All Commentaries on Matthew 11:30 Go To Matthew 11
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Even before the things to come, He gives you here your recompense, and bestows the prize already, making the saying acceptable, both hereby, and by setting Himself forward as an example. For, Of what are you afraid? says He, lest you should be a loser by your low estate? Look to me, and to all that is mine; learn of me, and then shall you know distinctly how great your blessing. Do you see how in all ways He is leading them to humility? By His own doings: Learn of me, for I am meek. By what themselves are to gain; for, You shall find, says He, rest unto your souls. By what He bestows on them; for, I too will refresh you, says He. By rendering it light; For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. So likewise does Paul, saying, For the present light affliction, which is but for a moment, works a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. 2 Corinthians 4:17
And how, some one may say, is the burden light, when He says, Except one hate father and mother; and, Whosoever takes not up his cross, and follows after me, is not worthy of me: and, Whosoever forsakes not all that he has, cannot be my disciple: when He commands even to give up our very life? Matthew 16:25 Let Paul teach you, saying, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Romans 8:35 And that, The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. Romans 8:18 Let those teach you, who return from the council of the Jews after plenty of stripes, and rejoice that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ. Acts 5:41 And if you are still afraid and tremblest at hearing of the yoke and the burden, the fear comes not of the nature of the thing, but of your remissness; since if you are prepared, and in earnest, all will be easy to you and light. Since for this cause Christ also, to signify that we too must needs labor ourselves, did not mention the gracious things only, and then hold His peace, nor the painful things only, but set down both. Thus He both spoke of a yoke, and called it easy; both named a burden, and added that it was light; that you should neither flee from them as toilsome, nor despise them as over easy.
But if even after all this, virtue seem to you an irksome thing, consider that vice is more irksome. And this very thing He was intimating, in that He said not first, Take my yoke upon you, but before that, Come, you that labor and are heavy laden; implying that sin too has labor, and a burden that is heavy and hard to bear. For He said not only, You that labor, but also, that are heavy laden. This the prophet too was speaking of, when in that description of her nature, As an heavy burden they weighed heavy upon me. And Zacharias too, describing her, says she is A talent of lead. Zechariah 5:7-8
And this moreover experience itself proves. For nothing so weighs upon the soul, and presses it down, as consciousness of sin; nothing so much gives it wings, and raises it on high, as the attainment of righteousness and virtue.
And mark it: what is more grievous, I pray you, than to have no possessions? To turn the cheek, and when smitten not to smite again? To die by a violent death? Yet nevertheless, if we practise self-command, all these things are light and easy, and pleasurable.
But be not disturbed; rather let us take up each of these, and inquire about it accurately; and if you will, that first which many count most painful. Which then of the two, tell me, is grievous and burdensome, to be in care for one belly, or to be anxious about ten thousand? To be clothed with one outer garment, and seek for nothing more; or having many in one's house, to bemoan one's self every day and night in fear, in trembling, about the preservation of them, grieved, and ready to choke about the loss of them; lest one should be moth-eaten, lest a servant purloin and go off with them?
But whatever I may say, my speech will present no such proof as the actual trial. Wherefore I would there were present here with us some one of those who have attained unto that summit of self-restraint, and then you would know assuredly the delight thereof; and that none of those that are enamored of voluntary poverty would accept wealth, though ten thousand were to offer it.
But would these, say you, ever consent to become poor, and to cast away the anxieties which they have? And what of that? This is but a proof of their madness and grievous disease, not of anything very pleasurable in the thing. And this even themselves would testify to us, who are daily lamenting over these their anxieties, and accounting their life to be not worth living. But not so those others; rather they laugh, leap for joy, and the wearers of the diadem do not so glory, as they do in their poverty.
Again, to turn the cheek is, to him that gives heed, a less grievous thing than to smite another; for from this the contest has beginning, in that termination: and whereas by the former you have kindled the other's pile too, by the latter you have quenched even your own flames. But that not to be burnt is a pleasanter thing than to be burnt, is surely plain to every man. And if this hold in regard of bodies, much more in a soul.
And whether is lighter, to contend, or to be crowned? To fight, or to have the prize? And to endure waves, or to run into harbor? Therefore also, to die is better than to live. For the one withdraws us from waves and dangers, while the other adds unto them, and makes a man subject to numberless plots and distresses, which have made life not worth living in your account.
And if you disbelieve our sayings, hearken to them that have seen the countenances of the martyrs in the time of their conflicts, how when scourged and flayed, they were exceeding joyful and glad, and when exposed upon hot irons, rejoiced, and were glad of heart, more than such as lie upon a bed of roses. Wherefore Paul also said, when he was at the point of departing hence, and closing his life by a violent death, I joy, and rejoice with you all; for the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me. Do you see with what exceeding strength of language he invites the whole world to partake in his gladness? So great a good did he know his departure hence to be, so desirable, and lovely, and worthy of prayer, that formidable thing, death.
But that virtue's yoke is sweet and light, is manifest many other ways also; but to conclude, if you please, let us look also at the burdens of sin. Let us then bring forward the covetous, the retailers and second-hand dealers in shameless bargains. What now could be a heavier burden than such transactions? How many sorrows, how many anxieties, how many disappointments, how many dangers, how many plots and wars, daily spring up from these gains? How many troubles and disturbances? For as one can never see the sea without waves, so neither such a soul without anxiety, and despondency, and fear, and disturbance; yea, the second overtakes the first, and again others come up, and when these are not yet ceased, others come to a head.
Or would you see the souls of the revilers, and of the passionate? Why, what is worse than this torture? What, than the wounds they have within? What, than the furnace that is continually burning, and the flame that is never quenched?
Or of the sensual, and of such as cleave unto this present life? Why, what more grievous than this bondage? They live the life of Cain, dwelling in continual trembling and fear at every death that happens; the kinsmen of the dead mourn not so much, as these do for their own end.
What again fuller of turmoil, and more frantic, than such as are puffed up with pride? For learn, says He, of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls. Because long-suffering is the mother of all good things.
Fear thou not therefore, neither start away from the yoke that lightens you of all these things, but put yourself under it with all forwardness, and then you shall know well the pleasure thereof. For it does not at all bruise your neck, but is put on you for good order's sake only, and to persuade you to walk seemly, and to lead you unto the royal road, and to deliver you from the precipices on either side, and to make you walk with ease in the narrow way.
Since then so great are its benefits, so great its security, so great its gladness, let us with all our soul, with all our diligence, draw this yoke; that we may both here find rest unto our souls, and attain unto the good things to come, by the grace and love towards man of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory and might, now and ever, and world without end. Amen.
