1. Good Morning. Let’s pray. O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. An old priest once gave me advice which I try to follow. He said, “Never underestimate the burdens people bring with them into the Church” It’s so so true that often we have little idea of the difficulties and pain that each of us carries around in life.
So let’s focus our attention on the Gospel lesson for this morning. I want to read it once again:
Matt. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from (apo - to indicate origin or source, from – Jesus is the source then of our learning) me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Now listen to it from Eugene Peterson’s Paraphrase “The Message.”
Matt. 11:28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion and life? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest – a soul rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
Ah! I confess that I love Peterson’s paraphrase because it really captures the essence of our Lord’s sublime offer in these verses and that is that He wants to teach us how to live life like he did – does!
Did you hear what I just said? In these few famous verses Jesus is inviting us to discover how to live out our lives here on earth exactly as He did – does in us and through us – by the working of His Holy Spirit . . . . in us!
A yoke is a bar or frame by which two draft animals are joined at the heads or necks for working together. Jesus used analogies that were part of the people’s own experience and daily lives in order to explain the concepts that He was teaching. The yokes for draft animals, usually oxen, were very common in His day.
Jesus said,
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; 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 (Matthew 11:29-30).
The implication is that if we yoke ourselves to Jesus we have Him to labor with us at our sides. When yoked together, the two animals must go in the same direction and be united in their efforts.
What a marvelous analogy, that we should go in the same direction as the Savior! Going in His direction, we would learn of Him.
What makes Jesus’ yoke easy and his burden light is that in His perfect obedience to God’s will He carries the burden that we were meant to carry. His perfect obedience is applied to us through our faith.
Let’s also remember that we’re indwelt by the Holy Spirit who works in our lives to form us into the image of Christ.
The life lived by faith is a much lighter yoke, a much easier burden, to carry than the heavy and burdensome yoke of self-righteousness.
I want to focus on one last thing in that short magnificent section of Scripture. Let me read this section once again:
Matt. 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from (apo - to indicate origin or source, from – Jesus is the source then of our learning) me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jesus is encouraging us to “learn from Him” – the Greek word translated here by the word “from” – to learn “from” me – is apo and it’s a form of speech that indicates the origin or source of knowledge.
Ah! Do you see it – Jesus is the source from which we can learn all things and in this case how to walk through life not “against Him” or not “apart from Him” but with Him. He will teach us how to walk through life.
Application: Now it’s time to apply this to our lives.
It’s important to realize that Jesus isn’t promising to take magically out of the trials of life – No! Not at all but He is promising to walk through the trials of life with us – carrying the major portion of the burden. Our only part is to remain connected to Him and to stay in harmony with Him.
I’m drawn back to Peterson’s beautiful way of expressing this idea:
Matt. 11:28 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion and life? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest – a soul rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
I love that phrase: “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”
The image I get when I think of a holy man or woman is the sense that they seem to be walking through life with an unforced rhythm that seems so preciously gracious!
I want us now to watch and listen to a video that is entitled “Grace in Action.”
Now before we close I’m going to show us a series of images that I’ve chosen to provoke your hearts and minds to apprehend the rhythms of a gracious life that our Lord is calling us all to. Let your hearts and minds be provoked by these images to reach out for this life that our Lord is calling us to
Play slides
Let us pray . . .
