When the Burden Is Light

Christ does not lead people out of the world to paradise where there is no need for wretchedness. He does not, by magic, make this life into worldly delight and joy. No, he teaches what he demonstrates by example: that the burden is light even if the suffering is heavy.

Often, when we speak of carrying burdens, we distinguish between a light burden and a heavy one. We say that it is easy to carry the light burden and hard to carry the heavy one. But what about a burden is both heavy and light? It is about this marvel I want to address.

When someone is on the verge of collapsing under a heavy burden, but the burden is the most precious thing he owns, he declares that in a certain sense it is light. When in distress at sea, the lover is just about to sink under the weight of his beloved, the burden is most certainly heavy and yet – yes, ask him about it – it is so indescribably light. He wants only to save his beloved’s life. Therefore he speaks as if the burden did not exist at all; he calls her his life. How does this change place? How is the heavy burden made light? Is it not because a great thought intervenes, a though that marks his love? Is it not with the aid of the thought of being in love that change take place?

Similarly, Christ says, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:30). There is only one thought, one single idea that contains faith’s transformation of a heavy burden into a light one. This thought is that the burden is beneficial, that the heavy suffering laid on one can have a purpose.



Taken from Provocations – Spiritual Writings of Søren Kierkegaard, complied and edited by Charles E Moore. Section VI – Anxiety and the Gospel of Suffering