In another mercifully short(er) chapter, Dean
decontextualizes Jesus' promise of a light burden (Matthew 11:29-30) to mean
that “they addressed ALL of our concerns
for the future” — seriously decontexualized indeed, because as Dean would
not know, Jesus here alludes to Himself in terms of the figure of Wisdom, and
thus this is not a promise to bear “ALL”
concerns but to bear more of the load; for after all, the yoke is still a yoke,
however much lighter it is! If this is “promising
HELP and RELIEF in EVERY situation that we would EVER face” it is only in
the sense that our view of the long-term will be influenced by Christ. For the
unsaved, a sickness unto death is tragic without qualification; for the saved
it is tragic only temporally.
Ironically, and still not seeing the tension with his
prior statements, Dean allows: “If YOU
truly LOVE God. . . .YOU want God to HAVE HIS WAY in YOUR life. You will NOT be
eager to GET anything that would in ANY WAY challenge His PERFECT WILL for YOU;
or that would not GLORIFY God”. This is the essence of our essay on prayer
linked above;
but Dean does not see the contradiction with his prior professions.