today, in my Bible reading, i came to the following passage:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
this struck me because Jesus is the One who knows all things. he knows all our motives, he knows our situations and circumstances, and he is, Himself, the standard for human conduct. yet, he says here, I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
that last line struck me because although Jesus knows everything, and has the highest and most important standard of achievement for us, he remains humble in heart as an instructor. because he alone is royalty, he alone has the right to judge without gentle guidance. yet, he promises us rest for our souls by following him. his yoke is easy and his burden is light, despite the weight of the lessons he wants us to learn.
this is encouraging and challenging. as an engineering professor, quite a few times my teaching evaluations have said that i don’t make students feel comfortable, the workload is too heavy, and it is not clear why the workload is relevant to the scenarios students will see in practice. regardless of what i feel about these critiques, the content of my lessons cannot be as important as the content of Jesus’ syllabus for life. yet, he teaches with gentleness, his yoke is easy, and souls find rest in him.
matthew 11:30 is encouraging because it tells us there is a way to be a rigorous teacher while allowing my students to find rest for their souls. i’m not going to be Jesus, and my work is not going to reach the same level of import, but my teaching can be done in such a way that students clearly see why they have to do it–and also that they have the freedom to truly master the lesson (because the true test will come later when they face relevant situations in practice). his yoke is easy–while we know we can’t reach Jesus’ standard, we do not feel condemned or despised in His presence. and while the work of life is often heavy, Jesus somehow enables the burden to be light.
this will be my challenge for the upcoming semester. how to be a humble teacher, with a light burden and easy yoke. while the pedagogy of the oppressed has been greatly celebrated, Jesus shows us that we need a pedagogy of humility.