Rest in Christ

Trust is one of the most important commodities that we can give someone. Think about it, companies spend millions of dollars a year all to gain your trust. If a friendship does not have trust, you have a very shallow friendship. If a marriage does not have trust, then you have a big problem on your hands. Hopefully, at this point, you can start to see just how important trust is.

As we look at this passage, we need to keep in mind that Jesus is calling us to himself. For the purpose of rest. In a sense, He is also asking us to trust in him. Because how can we truly rest if we do not fully trust in Christ?

Matthew 11:25–26 “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.” “yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.”

The truth about Jesus was hidden from the leaders of the time (Pharisees and Sadducees). People would think in those days that God would have revealed the truth about Jesus to the Pharisees and Sadducees, not simply fishermen. That does not make sense. This would have been unthinkable for the culture in the 2nd century. You see, the priests and scribes were viewed as the most holy people group of the ancient world.

Matthew 11:27 “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.”

(27)

It is hinting at a few things. The first is that Jesus personally and immediately knows God the Father and has seen Him face-to-face (John 1:18, 7:29, 6:46). The second is that all power and authority over everything has been given to Jesus. What does this mean? This is part of Jesus slowly revealing that He (Jesus) is God.

Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

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The rest spoken of is not just in the physical sense of the word. Jesus is speaking of rest for the soul. Some of us may use the word rest and peace interchangeably. But, they are two very different words and have two very different meanings. Peace means freedom from disruption and tranquility. Basically, the freedom to go about your business with no one stopping you.

But the word rest means something completely different. The meaning of the word rest means to cease work or movement to relax or refresh oneself or to recover one's strength. Do you hear the difference? Some of us may be asking ourselves why this matters in the big picture. Here's why it matters: the words we use to communicate matter there are words we can use interchangeably that can completely change the meaning of something.

When we read the word of God, we need to get in the habit of asking why did God use that word and what is the deeper meaning. The deeper meaning is that Jesus is calling you to himself and all who are burdened with a heavy load or yoke; this is something I think we can all relate to. The very feeling of carrying a burden that feels like it will crush you because of the sheer weight of it.

What is the load you have been carrying around?

Do you trust Jesus with it?

Jesus is inviting us to trust him so that we can find rest in his presence. And that may sound scary to some of us. Trust can be a very tall order. Especially those of us who have dealt with trust issues because of abandonment or other traumatic events that we may have faced in our lives. That may very well be the point. The king of the universe is asking us to do something difficult to fully put our faith in him and trust him.

Matthew 11:29 “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.”

(29)

What is a Yoke? A yoke is a piece of wood that is used to link two animals together for more power. There are many different ways we can view this verse. The first, is the yolk is a symbol of the burden of sin and mankind's attempt to earn his salvation. The second way we can view this is as a symbol of the hard work of life and the stresses that come with it. Something that we tend to forget is exactly how hard life was back in biblical times. Products were made by hand, somebody had to craft the item that you were looking to purchase, which took a lot of labor.

No matter which way you look at this verse, the conclusion that we come to is still the same. Jesus offers us the lighter load. The weighted yoke that we carry for a lesser yolk. This yoke is light and easier to carry and does not load us down. He meets us where we're at in the difficulties of our lives to offer us this lesser load.

An important note here is that Nowhere In this passage says that you need to do anything to gain access to this lighter load. it is just a simple offer to take it. Jesus also has a second part to this offer, and it's a simple request, but he also allows us to learn from Him.

How do we know we can trust Him?

It says right there in the text, I am gentle and lowly and heart. Now, the next logical question that we may ask is, what does this exactly mean? We know what the word gentle means: to be soft, kind, and graceful. To be lowly in heart means to be not conceited or to be humble.

Jesus is giving us the reasons why to trust Him. And He continues on in the next verse.

Matthew 11:30 “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.””

(30)

We can see in this verse that there is comparing and contrasting going on. The way the passage speaks of the weight of the Yoke of everyone else. Unlike the yolk of Jesus that is light and is not loaded down. This is done intentionally to convey to us the difference between the load that we carry as humans and the struggles that we face versus the rest that Jesus offers to us if we simply accept his offer.

What can we learn from this?

Jesus will meet us in the midst of our struggle and offer us a lesser load. That struggle could be the stress of life. That we all face from time to time. He offers a trade to us; the weight of the yoke of sin that we all must bear. For His yoke, which is lighter in weight and is easy to carry. One thing that is clear we must choose to take up Christ on His offer and put down our yoke in order to pick up the lesser load.