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In 1945, John Blanchard straightened his Navy uniform and studied the crowd making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn't, the girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun thirteen months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he was intrigued by the thoughtful notes written in the margins. He discovered the previous owner's name, Miss Hollis Maynell on the book flap. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. While overseas during World War II, John continued to write and the two grew to know each other through letters. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. She felt that if he really cared, it wouldn't matter what she looked like. Now John spotted a beautiful young woman in a green suit walking toward him. She smiled and said: "Going my way, sailor?" Then he noticed she wasn't wearing a rose. He then saw Hollis Maynell wearing a rose. She was a woman much older than John, well past 40. He didn't hesitate. Nervously he walked up to her and said, "I'm Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?" The woman smiled: "I don't know what this is about, son," she answered, "but the young lady in the green suit that just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!
How we act says a lot about the kind of people we are. Jesus challenges the people who are listening to him about how they react to John the Baptiser and to him and their ministries. No matter how the religious are entreated, be it through a pleasant song or a mournful dirge, they will not respond because what is offered to them is not what they want nor have lived. They law made the law their servant, useful to themselves in building their stature and maintain the position and authority while at the same time making it useless to everyone else. The keepers of the Law were in a Newfoundland word, ‘contrary’. And it saddened Jesus that there were so many that would not respond to his message – of freedom and of peace, of life and of grace. It was easier to sit and find fault with everything and everyone else. It was simpler to remain skeptical of anything that sounded different and to remain unwilling to budge one single inch.
How do we over come such a thing. We stop and we give thanks to God for where we are and who we minister to. Doing so keeps our focus where it needs to be, namely on God and what God is doing. To not only realize that God is present in every situation, but to be aware that God is already acting to bring about those things that are in concert with his will.
That is why Jesus invites us to be yoked with him. He will do the majority of the pulling. He will make sure that it fits properly. He can teach us to pull load well beyond our own strength. But we need to come to him. We need to abide with and learn from him about the Father and what God wants of us and from the world. Jesus tells us that his burden (the things he asks of us in our life with him) is easy, that it is not trying to fulfill the heavy burden of the Law and the lawyers. We are in a sense invited to throw away our religion. If we are tired of trying to be the good person that never measures up, of being the nice person that someone else appears to be but is not, then it is maybe time to throw away our religion and come to Jesus. We are invited to come and rest a while with him. We are called to walk with him and to be with him through thick and thin. The life of a Christian is not going to be easy because it is full of hardship and challenges that need to be faced and overcome. The call of Christ in the face of this is to a life of humble and obedient service, a life of freedom and joy because the bond to sin death as been severed. We too are being tested and tried in our relationship with God. Therefore let us recognize these things and celebrate our yokedness to Christ for we are count worthy of going and serving with and in him. The yoke really is on us.
How we act says a lot about the kind of people we are. Jesus challenges the people who are listening to him about how they react to John the Baptiser and to him and their ministries. No matter how the religious are entreated, be it through a pleasant song or a mournful dirge, they will not respond because what is offered to them is not what they want nor have lived. They law made the law their servant, useful to themselves in building their stature and maintain the position and authority while at the same time making it useless to everyone else. The keepers of the Law were in a Newfoundland word, ‘contrary’. And it saddened Jesus that there were so many that would not respond to his message – of freedom and of peace, of life and of grace. It was easier to sit and find fault with everything and everyone else. It was simpler to remain skeptical of anything that sounded different and to remain unwilling to budge one single inch.
How do we over come such a thing. We stop and we give thanks to God for where we are and who we minister to. Doing so keeps our focus where it needs to be, namely on God and what God is doing. To not only realize that God is present in every situation, but to be aware that God is already acting to bring about those things that are in concert with his will.
That is why Jesus invites us to be yoked with him. He will do the majority of the pulling. He will make sure that it fits properly. He can teach us to pull load well beyond our own strength. But we need to come to him. We need to abide with and learn from him about the Father and what God wants of us and from the world. Jesus tells us that his burden (the things he asks of us in our life with him) is easy, that it is not trying to fulfill the heavy burden of the Law and the lawyers. We are in a sense invited to throw away our religion. If we are tired of trying to be the good person that never measures up, of being the nice person that someone else appears to be but is not, then it is maybe time to throw away our religion and come to Jesus. We are invited to come and rest a while with him. We are called to walk with him and to be with him through thick and thin. The life of a Christian is not going to be easy because it is full of hardship and challenges that need to be faced and overcome. The call of Christ in the face of this is to a life of humble and obedient service, a life of freedom and joy because the bond to sin death as been severed. We too are being tested and tried in our relationship with God. Therefore let us recognize these things and celebrate our yokedness to Christ for we are count worthy of going and serving with and in him. The yoke really is on us.
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