14A23.     Zechariah 9:9-10.   God comes like a king who brings salvation.  He makes good things happen for his people by doing good and not by imposing his will through the use of brutal, savage force.  He is a humble king who lifts his people up and never uses his power to oppress and smash down.  His dominion is universal, without any limits.

Matthew 11:25-30.   God gives his wisdom only to those who are willing to be open to what he has for them and do not think that without God they have already learned what is worth learning.  Jesus gives us access to God the Father only when our hearts and minds are ready to accept him as our Father, the God of our lives.  All people labor for what they consider valuable and reject whatever they consider to have little or no value.  To get what we treasure we must often labor or work hard.  When we choose to belong to Jesus, we choose to be submissive to his will, that is to be live servant workers or beasts of the field who have him put the yoke of his Will upon our shoulders as a way of life for us.  However, the burden of his yoke is light and, at times, even sweet because he carries our burden with us.

Romans 8:9, 11-13.  “Brothers and sisters: You are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells within you.”  Our human bodies can only give us natural, earthly life, the same life that the other living beings of this world have.  Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit so that we can live spiritually while we are beings living on this earth.  The burden of his life within us gives the wonderful fullness of the spiritual life that bodily life alone cannot offer us.