Heavy

On September 26, 1969, The Hollies released a world-wide hit, "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother," which became a world-wide hit for Niel Diamond in 1970.  As a teenager, I was duly impressed with the song, especially once my man Niel started laying it down.

It is one of those songs that not only has a sound, which draws you in, it resonates a truth that moves your spirit.  The truth it conveys is the mutual conern family has for each others burdens or trials - that there is a natural willingness to carry a load that is not necessarily mine.  It is a truth that reflects the heart of Christ as revealed in the apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians: "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (6:2).

This truth seems to fly in the face of the rugged American individualism I was raised to believe in - what I call the John Wayne Syndrome, where one is expected to take care of himself, deal with his own problems, pull himself up by his own bootstraps.  And, it even appears to be contradicted in Paul's letter to the Galatians in the same chapter, verse 5: "each one should carry their own load."  What's up with that?

What's up is a contrast between carrying one's own burden and sharing in the over-burden of another. It is presicely what Jesus meant in Matthew 11:28ff when he said, 'Come unto me all who are heavy burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me...and you will find rest..."  Jesus calls out to all who are pulling more of a burden than they can manage in their single yoke to get into a double yoke with him in which he will help them and teach them how to manage the load.

We are resposible for our own load and should carry it ourselves.  But sometimes our load gets heavier than we can bear alone and then we ought to help carry each other's burdens, focusing not on how heavy the load may be but on how much we care for the one over-burdened.  Fixing meals for someone just out of the hospital, sitting in silence with someone who just lost a child, paying the electric bill for someone who just lost their job, sending aid to hungry children in a third-world nation, an on it goes.

Jesus came to earth in order that he might bear our burden of sin.  He expects us to be willing to have that same willingness which, in fact, allows us to "fulfill the law of Christ" (Gal 6:2b).  Jus' Say'n.