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28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. ~ Matthew 11:28-30
Today, we conclude our study of Matthew 11 where up to this point in this chapter the Lord Jesus had been addressing a people who were dependent upon their own goodness to make them right with God and to get them into heaven. This is religion and its approach to life takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden where Satan enticed Adam and Eve into defining life for themselves. Up to that point in the narrative God had defined all things, but when the enemy came in disguised as a serpent, their definitions and convictions changed. After the Fall, man was now being defined by the self.
In v.28 of today's passage we read, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
Man's sin demanded that God act or all mankind was doomed to hell. People invent religions and they believe if they are good enough maybe they can be acceptable to God. This is why the Lord Jesus came to this earth as a man. He lived a perfect life and then He bore the punishment for our sin on the cross. The fact that His perfect life and death were acceptable to God was proven when He rose from the dead. The Lord Jesus said, "Come to me." Most believe He said, "Come to a ritual or to come to a religion or to a church building." No, He said, "Come to me." This underscores that our salvation can only be founded upon the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who paid the penalty for our sin at the cross of Calvary.
Before coming to the Lord Jesus for salvation we labored to get life right for ourselves. This led us to the unwanted condition of being heavy ladened. Religion demands we work ourselves to death trying to fix our lives. And, even though we may have worked hard at being good and we may have done many good and altruistic things, it was not good enough. Those who believe they can earn God's favor through their good behavior have a very high view of themselves and a very low view of God. This sounds like bad news and it is. But, if this bad news ushers us to the end of the self life and into personal relationship with God, it is the best news ever.
An amazing truth about the gospel of the Lord Jesus is that it runs counter to religion. The gospel shouts to us that when we see ourselves as more needy, we are positioned to be more successful at knowing the Lord most deeply. There are no self-made Christians. There are only needy people who collapse under the weight of their sin, leading them to fall at the feet of the Lord Jesus. Once we come to the end of ourselves and we cry out to the Lord Jesus, He promises us "rest" from the weight of our sin.
In v.29-30 of today's passage we read, "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. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
Farmers place a yoke on their oxen in order to plow their fields. Yokes are made out of wood and they are useful steering devices. The oxen are brought in and the carpenter measures their size. They carefully mark out the wood and carve it and then the oxen are brought back later for a final fitting because it is important that the yoke fit perfectly. The yoke enables the farmer to control the animals best. The yoke is an object lesson of submission. Here, the Lord Jesus was saying, "Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly."
The object lesson from the oxen was transferred over into the realm of the Jewish thinking regarding discipleship. This meant when a pupil submitted himself to his teacher and his teachings, he was said to take the yoke of the teacher upon him. The yoke to the Jews was the teaching of the Rabbi which was a yoke of instruction. The Jews spoke of the yoke of the torah, the yoke of the law, the yoke of the commandments, the yoke of God. This is what the Lord was referring to here. He was saying, "Take My yoke or my teachings upon you." And then He added the phrase, "And learn from Me." This yoke of which the Lord Jesus spoke illustrates our submission to His teaching.
There is no such thing as a yoke-less life. It’s just a matter of what we’re yoked to. The yoke we receive from the Lord Jesus is not like the yoke of the Pharisees who demanded strict obedience to man-made laws. The yoke of the Lord Jesus is easy and light. And, amazingly He is yoked to us. Nothing in Him shies away from us. He came down to our low place and He will take us up to His high place. He is gentle and He knows our frame. He, while on the cross did all of the heavy lifting and if we believe in Him He will make sure that we arrive home as children of God.
There are two rests in this passage and both point us to the work of the Lord Jesus while He was on this earth. The first rest is immediate and it includes the awakening of our spirit to God. It happened when we first believed on the Lord Jesus and we were born again. This first rest includes the forgiveness of our sin. It granted us a personal relationship with God, while the second is a rest which deepens His rest in our soul. The second rest involves the gradual removal of our guilt and shame from our soul. Both rests enable us to see that He is the end of all of our pursuits, that He is the satisfying destiny to all of our longings.
