SERMON: "Christ: A Comforting Friend"

"Christ: A Comforting Friend"
MATTHEW 11:16-19, 25-30

There were weeks when I was still an active pastor that took my breath away! Around every corner was a new need for an act of ministry. Surprise after surprise - challenge after challenge - they came in waves with every situation demanding tears of joy or grief! Weeks like those were lived at a frenzied pace.

Who am I kidding? I still experience weeks like that. Oh, they don't demand the same kind of energy and skills, but the pace of appointments and visits and health-related challenges creates the same breathless frenzy.

Now, I don’t know about you but when life treats me to this kind of week, I find my need for private devotional time increasing. It’s not that I go off to a chapel or to the woods more often, but that my mind turns to God in a sort of reflective, seeking, inquiring manner as I move through the week from surprise to surprise. “Why, God?” “Why this barrage of issues all at once?” “Why to me?” Often what happens is short scripture passages of comfort pop into my mind – the 23rd Psalm, “The Lord is my shepherd ...He maketh me lie down in green pastures, He leadeth me beside still waters, He restoreth my soul ... Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me” – words from the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 find their way into my soul, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” – and then portions of John 14, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in Me ... peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid” - and finally, Ecclesiastes 3 “For everything there is a season ... A time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance.” And it’s because of how helpful I find these words and the relationship with God and Jesus Christ they remind me of that I encourage others to memorize key passages of scripture. It’s just a powerful experience to recall the words and sense the presence of Christ within.

Even more often though words to old favorite hymns found their way into my heart and I found myself humming them at times – even singing them out loud at times, especially as I traveled from place to place in the community, inside the car of course – “Jesus, Savior Pilot Me,” “Nearer, My God to Thee,” “Amazing Grace,” “How Great Thou Art,” “There is a Balm in Gilead,” “Because He Lives,” “Just a Closer Walk with Thee,” and many, many more. The one that crept into my mind the most often was “What A Friend We Have In Jesus.” (Today the words are repeated silently in my heart, mind and soul since I can't sing them out loud.)

“What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer! O, what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.”

OHHH – what comfort there is in these words for me – and the tune just adds its soothing touch – the hymn fills me with a peacefulness. And its message of healing continues: “Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged; take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful, who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness; take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care? Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer! In His arms He’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.”

Now, the story behind the writing of the hymn helps us understand why it so aptly describes what has been our own experience. The author is believed to have been a Joseph Scriven who was a native of Dublin, Ireland in the mid-1800’s. After graduating from Trinity College in Dublin at the age of 25, he emigrated to Canada where he lived until his death in 1886.

As a young man he was engaged to a lady whom he had known and loved for a long time. They had set the date for their wedding and most of the plans were completed when disaster struck. Shortly before the wedding day arrived his intended bride accidentally drowned. While he was in the midst of a very deep depression over what happened, he found himself depending on Christ. Out of his experience came the first line of the song: “What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear!”  

When he found out his mother was also having a great deal of trouble with the loss of this special woman, he set to write more about what he was experiencing with the hope that she would be comforted as he was. The hymn’s intent is to be a powerful reminder of the friendship of Jesus and his comforting and burden-bearing role in our lives, and that it certainly does. (1)  

Yes, indeed, what a friend Jesus is – what a comforting friend. But what is really noteworthy is the fact that Jesus invites us to come to him for the comfort he can provide. The last portion of the Matthew 11 passage, has him state it in all its wonder: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus was speaking these words to a people who were loaded down with the demands upon them.  The law was a burden. When the Jews thought of yoke they had in their mind “submission to.” They spoke of such things as the yoke of the law,” “the yoke of the commandments,” “the yoke of the kingdom,” “the yoke of God.” Biblical scholars believe that Jesus may well have taken this well-known image and again put his unique stamp of meaning on it. When he said, “my yoke is easy” – it was not the image that “yokes” usually called to mind. Another meaning of the word “easy” in Greek is”well-fitting.” Ox-yokes were made of wood in the Palestine of Jesus’ day and they were made to fit the animal. The ox was brought to the carpenter – measurements were made – and the yoke was roughed out. The ox was brought back some days later to try on his new yoke. The yoke was then carefully adjusted, so that it would fit well, and would not gall the neck of the patient beast. The yoke was “tailor-made,” in a sense, to fit the ox.

Now, there is a legend about Jesus that claims that Jesus was well-known for his yoke making – that he was one of the best in the business. According to the legend, people came from all over the country to buy their yokes from him – to have him fit their prized ox. Above the doors to the shops in that day, as in ours, there were signs announcing to the shoppers the wares that were inside. Can’t you just see the advertisement above Jesus’ carpenter shop: “My Yokes Fit Well.” You see, it may well be that Jesus is here using a picture from his carpenter’s shop in Nazareth that the people would understand because of the reputation he had built up during his silent years. (2)

Jesus is the yoke upon us – He’s a well-fitted friend who provides us comfort in the midst of the burdens of life – He shares the load with us – He doesn’t protect us from the load, but shares the load and in a sense lightens the load – spreads it out – provides us a way to balance what comes our way so that we might manage what life puts upon us. We no longer pull the cart of life by ourselves – face the traumas of life by ourselves – Jesus is the yoke upon us that enables us to manage what life sends our way.

Roy Smith, in his book Tales I have Told Twice, relates a true story that happened in his life which helps to illustrate this understanding of Christ’s role in helping us cope with the things that come our way – the disappointments, the mistakes, the rejections, the temptations.

He tells of a family that lived a few hundred yards away from his family on the same road. The family had four daughters, two sons, a mother and a crippled father. The father walked with a cane and a limp, and his face was heavily lined from a lifetime of suffering. But he was well-respected in the community because of his high morals, his involvement in the congregational church in town, and his determination to provide his children with every possible opportunity.

Most of the children reflected their parents’ lifestyle – they were good students, leaders, involved in the church. But the oldest son, Frantz, was always involved in mischief – not really bad, but adventurous – he lived on the edge.

Smith writes, “I was, as I remember it, about nine years old when the word went racing through the neighborhood one morning that Franz was in jail. I cannot recollect what he was accused of. The probabilities are that it was nothing more serious than some harum-scarum scrape. But the grim fact remained – he was in jail!” It left quite an impression on all the neighborhood children because when they thought of people being in jail, they thought of people in other communities, miles away – but this was Franz, one of them.

It was a Saturday and Roy kept suggesting things that they needed from the store implying that he was willing to go for his mother. His plan was to cut through the alley beside the jail and try to get a glimpse of his neighbor in his cell. He was successful with some help from one of his friends. Again hear his own words of what he saw: “One glimpse of our neighbor’s son was enough to convince me that his was a drab escapade. Gone were the defiance, the rollicking and contemptuous manner, the self-confidence, and the reckless abandon so characteristic of him as I knew him – a carefree boy on a pony, racing down the road. Instead I could see his loneliness, his shame, and his sense of defeat. He looked at me just once, and then turned away. Maybe I reminded him of his younger brother, safe in his father’s house. At any rate, I could tell there was something that made it impossible for him to look a neighbor boy in the eye.”

Smith goes on to tell about the rest of his day spent in reflecting on the lot of his neighbor and the scene around his family’s supper table. They talked about the situation filling in all the details they had learned from their individual grapevines.

The next morning was Sunday and Smith noted that his father was ready for church much earlier than normal. He was reading from his Bible beside the window that allowed him to look down the road. He wasn’t really reading the Bible though – he was watching the road.

All of a sudden he got up and quietly announced to Roy’s mother, “I see him coming down the road alone. I think I’ll walk to church with him this morning.” And out the door he went. He timed his walk perfectly so that he arrived at the road at the same time as Franz’s dad, and on they walked together.

Roy described the scene and the events later in the day: “Lithe and alert in spite of his bent back, father adjusted his step to that of his lame neighbor. It was almost as if the heavy cane beat out a somber rhythm for the two of them. Like two patriarchs – for both wore the long beards common of the day – they trudged the dusty Kansas road to town. At the turn a clump of cottonwoods hid them from our sight. A little later Wilbur, my older brother, helped mother into the old buggy, as he had seen father do so many times, and the three of us drove to church.

"Nothing was said as we came home. Each of us wanted to know, yet none of us dared to ask. It was not, therefore, until some time after father had asked the blessing over the humble Sunday dinner that mother made bold to inquire. 'What did he say, John?' 'Nothing,' father answered, quite simply.  'Didn’t you talk about it at all?' she continued. He answered, 'No.' Mother said, 'That’s funny!' to which he replied, 'No, it wasn’t funny. It was just as I had planned. I knew he couldn’t talk. At least, I could not have talked if it had been my boy. But I thought he’d understand if I just walked alongside him.

'He did say one thing, though. When we got to the corner where he turned in to the congregational church, he stuck out his hand and said, 'Thanks, John. I’m grateful to you.'  And then he went on in to church.” (3)

The title of Roy Smith’s story is “They Walked to Church Together” and I think it’s an apt description of what happens when we allow Jesus to be the yoke in our lives –there is a sharing of the pain that is around us – there is a sharing of the load that each of us bear – Jesus Christ is indeed a comforting friend – and we are witnesses of His presence in our lives as we are comforting friends to one another.

A few years ago, I preached a sermon on this same text. I titled that sermon “A Friend of Outcasts” and made the case that Jesus was a friend to those society labeled outsiders in His day and that our lot in life is to model similar behaviors when we encounter those rejected by society in our day. It’s a message we need to continually keep in front of us. I was tempted to share it again, but then came the thought of busy weeks and the hymn weaving its healing touch inside of me. I sensed that the message of Jesus being a friend was even more inclusive than the thoughts I shared in that sermon. I'm included – Jesus is my comforting friend – Jesus is your comforting friend. Today I’m thankful for the awareness of the presence of that comforting friend in Jesus. I’m thankful for all of those who meet me on the road of life and serve as witnesses of Christ’s yoke – who serve as yoke-bearers in a personal way. Thank you, Jesus -  thank you friends!

1. Ace Collins, Stories Behind the Hymns that Inspire America, (Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2003).
2. William Barclay, The New Daily Study Bible Series: Matthew, Vol. 2 (Edinburgh: St. Andrew Press, 2001), ebook, 601/6278.
3. Roy L. Short, Tales I Have Told Twice  (Abingdon Press, 1964).