Matthew 11

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Matthew 11:28-30,  “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.”

There is so much substance in this chapter.  Please be sure to read through all of it.  I feel like there is no way for me to even brush the surface.  I choose to focus on some of my favorite Scripture in the Gospels. 

What is Jesus truly addressing in these verses?  Is he simply talking about people who are physically weary?  That’s certainly part of it.  Think about the culture at the time of Jesus.  Most people were poor and they worked really, really hard.  This whole idea of rest would have been very appealing to them.  But it goes much deeper.  We know from scripture that the Pharisees were kind of obsessed with following the law and the manmade traditions they had created.  In fact, they had created hundreds of additional rules that they felt were necessary to follow the law well.  God’s law, Torah, was certainly fine and it was a good thing to keep Torah.  But this group took it to the extreme, creating an additional burden on people to follow.  Matthew 23:4 said, “They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden.”  This created constant striving, but always failing, never being able to be good enough.  Their souls were being worn down and worn down and worn down.  And Jesus said, “NO – come to me all of you who are experiencing this soul weariness, all of you who are tired and need rest – physical rest, emotional rest, and spiritual rest.”

We live in a culture where being stressed out is the norm (we almost wear it like a badge of honor).   People are tired and weary.  The truth is that life can wear you down.  Once we overcome one challenge, there seems to be another right around the corner.  I know that many of you are dealing with really serious difficulty like health problems, broken relationships, and significant financial issues. 

But the weariness of life is not just about the big burdens, is it?  Sometimes, it is the everyday busyness of life that wears us down, the feeling of running on the hamster wheel, the getting up and dealing with the same stress day end and day out.  The end result of all this weariness is a kind of restlessness.  And yet, this isn’t the kind of restlessness that just goes away by watching TV or going on vacation. Could it be that our need for rest is different than we think it is?  Is rest simply the freedom from work OR is it something very different? 

True rest is impossible apart from Jesus Christ.  We can never be at rest in our soul apart from Jesus.  This restlessness of our soul is truly what ails so many of us.  No amount of money, no amount of power or prestige can keep you from this restlessness.  No one can escape it. 

So what in the world can we do?  Well, Jesus gives us the answer.  He says to take his yoke upon us.  A yoke was essentially a wooden frame that was used to harness together a pair of oxen at their necks so that they could pull a plough or some other kind of load.  It was kind of a balancing device.  Often a younger ox that needed to be taught to work would be paired with an older, more experienced ox. 

This is a wonderful picture of our relationship with Jesus (or maybe I should say what our relationship with Jesus ideally looks like).  The people that Jesus was speaking to would have known this – their yoke was hard.  The Pharisees put this really difficult, ill-fitting yoke around their necks.  But being yoked together with Jesus is so much better.  The fit is better, it doesn’t hurt so badly.  When we allow him to walk alongside us, sharing our burden and yoke, the load does not disappear but is made lighter.

Being yoked together with Jesus does not mean we won’t have to work, we will.  We will still have problems, we will still have difficulty.  But his yoke is not harsh or oppressive. Jesus’ company is gentle.  Just picture being yoked together with him as you plow a field.  I know it might be a ridiculous thought for some of us non-farming people, but it is also a comforting thought.  He wants us to attach ourselves to him.  Not just hang around him every now and then.  Not just go and have dinner with him once a week and then do it our way the rest of the week.  No, he wants us to become permanently yoked with him, day in and day out.  In doing so, our load will be lighter because he will share it with us.  His peace and his comfort will walk alongside us and enable us to keep going. 

Let’s pray…Lord Jesus, I want to yoke myself to you.  Help me depend on you and do life with you, day in and day out.  More of you and less of me.  Amen.