This week we begin worship with:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give yourest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle andlowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke iseasy, and my burden is light.
Contrast this with the burdens placed on them by the Pharisees:
They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.
Yes, this is where we get the complaint “He would not lift a finger to help!”, but that speaks moving something small and trivial. Jesus was speaking of something huge that a priest could lift with one finger. This was the finger of accusation in what scripture calls “binding”, when atonement is required. An example occurs in the next few verses:
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry, and they began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. But when the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.”
We should heed Jesus words to the Pharisees and be merciful as we ourselves enjoy His mercy to us:
And if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless.
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