Three Words From Jesus

There is a very familiar portion of scripture that we’ve all heard or read or even studied it. It’s directions from Jesus on what you and I are to constantly do every day, and in every situation that we face in life. It is:

Matthew 11:28–30 NIV

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 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.”

Three words in this passage are the words that Jesus gave to us as our directions. So we are going to look at these today.

COME!

The first word is come! When we are weakest it’s time for us to go to Him. He says come to Him not to anything else. We see this in the account of Jesus walking on the water.

Matthew 14:22–33 NIV

22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. Later that night, he was there alone, 24 and the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it. 25 Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. 27 But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” 28 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 29 “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!” 31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said, “why did you doubt?” 32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

Jesus told Peter to come in the midst of the storm and Peter walked on water to Him. But Peter stopped coming to Jesus and started looking at the storm. He starts to sink and Jesus asked Peter why he doubted. When times are the toughest in our lives we need a come to Jesus moment. If you really think about it, humans are fragile. We aren’t as tough or strong as we think we are. We can be strong one moment and think nothing can stop us and in a matter of seconds we can be under a lot of stress and face insurmountable odds. We need to consistently come to Jesus!

TAKE

The next word in this passage is take. Once we come to Jesus, we need to take His yoke because His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

A yoke is a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals (such as oxen) are joined at the heads or necks for working together. The yoke links animals up to be able to double the power to do the job. Jesus tells us to take His yoke because it is easy and His burden is light. Why? Because He is doing all the hard lifting. Just picture his, a oxen yoked with a chihuahua. The chihuahua doesn’t feel any of the work because they can’t even reach the ground when yoked to an oxen. The oxen is doing all the work so the burden for the chihuahua is light and easy. When we take His yoke, we are the chihuahua and God gets the glory because it’s His strength and power that carries us through.

LEARN

We have to learn from Him because He is gentle and humble in heart and it’s learning of Him that will give us rest for our souls.