Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30
Jesus said: “I thank you Lord of heaven and earth…because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
- Why hide things from the wise and learned?
- Isn’t it the usual way of affairs for the wise and learned to know things that are simply beyond the grasp of little children?
- Isn’t it the other way around:
- Little kids cannot grasp things that learned adults can?
Well…there is a reversal going on here…typical of Jesus…typical of the Bible.
- Younger brothers are picked instead of the eldest.
- Infertile women give birth.
- The greatest shall be humbled…the humble…exalted.
- Whoever would be greatest must be slave of all.
- The hungry are filled…the rich sent away empty.
- The first shall be last…and the last…first.
- Itinerant fishermen are picked to be apostles.
Today…Christ extends his invitation to all his little ones who would regard it:
- “Come to me…all you who are weary and burdened…and I will give you rest.”
I would like to share with you something about a little one…a little-known American immigrant.
- His name was Korczak Ziolkowski.
- Korczak was born in Boston in 1908 to Polish parents and orphaned at the age of one.
- He spent his life being shuffled through a series of foster homes in poor neighborhoods.
- Though he never received formal art training…
- In his teens he worked as an apprentice to a ship maker…
- And began to demonstrate his skill in carving wood.
In 1939…Korczak moved to the Black Hills of South Dakota to assist in the creation of the Mount Rushmore Memorial.
- Less than a year later…Korczak’s marble sculpture of Ignacy Jan Paderewski…
- Pianist…composer and prime minister of Poland…
- Won first prize at the New York World’s Fair.
Shortly afterward…he was approached by several Lakota Indian chiefs who asked him to build a monument honoring Native Americans.
- Korczak accepted the project and began research and planning for the sculpture.
- Three years later the project was put on hold while Korczak enlisted in the United States Army.
- He was wounded on Omaha Beach during the invasion of Normandy.
- After the war Korczak moved back to the Black Hills and began his search for a suitable place for the monument.
- The Lakota considered the Black Hills a sacred place and wanted the memorial built there.
When completed…the monument…a three-dimensional sculpture of the Indian Chief Crazy Horse sitting on a charging steed…
- Will be the largest sculpture in the world.
- To put the size of the memorial in perspective.
- Just Crazy Horse’s war bonnet is large enough to contain all the presidents’ heads on Mount Rushmore.
Korczak died thirty-four years after starting work on the mountain.
- The statue far from being completed.
- His final words to his wife were:
- “You must finish the mountain…
- But go slowly so it is done right.”
The whole thing was absurd.
- A man with no money.
- No training and no heavy equipment.
- Decides to carve a mountain.
Korczak had galleries of critics who threw barbs and insults at him:
- “You are crazy…you are a fool…you will never do it.”
- But every day he climbed his mountain and with a chisel here…
- A blast there…he moved tons of stone as his dream emerged from the mountain.
- Korczak knew he’d never live to see his work finished but this was no reason to stop.
As he lay dying…he was asked if he was disappointed to not see the monument completed.
- “No” he said… “you only have to live long enough to inspire others to do great things.”
- And this he did.
- As the mountain took form…the masses began to dream too.
Today millions come from around the world to see Korczak’s Mountain.
- And a professional crew works year-round to move the dream forward.
- It is no longer a question of if the statue will be completed.
- Only when.
Korczak’s greatest legacy is not a public one.
- The massive stone mountain that he conquered.
- But the mountain he first conquered in himself.
- A mountain that he climbed not alone but yoked to Jesus.
There are moments in all lives…
- Great and small that we must trudge…
- With our Lord at our side yoked to us…
- Into infinite wilderness…
- To endure our midnight hours of pain and sorrow.
- The Gethsemane moments…when we are on our knees.
- That these moments are given to us is neither accidental nor cruel.
- The Spirit of the living God Melts us…Molds us…Fills us…Uses us for ministry in the Kingdom of God.
Like Korczak’s monument…our mission will not be completed in our lifetime.
- And in the end…we will find that we were never sculpting alone.
- Korczak said:
- “I tell my children never forget that we are not complete beings in ourselves.
- There’s something greater that moves us.
- I was never carving a mountain.
- But God was carving me.
- While God was yoked to me…he was at the same time carving me.”
Many try to shoulder burdens alone…
- Burdens that Christ would like to shoulder with us.
- Jesus said: “My yoke is easy…and my burden is light.”
- To be yoked with Christ is to allow him to share the burden of our daily lives.
- To allow him to take off our shoulders the weight of trying to solve our problems alone.
- Being yoked with Christ is one of the secrets of a full and productive life.
Jesus stands today with the yoke upon His shoulder.
- He calls to each one and says:
- “Come and share my yoke…
- And let us plow together the long furrow of your life.
- I will be a true yokefellow to you.
- The burden shall be on me.”
- “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me” says Jesus…
- For I am gentle and humble in heart…
- And you will find rest for your souls.
- For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”