Our Sermons

Bible Passage: Matthew 11:25-30
Pastor: Pastor Schlicht
Sermon Date:  July 9, 2023

Have you ever had someone invite you to come to them for help? At first it’s often hard to gauge if they really mean it. Are they just being polite? Or are they willing, but not really excited about actually helping. It’s only after you get to know someone well, after you really know their heart, that you might take them up on the invitation. The same thing happens with God. He invites us to be his own, to know true peace, to carry our burdens, to forgive our sin, to give us rest. But so often people pull back. Why? Because they don’t know his heart. One thing that makes me incredibly sad and even infuriated, is when our Savior is misrepresented. No one’s sinful nature needs another excuse to reject God. I know people who reject Christ because he has been spoken of as only an American deity—the white man’s Lord, or an angry vengeful tyrant, or even a harmless lovey-dovey buddy…none of which capture his heart for sinners. It not only guiles me that these misrepresentations bring shame to his glory, but it bothers me most to think of the many dear souls who don’t consider his invitation because they doubt his heart. Even Christians are often restless and wandering because they forget who Christ really is and what it actually means to come to him. Today we hear from Jesus’ own lips in Matthew 11 what his heart is like. And he invites us, on the basis of his heart, to work with him and to find rest in him. First, I want to look at Jesus’ Invitation, then his REST, then his Yoke, and finally his Heart.

The INVITATION of Jesus: “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened…” Jesus doesn’t say “work toward me.” He doesn’t say, “Earn me.” He doesn’t say, “Convince me.” He says, “Come to me.” In the original, “come” isn’t just a command, it’s also an exclamation. Jesus is saying something like, “Hey, I’m over here!” He doesn’t want us rush past his invitation. And there are the only two qualifications: “All who are weary and burdened.” If you are exhausted, tired of obeying only to fall back into sin again, tired from pushing the rock up the hill only to have it fall back on top of you, you are specifically invited to come to Jesus. If you have a heaviness weighing on your heart that you want to be free of, sin or remorse, anxiety in the present, dark memories of the past, or dread of the future, whatever it is that weighs you down, know that your acknowledgment of that burden is the very thing that qualifies you to come to Christ. He invited you to bring it to him, because he promises rest.  

The REST of Jesus: “I will give you rest…you will find rest for your soul.” Jesus doesn’t offer rest for our bodies, he offers is rest for our souls. Maybe we’d prefer physical rest, but the worst type of tiredness isn’t the physical kind, is it? There is a restlessness weariness that no amount of physical rest can alleviate.  We need a rest that stretches further than today. We need eternal rest. We need to know that we won’t be restless forever. We need to know that the deepest and most important facets of our existence are secure, and that we aren’t going to mess that up some time out in the future. We need peace of heart—peace which the world cannot give. We need a clear conscience. We need the removal of guilt and shame. We need rest for the soul. And Jesus, through his life, death, and resurrection, offers you this rest. His salvation is total and complete. Yes, there are still battles to fight and sufferings to endure. Jesus clearly talk about those in other places. But the comforts of his gospel outweigh them all. Jesus promises a rest from hopelessness and from meaninglessness. He offers us a deeper, more-satisfying rest than a soft bed after a long day. He offers us himself, the Lord of the Sabbath, both now and in eternity. He even offers us rest of working with him.

The YOKE of Jesus: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Now, given what we just heard, this is a bit surprising, isn’t it? Jesus offers rest and then immediately says, “Take my yoke upon you.” He doesn’t say “Take my seat” or “Take my bed” or “Take my vacation.” He said, “Take my yoke.”  This isn’t an invitation to sit around and get comfortable. Jesus invites us to put his yoke on and, last time I checked, a yoke is a tool for work. A yoke is a farming implement that was meant to join two animals, such as oxen, together so that they could share the workload evenly and be more productive. Sometimes, an older, more experienced animal was yoked with a younger animal, so that the older one can train the younger, inexperienced animal while they work together. So in using the illustration of a yoke, Jesus is asking us to share with him in his work, in his ministry and service. 

Specifically, the term “yoke” in Jesus’ day was used in the context of teaching and obedience to Scripture. Every notable rabbi had their own “yoke”, that is, their specific interpretation of Old Testament Scriptures (Sirach 51:26). And some rabbis would pass on their own brand of teaching, their yoke, by living in community with their students, just like Jesus did with his 12 disciples. He didn’t just talk the talk, but walked the walk. But note that there is a clear difference in authority between Jesus and the other teachers of his day. They called upon their disciples to follow an interpretation, but Jesus told his disciples to come to him and to wear his yoke. It is subtle, but this is a claim to Jesus’ authority as the author of Scripture, as God himself who first gave his law and commands.

What does that mean for you and me today when it comes to wearing Jesus’ yoke? It means that coming to Jesus, even finding true rest in Christ, is not a yoke-less life. One look at the Sermon on the Mount or his parables or the Great Commission should rid us of that thought. We come to Jesus as we are, but he changes us into who he is. Wearing a yoke is a sign of submission and of service. This is a chance for you to take your spiritual temperature right here.  Maybe you have come to Jesus, but when he slips the yoke around your neck to join him, do you resist? Do you back off? Do you hold back? You like to hear his words, but do you submit to his Word and accept his authority in your everyday living? Do you want to be near Jesus, but maybe not yoked with him? It’s no wonder that we are often so restless.

But the love of Christ doesn’t forsake us, even when we duck out of his yoke! He calls out, come to me! Come back to me! My yoke is easy and my burden is light! You see, Jesus has a special type of yoke. That word for “easy” here has the sense of proper or well-suited. In other words, it is easy because it fits well. Jesus was the son of a carpenter and likely learned some of his father’s trade as a young man. He likely had personal experience in carving wooden yokes. And they wouldn’t have been rolling off the conveyor belt, no he would have to see the animal and take measurements and then carve the yoke by hand so that it was shaped and suited to the individual animal. And the same thing is true about his yoke spiritually. As you come to Jesus and bow beneath his yoke, he promises a custom-fit. He knows your specific gifts and weaknesses, and he will train you and conform to his image as you learn from him. He will not burden you with silly man-made laws. His yoke is easy because he has kept God’s law in your place. Now you pull the plow for God’s kingdom in his strength. The power of the Holy Spirit works in us to accomplish his purposes. We are yoked by Christ and we are yoked to Christ. He pulls the plow, but we share in the privilege and the satisfaction carrying out his work. 

The truth is that everyone wears a yoke, some just don’t realize it. We all bow to some authority, whether we admit it or not. Which yoke will you choose?  One yoke presents itself as easy but it crushes you over time, the other may seem hard at first but it is easy, it is well-suited for your abilities and you will find rest for your soul.  It’s a no brainer. Come to Jesus. Take his yoke upon you and learn from him. And that brings me to his heart.

The HEART of Jesus: “…because I am gentle and humble in heart.” Out of the four gospel accounts—89 chapters of biblical text—there’s only one place where Jesus tells us about his own heart. We hear about all sorts of events in his life, his fulfillment of prophecies, his teachings, his miracles, his enemies, his disciples, you name it. But only here—with perhaps the most wonderful words ever spoken—do we hear Jesus, God himself, pull back the veil and let us peer down into his core. And we are not told that he is austere and demanding in heart, or that he is exalted and dignified in heart, or even that he is joyful and generous in heart. No, when Jesus chooses the words, he says “I am gentle and humble in heart.”

These terms are related but distinct. Gentle—Jesus used this word to speak of the meek in his sermon on the mount. Peter uses it in his encouragement to wives to nurture, “the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit.” (1 Peter 3:4) Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not reactionary or easily-exasperated. He is beyond patient and understanding. He opens his arms to you. He is always ready to comfort. “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out.” (Isaiah 42:3) He is gentle. Humble—Often translated as lowly, this is the same term Paul uses when he tells us not to be proud, but “associate with the humble.” (Romans 12:6)  or when James says that “God opposes the proud, but exalts the humble.” (James 4:6-7) The point in Jesus saying that his heart is humble, is that he is accessible. For all his dazzling holiness, for his almighty power and infinite authority, no one is more approachable than Jesus. Jesus’ humble, accessible heart is never overcome by our sin, our insecurities, or our doubts. He is always available and eager to forgive and restore. 

Now, this does not mean that Jesus is a pushover. Just before this section of Matthew 11, Jesus proclaimed God’s eternal wrath upon the unbelieving cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin. So gentle and humble does not mean weak. In fact, these attributes find their significance in Jesus’ strength. To put it differently, there is no virtue in being gentle if you’re harmless. Gentleness only finds its virtue according to the strength of the one who demonstrates it. Humility finds its virtue, not in a person’s unworthiness, but in the length to which they willingly lower themselves for the sake of others. Apply that to Christ…his gentleness and humility overwhelm me. This is the one at whose name every knee will bow, the one whose eyes are like “flames of fire” in the Book of Revelation, whose voice is “the roar of many waters,” whose face is “like the sun shining in full strength.” This is the eternal, majestic God in whose presence all language and comprehension utterly fails. This one, who would ever guess, is gentle and humble in heart? Could you imagine God would get down in the field with us and pull the plow? Could you imagine that the Father is the one running to meet the prodigal son? 

This is why we need the Bible, this is why we need to hear it from Jesus’ own mouth, because our natural intuition can only give us a god like ourselves, who would shy away from sin and suffering. But Jesus doesn’t scrunch up his nose or cringe to touch dirty sinners. The true God is drawn to the weary and burdened. His heart longs to tend to us, to be with us, even to call us his own. His heart longs to shoulder our burdens and give us rest. The true God, in gentleness and humility, laid down his life down for us. 

I’ll end with the words of the old puritan preacher Thomas Goodwin: “That which keeps men off is, that they know not Christ’s mind and heart…The truth is, he is more glad of us than we can be of him. The father of the prodigal was the forwarder of the two to that joyful meeting. Have you a mind? He that come down from heaven to die for you will come more than halfway, as the prodigal’s father is said to do… O therefore come in unto him. If you knew his heart, you would.” [Thomas Goodwin, Encouragements to Faith]

Amen.