COME UNTO ME

Transcript

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Hello everyone, this is Pastor Dean Thompson with a word of hope. Come unto me, Matthew eleven, verses twenty eight through thirty. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. I am for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Weariness is a strange teacher. It does not always come from doing too much. Sometimes it comes from carrying too long. A worry that has not slept in months, a grief that will not lift, a guilt that refuses to leave the room. Jesus does not address those who are merely tired in body. The Greek participle copio describes the bone deep exhaustion of one who has labored to the breaking point. For Tizo, heavy laden, pictures a beast staggering under a load it was never meant to bear. Both verbs are perfect tense in the Greek. The labor has happened and you are still feeling it. Jesus sees the cumulative weight, not just today's episode. Then he offers what no philosopher, no therapist, no priest could promise without blasphemy. I will give you rest and a power. The Greek means to refresh, to give release, to grant the kind of rest that not only stops the labor but restores the worker. It is the word used in the Greek Old Testament for Sabbath. So Christ does not merely pause your toil, he actually becomes your Sabbath. But notice the surprising next move. Jesus does not say, Come to me and lie down. He says, Take my yoke upon you. In the ancient world, a yoke was the wooden harness joining two animals to a single task. Christ is offering not the absence of all burden, but companionship in carrying it. He places in himself in the yoke beside you. Dale Brunner observes that Christ's yoke is light, not because the work disappears, but because he pulls. John Stott called this the great paradox of the gospel. That we find rest by being yoked, freedom by being bound to Christ. The reason this yoke fits so well is the character of the one sharing it. For I am meek and lowly in heart. Dane Ortland's recent meditation on this phrase reminds us, this is the only place in all four gospels where Jesus tells us about his own heart. And what he says is not majestic and exalted, true as that is, but gentle and lowly. The deepest disposition of his being toward the weary is welcome. So come, not when you have rested, not when you have figured it all out. Come now exactly as you are. Our gentle Savior, we bring you all of it. The labor, the load, the weariness no one sees. Please yok us to yourself and let us learn the rhythm of your rest. Help us to rest in you. Amen. God bless you, brothers and sisters.