Father Richard Kunst: Pick up your cross, my burden is light

The three great monotheistic faiths are what are commonly referred to as religions of “the book” — that is, people who adhere to texts that they believe to be inspired. For Muslims it is the Koran, for the Jewish people the Torah, and for Christians, of course, it is the Bible. For the Catholic faith, we are not technically a religion “of the book,” because we also have Sacred Tradition and magisterial teaching, but the Bible is obviously of central importance, and we profess it to be truly the word of God. 

Father Richard Kunst Apologetics

One of the age-old and tired criticisms of the Bible is that it is filled with contradictions, and if a critic did their homework, they could really make an uneducated Christian scratch their head. The examples of supposed contradictions are numerous. The one that comes to mind as I sit writing this is from the lips of Jesus himself. In Matthew, Jesus says, “… Whoever says ‘you fool’ will be liable to the hell of fire” (Matthew 5:22). Later in the same Gospel, Jesus calls the Pharisees “blind fools” (Matthew 23:17). I am not going to do a full explanation on this example, because I actually have written about it in the past when addressing literal interpretations of the Bible. Suffice it to say we Catholics are not fundamentalists: everything must be taken in context. 

In the scriptures things can certainly appear to be contradictory, but truth cannot contradict truth. The actual truths that the Bible transmits cannot contradict one another. A critic can easily take a chapter and verse out of context and create an apparent contradiction, but everything must be read in context. 

Here is an example of the importance of context: Six different times in the Gospels, Jesus tells his followers that if they want to be his disciple they must pick up their crosses and follow him. If you go to Mass or even occasionally read the Bible, this should be a pretty familiar line. And yet in the eleventh chapter of Matthew’s Gospel Jesus says something that, although comforting, seems to be completely contradictory to the whole cross-carrying thing. Again, this should be a pretty familiar line when Jesus says, “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” (Matthew 11:29-30). 

On the face of it, this might seem like Gospel whiplash! Which is it, Jesus? Carry the heavy load of the cross or share your light burden? It is all about context! Our need to carry our crosses daily to follow Jesus stands on its own, but we need to know what happens right after his comment about the easy yoke. This comforting line from Jesus sets up the next scene in Matthew, when Jesus and the Apostles are walking through a field of grain. While they are walking through the field, they are plucking heads of grain to eat them as a snack. Pharisees appear on the scene and scold them for doing this “work” on the Sabbath, which was not permitted. 

The Pharisees, as you might know, were a type of “church police” in ancient Israel, doing all they could to make sure that the 613 commands of the Torah were being adhered to. Many of these commands were very burdensome, such as not being able to walk more than three quarters of a mile on a Saturday (a Sabbath day’s journey) or cook meat and dairy products together, and hundreds more. 

The Pharisees made darn sure that the burdensome laws were even more of a burden. In advance of this scene Jesus in essence is telling the reader that he would get rid of all these difficult laws that caused such grief to the people of Israel. The yoke he would offer is easy because he would reduce the 613 commands to two. 

The two commands of the Torah that Jesus retains are, first, to love God with our whole being and, second, to love our neighbor as ourselves. If we follow these two commands we don’t need any others, not even the Ten Commandments. Because if we love God with our whole being we don’t need a command to tell us to keep holy the Sabbath. If we love our neighbor as ourselves, we don’t need a command telling us not to steal from them or bear false witness to them. 

There is no contradiction here. We must, indeed, pick up our crosses daily and follow Jesus if we want to be his disciple. All the while, his yoke is easy because he lightens the load of the 613 commands of the Torah down to two. Truth cannot contradict truth; it’s all about context. Never fall for the Bible critic’s claim that the Bible is full of contradictions, because it is not. 

Father Richard Kunst is pastor of St. James and St. Elizabeth in Duluth. Reach him at [email protected].