Bound in Love

From the letter of St. Paul to the Romans, “you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the spirit of God dwells in you.” And from the Gospel, come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”

What is it then, to live in the spirit? For if we live in the spirit, then the yoke of Christ truly is easy. Living in the spirit is, in the words of St. Paul today, “putting to death the deeds of the body.” Body here is not limited to our physical bodies, but is used for the broader material world in which we live. If we put to death the deeds of the body in this sense, we are moving into a posture of detachment. We are not attaching undue importance to material things. We are not making the things of this material world into gods.

Some of the deeds, or accomplishments, of “being in the flesh” are related to our bodies. And these can become so important that they function as minor gods and in so doing push out the one true God. Our world celebrates strength and fitness. Somehow we tell ourselves that taller people are better, or slender people are better, or those with smooth skin or good hair are better than those who do not share those physical characteristics. These are all perfectly fine, but they are not anything more significant than being left-handed or right-handed. But when we are being in the flesh, we get puffed up in our pride if we have these features, or we get beaten down in humiliation if we don’t have these features.

But the concept of “being in the flesh” is not limited to our physical bodies. Warriors have deeds, and we celebrate warriors. Warriors get things done by force. The warriors of Ephraim were celebrated by all of Israel. Warriors get things done through violence because the ends justify the means. The prophet Zechariah today describes the Savior as one who will banish the chariot from Ephraim.

Our modern technocratic warriors are those in management and finance who get things done. We don’t use the sword of Ephraim much in our modern society, but money equals power today, and the authority to make rules equals power today. Financial titans and the Undersecretary of This or That are the new warriors in our modern society. They justify the means because of the goodness they claim for the ends. I saw no tanks on the streets of Atlanta during the COVID lockdown, but we were locked out of our businesses and our churches nonetheless. The prophet Zechariah promises that the Savior will banish the horse from Jerusalem just as he will banish the chariot from Ephraim.

And our Savior looks different. One might even say he looks foolish. For he will come riding on an ass. Not a big strong horse for the Savior, but a lowly colt. The king riding on a donkey is a comical picture. Our Savior looks weak, for he is proclaiming peace to the nations. The nations contest for power, and peace is nothing more than the cessation of conflict because one party has enough power to suppress all the other contestants. Jesus promises a peace that passes understanding. This peace is not the absence of conflict, but true serenity, the kind of peace our heavenly father made us to enjoy. Our Savior looks foolish to the world because he is merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness. Our world pursues a brutal kind of justice, not true justice that is rooted in love but the achievement of ends that is rooted in power.

If we are living in the spirit, then our Savior looks strong. He was raised from the dead and promises to raise us from death. The material world that we just examined is inexorably sliding into eternal death. We who live in the spirit are promised a new heaven and a new earth, and this Savior riding on a colt has brought it to us and us to it. Because of this we are no longer “a debtor to the flesh.” Because of this the warrior’s bow is banished. Like our Savior, we are meek. We are not weak but because of our communion with the father through the son we have the humility of heart that produces true meekness. Again, our Savior showed us the way: though he was equal to the Father, yet he was obedient to Him even unto death on the cross.

The strength that comes from the life in the spirit is a strength that confounds the material world. We look weak to them because they cannot see the true and eternal strength of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We look foolish to them because we happily ride on the donkey while they scrap and scrape for the horse. We look stupid to them when we beat our swords into plowshares. We look insane to them when we offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving in participation of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross at Calvary.

The life in the spirit is a life of patience. The root of the word from which we get patience is pathos, which means feeling and suffering. As disciples of Christ we suffer the slings and arrows of being called weak or foolish or stupid or even insane. We suffer those slurs with great joy because we see through the lies of the ruler of this world to the gift from the creator of this world. The burdens of the material life are heavy. Eventually, they drag us to hell. The yoke of Jesus is light. Eventually, it lifts us to heaven.

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”