In the Spirit of Love, Bear Each Other’s Burdens

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ”. – Galatians 6:2.  “We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves.” –Romans 15:1.  “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” –John 15:13 (ESV).

Two days we thought about Jesus’ teaching that the greatest of the commandments is for us to love one another.  We looked at the family unit based on love, mutual respect and the desire to help each other grow into loving, serving individuals.  Today we consider helping others bear their burdens as being a result of the love we feel in our hearts for our fellow human beings.  “But I have enough burdens of my own,”  you might say, “without seeking to help others with their life loads.  I am limited in what I can do, and my own come first.”  Yes; we are limited, oftentimes in time, energy and means to help.  Yes, those closest and dearest to us are our main responsibility.  But if we take a narrow view on the parameters of love as we learn it from the Lord, we will miss blessings for ourselves and rob others of the blessings of being helped and loved.  Galatians 6:1 states that “you who are spiritual should restore anyone caught in transgression in a spirit of gentleness.”  Burden-bearing for others requires a gentle touch and a walk that is close to the Lord.  We go back to Galatians 5:22-23 to see the characteristics of such a walk, one who is capable of being a burden bearer.  “The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  And Ephesians 5:25 tells us not to “become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”  To bear one another’s burdens is the supreme imitation of Jesus, for He was the exemplary burden-bearer.  Jesus taught, “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). 

Paul admonished that it is even our obligation to bear the infirmities of the weak.  An illustration comes from the mission field that shows the strength the burden-bearer receives.  In Aftica where medical missionary Dr. Lambie worked, he had to cross many swift streams without bridges.  The natives taught him their way of not being swept downstream by the waters.  They told Dr. Lambie to get a heavy stone and carry it with him as he waded across the stream.  It would act as ballast, causing his feet to be more firmly planted on the bottom of the stream so that the water would not sweep him away.  The doctor tried this advice and it worked.  That action provided a good illustration for him to use in teaching the Christian truth of burden-bearing to those to whom he ministered.  While we cross the dangerous stream of life, we need the ballast of bearing others’ burdens—and even burdens of our own—to keep us solid and focused on the important things of life.  Who is not personally made stronger by bearing a burden for another?  Jesus taught that the law is to bear a soldier’s pack for a mile, but He told us to go two miles.  That of course indicates that we are to seek to help not just in the expected manner, but to go the second mile.  If a persons has no food to eat, we give him food to satisfy hunger.  But going the second mile would be to seek to show him how to earn his livelihood so he can purchase his own food.

“Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends”  (John 15:13).  We must remember that love is not just an emotion, a feeling; it is an act of the will.  And love seeks the best for others, even to being willing to lay down one’s life (denying self) in order to help a friend.  We heard, especially during World War II, of heroic deeds when one soldier performed an act of bravery that cost him his life but saved others in his unit.  We may not always be called upon to die for others, but to live for them and seek to lead them in right pathways sometimes requires “laying down one’s life” in great sacrifice of time, money and guidance.  Anne Sullivan laid down her life in this way to teach the severely handicapped child, Helen Keller.  Think of the rewards for both Helen and Anne.  We need to look about us every day and pray:  “Lord, to whom can I minister today?  Who has a burden I can help them bear?”  While you’re praying to be shown that person, pray for strength to meet whatever circumstances arise.

Esther Risks All to Save Her People, the Jews

“Then Mordecai told them to reply to Esther, ‘Do not think to yourself that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews.  For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father’s house  will perish.  And who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” –Esther 4:13-14.

                                         

The book of Esther presents Queen Esther, wife of Ahasuerus, King of Persia and Medea, also known by his Greek name of Xerxes I, as the leading character.  The account is set in the midst of world history of that day.  The time of Ahasuerus’ rule over the Persian Empire was from 486 to 465 B. C.  When the Persians captured the Babylonian Empire, they also had dominion over the dispersed Jews that had been exiled to the various provinces ruled by Babylon.  And now the Persians were at the helm and the Jews fell under King Ahasuerus’ dominion.

It is interesting that God’s name is not mentioned at all in the Book of Esther.  Yet in the action and the unfolding of the dramatic story, the theme of the book of Esther is very evident.  God’s providence was at work in protecting and preserving His people, the Jews.  The key verses of the whole book are 4:13-14.  We are familiar with Mordecai’s admonition to his young cousin, Esther, who by this time had been chosen from among the king’s concubines to replace his rebellious and deposed wife, Vashti (Amestris). In Esther’s story, not only do we see the providence of God working to save the dispersed Jews from death, but we see how he works in the lives of Mordecai and Esther to implement His plan.  Briefly, told, the scenario unfolds in this way.  The King, feasting and reveling, bade his wife, the Queen Vashti, to present herself before the guests.  She refused to do so, something that would certainly bring severe punishment in that day.  Vashti was deposed and the king began looking for another wife.  The king was advised to have his eunuchs who ordered the harem to find beautiful women and from among them one would be chosen to become his Queen.  For a year the women were groomed and trained.  Among them was beautiful, comely Esther, a Jewish maiden.  After the death of both her parents, she had been reared by her uncle’s son, Mordecai, her cousin, older than she.  He advised Esther on the important role she could have in helping to free her people.  The king was impressed with Esther’s beauty, and he made her his queen.  Mordecai, who often stayed near the King’s gate, overheard a plot against the life of the King planned by Bigthan and Teresh (2:21).  This plot was relayed to the king and his life saved.  The incident was recorded in the king’s chronicles, but Mordecai had never been rewarded for it.  In the meantime, Haman, the King’s chief advisor or prime minister, was very ambitious.  He wanted everyone to bow and applaud him.  The Jews refused to do so. He hated the Jews and wanted to find a way to eliminate them from the kingdom.  The king, on Haman’s urging, sent out a decree that all who would not bow down to Haman would be killed. It was at this point that Mordecai asvised his kinswoman, Queen Esther, that she must appeal to the king on their behalf.  To go into the king without his scepter being extended to her (his invitation) could mean her death, even if she was the queen.  She asked the Jews to fast, and she approached the King.  At a great banquet Esther arranged, she told of Haman’s plot to destroy her people.  Until this point, the King did not know that Esther was a Jewess.  The king, in anger, went out to consider the situation.  The man Haman whom he had empowered had set a trap that would include killing Queen Esther and the Jew, Mordecai, who had saved his life. In an ironic twist, Haman was ordered to be executed on the very gallows he had prepared for the hanging of Mordecai.  Brave action on the part of Esther had exposed the intrigue. 

A result was rejoicing of the Jews throughout the empire.  The festival of Purim which celebrates the Jews’ deliverance from death through the efforts of Queen Esther ensued, and has been a part of Jewish festivals through the years.  Esther fulfilled her mission.  She had come to the kingdom for such a time as that in which she lived. Paul’s statement is a good summary: “the God of hope fill you with all peace in believing, that you may abound in hope and peace in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13).