The Quizno Ticket

Between my fourth and fifth grade years of schooling, my family moved to a new home. New bedroom, new house, new neighbors, new school, new county. It was a time of terrified exhilaration. The elementary school was small but well organized. The rewards system for the two fifth grade classes involved an object of the teacher’s own invention: The Quizno Ticket.

A piece of card stock roughly three inches by one inch with the corners trimmed off, these oblong octagons were stamped with a segmented skeleton. Good behavior, exemplary school work, and good citizenship would be rewarded with a ticket. They could be collected and traded in for the glorious treasures in the Prize Cabinet. Since the two classrooms were only separated by an open space there were frequent competitions for tickets. It was a new concept for my ten year old brain. I was fascinated.

Throughout the school year tickets were earned and traded in by well behaved students, myself included. I distinctly remember a 3D Jaws movie poster. I wore the cardboard glasses roller-skating. The 80’s were wild. The last day of school arrived but the dismissal bell had not. In a heroic attempt to keep 60+ kids from an hour of rioting, the teachers set us up with Bingo. There was a catch. Get Bingo, get a Quizno ticket and all prizes were now half price. Incorrectly say Bingo and owe a Quizno ticket. To make the catch catchier the teachers called the numbers at a near whisper. As I said, The 80’s were wild.

The prize I wanted was four tickets and I already had one. With the half price sale in effect I could take home one final treasure. Except I misheard a number. I called Bingo. I did not have Bingo. I had to hand over my only precious Quizno ticket. Big problem: I couldn’t find it. I got frantic. The girl beside me told me it was ok, no one was taking it seriously, it’s the last day of school, new school next year, doesn’t matter, etc. It mattered to me. I knew I had a Quizno ticket and could hand it in. The bell rang and w launched ourselves to our busses like so many energetic missiles. Elementary school done. Middle school here we come.

I found the ticket when I got home. I wanted Mom to take me back to the school so I could hand it over, but I was too afraid to ask. I emptied the storage case for my earplugs (swimming, not snoring) and put the ticket inside. Years later when I moved out I took it with me still in it’s plastic case. It became a symbol to always be ready to pay my debts. I seriously think that Bingo and Quizno tickets are part of the reason I’m so good with finances.

I remember the summer between fifth and sixth grades, also. I had a restlessness and an anxiousness I didn’t understand fully. I’m not sure how my parents put up with me. They thought it was because of a second year in a row starting a new school. But I still had the secret of the Quizno ticket tucked in the top desk drawer. It was a silent burden I carried alone in embarrassment. I’m sure there’s a decent psychiatric diagnosis for all of this. I don’t really want to know especially since I would build on that anxiety in the decades to follow. Until the moment I hit “Publish” on this blog, I have not once ever told anyone about the Quizno ticket.

I recently had the joy of talking with Mom about Matthew 11:28-30. In the English Standard Version it reads this: Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

I’ve heard this passage so many times it sometimes gets rerouted to the jukebox section of my brain. Handel’s “Messiah” anyone? Somehow sitting on the porch steps blurting out half formed thoughts on that passage reminded me of the Quizno ticket. Even though the physical item no longer exists (it disintegrated) I still carry that perceived debt within me. Jesus teaches about his yoke early in his ministry. He says it knowing that Simon of Cyrene will help him carry the horizontal beam of the cross. Why do I care?

Let’s back up to Yoke 101. In a farming culture the yoke is in common use for practicality and metaphors. It is a beam of wood used to harness two similar animals together, usually oxen, to plow fields and pull heavy loads. A way to break in a new animal is to harness it to a more mature beast who has proven itself to be steadfast and trustworthy. Every old ox out there has been the new ox at some point. They’ve learned things. We should pay attention.

By telling the people to take up his yoke, Jesus is calling out the religious leaders of the day. The Pharisees had interpreted scripture to the point where it was a crushing burden instead of a worshipful life. To make matters worse, the Pharisees saw themselves as the driver of the team and not as a member of the team. They had forgotten it was God who was to be leading and they were to be led. Their responsibility was to be the wizened ox faithfully walking alongside the less experienced. This would see the work of the kingdom done without unnecessary burdens placed on any one member of the team. The yoke belongs to Christ, and him alone since an ox does not yoke itself. The Pharisees had become a wild ox driving other wild oxen.

There is an order to taking the yoke of Jesus:

1. Come to him
2. He will give rest
3. Take the yoke
4. Learn from him
5. Find rest for your soul

Coming to Jesus can be the hardest decision some people make. Like a wild animal bucking and kicking, they finally surrender and choose Jesus as Lord and Savior. They ask God to rule their life. When that moment happens and a lifetime of sin is washed away, the burden is lifted. This is rest only true repentance can give because it is only found at the cross. The yoke of Christ can then be taken up since the new believer no longer carries their old burdens. Side by side with more mature believers, we all learn from him and ultimately find a permanent rest for the soul. This doesn’t happen overnight. This is a process.

Jesus makes a point to tell us he is gentle. We can be assured he won’t be jerking us all around the field or taking us where we shouldn’t go. Lowly at heart doesn’t mean Jesus is a pushover. It means in his humility there is a freedom from self assertive pride. There is no longer a crushing legalistic burden of guilt that says we have to earn salvation by our own good deeds.

Back to Calvary. Jesus fully man could not physically carry his own cross beam to his crucifixion. He displayed physically carrying a burden together with Simon. In the spiritual, Jesus fully God was carrying all the sin of the world on his shoulders. Jesus carried it all because he was the only one who could. Blameless and sinless but with all of the weight of all of the sin that would ever occur by everyone, Jesus was the final Passover Lamb. Because of his sacrifice, we don’t have to carry the weight of our own sin.

I carried a battered piece of card stock for years. I carried the fear of poverty and debt even longer. There have been times in my life I have been in desperate financial need and have been too proud to ask for help. God has always provided even in my kicking. I have wondered if I’m still trying to pay back a Quizno ticket every time I volunteer at a charity event. The current economy has me financially skittish again. I’m dealing with anxiety and depression. I’m hiding a spiritual Quizno ticket. Salvation isn’t yelling Bingo and getting a prize. It isn’t a constant toil and churning to get more done. It is being led by the one who saved us. I need to throw the ticket in front of the plow and let it be trampled. It no longer needs carried.

It is time to come to Jesus again and again as needed to find rest in every area of our lives. We have been led astray far too long by modern Pharisees while we tsk tsk the Pharisees in the Bible. I find it difficult to buy a car part from a non mechanic. Or wood screws from a non carpenter. Or take parenting advice from the childless. Or theology from an active hypocrite. Or what the direction for a Godly life should be from a pagan.

The burden I choose moving forward is the yoke of Jesus Christ. God will show me who I’m to walk beside. Sometimes I’m the wise ox, sometimes I’m the young ox. One thing is certain, if it truly is the yoke of Jesus then it will be easy and the burden light. The reward of eternity in heaven with God is so much more than can be had with just a Quizno ticket.

*rabbit trail: I’m going to be leaving Facebook soon. If you’re here because of the link there, you might want to consider subscribing. I have no problems with my blog being shared on that platform even if I choose not to continue on as a participant. If you’re here because of Instagram then I’m baffled, That’s a mystery to me. But I digress…