Sermon: 9 July 2023 Pentecost 6Text: Matthew 11.28-30Theme: Rest in God Let us pray:
O Gracious God, take my lips and speak through them; take our minds and think through them; take our hearts and set them on fire for your Kingdom’s sake. Amen.
“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens 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.”
There is at St. Francis’ College a beautiful chapel that was built as the Archbishop’s chapel when the Archbishop of Brisbane acquired the property in the 1910’s. It became the site of the Theological College in the 60’s when the Archbishop moved to Hamilton to a home left in a will to the Diocese. Scores of Priests and deacons have come to love that Chapel as a place of quiet beauty and reflection and a great place to go to escape from the pressures of study.
In the Chapel the first thing you notice is the Lord’s table and written on the front is a series of Greek words. Every year some first year student always inquires to the meaning of the words, and they find out that the text is “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”. This text is part of our gospel reading and it has for me been a text of great comfort.
We have this text as part of our liturgy, as part of the preparation for the Communion proper, just before the prayer of humble access. Jesus speaks with great compassion to people; with the words “rest” and “comfort” springing to mind. In the past I have always with delight read these words and have been comforted knowing that whatever else happens in life, my Lord Jesus calls me to himself and grants me the rest I so desire and need.
But in preparing to preach today I have studied and prayed through this text more than I have in the past and I want to explore with you in greater depth some of the fruits of that work; some of the things that have come to light regarding Jesus’ words in Matthew’s Gospel.
The first thing to note is the invitation Jesus extends to all people. In verse 28 of the 11th chapter Jesus says “Come to me”. Come to me all who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens. Here is a call we cannot deny. There is no doubt that the original hearers of Jesus’ words were under burdens. To the Jew religion was a thing of endless rules. People lived lives in a forest of regulations that dictated every action of their waking moments. They were forever listening to a voice that said, “Thou shalt not.” These are the people Jesus calls to himself.
And today we hear his call to us. There may be many things which burden us down in the grind of life. We may be carrying grief or loss; or the unjust expectations of parents or spouses. We may be ill or handicapped or just feeling that we are unable to cope with everyday life. Jesus calls us to himself; all who are wearied by life.
I have a picture in a book by Joyce Huggett of a man dressed in white who is holding onto a man all dirtied and drained by the pressures of life. This man is thin and weary and obviously exhausted. The other man in white is holding him with gentle compassion. This is the image I have when I hear; “Come to me all who are weary.” And we need to respond to that call. It’s not like we sit and wait for the mercies of God to fall on our heads, but there is also no need to struggle back to some spiritual starting line before we respond to the call of Christ. God chalks the starting line just where we are. We just need to open up and hear the call and respond in our hearts.
So we have heard the call of Jesus to come to him with our weariness and burdens, what happens then.
Jesus promises to give rest to those who respond to his call. This is the second thing to note from the passage. The first is that Jesus calls us; the second is that He gives us rest.
This was always the part I liked the best. Life gets so busy at times that all I long to do is just stop, and vegetate for a while, either on a bed or in front of the tube. For many of us I imagine that this is what rest is, but this is not the type of rest Jesus is talking about in this passage. Jesus is not talking about inactivity and inner contentment as if that were the final goal of life anyway.
No, what our Lord was meaning in talking about rest was returning to God and being faithful to the will of God. Jesus’ rest is the rest of those walking perfectly in tune with the will of God. You have heard of the sleep of the just, well this rest is all about the life of the just; the life of those living in righteousness. It’s about being in the grove, with the timing all right; just like watching Nadal serve or Cadell Evans cycle.
There’s a passage from Jeremiah (Jeremiah 6.16) that picks up on the journey aspect of Jesus’ rest. ‘Thus says the Lord: Stand at the crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way lies; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls’. Jesus’ rest is about being in touch with the will of God for our lives, and while this may not sound like rest as we know the word, it really is. Anything that is perfectly tuned works to its maximum efficiently, doing what it was designed to do; for example, a car engine or a generator, and while humans are more than machines we still need to be in tune with God’s will for our lives - this is the rest Jesus promises, and it is tied in closely with the third thing to note from the passage - that is, the yoke Jesus promises.
A yoke was used to set cattle upon the right path, to guide them and keep them on that path once it was set. Jesus asks those who respond to his call to take his yoke upon themselves and learn from him. Learn how to conform one’s life to the will of God.
Many of us at times wonder what life is all about. The Church always holds to the first section of the catechism - “God made me to know him, love him and serve him in this world, and to be happy with him for ever in the next.” St. Augustine puts it more powerfully; “The thought of you stirs us so deeply that we cannot be content unless we praise you, because you have made us for yourself and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you.” In short, the end of our life is God, and the task of our life is to find the way to God. That is not one purpose among many, but the sole and over-riding aim of all existence. This may seem rather obvious, but in practice we forget it, and behave as though the purpose of life was security, or money, or comfort, or status. To find God is what we need to learn from being yoked to Jesus. It is the most important thing we can learn.
Another thing about this yoke of Jesus’. He says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. The Greek word for easy also means well fitting. The yoke’s of that day were specially made to fit the animal that it was going on so as not to unduly burden it, not chafe its neck. There is an ancient legend that says that Jesus as a carpenter made yoke’s for the animals around him and he may well have had a sign outside the shop which said “My yoke’s fit well”. Jesus’ yoke for us fits well. It is made for us and therefore is easy and not a burden that we cannot bear. Sometimes we feel lost and alone in the world and at times in the community of the body, but this text reminds us that each and every one of us is special and important to God. No one is ever lost. The point about finding God’s will for our lives is not about which task to do or how good I am in my actions but rather about being open to having the yoke of Jesus on us. When we open ourselves in prayer and I mean serious deep reflective prayer that is committed and often, we can begin to see what it means when Jesus says his yoke is easy and his burden is light. This being tied to Christ is not without cost - it means our whole lives. We make the choice. When Jesus says come, we need to come. When he says take my yoke, we need to take his yoke. And when he says you will find rest for your souls, we need to keep going until we do indeed find rest for our souls. The rest of the righteous - in the grove, in tune with the will of God. The Lord be with you.