“Rest For The Weary And Burdened”
Text: Matthew 11:25-30
7-9-2023
In the name of Him who gives rest to the weary, dear friends in Christ. If ever there was an offer that we can’t refuse, the one in today’s Gospel has to be it. Christ says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The word translated as “labor” can be more fully defined as “to labor with wearisome effort.” In other words, seemingly endless work that doesn’t just make you tired but, instead, leaves you exhausted. So exhausted that, as strange as it may sound, you can’t even rest when you lay down to sleep. Usually that’s because there is a heavy burden associated with that labor. A burden which weighs on your mind and robs you of the rest that you so desperately want and need. A psychologist might label this as a psychosomatic disorder. That is, the mind has become so weary that it’s affecting the body.
Sometimes this kind of mind and body weariness can be traced to a traumatic incident. For example, a soldier may experience overwhelming fatigue and act dazed after a particularly long and bloody battle. Sometimes it’s permanent. Today we’d probably label it as PTSD. My parents used to call it “shell-shocked.” There was a man back where I grew up who had this condition. He was a veteran of WWII, and sadly whatever he experienced had really messed up his mind. He was nicknamed “Mr. Gratiot” because all day long he roamed up and down the median of Gratiot Avenue, the main road that ran through our city into Detroit. He picked up debris and trash, and arranged it in meticulous piles. He’d lecture his invisible companions and sometimes he’d sing like he was giving a concert. He was totally harmless and usually didn’t disrupt traffic so the police left him alone. My point is that his mind couldn’t handle the stress and it sought rest—permanently—by removing him from reality.
Thankfully, most of us have never had to endure that kind of extreme weariness. However, the stress we encounter is often more like Chinese Water Torture. A constant drip, drip, drip of little stresses. The kids get sick, the dog chews up your favorite shoes, your car is acting up, your boss is grumpy, you need to get groceries but money is tight, you retire but now you spend all your time running to doctors, and the list goes on and on. And all the while you have to maintain your daily chores and routine. You’re already weary from these burdens, and then along comes something major. The death of a loved one, a serious illness, tornadoes, drought, water in your basement, or some other crisis. You’re so exhausted from it all that you truly don’t seem to ever rest. It’s like having a 100-pound backpack that you carry around day and night.
Is it any wonder then that the invitation of Jesus sounds so appealing to us? But is that the kind of wearisome burden that Christ was talking about? Yes and no. The Son of God created you and He knows full well that your mind affects your body. And He certainly wants us to have rest for both. However, He also knows that we need an even deeper rest from a wearisome burden that afflicts us spiritually. So, He offers us rest for our weary souls. It’s not that He isn’t interested in rest for our minds and bodies. But Christ knows that since our souls are struggling under an exhausting burden then our mind and body will never find rest either.
You see, the people Jesus spoke these words to were desperately searching for peace with God. They knew His commands and wanted to please Him. But just as St. Paul expressed in the Epistle lesson, there was a terrible struggle going on within them. Whenever they tried to do what was good and right in God’s eyes, the old sinful nature was right there doing the opposite. They had the desire to lead God-pleasing lives, but as Paul says, they didn’t have “the ability to carry it out” because of their sinful human nature. Their repeated cycle of sinning meant condemnation from our perfect and holy God. It was an exhausting, wearisome burden they were carrying. And to make matters worse, their corrupted religious system did nothing to relieve that burden. In fact, it only added to it. “Are you weighed down with the burden of not keeping God’s commands? Well... our solution it to add some manmade rules to your heavy load and make it totally unbearable.” It was a depressing, impossible condition.
But our compassionate Lord Jesus came and spoke refreshing words of relief. He said, “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.” A yoke was like a wooden collar that laid on the shoulders of an ox so that they could be harnessed to pull a heavy load. These folks could relate because they felt like their souls were harnessed to a heavy load of sin. It never seemed to get lighter and they were wearied by it. So Jesus says, “Let’s trade. If you’ll come to me by faith, I’ll take that impossible yoke from your shoulders and replace it with mine.”
Now maybe you’re thinking that doesn’t sound so good. I mean, what kind of a deal is that, trading one yoke for another? It’s still a yoke that leaves you harnessed to a burden, right? Not so with Jesus. He says “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” The yoke they had been struggling under was a bunch of rules heaped upon the commands of God that they couldn’t possibly fulfill. The yoke of Jesus has commands also, but they are Gospel commands which are light. Commands to love God and love one another, to trust Christ who would remove the burden of their sins, to receive His forgiveness and the inheritance He had waiting for them in heaven. What a relief they must have felt! The burden from their souls was gone which brings a peace to both mind and body. Christ accomplished all that by taking our yoke upon Himself. He took the yoke of our slavery to sin, and the crushing burden that comes along with it, and He allowed that to be placed on Him. That burden for our sins is the hell that He endured on the cross so that we could receive God’s peace and rest.
Friends in Christ, Jesus offers you and I that same glorious trade. Instead of laboring under the yoke of the Law trying to make yourself perfect, He invites you to lay that aside. For He has kept the Law perfectly for you. He has also removed the damning burden of your sins. But the devil works furiously to get you to hang onto those burdens. He loves to entice our sinful nature to do things that are against God’s will. When we give into the temptation to sin, the devil encourages us to despair under the heavy load of our guilt. Through false teachers and their doctrine, he lures some folks into believing they can lighten their load by being extra good and avoiding certain “bad habits.” But rather than lighten the load, these added rules only make the burden more unbearable. Don’t let the devil get away with that. By the power of the Holy Spirit, dump that burden or sin, guilt, and shame at the foot of the cross. Let the Lord refresh you with the Good News of the Gospel that your sins have all been laid on Jesus and there is nothing left for you to do except graciously receive that free gift.
As I mentioned earlier, that knowledge of our spiritual freedom can affect how we handle the physical and mental burdens that we bear. Trust me, I know how those day-to-day burdens can accumulate and get heavier and heavier. If you’re like me, there are 16 million things going on in your life and you’re burdened with the obligations and time commitments that come with it. It’s difficult to carry that load. And then, you get blind-sided with a much more serious problem. About 12 years ago during a very busy time I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. When the doctor first told me, my heart sank. Then came the really tough part– telling my precious wife, my children, my extended family, and my dear friends.
But you know what? I was never afraid through that whole process because I knew I couldn’t lose. That’s not false bravado and that confidence is certainly not because I’m a Pastor. No, I simply trusted that my life was in God’s hands. If Jesus Christ can take the burden of sin off my shoulders, then why would I doubt that He could handle the burden of cancer? If I died because of it, what awaits me as a Baptized child of God? My inheritance in heaven is secure and I have Christ’s word of promise on that. So, either way, I can’t lose! Make no mistake, I am no spiritual superman. My faith wavers sometimes when faced with a wearisome burden like this. But God promises to keep my faith strong through His Word and Sacrament so that my confidence wouldn’t fail.
But that’s not just true for me. It’s for all believers in Jesus Christ. Some of you have had to bear the load of serious battles with your health, financial disasters, the death of a loved one, and heartbreaking problems in your personal relationships. At times like this, the words of Jesus are sweet to our ears. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He invites us to give Him the burden of our sin and in exchange He promises rest for our weary souls. Along with that, He invites us to also give Him the physical burdens of this life, both large and small, and He promises to give us rest for our minds and bodies. Whenever the burdens of life begin weighing us down, we can seek relief by taking them all to the Lord in prayer. We don’t have to carry them any longer. What a relief! May God increase our faith and trust in Him, so that we can truly enjoy His promised rest for our minds, our bodies, and our souls. And may He be glorified in every aspect of our lives. Amen!
Soli Deo Gloria!