What You Thought You Wanted

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.—Romans 12:2

When Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?”, Peter was the only one with the right answer. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” he replied (Matthew 16:16). Peter was full of discernment at this moment. Jesus responded by exhorting him.

Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

--Matthew 16:17-19

In that moment, Peter got a new name and a new vision. No longer was he Simon, just a fisherman from Galilee. Now, he was the foundation of a new church, a new order, and he was just given authority to bind and loose things from heaven on earth. This was more than a bit mind-blowing, and it probably revved Peter up to kick some devil booty.

It revved him up so much that, when Jesus began to foretell His death and resurrection, Peter took Him aside and “rebuked” Him (can you imagine “rebuking” Jesus?), telling Him that surely such horrifying things would never happen to Him.

We all know Jesus’ response: “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man” (Matthew 16:23).

One minute, Jesus is renaming Peter and calling him into ministry; the next, He is calling him Satan and telling him he’s a hindrance to God’s vision. This is the one time Jesus name-called any of His disciples, actually calling him “Satan.” And Jesus immediately explains why: You are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.

I tend to get distressed about my lack of ability to see God’s plan for my life, and I worry about making a mistake and missing it. Ironically, worrying about missing it can cause you to miss it, because your focus is yourself and your part in the process.

The other morning when I was praying about God’s grand vision for my life, He started speaking to me about Jesus’ yoke.

Jesus said,

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

--Matthew 12:27-30

To anyone who’s ever seen an animal plow (or played Oregon Trail in elementary school), yokes do not sound too inviting. They sound heavy, not only because they are large and wooden and rest on your neck (ouch), but because they come attached to heavy farm equipment or wagon loads. Wearing a yoke doesn’t sound like a grand vision to me. It sounds like enslavement and hard work.

Yucky.

I think a lot of people misread this verse that way. They believe that, as Christians, our assignment is to “carry our crosses,” to gladly suffer under heavy burdens. Then we get self-righteous about it, and with false humility say, “Well, that’s just my cross to bear.”

Wake up, people. You totally skipped most of what Jesus is saying here: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Jesus’ yoke is light and easy because we are co-yoked with Him. Anyone who knows anything about Jesus and how strong He is (and how weak we are in comparison) should get excited about carrying a burden with Jesus, because the burden is basically nonexistent if it is also resting on Jesus’ neck.

But there are a few things we have to do as co-laborers with Christ, and these things make it mighty difficult for many people to go through life working alongside Jesus.

1    We have to submit to being yoked. Imagine an unbroken horse or ox. It accomplishes no work, and in fact wastes a lot of energy, bucking off whoever is trying to harness it. Our part is very small. All we have to do is choose to be yoked. He does all the rest….And we get all the rest from our burdens! (Pun intended. Sorry, couldn’t help it. Transformation into old church lady has commenced.)

We have to look straight ahead. When an ox is yoked, it can’t really look to the right or left, and it certainly cannot look behind it. In the same way, we can’t look behind to see who’s following us or to get glory for the work we’ve already done—we have to keep going. We can’t even see the plow that we’re pulling. We have to look straight ahead.

But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus, said Paul (Hebrews 3:13-14).

We are striving toward the hope of Christ with great joy. Paul continues: Let those of us who are mature think this way,and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you (v. 15).

We can’t get distracted by what we think we want for our lives. Ask Him to show you what you're looking at all around you, and He will reveal it. We can’t set our minds on the things of man. If we do, we’ll be what Peter was: a hindrance.

  

We have to allow Him to plan the course and do the work. Jesus is carrying all of the weight. You have to follow where He goes, or the burden falls on you.

We have to keep Jesus’ pace. This is the one that gets me most often. I want to go, go, go! But if I cannot even conceive of the great plan He has for me, it makes no sense for me to believe that I am the one in control of the pace. Taking time to stop and rest in His presence is what it's all about.. Which leads us to the last one….

We have to be comfortable next to Him. I think this is the most important. Co-laborers have an inextricably dependent relationship. Members of an animal work team are constantly beside one another. The work is going to go a lot more efficiently and pleasantly if they work together well and have the same ideas about things. The only way you’re going to have the same ideas as Jesus is to spend time with Him and let Him tell you.

It’s really that simple. Really.

Don’t make your load heavier than it needs to be. Stop looking at the distractions around you. We must focus: not on the work, not on what already has been accomplished or must be accomplished, but upon Him.

We all tend to get distracted by the silliest things: food, our homes, careers, our cars, unhealthy relationships, or even healthy relationships. What we want for our lives is so small compared with what Jesus wants.

Poor Peter. He got a little hung up on the details. All he heard in Jesus’ prophecy for His crucifixion was mockery, humiliation, and death—and he didn’t see beyond into the resurrection and everything it would mean. Plus, Peter loved Jesus; the thought of Him being crucified was probably almost too much to bear. “God’s plan” here didn’t look so good—it looked terrifying and horrendously painful. It looked so awful that Peter actually drew Jesus aside and said to him, “No. This can’t happen.” And when it did, he withdrew back to his fishing boat. “Never mind. This is what I want.”

Don’t settle for the fishing boat when fishing for men gets hard, or it doesn’t look like something you want. Don't "rebuke" Jesus.

Let me tell you something: like a beast of burden, you don’t know what you want. Good thing Jesus does.

And the good news is, He can tell you what you want, if you just wait on Him. And rejoice: He wants to give you rest!

Shortly after He rebuked Peter, Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24). He wasn’t talking about lugging a heavy cross around all the time. Is that what He does? Certainly not! Then we shouldn’t either. (Sanctification is about becoming more like Him, after all.) We should do what HE did: die to our wants every day and keep going. Those wants, those selfish desires, are the cross. If you’re dragging it around, you better look and see what you’re really carrying. Nail the things you want to the cross, take up the yoke, and keep going.

There’s really no time to waste.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead….—1 Peter 1:3

Keep your eyes on the hope. Peter got it. We can too.