Pentecost 7, 2008
Matthew 11:28-30
“Rest for the Weary”
Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
There are just some things that wear people out. I’m sure that each one of us has had times when we would like to just rest and relax…veg out…nap or sleep after a long day or week. I know that I have to sympathize with Alicia for her past week of getting up at 2:30 to go into work at Saint Mary’s. Getting up earlier than usual and working long hours definitely would make someone tired. There are even some of us that were tired and sore just from playing softball on Tuesday night…might I add we won that game! It seems as you get older and aren’t used to using some of your muscles…you get tired and worn out.
But there are so many things that make us tired…and some seem to be more justified than others. Our farmers are worn out and tired…from the hard time trying to plant this spring due to all the rain. One of our men told me that they get up before the sun and keep going until they can’t possibly go any longer. That’s a hard and long day. On top of that many farmers have to go back and replant crops lost from the rain and standing water as well. Then again it’s hard to go back home and clean up all your possessions; throwing them in the garbage after the flood waters forced you to flee. Even as a Pastor, though I don’t do as physical labor as most of you, get tired as I have sat in a hospital room with members dying and their grieving families.
This world is full of hard work, challenges, struggles, and difficulties. We get tired physically and emotionally from all these things and countless others. When we are burdened, worn out, and tired…we want rest, we want relief, and often we need help.
Jesus tells us “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Such a wonderful and hopeful message that we get wrong. Jesus continues: “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)
Here we have Jesus offering us rest…something we all want and need. But it seems so confusing. Jesus offers rest and in the same thought speaks about taking his yoke and the burden being light. Have you ever gotten rest by being burdened? Rest and burden just don’t seem to go together…unless its rest from your burden. The problem with us understanding this verse…is us. We certainly want rest from all our physical and emotional burdens…but Jesus is offering us something a little different. Jesus is offering rest from a burden far greater than any we have mentioned He is offering rest from the burden of sin.
Sin is the biggest cause of despair, heartache, burden, and weariness. No matter how little a sin seems to be in your life it is the cause of death and promises only damnation. Sin causes us to worry about our future. Sin causes us to question God’s love for us. Sin causes hatred, fighting, and spitefulness in our lives. Even when sin feels good and doesn’t seem to hurt anyone…it does. It hurts God and it hurts you. It hurts God because you are rejecting him for something else. It hurts you because it is the cause of death. It is when death is around us that we must come face to face with the wages of our sin. Each of us will die…there is no way around it…we cannot escape death in this world.
The saddest things to see in this world is a person approaching death that has no faith and families that have no faith that lose a loved one. Trust me when I tell you that having no hope in everlasting life is one of the saddest things to ever behold. When the only thing that happens at death is someone is gone forever…and there is no hope in seeing them ever again…the future holds only despair.
But our Lord is not a Lord that wants us to be condemned. Christ bids us to cast our burdens on Him. Some may feel that we ought stoically face our pains and sorrows without bothering God or anyone else with them. Christ clearly urges us to come to Him with all our burdens and find relief. Christ came to bear our burdens; to bear our sins on the cross. Christ did what we cannot do. Christ overcame sin, death, and the devil. Christ is victorious over our sin and bids that we come to him in every need. To come to Christ means to believe that for his sake sins are forgiven. When we believe, the Holy Spirit quickens our hearts through the Word of Christ.
In the Lord’s Supper Christ offers us all the treasures he brought from heaven for us, to which he most graciously invites us in other places as when he says “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28) In the body and blood; Christ himself…we find our rest.
But Jesus does not promise us immunity from family, social, academic, economic and political problems. He does not promise us a Utopia. He does promise rest FOR THE SOUL, freedom from the guilt and power of sin, freedom from the threat of death, freedom from the power of the devil. All believers in Christ find true rest for their soul in Him who has taken the burden of their sins from their shoulders and put them on His own.
But what about His yoke? Have you ever watched a kite in the wind? Would you say the string that holds it is burdensome and is a heavy yoke? No, it is there to control the kite. The kite will not fly unless it is partnered with the string. You cannot cut the string and expect the kite to soar right up to the heavens. When the restrictive yoke of the string is cut, the kite will crash to the ground. So the yoke that the Lord Jesus gives is not burdensome. He walks alongside and carries our burdens when we are unable.
Our loving Savior, Jesus Christ, has come to carry your sin upon himself. Jesus loves you. Jesus died and lives for you. Jesus came so that you would be saved from your sin. Jesus has taken your burden and there is nothing too heavy for Him. In Jesus we have hope, comfort, and rest. As the hymn For All The Saints reminds us here on earth “we feebly struggle, they in glory shine.” Your sins are forgiven. Your burdens have been taken away. Have hope in Christ for you too shall shine In His glory. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all human understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Amen.
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