Tired of the Season

Resting in Who Jesus is Can Bring You Peace. Matthew 11:25-30

Introduction With so much happening during the Christmas period, it’s easy to find yourself burned out and listless by the time the tree comes down. Office parties. Family gatherings. Gift buying. Gift wrapping. Gift returning. Planning meals. Cooking meals. Traveling. Decorating. Last-minute shopping. Catching up with friends. More traveling. More cooking. More tidying. And that’s just an average Christmas.

So, is it any wonder that once the decorations start to come down and the fridge is picked clean of any leftovers worth eating, Christmas exhaustion (also known as ‘festive burnout’) begins to set in? Of course, it’s normal to feel some degree of exhaustion at Christmas. It’s a high-intensity period, and each season seems to be demanding more than the previous year. The mental and physical toll is increasing.

Typically felt during ‘Twixmas’ – that doldrum-y period between Christmas and New Year – Christmas burnout is a serious issue that carries legitimate dangers and can massively impact your health, well-being, and, yes, sleep. Often, the most wonderful time of the year leads to many people saying they are tired of the season.

But that feeling of being tired and exhausted by the pace of life is felt more than just Christmas. In fact, we go through seasons of life that just drain us. If you live long enough, life will make you bleed. Everyone faces difficult and oppressing times. There are seasons in our lives that are just exhausting. We experience times in life when all life does take from us day after day. The days turn into weeks. Weeks turn into months. Months turn into years. Years become decades of life, just draining the life right out of us. We go through these periods of life almost like zombies, just surviving with no peace or any rest. Unfortunately, for many people, when the difficult periods of life set in, they feel like they have nowhere to turn for help. Many of us reach that dark night of the soul.

Thankfully, our savior not only experienced life as we do, but he also taught us how to face life's most difficult and dark days. He faced life like we do. Jesus' birth, life, death, resurrection, and teachings all give us hope when we are at the point of being tired of the season of life we're in. Matthew 11:25-30

Matthew 11:25–30 ESV

At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 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.”

Scriptural Analysis Until this point, Matthew 11 has been largely negative. It narrates the imprisonment of John and his doubts about Jesus. It details Israel generally rejecting John and Jesus (vv. 7–19). Jesus, therefore, scolded deaf cities and warned of impending judgment (vv. 20–24). But verses 25–30 shift tone, indirectly declaring, by answering John, that Jesus is indeed the “one who is to come” (v. 3).

Verses 25-27 Verses 25 and 26 record a prayer of Jesus. Jesus addressed God as “Father” rather than “our Father” as he did in the Model Prayer in chapter 6. Though Jesus was evidently praying publicly, he was not praying corporately. His prayer was deeply personal; he addressed God as God’s unique Son. This understanding of the address is confirmed by verse 27, in which Jesus refers to God even more specifically as “my Father.” Clearly, Jesus and God have a unique relationship. He is God’s Son.

The description of God as “Lord of heaven and earth” has roots in the Old Testament. The title affirms God’s power and authority over the entire universe.

Jesus praised the Father for his mysterious but wise sovereignty in both concealing and revealing the truth. “These things” are the knowledge of the Father and the Son. The “wise and intelligent” from whom God conceals truths are not those who are truly wise since the Old Testament frequently urges God’s people to seek wisdom. The “wise and learned” are not academic specialists or God-fearing people but those who stubbornly refuse to repent and learn from Jesus the true way to God.

“Little children” are those who innocently (not naively) receive Jesus’ revelation from the Father. The Father’s divine sovereignty and the respondents’ responsibility are thus held in perfect balance. The contrast is between those whose pride and self-sufficiency have caused them to reject Jesus’ message and those whose humility and recognition of their own neediness allow them to be open to God’s unqualified care through Jesus.

In verse 27, Jesus transitioned from prayer addressed to God to instruction to his disciples and the crowds. “All things have been entrusted to me by my Father” refers to all matters pertaining to salvation. Humanity has been searching for salvation, and Jesus is saying I am here to save you.

Verses 28-30 Jesus issues this welcome invitation to weary, burdened people. The tense in the first verb of the phrase, weary and burdened, conveys the idea of continual weariness and exhaustion without a minute of relief. The people were completely loaded up at some time in the past, and the load remains perpetually on them. These people needed a break! Pharisaical legalism surrounding the Mosaic Law had ground the people into spiritual powder. There had been no rest. This is an invitation to experience true Sabbath, real spiritual rest.

Jesus equates the Christian life with spiritual rest. In describing his provision of this rest, Jesus borrows imagery from the plowing of fields. "Take my yok." That seems like a contradiction to say, "Come to me for rest by picking up a yoke." But Jesus explains.

Judaism applied this image of "yok" to obedience. Jewish people spoke of carrying the yoke of God’s law and the yoke of God's kingdom, which one accepted by acknowledging that God was one and by keeping his commandments. However, the Jewish people struggled under an enormous load of religious expectations and legalities that were laid on them by their pious religious leaders. Jesus later in Matthew indicted the scribes and Pharisees because “they tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on the people."

Jesus’ invitation is in stark contrast to the religious burden of Pharaisism or the militaristic burden of Roman oppressors. His yoke—a metaphor for following him—promises rest from the weariness and burden of religious regulation and human oppression because it is a commitment to just him. His disciples learn of God directly from him. Jesus offers rest in himself for their souls through his authentic understanding of God Himself. His yoke will bring true understanding. Jesus’s yoke was easy, and his burden was light because he did not add burdensome restrictions not intended in the Old Testament law.

Jesus describes this as " I am gentle and humble in heart, and my yoke is easy." This is the lesson that leads to the rest of our spirit and soul. The Greek word in verse 30 for easy is chrēstos, which can mean “well-fitting.” This can read as “For My yoke fits so easily that My burden is light.” The yoke of Christ fits comfortably on those who place themselves under it. The burden he asks us to bear is light in that it is not obedience to external commandments but loyalty to a person, him, who is the savior.

Jesus does not completely release his disciples from burdens, just as he did not escape the burdens of human life. Illness, calamity, and tragedy remain a part of this fallen world. Life will make everyone bleed. But for those who follow Christ, there is a promise of Jesus’ sustained help as we carry his yoke of discipleship.

His easy yoke is neither cheap nor convenient. The surprising promise of the easy yoke was meant to free us from a self-serving, meritorious, performance-based religion mankind gravitates toward naturally. It is easy in that it frees us from the burden of self-centeredness, liberates us from the load of self-righteousness, and frees us to live in the way that God intended us to live. The easy yoke sounds like an oxymoron. Plowing a field or pulling a load is hard work! And nowhere does Jesus promise soft ground for tilling or level paths for bearing the load. What he does promise is a relationship with Himself that frees us. The demands are great, but the relationship with Jesus makes the burden light. TODAY'S KEY TRUTH Resting in Who Jesus is Can Bring You Peace. Application These verses tell us a lot about Jesus and what he offers. It’s about rest for the soul. This is not just rest for the body. It’s rest for the soul. One of the first things we see in these verses is the need for rest. It starts by saying, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Right away, the question is, "Who is he talking about? Is it a discrete group of people? Is he talking about hurting, burned-out people, and the rest of us are more normal and don’t need it, or is this something for everyone?

Horace, the Roman poet, said, “No one lives content.” It’s hard for younger people, in particular, to believe that. Most younger people think, “If I get professional success, find somebody to love, and do good in society, I’ll get content. I will feel this deep satisfaction and peace in my life. I’ll be happy with my life, and I’ll be happy with myself.”

As you get older, you realize even if you do get professional success and love and are doing good for the world, your discontent is a lot deeper than you think. Some people’s lives go better, and some people’s lives go worse, but even those of us whose lives go better realize, “As the years go by, I’m still looking for something.”

Horace said, "No one lives content.” Wallace Stevens, a more modern writer, says, “Even in contentment, I still feel the need of some imperishable bliss.” He means as you get older, even when you’re enjoying something, what tends to ruin the enjoyment is the thought, “I’m going to lose this.” For example, in a love relationship, you might say, “The person is going to leave me, or they’re going to die.”  In other words, time removes everything and everyone.

Now, to this reality, our culture says, “Well, don’t be morbid. Live in the moment. Live in the now.” However, we all know that the feeling of only living in the now eventually fades. Why? Because we're not like an animal that lives by instinct. We are human beings who think, and we have a soul. The more we think about it, and the older we get, the more we realize everything is going to be taken away from us, and the harder it is for us to be content.

So, our culture attempts to distract us from the realities of loss and death. To keep us going and distracted, our society pushes what I call the "Life Lie." The Life Lie is that we are to spend our days and years anticipating a time in the future when we will be happy.

In other words, most of us can deal with life because we say, “Someday I will be happy. I’m not now, but there’s a possibility I’ll be happy.” The life lie is when you say, “If I find Mr. Right or Ms. Right.  If I get the professional success I want. If I could just get this done. If I could make enough money.” You tend to say, “If I could just get to this place in life, then things will be okay.” You think this or that is going to make you happy, and then you get there and find out it doesn’t. So when the life lie is taken away, you lose all your happiness. No one lives content.

Jesus is saying, “I’m the only one who can give you the deep inner rest you’re looking for in all these other things. I’m the only one that brings contentment.” Well, what is this rest?” He says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” “Come to me, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you.”

Most of us haven’t been raised on a farm, though somebody here probably has. A yoke was something you put on a beast of burden (a mule or an ox), and they carried wagons or plows. The yoke itself wasn’t a problem, but every yoke attached you to a burden. That’s why he can say, “All of you who are burdened, come to me and take my yoke upon you.”

This is astounding because he doesn’t just say, “Come to me, believe in me, and pray to me, and I’ll take all your troubles away.” He says, “You must yoke yourself to me.” When Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you,” he’s saying, “Be my disciple.” He would later say the same thing when he said. "Follow me." Jesus is saying the rest you're looking for, the peace your soul cries out for is found in him. I can rescue you from the burden of the life lie of always working to earn success, to earn love, to earn grace, and to earn happiness. Follow me, and I will give you rest.

Resting in Who Jesus is Can Bring You Peace. Conclusion Jesus is saying, “I want you to come and let me be the complete master of your life. I want you to center your entire life around me. I want you to let me direct and control your life. That’s how you’ll find rest for your soul.”

If he had just said, “Come to me, and I will give you rest,” I think we all would have imagined some kind of spiritual experience, right? But then he says, “What I mean is, take my yoke upon you. Become my disciple. Let me direct and control your life. Give up your right to self-determination. Give up your right to live the life you want. Let me completely dominate your life, and then you’ll find rest for your soul.”

That’s so astounding in our culture because our culture says, “You must not give authority over your life to anyone. You must be the master of your own life. No one has the right to tell you how to live or what is right or wrong. You have to decide that yourself. You have to stay in control. You need to be absolutely free. Your personal freedom to control your life is paramount. You can’t possibly become a Christian and lose your ability to decide what is right or wrong for yourself. No way!”

It sounds crazy for Jesus to say, “If you want inner freedom, to no longer be proving yourself, to be at complete peace with yourself, to be happy and satisfied with your life, then I must become your lord. You’ll never get that inner freedom unless you let me be the Master and completely make me Lord.” We say, “That’s crazy. The only way to be free is to be free.” Jesus says, “If you want to be free, you need to lose all your independence and let me be Lord of your life.” Us modern, learned, "wise" people say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

Our society says this because it believes The Life Lie.  "Look again at what Jesus said.  “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy burdened. I will give you rest. Take up my yok.” Notice all of us are already burdened. He’s saying everybody is restless because everybody is burdened. You’re already yoked to something. Jesus is not saying, “You’re independent; give up your independence and come to me.”

You are not independent or in control of your life. You’re living for something, and you’re yoked to it. You think you’re in charge of your own life, but you’re being driven by something. Your career, pleasure, money, romance, or something. Something is already in control of your life. Something already dominates your life, and you're subjugated to it. You have a master. All other masters are brutal and relentless in controlling you.

Jesus says, “Take my yoke. If you yoke yourself to me, I’m the only Master who will forgive you when you fail me. I’m the only Master who will satisfy you when you embrace me. I can give you the rest your soul needs. The only way for you to be truly free is to let me be your Master. Otherwise, something else will be, and you won’t be free.” The reason we are tired, the reason it seems this season of our lives is brutally exhausting, is because something besides Jesus is in control. He is the only master that gives us rest."

Resting in Who Jesus is Can Bring You Peace.

You have to believe you’re a sinner, and you have to believe Jesus Christ loves you and forgives you, and you have to rest in his love.” That requires a complete surrender of your independence, and a lot of people just can’t go there. They say, “I just can’t believe Jesus loves me, or I have to be in control.” Therefore, as Matthew said you’re not as a little child yet.

How do you get there? Jesus himself says, “I want you to take my yoke upon you. I want you to let me be the Lord of your life. I won’t abuse you. I know you’re afraid if you give up your independence I’ll abuse you, but I am gentle and humble in heart.”

Resting in Who Jesus is Can Bring You Peace.

Christians are not promised freedom from illness or calamity, but they may experience God’s sustaining grace so that they are not crushed or driven to despair. Life will make you bleed. But the rest Jesus offers his disciples enables them to overcome a certain measure of “fear, anxiety, uncertainty, and meaninglessness in the joy and peace of God’s very presence in Jesus Christ.” The invitation to come to Christ remains for all today, but now as then, it requires completely depending on and trusting in Christ.

Resting in Who Jesus is Can Bring You Peace.