Rest

So many advertising campaigns are built on messaging related to rest and relief.

“Buy our product and you will live the easy life” is the message that these companies send.

The idea of rest and relief is a widely held value that we as a society long for because there are so many burdens that we carry and any rest that we do get is always short-lived and dependent on circumstance.

Even when a 2-week long vacation comes to an end, it is not long before you are longing for that rest again.

Jesus’ rest is different than any other source of rest that we can go to, it doesn’t go away based on circumstances, it lasts. It is a true rest that is impossible to find anywhere else.

This true rest comes when we accept Jesus’ invitation to live like Him.

Matthew 11:28–30 KJV 1900

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Result of following his first invitation: “Rest” 29 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. Result of following his second invitation: “Rest” The reason that Jesus can give us rest: 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

In todays sermon, we are going to be talking about yokes.

A yoke was something that was placed on two oxen to control where they were going and so that they would plow in unison. In the Bible a yoke was always used to talk about an authority. If someone had a yoke on, it meant that they were operating under that person’s authority. It was often used to refer to the service that a slave would have toward someone else. The Jew would have seen themselves as wearing the yoke of the law or the yoke of heaven so Jesus was not using unfamiliar language, he was essentially saying, take off whatever yoke you had on and put on my yoke.

Jesus was using an image that is a little bit of an oxymoron because a yoke is supposed to be a burden, but Jesus’ yoke is not a burden, he says that those who are already burdened should take his yoke and he will give them rest (contrasted idea with that of the burden that they were carrying before).

Because Jesus’ way of living is good we can find rest for our souls.

Jesus offers rest to those who come to Him. - v. 28

Explain

Labour is a word that meant something a little differently in Bible times and heavy laden is a word that we don’t hear very often.

The word labour is not mentioned because Jesus is condemning work, this word was referring to those who are weary and tired. He is saying, “come to me, all of you who are weary or tired…”

and then the next word is heavy laden, this word is just referring to those with a heavy load.

Illustrate

In there day, the main heavy load that he was referring to was the corrupt religious system that placed heavy legalistic loads on it’s participants.

So, we must ask ourselves, have we taken off the heavy load of religious activity? Putting on Jesus yoke requires taking off the current one we have. Everyone of us has a yoke and if your yoke sounds like “I just need to do a little more,” “be enough,” “try harder,” than you are not wearing Jesus’ yoke.

There were likely other heavy loads that Jesus’ audience would have been dealing with, maybe the load of an oppressive government, or a broken family, or an exhausting job.

Apply

I think today we deal with similar things, maybe you have taken off the yoke of religiosity and trying to “do enough” but you resonate with the heavy loads that I just described, than what you need to do is go to Jesus for rest. All of us have a yoke or a heavy load that we are carrying, if you find yourself wearied and tired than come to Jesus and he will give you rest.

Argue

You may be sitting here saying, this is all great but… “my bills are still there. My marriage is still broken. My anxiety isn't going away." (ChatGPT) or any other number of struggles that you have been dealing with and are saying, “I don’t feel the relief… I don’t see what God is going to do to fix this…” You may even say that “it feels impossible for God to redeem what is going on right now”

Apply

I don’t know your situation, for some of you, your marriage won’t be healed overnight, your boss will still be oppressive, the financial struggles won’t go away. but notice that Jesus is not saying he will get rid of the struggles, he is saying that he will give you rest. Jesus’ rest isn’t determined by our circumstances. Even on our hardest days, the worst days of our life, we can simply come to Jesus and he will give us rest.

Jesus’ first invitation is just as simple as “Come” there is no condition, there are no further instructions, come to Jesus. I think that we can view this as an open invitation to come and it is always available.

Jesus’ second invitation asks something of us, he says to take his yoke upon ourselves.

We can find rest when we take his yoke on ourselves. - v. 29-30

Explain

Jesus gives an invitation and this invitation gives us a step (Take his yoke) that we can take to find rest, but in verse 30, Jesus explains the reason why taking his yoke brings us rest in him.

The burden in verse 30 is referring to the weight of the yoke. Jesus is saying, my yoke doesn’t weigh very much.

We should take his yoke upon us because it’s easy and it is a light load.

He describes this yoke as easy, this seems to mean “not heavy” when we first read it, but if he just simply wanted to say that it was light, he would have used the same word as he did when he said “my burden is ‘light’” because that word is very clearly talking about something that is light weight. This word easy is a different greek word that goes much deeper than that.

It is a word that is often translated “good” it is closely connected with the idea of goodness in action. In the Old Testament there is a Hebrew word that is closely connected to God’s covenant goodness and faithfulness, and whenever that word is used, it is translated with the word behind easy here. This word easy is closely connected to the idea of not just being good morally (this is the yoke that the Jewish leaders were placing on people), this idea of good was different, it was actually producing good. Jesus’ yoke produces goodness to those around it. In other words, when we have Jesus’ yoke, we will overflow goodness to those who are around us.

He also says that a part of taking His yoke is learning from Him. He has a lot to teach us because his yoke isn’t natural for us. There are things that we will have to learn if we want to wear his yoke the right way.

If the first invitation in verse 28, is an open invitation that is unconditional, this invitation is directed to those who have already followed the first. Once one has come to Jesus and recieved rest, the proper next step is to take his yoke on us.

Apply

Conclusion

When we come to Jesus and live like Him, we will find rest.