Burdens lifted at Calvary, but imposed by the church!

In the New Testament, we read of how the Pharisees went about laying on the people burdens they were quite unable to bear. They added rules to numerous rules, promising that, by doing this, they would be better people, and more acceptable to God. And it is generally the poor who are burdened with these religious loads, the very people who are most unable to carry them. "Lay in on them," seems to be the rallying cry of the spiritually ambitious; "let us test their faith to see how real it is."

Burden after intolerable burden. Keep the people down. Keep the poor people poor, while the rich hardly notice the burdens that are being imposed upon them.

But is it not the case that churches are supposed to be the instrument in God's gracious hand that lifts burdens off the shoulders of those who are weighed down by them, rather than the means of increasing their burdens? I imagined this to be the case!

But then I have been wrong on many things in the past, and this seems to be yet another of them. How are these burdens imposed on church people? By demanding that they pay their tithe each Lord's day - to the church, of course, not to other Christian causes; then they are to give their freewill offerings; then they are to support the property fund; then foreign mission; then youth work; then mission at home; then evangelistic outreaches run by interdenominational organisations, not by other local churches (you don't want to lose members to the other churches, do you?). Then if there is to be a massive building project, we are then expected to give over the top, just to satisfy the fleshly desires of a chosen few.

The church was established to remove burdens from the people, the biggest and most eternally significant one being their sins.  The church is charged by the risen Lord Jesus Christ to proclaim this liberating message to all and sundry, because if the people cannot bear this burden now, what will become of them when they stand before God the judge and answer for these sins? They will be eternally damned - and the churches stood back and watch it happen!  Shame on them, everyone.

The church must direct sinners to Calvary, where alone burdens are lifted.  Failure to do this, is FAILURE.  Period.