Easy peasy

In the last few years I have begun hearing the phrase, “easy peasy.” My kids use it. My wife uses it. It describes things that are easy to do. Things like home school curricula or Linux operating systems or recipes or things posted on Pinterest.

I got to checking about how that phrase came about. Internet lore, if you can believe it, says that it came from a 1970s British television commercial about dish washing detergent, of all things. In the commercial a little girl was given the job of washing a stack of dirty dishes. As she looked at what seemed like an overwhelming task her kind mother gave her a bottle of Lemon Squeezy dish detergent, and the two began work. Before long they were done, because Lemon Squeezy made the job easy. The girl exclaimed, “Easy peasy, Lemon Squeezy!” I can’t actually find the commercial on YouTube, so I guess there’s nothing to it.

We want things to be easy. Our world is complicated enough. Some would say over complicated. So if things can be easy that is good. Easy peasy. But it dawns on me that whenever something is easy it is because somebody did something to make something complicated become something easy. The folks who supposedly made Lemon Squeezy did the hard work of formulating a dish detergent to make washing dishes easy. Easy peasy.

Jesus seems to make following him look easy peasy. He told the crowds, “My yoke is easy to bear, and my burdens light.” Easy peasy? Something is easy because someone did the hard work of making something complicated into something easy.

Jesus had just been complaining about how complicated things had gotten. “To what will I compare this generation,” he asked. He described children in the market, calling to their peers to play with them and whining that their friends wouldn’t play the way they wanted. Sound familiar?

Jesus spoke of John, the consecrated Nazirite, who had practiced old-time reclusive self-denial as he prophesied and baptized. Religious leaders said John was demonized. Then Jesus described his own mission to be with people, to meet them where they are. Religious leaders accused him of being a glutton and a drunk, friend of tax collectors. They had complicated rules for piety that no one could follow.

But wisdom, Jesus said, is proven by what it accomplished. It seems God delights in hiding wisdom from those who are supposed to be smart, and revealing mysteries to those who are not supposed to know them. “Nobody knows the Father,” Jesus said, “except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wants to reveal him.”

Jesus issued the invitation: Anyone who struggles and is weighed down with the complication of trying to discover the Father should come to him. Become a disciple, learn from him. His yoke is easy, his burden is light. Easy peasy. But remember, something is easy peasy because someone did something to make something complicated into something easy. Finding the way to God is still complicated, but it has been made easy.

It turns out that Jesus’ easy peasy way is also a hard way. To follow Jesus, to take his easy yoke of instruction is to give your life entirely to him. To take up a cross, die to self, and live completely and totally for him. That’s all there is to it. Easy peasy.

Jesus did something complicated. He came among us, took on our appearance, lived our life, suffered our sufferings, and then died our deaths. He died on a cross with shame and injustice and abject torture. He asks us to follow him there in something equally complicated yet profoundly simple. That’s all there is to it. Easy peasy.

Pharisees had made everything complicated with their burdensome dos and don’ts. People were confused. Jesus said, “No, it’s really easy. Give up your agenda and follow me. I’ll get you to the Father. I’ll show you some really cool stuff that God is not showing the other guys.” Easy peasy.

It is very important for us to understand that following Jesus means living as sold-out, dead-to-self believers who will do anything, give anything, or sacrifice anything for Jesus. This would be very hard except for the fact that Jesus has done the complicated work to make it easy peasy. Live for him. Serve him. Follow him.

What I believe that looks like for us is that we have a church of committed believers in Jesus that are convinced that Jesus is more important than anything else. It has been very complicated getting a sense of things lately with different people and groups advancing a particular agenda or paying too much attention to the scorecard.

Church is embassy. We represent Jesus and the kingdom he reigns. Church is gathering, where we become part of a greater whole – the body of Christ, to live and work for him. Church is a nation of prophets and priests, proclaiming the word and living the faith by celebrating the mysteries of the faith made alive and new each time we celebrate them. Church is a cloud of witnesses who live and die for Jesus by rehearsing the good news in worship and repeating the good news in witness. Church is where we lose the self, check the ego, and get lost through baptism into the greatness of God’s re-creation taking place in the earth.

Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? It’s not, really. It’s easy peasy. The hard part has already been done. Just dive in, plug in, and dig in. Live for Jesus, become part of the whole body of Christ. And let Jesus change your complicated life into something easy peasy.

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30 (4 Kingdomtide Proper 9 A)