An Open Invitation

Intro

There was this baby. And this baby, when he was born, did not act like normal babies to their being delivered, crying and screaming and whatnot. No, this baby was born sleep.

Imagine that. A quiet delivery.

They had to double check to make sure this baby wasn’t stillborn, so they messed with him, gently moving and caressing him, poking his toes, doing whatever they could to get a response, and he would give out a soft noise, a faint whimper so as to give a sign of life and to insist that he not be bothered from his rest.

Some family members would speculate that this baby had an old soul, that he was sleeping like he had been through this life before. While this could be true, the more probable reason is that while this baby was being delivered, every time the mother would have a contraction, his heart would stop beating. And it is possible that that complication during delivery, that tumultuous, traumatic battle to get through the womb can make one too tired for a normal response to their own delivery. This baby was too tired to cry.

33 years later, I still find myself in moments where I’m too tired to cry. Too exhausted with life, people, systems, institutions, governments, ministry, family, relationships, myself to lament over tragedy, trauma, trip-ups, turbulence.

Because at some point this begins to look like the same old story over and over again. We’ve been here before.

And there’s no more tears left to be shed, no more words left to offer but “how long, Lord? How much longer will I deal with this?”

And Jesus, seeing our exhaustion, our excessively burdened existence, offers a unique invitation. He says in Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

That’s our text for consideration this evening. And while Jesus was then speaking to tired individuals crushed under the weight of the Roman Empire and a religious power structure that supports it and exploits them, this invitation is still relevant to us now, today who are carrying unnecessary burdens of expectations that were either placed upon us by others, we placed upon ourselves, or both.

Burdens of racial expectations, burdens of class expectations, burdens of gender and sexuality expectations.

Burdens that seek to make us to conform to societal norms to the point that we’re killing ourselves to look like anything but who Christ created and assigned us to be.

Burdens that give us no room to wrestle with the simplicities and complexities that are our lives. No room to rest in God’s love and His grace as we work according to His design.

Jesus in this text invites us to rest. A kind of rest that frees us to live and measure our lives according to no one else’s expectations but His.

I’m going to say that again: if you get nothing else from this message, understand that Jesus invites us to a rest that frees us to live and measure our lives according to no one else’s expectations but His.

This is important to understand, because the deliverance from our exhaustion and our burdens hinges on our ability to focus on what truly matters.

So how do achieve that kind of rest? Two things:

Accept His Invitation

Jesus says, “Come to Me.” He does not force His rest upon you. Even though He came, you still have to come. Your free will fulfills His predestination. You still have to choose that which has been chosen for you.

But before we choose that rest, what does that rest look like? Is it simply committing to a day off a week, or is it something deeper than that?

The concept of the Sabbath-rest was instituted by God when He freed His people from Egypt. Now, it stands to reason that while He physically got His people out of Egypt, He now needed to restore, re-craft the identity of His people. He now needed to get Egypt out of them.

And part of getting Egypt out of His people was to initiate something that they never had when they were enslaved - a day off.

With that action, He was communicating to His people that their worth was not tied to their ability to perform, but to who He has created them to be - His.

And so the Sabbath was a very tangible way of getting His people to remember who they are and to Whom they belong.

And much like that Old Testament tabernacle, with all its rituals and regulations, found its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, the eternal High Priest, the Sabbath-rest will find its fulfillment in Jesus, not offering just a day, but a Sabbath life.

A life that is deeply rooted in the knowledge of who we are and to Whom we belong.

A life that does not derive its worth from how well we measure up to made up expectations, but from the wealth of the treasure He’s already placed in our earthen vessels.

Thank Christ for the rest that He gives!

But how does He know that we have accepted His invitation? He will know when we

Adopt His Instruction

Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.” Now you might be saying, “wait a minute, He just said I’ll be resting. Taking His yoke and learning from Him sounds like effort, sounds like work.”

And I would agree with you. The yoke is a symbol of a burden and learning something means you’re going to put that into practice.

But here’s what I want to suggest to you, that the Sabbath life Jesus is providing and calling us to is not simply rest as the absence of work. Rather, it is a work that is characterized by the rest we have received in Him.

Simply put, it is a rested work.

No longer are we working to rest - living in the hopes that we will finally measure up to our and others’ expectations for our lives - but we are working from rest - living in community with others from a place of knowing that in God, you are enough. That God has approved of you before you did anything worthy of being approved.

To clarify the nature of this rested work,Jesus says in verse 30, “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Look at those two adjectives, “easy” and “light”

The word “easy” in the text is more understood as “well-suited.” Like a tailor made suit or the most comfortable pair of shoes you have ever felt in your life. Or your spouse. The rested work Christ has for you fits you well.

But not only is it easy. The text also says it’s “light,” meaning “manageable, nimble, flexible.” Like a palm tree that’s able to bend and bow but never break under the fierce and ferocious winds of a storm. The rested work Christ has for you comes with the grace to withstand whatever life blows your way.

And here’s how adopting Jesus’ instruction helps us join into that rested work. Jesus says in verse 29, “for I am gentle and humble in heart.”

To be humble is to have a defined life. The only reason Jesus was able to humble himself in John 13 when He washed His disciples’ feet is because according to verse 3 of that same chapter, He “knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.”

And even before that, according to Philippians 2, in eternity, while Jesus was “in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage.” But what did He do? He made Himself nothing and took on the very nature of a servant.

The humble life is a defined life.

Do you know who you are in God? Jesus is inviting us on that journey.

But not only is Jesus inviting us to a defined life. He also said that He was “gentle,” another translation renders it as meekness.

Now some people perceive meekness as an undesirable trait for getting ahead in life. But when you consider Jesus and what He left behind in heaven, and His power and capability on earth, and what He chose to endure on the cross, we see that there’s more to meekness than it lets on.

Meekness is great power under great control.

In other words, Jesus in His meekness, is inviting us to a disciplined life.

Rested work, requires discipline. We use the discipline of meekness, gentleness, to ensure our energies, our creativity, our gifting are used in line with how we have allowed Jesus to define our lives.

No more wasting time on things that won’t change.

No more building our hopes and dreams on systems, people, institutions, perceptions of reality, that were never designed to help us realize the level of greatness God has placed within us.

No more feeling the need to respond to every rejection to your existence. Your voice deserves to be used in a better way.

No more working to prove anybody wrong, but working because God has already made you right.

Jesus has invited us into His rested work. Will you join Him? Will you accept His invitation? Will you adopt His instruction for a more defined and disciplined life?