Just Cut The Strings

Matthew 11:28-30 3/8/26 A.M.

One of the most dangerous jobs to work here in the United States is farming. It’s #8 on the list Now I haven’t done a lot of farming but when I was a kid I did some hay hauling. Not a whole lot and probably not near as much as some of you all. But back then, the 70’s and early 80’s, it was all small square bales. If I remember right it cost about a quarter a bale to have it picked up from the field and stacked in your barn. The hauling crew divided that 25 cents up this way. The driver and owner of the truck got 10 cents a bale. The stacker and the two draggers got 5 cents a bale. Now that doesn’t sound like much but if you hauled 1500 bales a night or day that was $375. That was $75 a day for the draggers and stacker and $150 a day for the driver minus expenses. Hard work but pretty good money back in the day. Now-a-days there’s not many small square bales. They’re mostly round bales or big square bales. And the reason I bring this up, I was reading about a farmer who found himself under a BALE of HAY. One of those large bales had fallen on him.

The first police officer reaches under the one-ton bale of hay and attempts to lift it off of me. Of course, it doesn’t budge. He grabs his flashlight and shines it under the hay into my face. I blink. He yells over his shoulder to his partner, “He’s alive! He’s alive! Help me move the hay.”

Even working together the two officers can’t move it – not a fraction of an inch. A thousand pounds each? Of course they can’t move it.

“Cut the strings,” I whisper. My voice is weak. They can’t hear me.

I am not going to last much longer. If they will just cut the strings, the bale will break apart, and they can drag me out of here.

“Lift, Joe, lift!”

“Just cut the strings,” I mumble, “Please cut the strings.”

“C’mon harder.”

“It’s too heavy! We can’t lift it. We gotta go for help! Hang on Chad, we’ll be right back!”

I am alone again in the growing darkness. Wonderful painless, peaceful, irresistible sleep beckons. I struggle to remain conscious. One. Two. Three. Four… Where are they? How long does it take for police, fire, ambulance, to arrive? Where is the Coast Guard? Where are the Marines? Where is that one old farmer with enough COMMON SENSE to just cut the strings? I grow weaker. Dizziness overcomes me and I begin to drift off into that gray space somewhere between the living and the dead.

Help finally arrives. One of the police officers bends down so I can see his face. “Hold on! A fire engine is here. There are six men aboard.”

I do the math. Two big, strong cops and six burly firemen have to move a ton of dead weight off of me. That’s two 245 pounds each. No way can they possibly do that – but somehow, miraculously, they do.

But if the first one there would have just cut the strings it would have been a lot quicker and a lot easier.

This morning I want to start off by reading three Verses. Matthew 11, Verses 28-30.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

I have preached from this passage, quoted these Verses, broke them down but this morning I want to look at them in a different way.

Lately I’ve been really burdened for the church. Not this building but the people in this building and the people all around the world who are FOLLOWERS of JESUS. I know I’ve brought this up a lot lately but it’s time to get serious.

You see, when Jesus spoke these words here in Matthew 11, He was speaking to the people of that day. They were TIRED of being LOADED DOWN with HEAVY, LEGALISTIC, SELF RIGHTEOUS DEMANDS that these Jewish leaders were LOADING ON THEM. Jesus offered them REST from this.

You see, the Jewish leadership didn’t just “PREACH” from the Torah and the Prophets. They also taught ORAL LAW. Basically, any Rabbi could make up some silly rule and LOAD it onto the people. And so after a while all of these ORAL LAWS became a REAL BURDEN to bear.

And all of these laws had nothing to do with God’s Law.