Rest for the Soul

Matthew 11:25-30

Immanuel – 12/25/22

This is certainly a unique Sunday. A first for me: to have Christmas on Sunday morning. If I’m being honest, when we first started talking about this back in the summer, I was reluctant to hold a service on Christmas morning. But as I listened to the wisdom of my fellow elders, I was convinced. As time has gone on, I’ve become increasingly grateful for their wisdom.

Because no matter what traditions and gatherings we may have, Christmas is always and ultimately about Jesus. Yes, I want to be with my family; but I want my family to be with Christ. What better gift can I give to my family than Jesus, and the people of His kingdom?

And though I have been blessed by a family of blood, you are my family. You are my brothers and sisters in Christ. It is fitting that we have not gone our separate ways for the sake of tradition or convenience. It is good to be together.

So, I’m glad the elders offered their wisdom and changed my mind. I can see it clearly now: this is a holy day. And I’m grateful I get to share it with my family.

Read Matthew 11:25-30

Purpose

1. The world offers rest that is crushing.

2. Jesus’ rest fills the heart with the love of God and the joy of obedience.

A World Without Rest

Humans need rest. We’re desperate for it. But it’s not just any kind of rest that we need. It’s not sit on the couch and veg out kind of rest that we need.

We need rest from the very many burdens of life. We need rest from the pressure of deadlines, rest from the stresses of holding it all together, rest from unrelenting expectations, rest from constant pain, rest from relational storms, rest from a soul full of troubles – like the writer of Psalm 88.

The kind of rest we need is soul-rest: a heart filled with peace and love and joy. So often that kind of soul-rest seems painfully elusive. Yet our longing for it burns so hot that want to cry out with Ethan the Ezrahite,

How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever? Remember how short my time is! -Psalm 89:46,47

Though dark days may seem to drag on forever, our time is indeed short. The writers of Psalm 88 and Psalm 89, and all the other Psalms, understood that soul-rest can only come from God. Therefore, we must remember, we must always remember, that God is not hidden. He has revealed Himself in the face of Jesus Christ. And Jesus invites us to come and get rest.

Read vs 28

Notice here that Jesus offers rest to those who labor and are heavy laden. Understand that this is not about hard work: like manual labor or raising kids (though these things may contribute to Jesus’ point). Jesus is talking about the kind of work we do to earn God’s favor or try to gain people’s approval; the kind of work where we constantly try to prove ourselves.

With this kind of work come crushing burdens; burdens because we fail, burdens because we disappoint, burdens because we constantly have to carry so many different things. All of us are prone to place these burdens upon ourselves, but the world is quick to amplify them.

[The Scribes and Pharisees] tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. -Matthew 23:4-5

The Scribes and Pharisees piled traditions and their own laws upon the people; foisting them with unreasonable, unmeetable demands. The implication is that only after you have met all these demands, and finally gotten yourself and your life in order, only then can you have rest.

The problem is that the burdens are crushing and no one can actually bear them. Such is the way of self-righteousness. They may have been wrapped in religion, but this is how the world seeks rest. Beware the Scribes and Pharisees of our time. Their promises are the same and their burdens are just as crushing.

Now, listen again to Jesus’ words.

Read vs 28-30

Jesus’ Yoke

Scribes and Pharisees give people burdens that are crushing. Here, promising rest, Jesus offers a yoke. A yoke is something that ties oxen to a plow so they can work. How strange that Jesus promises rest with a yoke.

But He also promises that His yoke is easy. So you must ask, what is the yoke? How is this an easy thing? In verse 29 Jesus tells us that it is a yoke of learning. He says, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.”

What are we to learn? All the things that came before.

Read vs 25-27

I am reminded of something Jesus said to His disciples:

“To you has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” -Matthew 13:11

If the kingdom of heaven is precious to you, if you want Christ and His kingdom like a little child wants Christmas presents – or more, then know that Jesus has chosen to reveal the secrets of the kingdom to you. Know that God has wanted you to see it.

Do you know what it means if Jesus has revealed these things to you? It means that in Christ, you do not need to work one bit to earn the favor of God, it has been freely given. In the way greater than a child not having to earn the love of their parents, neither do you have to earn God’s love. Because of Jesus, know that you are beloved by the Father!

Again, you know the Father has poured His love on you if the Kingdom of God is precious to you.

So, what is the yoke of learning Jesus offers? It is learning to trust God as deeply, as completely, as a little child trusts their loving father. And that trust then joyfully compels you to obey Him.

But that in itself can sound like an impossible demand. Who can achieve such trust? All our impulses are against it.

Gladly, Jesus did not stop there. Again, verse 29: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.” So, how do you learn to trust God? Look to Jesus.

How gentle is Jesus! In the gospels we see Him feeding those who are hungry. He heals the sick and gives sight to the blind. He is constantly overcome with compassion for the needy masses. He forgives those crucifying Him.

When He could have been frustrated with the demanding crowds; when He could had said a word and destroyed His persecutors; how stunningly did He demonstrate gentleness! Never will He crush those who seek Him! Never will He scorn those who have gotten themselves tangled up with burdens and come again to Him seeking rest.

And amazing that Jesus also says He is lowly of heart right after saying, in verse 27, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father.”

I am immediately reminded of Philippians 2.

Though He was in the form of God, [He] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. -Philippians 2:6-8

Deep in eternity past, Jesus was in the form of God: very God of very God, holding the universe together with the power of His word, omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent. And never clinging to those things, He emptied Himself, born a helpless baby boy. He became a humble servant. And though He is the Living God, He submitted Himself to the Father and obediently sacrificed His life on the cross for the needy and sinful masses of the earth.

O how we can learn from Jesus, gentle and lowly of heart! The Scribes and Pharisees offer a crushing yoke and will not lift a finger to help. Jesus gave up His life to make our burden light.

How crushing the burden that we cannot please God in ourselves! Sin weighs us down, eternally down. But Christ hoisted that burden upon His shoulder and took it to Golgotha. There He was crucified. When He died, so died our burden.

Then, triumphing over death through resurrection, Jesus offers you a burden that is light, a burden that will cause you to fly. He gives you His perfection, His righteousness. Our sins are forgiven and we are free to live as God has created us to live.

So if you want this rest, this deep soul-satisfying rest, come to Jesus and take His yoke upon your shoulder. Yes, He does expect you to work, to labor for Him. But His work will not weary you. It is work that is paradoxically restful.

What is this work that is rest? What is this burden that is light?

By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome. For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.

-1 John 5:2-4

The yoke Jesus asks us to shoulder is one of love and obedience: first love, then obedience. We obey because we love, and so it is not an obedience that burdens our souls or wearies our hearts. Obeying God is work that we love to do. It is work that we feel like we were created to do. This is why John can write that the commandments of God are not burdensome.

I am not saying that obeying God will be easy. It may be extraordinarily difficult. You may even have a sense of dread as you approach the thing you know you need to do. Jesus felt this way in the Garden of Gethsemane.

But Jesus’ yoke is a yoke of learning. The more we take it, the more we understand what makes it light. The more we obey, the more we are filled with the love of the Father. The more we choose to love people, to be gentle and humble, the more clearly we see the joy that is set before us. How good it is, how restful, to know that more and more, your life is coming into conformity with God’s will.

And you might say to yourself, “That sound right, that’s not natural.” You are right. John knows it too. This is why he grounds his words in a profound reality. This kind of living – where we love God and then joyfully obey Him – is living by faith, and it overcomes the world. And everyone who lives in such a way, they are born of God. They are born again. They are new creations in Christ.

As God has said, “Let there be light,” and there was light; as He has called to a dead man and raised Him to life, so also does God speak over His children, “Live in love!” It is a command of creation.

Suddenly your mind is opened to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. You hear in His voice words that calm the storms of your heart. You see in His scars a burden that is joyful to bear. Now you know Jesus, to whom all things have been given, gentle and lowly of heart. You have been given the most incredible gift anyone could receive.

God has given you heart calming, soul satisfying, world overcoming faith in Jesus Christ.

To all who did receive [Jesus], who believed in his name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. -John 1:12-13

What wonder! God recreates us to live in love through faith. Your love comes from His love for you, and all of that is understood by faith.

We love because He first loved us. -1 John 4:19

The world would have you seek to prove yourself in order to find rest, but it doesn’t work.

Jesus proved Himself with great acts of love and gentleness and humility. And He promises that when we come to Him, we will find rest. You don’t have to earn it. Jesus earned it. Now He offers to give you the gift of rest, freely, if you would just come to Him in faith.

When someone gives you a gift – like is happening all over the world today – you reach out your hands to take it, and then unwrap it. When Jesus offers us the gift of rest, we reach out with faith and open it with obedience. In other words, we truly do trust that our souls will only find rest in Jesus. Then we allow His love to fill our hearts, and for that love to flow from our hands and mouths, and we begin living in the experience of love: love in and love out.

There are many commands of Christ we could consider today – none of them burdensome; but this Christmas let us consider the one command in our passage today.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

It might sound like multiple, but it is a single command: come to Jesus. In Bethlehem, the Son of God came to us. Let us come to Him now. To come to Jesus is to learn from Him. It is to worship Him for His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. It is to begin a transformative process that will last your whole life long. Think not of a light switch flipped and a suddenly bright room. Think of the slow and steady change between long winter nights and summer’s lingering sun.

Take His yoke upon yourself and work for Him. Despite the difficulties, because you love Him your soul is not burdened and your heart does not grow weary. But if ever you do feel burdened and weary, then once again come to Jesus, and find rest for your souls! He will not condemn you, for He is gentle and lowly of heart.

What burdens do you have this morning? What wearies your soul? Give these to Jesus, and He will give you rest. What gifts Christ gives! Let this weary world rejoice!