Come, and I Will Give You Rest
Matthew 11:25 – 30
Friends I personally cannot think of a time in my life when the world around us requires and demands so much emotional energy from us. Our culture and society have brought so much angst and turmoil, uncertainty and conflict into our lives. \
We don’t have to go back very far the to see that this is true, just take the last six months for example. We spent the first few weeks of the year concluding a rarely used impeachment process that left the country and society hopelessly mired in a political divide. That burden adds to our load.
Later in January came the announcement of a strange and ultimately dangerous virus had been found in China that would quickly find its’ way to our country. By February we were told that the virus had indeed arrived and were warned that unless we were careful, that tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands maybe even millions of Americans would die if we didn’t adhere to what the experts hold us to do. That burden adds to our load.
Then in March the bottom dropped out. We were told that we couldn’t be around each other for an indefinite period. We couldn’t go the work, we couldn’t come to church, we couldn’t go out to eat, we couldn’t go to school, we couldn’t go to nursing homes to see loved ones, we couldn’t go to sporting events or movies or concerts or a million other things. Just stay home, “out there” is not safe for your health or you family’s health. That burden adds to our load.
By April the economy had collapsed because millions of people lost their jobs to forced closures due to the virus. The last time I looked (I stopped looking) 45 million people, almost one third of the workforce had lost jobs. That burden adds to our load.
Millions of people had contracted the virus, over 100,000 souls have died, many more thousands were admitted to hospitals, in fact the hospitals were so full that new ones, temporary ones were built in suddenly empty convention centers and warehouses, housed in tents in city parks that were not open for public use. That burden adds to our load.
Then came the disturbing images of a civil servant willfully and seemingly without concern taking the life of another soul with cameras rolling and by-standers pleading for relief. The reasonably motivated to those evil acts quickly morphed into unacceptable retaliation against uninvolved persons and property. That burden adds to our load.
Dear ones on this Independence Day weekend our country is more divided socially, economically, spiritually, racially, culturally, politically than in recent memory. I could go on, but the list seems to continue without end, and you are well aware of how that has affected our country and world. That burden adds to our load.
On top of that many of us individually have faced personal challenges and losses. Some of us over the past few months have lost loved ones, lost jobs, heard painful diagnosis’s, undergone difficult procedures and treatments, been physically separated from loved ones, friends and family, and the Brothers and Sisters of our Fellowship. That burden adds to our load.
My purpose in reviewing all the painful things that have happened in the recent past is to not force you to relive any of that but rather to give you permission to accept the pain, to accept the weariness and to tell you that you have the right to seek rest from you burdens.
It is OK to admit that you are tired, that you are weary. Some of us think that admitting to that suggests or indicates that we are weak, that we are not up to the task, that we are not willing to work hard but rather it is the quite the opposite.
Admitting that we are physically, emotionally and spiritually tired is the acknowledgement that we need to find not only physical rest that our body needs but more importantly that we need the emotional and spiritual rest that comes from the only from the true faith and hope found in a close relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our burdens are not simple, so they are not relieved by simple platitudes. Yet we do need to understand that simple a promise, a simple plea can relieve layers upon layers burden, if we are willing to believe in the power that is behind the promise is strong enough to relieve our exhaustion.
Matthew tells us today that into our weariness steps the most complex power in existence, speaking a promise as simple, hopeful, and refreshing as we could possibly want: “Come to me”, Jesus says “and I will give you rest”.
Come he says. Come is an interesting word. It can be used as a command, as a directive. Come here! That phrase gets used an awful lot around our house these days with a puppy and a 20-month-old baby around. The command “Come” is effective only part of the time with those two independent spirits. That is not what Jesus is saying, he is not demanding our acceptance of his offer. He always wants our choice, our decision to respond to Him.
But “Come” can also be a plea, a beckoning. Come to me, come with me. When used around the house with that same child when he bumps his head, when he is tired, a beckoning “Come here, let me fix your pain” is much more effective. When the need is obvious to him the plea to give relief is gratefully acknowledged and willingly received. That is what Jesus is saying to us, please come to me so that I can help you rest from you burdens.
Jon Bloom, desiringGod.org says “Jesus doesn’t offer us a four-fold path to peace-giving enlightenment, like the Buddha did. He doesn’t give us five pillars of peace through submission as Islam does. Nor does he give us a new age self-help book titled the “10 Ways to Relieve Your Weariness”. Simply Jesus offers himself as the solution to all that burdens us, ‘Come, and I will Give you Rest.’”
His simple promise “Come and I will give you Rest” demands that there is a power behind problems that is more than sufficient to remove that which burdens us. We must understand that when Jesus says, “Come to me,” he means, “believe in who I am and know what I am able to do for you.” His plea doesn’t change reality, it simply changes us and our acknowledgement of our stresses.
For weeks we have been struggling with a hope-draining need to have a return of certainty in our lives. We hung on the words and directives of the Bishop, of the Governor and on the President to give us some words that could put things into perspective, give us some certainty in normalcy.
But Jesus does not want our souls resting on the how and when, as if we are wise enough to understand and determine them. Rather he wants our souls resting on the surety that he is always there to take away our burdens, yoke them to himself. He wants us to always know that He will keep his promise to us through his Grace and in his time.
Hear the Good News my friends………….
In 1 Peter 5:7 Jesus says “Come to me, cast your anxieties on me for I care for you” In Proverbs 3:5 God instructs us “trust in me with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding and you will find rest for your souls.”
Our souls only find rest in trust and hope in the person of Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re frantically looking for whenever our souls are burdened and restless: trust and hope. Our burdened souls only truly find rest in one place: Jesus Christ.
As we will recognize and remember here soon, on the cross, Jesus takes our inconceivably and unbearably heavy yoke of sin’s condemnation and penalty and offers us in exchange the easy yoke and light burden of simply believing in him, trusting in him and finding our hope through him.
He does all the carrying and gives us all the rest. His work not only fully addresses our burdens, but also provides the supply of every other need we will ever have (Philippians 4:19). All we have to do is trust and believe in him!
So if you are weary, for whatever reason, however complex, Jesus invites you to come. Come, take his light yoke of believing in him. Trust, Believe, find Hope and follow Jesus’s example. And you will find rest for your weary soul. Come to Him! Amen.