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

This is one of those “so familiar” verses that we often read right through it, assuming that we fully understand it.  Those are the verses in which it is often best to slow down, read word by word, and ask the Spirit to give you an additional revelation.  So I wanted to do that myself tonight.

The first phrase is an emphatic invitation.  Many Greek concordances translate it with an exclamation point next to it.  It might be translated, “Come to me now!!!  The word “come” can also be translated as “follow.”

The ultimate goal of most of us…especially as we grow older is to find peace, rest, or renewal in our lives.  Over the months and years, the world nibbles away at our souls.  If we are not careful there will be an accumulation of stress, anxiety, regrets, losses, and a longing for something we have not yet found that robs us of peace and joy. Life and even ministry can become a burden.

Jesus recognizes that condition with the words weary and burdened.One suggests the tiredness and exhaustion that comes from a long march or days of hard labor with little to show for it. There is a sense that those who are weary are on the verge of quitting.  Remember, Paul tells us to not grow weary in doing good because eventually there will be a harvest (Gal.6:9).  He is encouraging believers at Galatia not to quit or give up because they have labored hard but have not yet seen any harvest. His call is to keep going because God has promised a harvest that will surely come if we keep believing. Sometimes staying faithful seems like labor.  You serve, you pray, you cry out and have yet to see a breakthrough. You begin to question the promises of God or your own faith because no fruit , no answered prayer, is yet discernable.  Those can be hard days.

The word burdenedcalls to mind a heavy load. Some translations call it “heavy laden.”  Caring for a special needs child or a spouse with a long-term disability can begin to feel like a heavy burden where the responsibility weighs you down.  Maybe a child torn by addictions or a marriage in which you feel like the only one trying can bear on your soul. On those days, the road seems too long before you get a break.

Jesus has a remedy for the labor and heavy burdens. He calls it rest.Rest can b translated as relief, recovery, renewal, or restoration. Remember David’s 23^rdPsalm where he says that the Lord restores his soul by making him lie down in green pastures and leading him beside still waters.   This is the same thought.  I think it is closely akin to peace.

Jesus declares that this rest is available, but he is the only provider.  Come to me!!! He declares and no one else. You come, you follow, and I will give it to you. The promise implies relationship. You can’t just drop by the corner pharmacy and get a box of tablets that make you feel better as you continue to live for yourself and follow you.  That is where the emptiness comes from in the first place.  It is only found in him.

He then describes the process of gaining rest.  It is not sitting down and ceasing to serve but it is yoking ourselves to him and learning how to live in the abundance and peace of the kingdom. Yokes tie two animals together, who then labor together.  The untrained animal would learn how to pull and plow by being yoked to the one who was already trained for the task. Simply doing what he saw and felt the other do trained him.  Being yoked with Jesus in a relationship and as a co-laborer in the kingdom teaches us how to live and how to trust in kingdom resources to get us through hard times. Trust is the forerunner of rest.

Jesus doesn’t train us with a whip and harsh words.  He encourages us and brings us along at the pace that fits us. He is gentle and humble and even though he is King he will not lord it over those who come to him. His yoke is easy and his burden is light because he shoulders most of the weight.  Once again, scripture reveals God as a God who wants to partner with his people, co-labor in the kingdom, and grow close by doing great things together.  Intimacy and training in how to live in the kingdom while still on planet earth is what restores our soul.

Too often when we have labored long and carried a weight, we want to run away from the call God has on our lives.  We want to ditch our responsibilities ands chase the promises of the world that offer peace, love, and significance at a minimal cost…but those things truly only come through Jesus. The key to rest is to press in, not to pull away.  In fact, weariness and burden bearing are hints that we have already drawn away and are trying to face life in our own strength. When you feel the weariness and the burden, remember the words of Jesus – “Come to me…I will give you rest!”

In his book, Soul Keeping, John Ortberg points out how rarely the word easy is used in scripture. By my count, it us used less than twenty-five times in the entire Bible. Jesus used it when he said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Ortberg goes on to point out that when Jesus used the word, it was a soul word, not a circumstance word or an assignment word. He says, “Aim at having easy circumstances, and life will be hard all around. Aim at having an easy soul, and your capacity for tackling hard assignments will actually grow. The soul was not made for an easy life. The soul was made for an easy yoke” (p.126).

As you look at the life of Jesus, he apparently knew the secrets of a soul at ease or at rest. Regardless of his circumstances or the demands of the crowd he never seemed to be in a hurry and rarely, if ever, let someone else determine his agenda. The secret of his soul-at-ease seems to have been his intimate connection with the Father, which simplified his life and decision making considerably. His statements such as, “I only do what I see the Father doing,” tell us that Jesus moved at the pace ordained by his Father rather than by the world. He sought the applause of only one rather than the multitude. He evaluated his life by one set of heavenly standards rather than the shifting standards of culture. He discovered that his Father’s agenda for his life was more focused and simpler than the agenda the world hands us. Love God. Love one another. Give attention to those I highlight for you or to whom I direct you. Don’t worry much about the rest.

I know my first response to my own words about Jesus is that we live in a different world and just don’t have the luxury of setting our own agendas. To some degree that is true but the tension of life impacts us more when we internalize the demands the world places on us and give those demands legitimacy. A soul connected to God and his purposes is the key to ease.

From a practical perspective we can notice that Jesus has some consistent practices in his life that kept him connected to the Father and that kept his soul healthy. We might want to emulate what Jesus did so here is a bullet point list for my left-brained friends. You can add some other patterns you see in the life of Jesus.

• Jesus prayed a lot and on many occasions prayed for extended periods.
• He enjoyed solitude on a regular basis.
• He spent time outdoors enjoying God’s (and his own) creation.
• He developed a circle of close friends with whom he could share his life and his heart.
• He stored up the Word of God in his heart.
• He took long walks – sometimes on water.
• He engaged in deep, spiritual discussions with friends and sometimes strangers.
• He laughed and sometimes hung out with non-religious people.
• He thought a lot about the kingdom of Heaven.
• He worshipped often in synagogues with other believers.
• He frequently talked to others about God’s love.
• On occasion, he played with children.

Think about doing some intentional things to find ease for your soul and may your soul be at rest today.