Pastor Mark Nieting
Matt 11: 25-30
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For most of the world, July 4 is a normal calendar day, but for Americans it is very special. We call it “Independence Day,” celebrating our country’s freedom from England. We celebrate with a variety of symbols. Fireworks remind us of the “rockets’ red glare” from the Battle of Fort McHenry in the war of 1812. We read excerpts from the Declaration of Independence. There’s the Statue of Liberty and the famous words of the poet Emma Lazarus, who wrote:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses, yearning to breath free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest tossed,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
My ancestors came to this country for the same reason most of ours did. They came because life in the “old country” didn’t give them much hope. They knew that coming here was going to require sacrifices on their part and would take plenty of hard work and time, but it was the promise of a better life that led them on. It wasn’t, as was the case earlier in our history, about religious freedom. My ancestors were Lutherans in Germany and they were Lutherans here. In most cases they came here for financial and political reasons.
They knew they weren’t going to get a free ride in this country, and they didn’t expect it. Whether they fished, logged, worked in steel mills or raised cotton, the life of our ancestors wasn’t “easy” at all. “Easy life” is a relatively modern term. So is “vacation.” So is “retirement.” Those are all relatively modern “inventions.” Our ancestors worked hard. We may call life in their time “the good old days,” but the truth is, they worked long hours, enjoyed few vacations, usually earned enough to get by, and, as we all know from OUR work, they got TIRED. So do we! That’s one of the reasons we enjoy our holidays……we get to “rest.”
In 3 beautiful verses (from this morning’s Gospel), Jesus gives us some beautiful imagery as he stitches together two polar opposite concepts: work…..and rest. Just to remind us, here’s what He said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” The Greek literally says “I WILL REST YOU.”
REST IS important to all of us. We work, so we need to rest. It’s an absolute necessity. Without rest, our bodies, our minds and our spirits become weary, worn out and wasted away. Even GOD rested…..”Sabbathed” is the word….after creation was completed, as an example to us! In 1 Kings 4:25 there’s a wonderful image of rest that describes God’s people living securely “every man under his vine and under his fig tree.” It’s a great Old Testament image of “R&R!”
Even Jesus himself “rested” in the same ways many of us rest today. He regularly took time off from the normal day to day “grind of ministry” for physical rest, prayer and contemplation, and yes, even time for fun. He did attend the wedding at Cana, after all! Rest…..in any way we look at it…..is a good thing and is a “God-thing.”
But in today’s text, Jesus goes far deeper into the concept of REST than the normal “all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” image we have.
Question: Have you ever come back from a vacation so tired that you need to rest before you can go back to work? I have! Some of us have the tendency to pack our “down time” with so much activity that we get exhausted from resting! We do and do and do until are we’re done in by doing!
Jesus links together two interesting concepts to help us understand the kind of “rest” that HE makes available to us. Those twin concepts are found in these two words: BURDENED and YOKE. First, BURDEN. There’s not a person in this room who doesn’t understand what a “burden” is. We’ve all got them, and they DO make us weary. Don’t you feel sometimes that you epitomize the phrase, “He’s got the weight of the world on his shoulders?” That’s what the burdens of life feel like, don’t they? It’s times like that when REST is really necessary, but to get rest, somehow we have to get rid of the burden!
Jesus’ second word is YOKE. What is a YOKE? It’s the heavy, harness-like contraption that sits over the shoulders of an animal (usually a mule, a horse, or an ox) so that it can pull a load of some sort. When the “burdens of life” pile up on us, we FEEL like we’re literally harnessed to them…..and there’s no rest to be found then, is there?
Is that what Jesus means when He tells us to put on HIS YOKE? Is our faith supposed to be a burden to us and ON us? No, my dear friends….if that’s the way we look at Jesus, then, to use a bad pun, “the yoke’s on us.”
Pam’s grandfather owned a small sawmill in the mountains of Western North Carolina. When her father was young, his job was to bring the logs to the mill. To do that, Charles used a team…..a “yoke” of oxen. A “yoke of oxen” is never one animal….it’s always two of them, “yoked” side by side. His job was to balance the load so each was pulling along with the other, the stronger one making up for what the weaker one couldn’t do. Each of them had a name and they would respond to his encouragement….and to his commands. When the work….the burden….was shared, the job got done.
Isn’t that the way it works with us? There are times when the burdens of life become so great that rest only comes when someone else comes alongside and says, “Here, let me help!” We know how wonderful that is….and what a relief it is to have others bless us by sharing and caring for us under our burdens.
But Jesus meant far more than even the significant rest available to us by helping each other. Jesus knew that HIS people were being burdened by the “YOKE of the LAW.” The religious leaders of the day, the Pharisees and the Priests, loved to lift up all the Old Testament laws, thousands of them, and require that they be observed by everyone if they wanted to be blessed by God. It was no different in Martin Luther’s time, when the church sold forgiveness of sins for cash and good works. The blessing of God’s grace and mercy turned into a burden and a YOKE of LAWS that was far too heavy for any individual to bear, and offered no peace.
People in Jesus’ time, in Luther’s time, and people today can turn themselves into “spiritual workaholics” trying to find true rest and true peace on their own. It might be the burden of sin that weighs them down. It might be that they are trying to trust in someone or something else other than Jesus for salvation. It could be an unwillingness to forgive and be forgiven that yokes them heavily. Like the Prodigal Son, they may be looking in all the wrong places, with no good results.
Whatever the case and whatever the burden, Jesus invites EVERYONE to give up any other “yoke” that we are carrying and to slip underneath HIS YOKE. That’s where we will find rest, because Jesus has already done ALL the “heavy lifting” of Himself onto the cross. He’s already carried the burden of our sins and offers to freely lift them off. It’s where, in the words of Matt 11: 28, He literally says “I WILL REST YOU!” He’s done the saving…..we get the resting! Our only task……is to stay inside the yoke with Jesus.
While we celebrate IN-dependence Day tomorrow…..and gain some physical rest, it’s EVERY day that we can celebrate….and find spiritual rest, from our DE-PENDENCE on Jesus, who has already carried the burden of our salvation.
A teacher in one of our Lutheran schools was trying to get this concept across to her students, so she asked them, “Boys and girls, what is a yoke?” One bright little guy said, “It’s what you put on the necks of animals!” Then the teacher asked, “What is the Yoke God puts on us?” the same boy said, “It’s when Jesus puts His arms around our necks!”
Leave today with Jesus’ arm tightly….but lightly wrapped around your neck. Leave today knowing that it is HIS YOKE that is truly a joyful one. It is Jesus who offers to share every burden you have, and when you don’t think you can do any more, He will carry it for you…..(as He did for our sister Jenny Baird this week) into life…everlasting with Him. It is Jesus who offers every one of us REST, both now, and forever. Amen
