Good morning and welcome in everyone. Today, we are going to take a look at a passage of scripture, but before we do that I wanted to tell you a little story.
Have you ever had to carry something that was extremely heavy? One day our family and a friend of mine took a day and climbed up a mountain called Humphreys Peak in Flagstaff Arizona. It’s quite a hike and over 12,000 feet high! We left very early in the morning and eventually we got all the way to the top and had our lunch. Because there were a lot of rocks on the top of the mountain, my friend eventually fell down and twisted his ankle, and because of this, I had to carry him down the entire mountainside. It wasn’t a very easy chore and caused me some great physical suffering the very next day, but I did get him all the way to the bottom. When I chose to put him up on my shoulders, I took upon myself his suffering that he would have had to endure if he had tried to make it all the way down that mountain side himself.
This reminds me of the Christian Life.
When we sin against God or others, it causes our hearts and minds to suffer in pain, but when we choose to forgive an offender who has sinned against us, we are choosing to bear their burden upon ourselves so they don’t have to suffer any longer. Bearing somebody’s burden has to do with completely forgiving them in your heart, so you can be reconciled with them.
Galatians 6:1-2 (KJB) Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
To restore someone means to return them to a former condition, place or position. One of the best examples of bearing another’s burdens is found in the story that Jesus taught in the prodigal son.
Luke 15:11-32 (KJB) And he said, A certain man had two sons: And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them his living. And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want. And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine. And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him. And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee, And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet: And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let us eat, and be merry: For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found. And they began to be merry.
Now his elder son was in the field: and as he came and drew nigh to the house, he heard musick and dancing. And he called one of the servants, and asked what these things meant. And he said unto him, Thy brother is come; and thy father hath killed the fatted calf, because he hath received him safe and sound. And he was angry, and would not go in: therefore came his father out, and intreated him. And he answering said to his father, Lo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment: and yet thou never gavest me a kid, that I might make merry with my friends: But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf. And he said unto him, Son, thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine. It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.
In this passage, the prodigal son was overtaken in a fault, and a fault is a sin. In fact, he felt so bad about what he had done that he eventually went home to apologize to his dad. He had a burden of sin that was felt deeply in his conscience because of the wrong things that he did. But the dad chose to restore the son in a spirit of meekness. When he arrived back home, his dad didn’t yell and scream at him, or tell him to take a hike. He simply forgave him and chose to carry his burden of sin for him. He meekly restored him to sonship by his good graces, and completely forgot all of the past events. We forgive others because we understand that we are sinners too, and just as Christ forgave us and carried our burden, we are to carry the burdens of others and forgive them.
Bearing another’s burdens has to do with forgiving people completely in your heart. Instead of holding a grudge or bitterness for what they did to you, you simply let it go and forgive the other person from your heart when they apologize. After all, this is what Jesus does for each of us when we confess our sins to him in our time of need. He took upon Himself all of our sins when he laid down his own life on the cross rather than imputing sin to the world. When people are finally restored, it will be as though the sinful event never took place, and will be completely deleted from our memory. The Lord commands to confess your faults one to another, just as the prodigal son did, this is so the relationship can be restored to what it once was. But when people sin against you it hurts, and we enter into suffering because of it, but we must bear it just as Jesus did for us.
Remember that Peter was absolutely heartbroken for what he had done to the Lord, but later on he was completely forgiven and restored to Apostleship once again. Because God forgives and overlooks our sins, we should be able to do that towards each other in the church. When you forgive somebody, you are taking the burden of sin off of their shoulders and carrying it yourself. It can hurt to forgive, but think of the nails and the suffering that Jesus went through on the cross for you. Confess your faults one to another, and bear one another’s burdens, and be reconciled to each other. Sin is a heavy burden that we can carry for each other, just like carrying my friend down the mountainside, after the episode of,…..
…….The Sprained Ankle
Let’s think about these things for right now. We can be found on your web browser by searching, tlkjbc where you can find our diaries distributed through various platforms. We are not associated, nor affiliated with any other religious groups. You can get our entire podcast feeds directly, along with transcripts at tlkjbc.com or I suppose that you could find us somewhere up here, in the Great Northern Minnesota woods. Peace to you all, and Lord willing, we will talk with you some more tomorrow. Till then, bye bye everybody.
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