Matthew 11:28-30
Rest for the Stressed
I choose our scripture each week from the Lectionary, which is a systematic reading through most of the Bible over the course of three years. On any given Sunday, it contains an Old Testament reading, a Psalm, a New Testament reading, and a passage from the gospels. So, a month or two out, I prayerfully review each of the passages coming up and choose one for each given Sunday. I think about what scripture might relate to our needs. And every now and then, I see a scripture and think, “Boy, could I use that!”
And that’s why I chose today’s scripture. Me preaching on “rest” is similar to a priest giving marriage counseling. I don’t have a lot of firsthand experience. I tend to fill my schedule to the full. And if there’s any area I need to grow, it is this concept of “rest for the stressed.”
As I studied today’s passage, I was surprised by the context: Jesus gave these words thinking primarily of religious stress. People were getting stressed out trying to follow God. The Jewish religious leaders had come up with these cumbersome regulations on what a good follower of God should do, to the point that people felt overwhelmed and stressed to the max. There was no sense of closeness or intimacy with God; just an overwhelming imposition of “must.” “You must do this, you must do that.” And God was not pleased.
Then Jesus came on the scene. And in today’s passage he gives three simple instructions to find rest for the stressed. If you ever find yourself weary, worn out, even with religious activity if not with all the other activities of life, then you need to do these three simple things. First,
1. Come to Jesus. This phrase has become a trite expression in our modern vocabulary. Urban Dictionary says a “come to Jesus moment” originally meant “an emotional experience that is life changing,” but it has evolved to mean a “serious argument, one that better result in a change of action or else.” I had a “come to Jesus” moment yesterday thinking about my crazy schedule.
Jesus uses the expression with its original meaning: “an emotional experience that is life changing.” Jesus says, “If you need rest, come to me.” He is our rest. Notice the invitation is to a person, not a program. He doesn’t say, “If you need rest, go to church more; or read your Bible more; or pray more; or give 20% more to the offering.” No, he doesn’t invite more religious activity. That was the problem of his day. The religious leaders were imposing more and more religious standards on the people; they simplified the Ten Commandments down to only 613 laws! In Matthew 23:4, Jesus described these leaders as he said, “They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.” And Jesus said, “Enough! Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
Bill Crowder, in yesterday’s “Our Daily Bread” reading, notes, “The rest [Jesus] offers is not simply found in the cessation of activity or release from burdens. It is found in actively seeking his presence and his provision for our lives” (7/8/17 “Our Daily Bread”). Where is your life out of control? What kind of stress is running rampant with you? It could be religious stress, it could be family or other relational stress, it could be stress over your health or financial stress. First and most importantly, come to Jesus. Bring it to Jesus. Give it to Jesus.
Now, in today’s passage, Jesus illustrates the kind of relationship he wants to have with us through a farming analogy familiar to folks in that agrarian society. And you find it in his next invitation. He invites us to ...
2. Take his yoke. A yoke is a wooden frame that joins together two animals, usually oxen, who work in tandem to pull the plow through the fields. In Jesus’ time, people also used the word “yoke” metaphorically, to describe how one might be subject to another. For instance, rabbis talked about yoking themselves to God’s Law instead of to worldly cares. A famous scribe, Sirach, invited people to yoke themselves to the study of Torah to gain wisdom. The New Testament warns us to guard against the yoke of legalism (Acts 15:10, Galatians 5:1).
But Jesus invites us to be yoked with ... himself! Christian discipleship is being in relationship with Jesus. We come to him, and we allow ourselves to be bound to him. And in him we find our rest, because as Jesus himself points out, he is “gentle and humble in heart.” Jesus will lead us gently as we bind our lives to him.
Both the Old and the New Testaments speak of bringing our burdens to God. Psalm 55:22 says, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you.” And 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” Listen to that verse in the Amplified Version: “Cast all your cares [all your anxieties, all your worries, and all your concerns, once and for all] on Him, for He cares about you [with deepest affection, and watches over you very carefully].” As we yoke ourselves to Jesus, we bring him the good, the bad, and the ugly, all of it, and leave it with him, and he gives us his peace.
A man once observed a farmer with his team of oxen plowing the field. The man noticed that one of the animals seemed a lot bigger than the other, so he asked the farmer about it. The farmer replied, “That older ox is the best ox I’ve I ever had; he knows his way around the field. The reason I put the younger one with him is so the older, more knowledgeable ox could teach him how to plow. If I never put them together the younger one would never learn. By himself the younger ox would pull himself to death, but together he learns to cooperate with and rest in the strength of the older ox.” [adapted from illustration by James Botts, “Rest for the Stressed,” August 29, 2002, sermoncentral.com]
And so it is with us. We come to Jesus, we take his yoke, and as we bind ourselves to Jesus, we do what this younger ox did. We...
3. Learn from Jesus. The way of discipleship is to follow the Master, to become his apprentice. Jesus is the Master and we are the servant. As he said to his first disciples, “Follow me,” he says to us as well. Paul once wrote, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). Paul could say that, because he had yoked himself to Christ Jesus.
What about us? As we come to Jesus, as we yoke ourselves to him, what can we learn? The short answer: everything! The Christian life is about relationship. It’s not about a bunch of rules. That was the problem in Jesus’ day: too many rules. But on the other hand, the Christian life also is not about reckless lawlessness. Jesus said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). The Christian life is about binding ourselves to a person, the God-man, Jesus our Savior, who will help us to do God’s will.
The Zondervan Commentary notes, “As complicated as life may become, discipleship at heart simply means walking with Jesus in the real world and having him teach us moment by moment how to live life his way.”
Charles Stanley says, “When we surrender the circumstances of our lives to Him, He lifts us up and infuses our hearts with fresh hope and wisdom. Some situations are just too difficult for us to handle, but nothing is too great for Him. He promises to refresh our weary souls when we cry out to Him.”
A relationship with Jesus is the answer to your stress. Following Jesus brings rest for the stressed. Submit your calendar to him. Give him your goals, your aspirations, your relationships, your health. Find your life in him.
I’ll close with a poem written almost 3,000 years ago, but still relevant today. You’ll find it in Isaiah 40:28-31:
28 Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom.
29 He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.
30 Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;
31 but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary,
they will walk and not be faint.
Let us pray: Lord, may we turn to you for our needed rest, and may we find our strength in you and you alone. Help us to yoke ourselves to your son Jesus Christ, for his load is light and his guidance gentle. In his name we pray, amen.
