelling of the stories of the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah. But it had never really struck me before that later on in this story with Rehoboam, the Lord is sending the king of Egypt to come attack Jerusalem. And so he and the other leaders and rulers are hunkered down, and they humble themselves when they hear that the Lord is doing this. And so the Lord relents from the attack and he says, Okay, they're not gonna destroy Jerusalem, but you are gonna be subject to them because I want you to learn the difference between the burdens that I place on you and the burdens that some earthly power is gonna place on you, which is, I think, a not so subtle nod back to the whole, you want to talk burdens and who places burdens on who and who's hard on who? Well, let's see what it's like to be subject to someone other than me and see how you like it. You think I'm tough? Well, check out this new king coming to town, right? And I couldn't help but think of Jesus in Matthew 11. We mentioned this in the Thinking Out Loud thought for the day, but Matthew 11, 28 through 30, he says, It's a great invitation and a beautiful promise of Jesus. Come to me, those of you who are weary and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. It doesn't end there, because he says, From my yoke is easy and my burden is light. And that's a little bit more of a confusing, maybe even dare I say, less popular part of that verse. We like that come to me and I'll give you rest. Oh, good, because I am burdened. I need some rest, and Jesus can give me rest. And amen to that, he can. But this whole like, wait, my yoke and my burden are light, wait, what does that mean?

SPEAKER_00: 3:42

Like it implies that there is a yoke and a burden.

SPEAKER_02: 3:45

There is a yoke and a burden to following Jesus, and he he doesn't just take all your burdens and say, Okay, off you go, go live your life. And now I took the hard stuff away.

SPEAKER_00: 3:53

Go prance in a pasture somewhere.

SPEAKER_02: 3:56

But doesn't that lead to a lot of disillusionment and disappointment when we feel like that should be the way it works? But it's it's not the way it works. Yeah. Jesus doesn't take your burdens so that you can go run off and continue doing what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01: 4:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 4:08

And, you know, live without burdens. Like that's not how it works. He replaces the burdens that you have with his own burden and his yoke, which we'll get into that. Yeah. That's its own image with implications.

SPEAKER_00: 4:22

It reminds me of uh a line in The Chosen. If you've watched that show, it is not scripture, it is a line that was written by Dallas Jenkins, a person, but he's a person who knows Jesus and is trying to represent.

SPEAKER_02: 4:34

He's trying to communicate the heart of Jesus still.

SPEAKER_00: 4:35

And um, and there's a line in there that the actor portraying Jesus says, and he says, I ask a lot of those who follow me, but I ask very little of those who do not. Um, and and I don't know, it this whole conversation just reminded me of that that line in that show because it we really do have to understand that, like there's a lot of burden from the world. There's a lot of weight that the world will put on a person. When we come to Jesus, Jesus takes that burden off of us, that world burden, that burden of sin, the slavery to sin, he removes by the power of his Holy Spirit through his grace, through his love and his power. But he he does put expectations back on us. Like there are expectations for those who follow him. He asks a lot of us. And that's kind of the conversation, Mike, that you were like, let's dive into, like, let's talk about today. What are those expectations? Like, what are these burdens that Jesus does put on us when we follow him?

SPEAKER_02: 5:34

I think we can learn a lot by understanding what he means by my yoke and my burden in that Matthew 11 verse. Because I don't know, I'm I'm living in suburban New Hampshire. Okay, I don't see a lot of yokes. Um but it's not an egg yoke. It's not an egg yoke. It's Y-O-K-E. And if you're into farming and agriculture, you probably have more of a picture. If you were into farming and agriculture 2,000 years ago, you definitely know what it's about, but you're not listening to this podcast today. So for the sake of someone listening to this podcast today, um uh a yoke, you may know, is this uh it's a piece of wood that allows uh the necks of of a beast of burden, like uh an ox or a horse or something. The the the horse's head and neck can go inside this, this yoke closes over it, and it itself carry it has weight, but the purpose is not just to weigh it down. The purpose of it is to then you can then control two beasts of burden with it, or more so if you have one older, more mature beast, we'll we'll say ox, then and the ox, the the ox knows where it's going, it knows what it's doing, it doesn't even need to be led, it just does the work in the field. But this younger ox doesn't know necessarily how to do the work. So you yoke this older, bigger one to this younger one, and then the older one, as the older one goes, the younger one can't help but follow and walk alongside the older one.

SPEAKER_00: 7:06

And if you have a picture of this in your mind, like if you're really picturing this image of a big, strong ox kind of tied with this dual neck entrapment system to a younger ox, like the weight of the cart that they're pulling is just as heavy. The weight of the yoke itself is just as heavy. But if you're picturing this, the taller, bigger, stronger ox is carrying more of the weight. It doesn't mean that the weight doesn't exist just because the little one doesn't feel it. It means that the the heaviness, the the ownness is on the big ox to do the majority of the pulling, the majority of the hauling, the majority of the energy and work and effort is on the shoulders of the big ox, while the little ox learns and follows and trains while the the burden is still there. The weight is still behind them or on top of them, but the big one is carrying it. And I think that this gives such a beautiful picture.

SPEAKER_02: 8:02

Because you got to recognize Jesus doesn't say, Come to me, those of you who are weary and heavy laden, I'll give you rest, for I'll give you a yoke that's easy and I'll give you a burden that's light. It doesn't say that. He says, My yoke is easy, my yoke, my burden is light. Jesus is not putting stuff onto you, he is inviting you into his yoke and his burden to share it with him. And you better believe he carries the majority of it, but it's not nothing.

SPEAKER_01: 8:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 8:28

And so the yoke, this idea of being yoked in Christ's burden, means that you have to give up the right to go your own way.

SPEAKER_01: 8:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 8:38

Like, because the younger, smaller ox does like they may want to go, oh, I want to go that way. Well, you know what? You're yoked to this big ox who's been around a minute and you're not going anywhere. You're walking alongside of it.

SPEAKER_01: 8:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 8:49

And you give up the right to go your own way in your own time. You have to, part of this yoke is to go where the older ox wants to go. And you do the work that the older ox is doing. That's part of it. And and the idea of a burden, too, it's different than a yoke. A yoke is burdensome, perhaps, but that has more to do with direction and sharing a load. A burden uh is what is if you can imagine, like a donkey, like put on to carry uh some goods.

SPEAKER_00: 9:21

Yeah. And it would you would put all of your goods for traveling or commerce or whatever on top of a donkey or a camel or a horse, and then you would ride that animal, or that animal would carry the things that you need carried from town to town. That's the burden.

SPEAKER_02: 9:34

It may even be dragged behind a pair of oxen with a yoke that that may be pulled behind on a sled or something, and they're carrying a burden. Um, like Jesus, this is his burden. But that burden is not primarily for the donkey. Is there maybe a sack of grain that the they can use to feed the donkey somewhere along the road? Sure. But it's not primarily for the donkey. This burden that this animal is carrying is for the benefit of someone else. And the donkey doesn't know. The donkey may not even care, you know. Um, but when Christ gives us his burden, this comes with this burden of having to share Jesus with others, to share the benefit that he gives and the value that he wants to offer people. We partake in that to be a vessel to be able to bring that out into the world. And that's a burden. Like that is a responsibility and it carries weight, and there is value that is beyond just what we can enjoy. We have to give up the right to just enjoy what we want and not do anything for anyone else when we share Christ's burden as well. So I think with a better understanding of what oaks, yokes, and burdens are for, I think we can better understand what Jesus means when we share his. And so, what are the burdens that Jesus places on us? It might be a fascinating study to go read the Bible and think, like, what does this require of me? That frankly is a little bit of a burden, but I gotta admit, it's way better than being drowned in the sin and the muck of the world and the burdens that the world places on me and politics places on me and all the stuff that goes on. That's heavy, nasty stuff to get stuck in. What Jesus asks is lighter and it's better, but it's not nothing. Jesus didn't free you so that you could just go run free. He freed you so that you are free to now carry his burden. What are those burdens?

SPEAKER_00: 11:28

We don't have an exhaustive list. No, we have like a couple.

SPEAKER_02: 11:31

Some that came to mind I I wanted to share, and we've got some Bible references. Is if you want to start your study here with some of these, honestly, they're all from the book of Matthew. You want to start reading? Start reading in Matthew chapter five and go from there and see what comes out.

SPEAKER_00: 11:42

Yeah, we started talking and we're like, well, how about this ver this verse? Oh, go look up where that is. It's in Matthew. Okay, how about this idea? Go look up where that is. That's also in Matthew. And at some point, preparing these notes, I was like, I think this is just a study.

SPEAKER_02: 11:53

Maybe it's just studying Matthew. I don't know. Yeah, Second Chronicles just jumps to Matthew naturally, right? So here we are. Um But for example, one, I I mentioned Matthew 5. This is the start of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus gives a whole lot of new kinds of angles on it on the law. This is a fulfillment of the law, and he's just elaborating. And one strong theme is this idea of love your enemies. Matthew 5, 38 through 44, he gives a bunch of different scenarios of what loving your enemies looks like, or loving those who are out to get you and take advantage of you. It's famous verses like turn the other cheek and give them your coat if they've sued you for your shirt. And uh go the extra mile. Go the extra mile. If a Roman soldier asks you to carry the gear for a mile, go an extra mile. These are burdens that he Jesus expects of his people to go beyond what is expected and enforced and do so in such a way that with such a heart and an attitude that the people who were disadvantaging what's the word taking advantage of few um now feel a little bit like their foot's in their mouth. And now they have to contend with, wait, I was mistreating them, but now they are doing something for me that I don't deserve. What? And we let people wrestle with that tension, and in that tension they get to see Jesus. Um but it it r requires something of us. We have to be willing to give up our coat, literally or metaphorically, to someone who is trying to get everything they can out of us. Uh we have to be willing to go the extra mile. If someone asks something of us, fairly or unfairly, let's go beyond what they asked or expected. And if someone hurts you, open yourself up to for them to uh this is a tricky one. I don't want to say open yourself up to be hurt again, but show them that you are not retaliating, that you're not out to get them, that they're gonna have to think twice if they take advantage of you or hurt you again.

SPEAKER_00: 13:56

Real interesting note about the turn the other cheek culture.

SPEAKER_02: 13:59

I think we need the cultural there.

SPEAKER_00: 14:01

I think you need it. Um, because Jesus says if someone strikes you on the right side, turn your cheek and let him strike your left as well. So if you imagine I'm sitting across the table from Michael, some kind of like man mining this.

SPEAKER_02: 14:16

We gotta get to video podcasts soon.

SPEAKER_00: 14:18

Right. But if I if I slap you on your right side, I've backhanded you. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 14:23

Because we're assuming you're right hand.

SPEAKER_00: 14:24

It's my right hand hitting you with the back side of my hand. Jesus. I didn't know.

SPEAKER_02: 14:29

Ow, Pelsi. Why'd you do that? Ow.

SPEAKER_00: 14:32

I didn't actually. Oh no. Um and and that is a sign, especially culturally, then it was a sign of you are beneath me, and so I'm hitting you with the back of my hand. Right.

SPEAKER_02: 14:43

If you're not sure. That's how you strike a slave. That's how you strike someone.

SPEAKER_00: 14:48

If you turn your cheek and you open up your left side for me to slap, my only option with my right hand is to slap you with the the palm of my hand, which is a a thing you would do to an equal.

SPEAKER_02: 14:59

That's a more grievous offense, and it's yeah, it it means a lot more in that culture.

SPEAKER_00: 15:03

And so in that culture, Jesus was was not saying, hey, just be a doormat and let people abuse you. Jesus was saying, if someone tries to abuse you, you turn your cheek and you force them to treat you as an equal by by standing in such a way that is.

SPEAKER_02: 15:20

Maintain your dignity, even if it's gonna cost you.

SPEAKER_00: 15:23

Right. That's a good way to put it.

SPEAKER_02: 15:25

And uh and this come this comes with burdens. All of those situations cost something pain, resources, energy, time. Right. But Jesus is asking his people to go above and beyond to really put to shame the people who are just trying to get what they can out of you and out of the world. Um, shame that results hopefully in recognizing their need for Jesus. Um, another another burden in Matthew 16. Jesus bids his people. You have it open, why don't you read it?

SPEAKER_00: 15:56

Uh Jesus said to his disciples, if any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your own cross and follow me.

SPEAKER_02: 16:05

This is a burden. This is classic Jesus burden conversation. But it's not. It's I was gonna say it's not easy, but he says his burden is easy, but this is not easy for us to swallow or or want. But Jesus is talking about. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 16:26

Which means the yoke is easy in that he you're tied to him who's carrying the weight of the burden. The weight of the burden of taking up your cross was handled by him who actually went to the cross. Yes. And took on your sins and died for your sins. That's the the weight of the yoke was on his shoulders.

SPEAKER_02: 16:47

Here's what's true. Jesus is not asking you to do anything that he has not already proven himself willing and able to do. So when he asks you to die to yourself, he already did it when he came from heaven to earth in the first place, let alone die.

SPEAKER_01: 17:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:03

And when he he asks you to be us to be willing to die, literally die for him, or be persecuted in any number of ways, then he's not asking us to do anything that he hasn't already done.

SPEAKER_01: 17:15

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 17:16

And in Matthew 10, 22, he says, You will be hated for my name's sake if you follow him.

SPEAKER_00: 17:23

And it's you'll be hated by all. By all for my name's sake, is what it says.

SPEAKER_02: 17:27

That's a burden. Yeah. That's a burden of a loss of relationships. It's let's we'll call it the burden of rejection.

SPEAKER_01: 17:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:33

Because look, I know rejection is a very sore subject, and there's a lot of pain because people have felt rejected by their parents, people have felt rejected by their church, people have, or pastor, people have been rejected by their friends, or they feel like they're rejected by society. That is a you know a worldly type of rejection that that really hurts. And Jesus can heal it. He can give you a family, he can give you a purpose, he can give you a communion, he gives you a sense of belonging when you are part of Christ's body, when you are when you're saved, and when he heals and delivers you, then he offers you all these things. That's awesome. And the freedom and the peace and the joy, belonging, and the hope that comes from that is unbelievable. But it comes with a burden of rejection that now some of those people, or maybe even people that you were on the same page with, especially people when you were living in sin. If if you're on the same page with them, now you're on a different page with Jesus, they may reject you because of that. They may make your life more difficult now that you are a follower of Jesus. And that's a burden. Now, again, not Jesus is not calling you into anything that he hasn't already experienced. He was rejected.

SPEAKER_00: 18:43

He is the bigger ox who is leading the way. He's already taken on everything that he's asked to do.

SPEAKER_02: 18:47

He's rejected by his friends and family too.

SPEAKER_00: 18:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 18:50

Um, but it's far better to be yoked with him than to face than to be yoked with someone who isn't following Jesus and leading us to who knows where. One more I want to bring our attention to is Matthew 10, 28, where he says, Don't like don't fear the authorities of this world. Basically, fear the one who has the power over your soul and your body. People here in this world can only hurt your body.

SPEAKER_01: 19:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:17

And even Satan doesn't own your soul.

SPEAKER_01: 19:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 19:20

You should fear the one who has the power to throw your soul into one eternity or another, and that's God. And we've talked about the fear of the Lord before. Um, it's not being afraid of him, but it is a recognition of the fact that, whoa, my soul belongs to him and he can do with it whatever he thinks is best. I better make sure that I'm doing what pleases him. And so this burden, it comes with a burden of allegiance, where we have it Christ does not free us from the power of sin and the authority of Satan over our life, so that we could just have no authority over us, that we can just go live however we want, free. That's not free. We are we have our allegiance one or the other, either to Satan and the camp of darkness, or we have our allegiance to Jesus and a life of light and love and and eternal life.

SPEAKER_00: 20:09

You are subject to something.

SPEAKER_02: 20:10

You are subject to something. You don't get to be free. You're not that's not how you're created, that's not how this works. And so Jesus freeing you from the burden that the world places on you is so that you now can. Take on the burden of allegiance to him. Satan wants to trick you into thinking that that burden is ridiculous, it's unfair, it's too much. Stick with him, and you'll be free to do whatever you want in this world. But that's all a lie. And we who are believers can recognize there is an allegiance to Christ that is far greater. However, it does come with burdens.

SPEAKER_00: 20:48

And so And and the burden is expressed by Jesus again, staying in Matthew 10, verse 32. He says, Therefore, whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my father who is in heaven. Like there is a burden of allegiance here. There's a burden of who are you going to align yourself with before men? Are you going to take on the burden of aligning yourself with Jesus, even if it means that you're going to go into uncomfortable places of rejection, um, uncomfortable places of putting yourself out for the sake of other people? Because you are aligning yourself with Christ here on earth, that comes with the benefit of him claiming you in heaven. But but there is a burden here on earth in order to receive that kind of relationship and acknowledgement before God in heaven.

SPEAKER_02: 21:40

So we've kind of explored different types of burdens that Jesus is talking about when he asked his followers. It's not an exhaustive official list, but we talked about the burden of selflessness. We talked about the burden of rejection. We talked about the burden of allegiance. Why do all these things matter? Well, I think first of all, we can start to recognize these things. If we're struggling with, like, man, being a Christian, following Jesus is harder than I thought. Let's thank him for these burdens. Let's let's approach these burdens with gratitude. And I don't see anything wrong with going to him with the burden that he placed on us and say, hey, we're struggling with it. And he can say, I know it's tough. And let him let him minister to your soul in however way he thinks is best. Um, but let's not be discouraged by the burdens of following Christ. Let's be thankful for them and go to him. If if we feel like we're struggling, then he's going to be good and gracious to strengthen you. That's what he does. And so um, I hope this is an encouragement. I hope it gives some language to some of these things that that we haven't really, we don't really talk about all that much. We we just think of the unconditional love and and and acceptance and and hope that Christ offers. That's great. But let's also recognize the burden that he does place on us. But trust him when he says that it's that it's good, it's light, it's easy. If it doesn't feel it, let's go to him and have him help us sort that out some more. Maybe this is a study you want to continue on your own. Um, check out the book of Matthew and anywhere else. And hey, let us know what you find. I'd love to hear where your study goes as well. Um, but it's a pleasure sharing this burden with you. Thanks for being here in this podcast, and uh, we will see you next time.