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Matthew 11:28-30\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Come to Me, all <\/strong>you\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke\u00a0<\/strong>is\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>easy and My burden is light.<\/strong> ()<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
These are among the most beautiful words spoken by Jesus. It\u2019s an invitation to all burdened humanity to find relief and rest in Jesus.<\/p>\n
In this invitation, Jesus invited all\u00a0who labor and are heavy laden<\/strong>. He called those who sensed they must come to Him to relieve their need instead of living in self-sufficiency. According to one commentator,\u00a0labor\u00a0<\/strong>implies the burdens we take upon ourselves, and\u00a0heavy laden<\/strong>\u00a0implies the burdens others put upon us. Jesus used the idea of\u00a0heavy laden<\/strong>\u00a0again in Matthew 23:4 speaking of the spiritual burdens religious leaders lay on their followers.<\/p>\n
To all those burdened, Jesus simply said:\u00a0Come unto Me<\/strong>. That is an invitation; Jesus didn\u2019t tell us to \u201cgo\u201d to Moses or anyone else. He invited us to first come to Himself, not to a doctrine, a ceremony, a minister, but to Jesus Himself as a personal Savior.<\/p>\n
This was a declaration of authority \u2013 only God can say,\u00a0come unto Me<\/strong>. The prophets pointed to God, but Jesus points to Himself.<\/p>\n
Yet this call to those who are burdened also includes some kind of burden, in the sense that as part of the invitation, Jesus said\u00a0take My yoke upon you and learn from Me<\/strong>. We must come as disciples to learn, willing to be guided by His yoke \u2013 not merely to receive something. We are ready to bear whatever burden He appoints for us.<\/p>\n
According to Adam Clarke, the ancient Jews commonly used the idea of\u00a0yoke<\/strong>\u00a0to describe someone\u2019s obligation to God. There was the yoke of the kingdom, the yoke of the law, the yoke of the command, the yoke of repentance, the yoke of faith, and so on. In this context, it is easy to see Jesus simplifying and saying, \u201cForget about all those other yokes.\u00a0Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a call to a lazy or indulgent life. There is still a\u00a0yoke<\/strong>\u00a0to bear and\u00a0burden<\/strong>\u00a0to carry. Yet with and in Jesus, they are\u00a0easy<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0light<\/strong>. When training a new animal (such as an ox) to plow, ancient farmers often yoked it to an older, stronger, more experienced animal who bore the burden and guided the young animal through the learning process.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s what makes the\u00a0yoke<\/strong>\u00a0of Jesus\u00a0easy<\/strong>\u00a0and His burden\u00a0light<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 because\u00a0He bears it with us<\/em>. Borne alone, it might be unbearable; but with Jesus it can be\u00a0easy<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0light<\/strong>.<\/p>\n
If your yoke is\u00a0hard<\/em>\u00a0and your burden is\u00a0heavy<\/em>, then either it isn\u2019t\u00a0His<\/em> yoke or burden, or that you aren\u2019t letting Him bear it with you. Come, find rest for your soul. (Guzik)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Matthew 11:28-30\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Come to Me, all you\u00a0who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke\u00a0is\u00a0easy and My burden is light. () … Continue reading “61.n. Matthew 11:28-30”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-195461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195461","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=195461"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195464,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/195461\/revisions\/195464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=195461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=195461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=195461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}