“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, 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.” Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
Yesterday we talked about the first three words of this scripture, “Come to me”. Let’s settle into the rest of this passage. Jesus focuses on “I will give you rest.” We could stop right there! I’ll take it! I think we all would. We need to understand what we need rest from. And, how do we experience true rest? It’s great to get away to the beach, go to another part of our country, or the world. We get back home and wind up right where we started from. We just escaped. We never really found rest. We just enter back into the life that we left for a little bit.
So what is Jesus saying in this scripture? It’s not physical rest, although we need that too. Jesus is talking about a real condition inside of us. The root of unrest for all who are “weary and burdened”. It’s for everyone in the world! I think it goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. You’ve heard about the fall of man in the garden… eating the fruit God said not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Sin entered this world and we’ve been covering things up, and trying to fix things on our own ever since. If we do what we think is good, it makes us feel better. But, it really doesn’t and it won’t take care of the sin problem in us either. So God gave Commandments for us to live by. Not just the Ten, but many more, including the sacrifices necessary to live in the presence of a Holy God.
Enter the Pharisees living in Jesus’ time. The “yoke of the Pharisees” is the burdensome yoke of self-righteousness and legalistic law-keeping (from gotquestions.org). They were adding their own laws and burdens to what was written in the scriptures. I’ve read that there were over 600 additions! Just the things you weren’t allowed to do on the Sabbath were making folks “weary and burdened”. The people couldn’t live it out, much less keep up with all the new policies and procedures. I guess the extra burdens made the Pharisees feel like they were doing more for God.
The heart of Jesus is to heal, to set free, to give life to all who would ask. When He saw all the people he had great compassion for them. He said they were like sheep without a shepherd. I can see Jesus saying this scripture to them.
What if Jesus were standing in front of you right now? If He looked right at you, called your name, and said these words to you, would you take Him at His word? Remember who’s talking to you. The Ancient of Days! The First and the Last! The Creator or All! He is all authority, and yet He invites you into this in the kindest of ways. With all His Lovingkindness which is intended to lead you into repentance. Repentance from doing life on your own. Receive these words from Jesus Himself:
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, 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.”
Reflect on Romans 8:2,6 below.
2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.
6 For the mindset on the flesh is death, but the mindset on the Spirit is life and peace.
Reflection:
- How was it to hear Jesus invite you into this truth?
- What are you willing to learn from Him?
“…and you will find rest for your souls.”
Receive Jesus’ prayer for you in John 17:20-23.
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me – so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
