Bible Passage: Matthew 11:28-30
Pastor: Joel Jenswold
Sermon Date: July 9, 2023

Today’s worship is outdoors. There is no recording for this Sunday.

Bulletin July 9, 2023

In the name of, and to the eternal glory of, Jesus,

One of my favorite things Jesus said is something that might easily be overlooked because it is just an incidental detail to a larger story.  But in Mark 6, Jesus’ disciples have just returned from their little mission trip when Jesus had sent them out two-by-two.  When they return, Jesus says this to them, Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest. (Mark 6:31)  I like that!  I like that Jesus notices that his disciples are tired.  I like that Jesus CARES that his disciples are tired.  I like that Jesus knows his disciples need rest.

When you hear that story, do you sort of wish Jesus would say that to you?  “Come, get some rest!”  Well, he does.  He says that to all of us in our text today.  And it’s an even better invitation than the one he made to the Twelve after their mission trip.  For in that invitation, Jesus was inviting them to rest their bodies.  In the invitation before us today, Jesus invites us to come and find rest for our souls.  To us today, Jesus says, Come and Rest!

 The first thing we might notice in Jesus’ invitation to “come” is TO WHOM he speaks this invitation.  He says, Come to me all you who are weary and burdened. (v. 28)  Are you weary and burdened?  And here Jesus is not so much addressing the weariness of body we may feel after working a 60 hour week.  Later in our text Jesus will use the word “soul.”  Jesus is talking to those who feel a certain soul-weariness.  Those who feel a heavy burden on their soul.  Is that you?

What is it that makes a soul weary and burdened?  We know what makes a body weary.  Word!  Hard, prolonged work wearies a body.  Work wearies a soul, too.  Here is the kind of work that wearies a soul.  When a person works hard to “make up” for sin in their life, that is tiring.  Working so that for every wrong that you do, you do something “good” over here to make up for it.  That’s a tiring way to live!  Working hard to be “worthy of God” is tiring.  Many people fall into that thinking.  Do you ever feel that way?  “I will be good!  I will impress God!  I will be extra-saintly!  I will make God like me!”  How’s that working for you?  That’s an exhausting way to live.  Running away from an accusing conscience is tiring.  Because the running never ends.  There’s no place to run and hide.  It’s just running and running.  Wherever you run, your conscience is there.  You cannot hide.  There’s that voice again.  “You don’t measure up!”

It is exhausting to live the life of Romans 7, our second reading this morning.  Can you feel the exhaustion of Paul in Romans 7?  “The good I want to do, I don’t do!  The evil I don’t want to do, I do!  When I want to do good, sin is right there with me!  What a miserable man I am!  Who will rescue me from this dead body?”  Paul is exhausted…from dealing with himself!  I know you feel the exhaustion, because it is YOUR exhaustion, too.

Charlotte Elliot lived in England in the 1800’s.  She was bitter and angry with God.  On one occasion a pastor visited her home and had dinner with her family.  Over dinner, Charlotte had an angry outburst against God.  Her embarrassed family left the room and Charlotte sat alone with the pastor.  He said, “You are tired of yourself, aren’t you?”  Charlotte asked, much like the jailor of Philippi, what she should do.  The pastor said, “You come to Jesus just as you are, with your fightings and your fears.”  The Holy Spirit brought her to faith, and rest, in Jesus.  Years later Charlotte wrote a hymn about this.  A hymn you know well.  The one verse says:  “Just as I am, though tossed about, With many a conflict, many a doubt, Fightings and fears within, without, O Lamb of God, I come, I come!”

“You are tired of yourself, aren’t you?”  Are you tired of…YOU?  The sin.  The guilt.  The shame.  The daily struggle.  The disappointment with the person who looks back at you from the mirror.  Then listen to Jesus this morning.  He says, “Come and rest!”

Notice who this is who invites you to come.  He says, …learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in heart. (v. 29)   Jesus is gentle and humble.  The one who invites you is not a square-jawed Marine drill sergeant who barks at you, “C’mon, buttercup!  Drop and give me fifty!”  Jesus is not a giant ogre who stomps, “Fi, Fi, Fo, Fum!”  He is your brother in flesh.  He can relate to your struggles.

He invites you to come and take his “yoke.”  A yoke is that heavy piece of wood that sits across the necks of a team of oxen.  It keeps those oxen pulling in the same direction.  Jesus says, My yoke is easy and my burden light. (v. 30)  Here is what Jesus is proposing.  We come to him with this heavy yoke of sin on our necks.  Under this yoke of sin and all sin brings with it, we are weary and burdened.  Jesus takes that yoke from us.  He takes it on himself.  It is a yoke in the shape of a cross.  He carries the weight.  He does the “heavy lifting”.”  He does the work of taking sin away and making God like you, and all of that!  He does it, so that you can stop!

And in place of the yoke of sin, Jesus gives you the yoke of forgiveness.  Do you feel the “weight” of that yoke?  You say, “Wait!  Forgiveness!  This is really light!  This is easy!  It is easy to hear that Jesus loves me!  It is easy to hear that I am forgiven!  It is easy to stop trying to save myself!  It is easy to hear the promise of heaven!   It is easy to rest in Jesus!”

Dear friend, dear weary sinner, come and rest.  In Jesus.  As you find him in his Word and Holy Supper.  Come and rest!  We finish with the poetry of a beloved hymn that so nicely captures our focus today:  “I heard the voice of Jesus say, “Come unto me and rest.  Lay down, O weary one, lay down, your head upon my breast.”  I came to Jesus as I was – weary, and worn, and sad.  I found in him a resting place, And he has made me glad.” (CW 338:1)

Amen.