Matthew 11:28-30 (ESV)
28 “Come to me, all 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.”
As I read the above passage this morning, the thought that hit me was, “I need that rest.” The Lord Jesus speaks words of great peace and comfort to those he is calling to himself. And I wonder just how unfamiliar this concept is to the modern church and to the modern Christian.
Is your Christian life marked by rest in the Lord Jesus? What would that look like for you? Or does your Christian life look like a flurry of activity, of work, of striving to be something that you are not?
What a joy it would be for many of us to recognize a few key truths about ourselves and about the gospel. The gospel tells us that we are not good, not at all. We cannot earn anything from God. We cannot work ourselves into righteousness. And yet God chose to rescue us. He has chosen to make us his children. And he did not do so in order that we would then put a massive amount of pressure on ourselves and on our friends to accomplish the task of growing ourselves or even of growing God’s kingdom.
In Galatians 3, Paul calls the Galatians foolish and bewitched because they were acting as though they could perfect themselves through works of the law. Paul reminded them that they came to Christ by faith and by the working of the Spirit of God. They cannot then become perfected by works. In a similar way, I wonder how many of us need the same reminder. We were rescued by Jesus through the working of God’s Spirit. Do we really think that we are going to effort ourselves into righteousness?
Jesus also said that he would build his kingdom, and hells gates will not overcome it. Do we somehow think that we are the ones who are going to build the kingdom and defeat the gates of hell? Do we think that we are going to, now that God has turned us loose, tackle the devil, turn the culture, and defeat the darkness on our own?
Please do not hear a call to laziness here. Ephesians 2:10 says that God has created us for good works that he prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. He did not save us for laziness. He did not tell us to “let go and let God” as the old quietistic phrase says. Paul talks about beating his body and making it his slave. We are supposed to be putting forth effort. But, that effort is not the center of the Christian life with no reprieve and only demands. No, Jesus came to give us rest. He says that his yoke is easy. He says that his burden is light. He calls us to come to him for rest. And I wonder if maybe we have forgotten that this is as much a part of the gospel as the call to work the works for which we were created.
Pastor Travis Peterson 