What is Rest?
This is the rest to which Jesus calls you:
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.” Matthew 11:28–30 (NIV)
This verse begs the question: why were people burdened? It is easy to lay the blame for this burden on the religious rules of the time–and we’ll get there. This passage is set up by the verses right before, in which Jesus pronounces “woes” over Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum. Here is an example verse from that passage:
21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Matthew 11:21 (NIV)
He goes on to say something similar about Capernaum.
Everyday Life
These were not sophisticated cities, centers of learning, of religion, or political power. These were everyday villages that chose to just go about their business as usual and failed to respond to Jesus. We don’t even know if they consciously rejected Jesus; they just failed to repent in response to his miracles. That is, they failed to consciously CHOOSE Jesus. We don’t have to reject Jesus to be guilty of the same thing, we just have to be unresponsive. We can go about our everyday business and miss out!
Everyday life can overwhelm our sense of Jesus’ presence. We start to live like everything depends on us instead of trusting him. Raising children, schoolwork and career, relationships, and all of our ordinary stressors begin to crowd our thoughts. Pressure to perform, to achieve, and to live up to the expectations of others make us forget to look for evidence of God, especially the presence of Jesus.
This passage is applicable to people who see evidence of God all around, but are too busy to respond. According to Paul in Romans, God’s evidence is all around us in creation, so that we are without excuse.
Church Life
Even worse than those in the world are people who have just attended church, repeatedly hearing the message of Jesus, and still fail to respond.
British clergyman Richard Cecil noted all the way back in the 1700s: “Who is the most miserable man on earth, and whither shall we go to seek him? Not to the tavern; not to the brothel; but to the church! That man, who has sat, Sunday after Sunday, under the awakening and affecting calls of the gospel, and has hardened his heart against these calls, he is the man whose condition is the most desperate of all others.” 1
We may have turned to Jesus at one point, but we don’t keep coming to Jesus for rest, for his yoke, for his light burden. We start in that direction, but then we get caught up in the affairs of life. That’s a sure way to become weary and heavily burdened! This is a good chance to throw in that our Sabbath practice is intended by God to be an opportunity for us to step out of our everyday busyness and put our focus on God–on receiving like little children. We need this; we need weekly worship! LifeGroups are also a way to keep Jesus at the center. Let’s be intentional about this!
It’s not a stretch to connect Jesus’ invitation to his rest with the Sabbath. In fact, the very next passage after Jesus’ offer of rest has to do with the Sabbath! And this next passage points to another source of weariness and burdens for the people: religious life! Especially wearying were the legalistic burdens placed on people by the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.
The Burdens of Religious Life
In the verses following Jesus’ offer, the religious leaders protest as Jesus’ disciples pluck and eat grain on the Sabbath. They even insist that Jesus NOT heal on the Sabbath. Jesus responds saying, (paraphrased) God cares more about people than man-made rules. God created the Sabbath and gave it to us for our benefit. Religious leaders, aware that Sabbath had been wrongly neglected, made up rules to protect the Sabbath. This ended up putting more emphasis on the rules than on the purpose of Sabbath. If we are not careful, we can do the same!
Here are some ways we over-emphasize rules:
- Try to work our way into God’s good graces
- Religious legalism, religious activity, and mindsets devoid of mercy
- Putting pressure on each other to be focused on the same ministry that we are
Living under other people’s judgments is burdensome! It wearies our soul. Our church tends to be a nonjudgmental environment. We recognize that people are in process, and we give room for God to do his work. We recognize that different people have different gifts and callings, and we make room for that, too. There is no push to produce cookie-cutter Christians. Still, we have to be on guard against judging others, and basing our lives on the judgments others make against us.
Just yesterday, I received a rather scathing message of judgment via text message. A few moments later, I walked into a hospital room, and the gentleman who I was visiting made it seem like I am the best pastor in the world! I took a lesson from this: neither judgment was true! I am neither the best nor the worst pastor.
One of our staff pastors especially loves one part of the hymn, “Be Thou My Vision.” It states: “Riches I heed not, nor man’s empty praise – Thou mine inheritance now and always. Thou and Thou only be first in my heart. High King of heaven, my treasure Thou art.”
Jesus’ Invitation
Jesus says, “Come to me, you who are weary and burdened with heavy loads.” Whether you’re weary from the pressures of everyday life, from religious burdens you put on yourself, or from the judgments of other people, the invitation is the same. Jesus says, “Come to me … and I will give you rest.”
No matter what the yoke is we carry, if it isn’t Jesus’, we miss out on the miracle working power of Jesus, or at least the purpose of his miracles. They weren’t just to meet an immediate need. They were intended to produce repentance–turning to him in relationship. Without repentance, we miss out on the purpose of Sabbath. Jesus wants us to turn to him, to live in relationship with him.
25 At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. 26 Yes, Father, for this is what you were pleased to do. 27 “All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 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.” Matthew 11:25–30 (NIV)
Rest is:
- To hear from God rather than rely onn your own wisdom and knowledge (v. 25)
- To be like a child (v. 25)
- To come to Jesus
- To embrace gentleness and humility as a lifestyle (v. 29). Learn from Jesus!
- To take only the yoke Jesus has for you
- To observe Sabbath the right way
Rest in Jesus is not passive. Do what you are called to do, but don’t fret over what you’re not called to do! Be who you are called to be, but don’t fret over what you’re not called to be.
Sabbath is a way to stop and say, “I’m with Jesus. He cares for me. His yoke and his burden are not like the work of my everyday life from which I can’t let up. They are not like the religious burdens of the Pharisees, who think Sabbath is purely a matter of religious observance, without concern for human need.”
Receive Like a Child
I think receiving like children and entering in to God’s rest are connected.
I grew up in a family that believed spiritual things were true and real, so it shouldn’t be unusual that at a very early age I had a profound spiritual experience. When I was about 3 years old, I thought that Jesus had come to see me when I was sick. While I was having what I considered a personal time with Jesus, I kept telling my mother, “Mommy, don’t come in the room!”
When it was finally OK for her to come in, I told her, “Jesus came to see me, and he told me, ‘Eddie, I love you, and all the angels in heaven are singing a song just for you.‘” Was that real? My mother was convinced it was real, I know that for sure. She was so convinced that when my dad came home she was crying, and believed that since I had such an experience with Jesus, I must have been close to dying!
Years later, during a special revival service at our church, we were having a very extended time of prayer. As I was quiet before the Lord in prayer for quite some time, I felt as though God were reminding me of that experience when I was three years old—of how Jesus had personally told me that he loved me. The experience seemed very real to me as an adult, and I was in awe that Jesus would come and speak to me as a toddler! It was a wonderful thought. I just reveled in the warmth of the memory during my time of prayer that evening.
And then I felt as though God wanted to ask me a question, and the question was this: “Ed, what makes you think I love you any less now?”
Come to Jesus as a child, and enter his rest. He will reveal the Father to you. Will you say yes to his invitation?
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