Series: It’s Backwards
To Rest Take On Burdens
Matthew 11:28-30
We use phrases everyday which do not mean what the literal words say. For instance if I say that I am all ears, I do not mean my entire body is made up of ears or that my ears are big enough that when you look at me that is all you see. It is generally understood by most people in the USA that I am telling you that I am listening closely to what you are about to tell me. I think most of us would be shocked at just how often we use phrases like that – idioms, sayings, clichés, and some of those sayings have been around for quite a while – some of them are as old as the hills. See? That one was a dumb as a rock. Yeah I know those are terrible I am almost finished so don’t have a cow. Quit responding it will just egg me on.
That brings me to the real phrase I want to use: The straw that broke the camel’s back. This phrase originated from an Arab proverb, I know that is a surprise because camels, well, they aren’t really used in many other places in the world are they? The idea behind the phrase is how a camel is an animal well equipped to carry heavy burdens but there is a limit to their ability. There is a point where they physical body will not tolerate any more weight, and even a small amount over the limit will finally break them and now they can’t even carry a regular load. It also is the origin from the phrase “The last straw,” where the same thing is true; a load is placed on the animal and one more think even though it is really small by itself causes the whole thing to collapse.
How do you avoid having something like that happen to you? One way would be to avoid letting things pile up on you and try to pass off as many burdens as possible to someone else. That’s the way some kids would do it; the cleaning, work around the house, things that cost money – hey they are just a kid and adults are supposed to be like that.
Each of us will face a time where things weigh so heavy upon us that it seems if one more thing will crush not just our body but our very spirit. Children who find themselves in trouble will often cry out to their parents looking for help so they won’t be piled under, adults will sometimes ask for help be it professionally or through friendship.
I. A Load too Heavy.
A. What weighs on people the most?
1. One of them I see is the feeling of Loneliness – no matter how many people you surround yourself with or how many friends you have listed on you page, every person faces moments where no one else is there to help or answer the questions. Friends can’t always be there, the spouse doesn’t always understand, the family is occupied with their own problems, and the church doesn’t seem to miss you if you aren’t around. Isolation is more than just being away from people, it is a sense of being disconnected and it happens every time there is a change. This weighs very heavy on some people.
2. Almost everyone has at some point carry the burden of Sickness – Or even a continual or nagging condition is a burden for someone people – there are diseases that you have to deal with for the rest of your life or complications because of an old injury which still nags. Those things have to be managed instead of cured, and that drains your energy. It gets old quickly and makes you want to give up. Some search and search for a drug that might make it go away and hope for a fix but know in the back of their mind it is something they will have to manage. Another burden to carry.
3. And then there are our Responsibilities – Things you have to do, have to take care of, must accomplish, or are on the hook for. Other people depend on you, they can’t do their job if you don’t do yours, you signed that contract, and no one but you is going to fix that when it breaks but you. And if you are a responsible person you know what happens? Other people dump the stuff on you that they don’t want to be responsible for. And the camel gathers more of a load closer to the breaking point.
4. Also there are the burdens of Consequences (ultimately Death.) Where that mistake or bad choice made in the past catches up with you, or the selfishness of a family member keeps coming due. But those things are trivial to the one huge consequence that looms heavy over all of us; death. The consequences of sin in this world is that death is looming out there for each of us, the unavoidable end to our days - the thought of death is heavy and we just try to ignore it, but the older you get the more of your friends and family are taken by the ruthless grave. That is a burden we have to carry but are unable to carry.
B. The weight of all of those is increased by a huge mental struggle: Expectations.
*It has been suggested that TV commercials teach a child 3 things: 1) all problems are solvable, 2) they are solvable fast and 3) solvable through some agency of technology. (No Magic Wand by Steve Shepherd, SermonCentral.com) For years society has given us the message that instead of struggle we should expect problems to be solved and put away without having to be bogged down by any type of burden. So we have come to expect things to be that way without even really actively deciding that reality. It was as if we just accept that is how the world is supposed to be – it is our expectation.
1. People really get deflated and tired when things do not meet their expectations. And some are just positive that the answer is on the store shelves somewhere. Sure there are great things which have made life easier physically, but mentally and spiritually the heaviness of life isn’t relieved even when the body is rested.
2. Too many have bought into the lie - “You can have a burden free life… there is a place where you can take it easy.” Their expectation doesn’t match their reality. So they have some choices to make.
a. Surrender – just dump everything and run away when it gets to heavy.
b. Pass it off – make someone else who is in a better place pay for it.
c. Ignore - Cover it, overlook it, pass the blame onto someone else. Becomes mentally and spiritually defeated when it isn’t found. Discouraged because it seems like everyone else is there.
3. Those options stink. That is all the world offers – a bunch of promises that some unspecified place exists where the burdens are easy. Expectations multiply the heaviness of our burdens until it just crushes us – and all we can think of is “what happened to me? Why are these things so heavy?”
*As we lie there like a fallen over camel wondering what to do next the words of Jesus are not exactly what we might want to hear but they are appropriate to the situation. But from what the rest of the world it stands in contrast.
II. An Offer to Join.
A. Jesus addresses the heavy things of life with a realistic approach.
1. His cousin John the Baptist has been taken into custody for speaking out against the King – they didn’t have freedom of speech – and he is under a death sentence. He has been speaking boldly about Jesus being the Savoir who was promised by the Old Testament.
2. But for some reason when he is in jail there is sense of doubt. Jesus didn’t seem to be doing the kinds of things he would have expected – those burdens you can see how they would weigh on someone who probably hoped to be rescued from jail by the miraculous power of Jesus.
*John was very much like a lot of people today, he thought he knew who Jesus was and what he should be doing but Jesus didn’t seem to be living up to that expectation. Today the name of Jesus is very familiar to a lot of people along with their expectations of who he was and what he wants. People get their information from media or opinions of people about who Jesus loves and how he loves. Most often people become disappointed with Jesus because their expectations are not based on reality but upon what someone else told them it should be. The same is true of the church; there are preconceived ideas of what a church is and what Christian people should do – instead of letting God speak the earth is flooded with opinions of what it is supposed be – expectations of how God should take away every problem. Selfish and unreasonable expectations destroy things which are very good and true.
3. So Jesus speaks up at the end of chapter 11 and says something that most of the people listening must have thought sounded completely backward.
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.29Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
B. The key according to Jesus is not to look for a life with less burden but the choice to take a more important burden.
* And it really seems backward, how can someone find rest from being weary by taking up something more than they have now? His point cannot be understood without letting go of our own expectations of how things should be.
We were made to carry burdens. A child when she first learns to crawl often does so in order to obtain a toy. When trying to take that toy with them they have to drag it along the floor. The child will eventually realize that if she walks it is much easier to carry the toy – in fact she could carry two! As our skill increases we are able to do more things Operation of brain and body have greater speed and coordination than any computer ever designed. The wonder from sports or art or craftsmanship is the ability of control from imagination to cooperation. A person whose mind and body work in that way are essentially burdened by the work but it doesn’t feel that way to them. When you are good at something there clearly is a sense of purpose when you accomplish a task.
1. So Jesus says come to him for rest – but it clearly isn’t about completely liberating ourselves of burdens because he says “take my yoke upon you.”
*A yoke is a designed piece of wood used to connect two animals together in order to unify their ability to pull an amount of weight together. A combined effort is able to do more than an animal can accomplish – and this image that Jesus used is an offer to help carry the burden and offer spiritual relief without completely dumping the burdens which are ours to carry.
2. The next realistic step Jesus took was to establish a physical place to help us when we have heavy burdens – the church. We are to sometimes physically help, sometimes point out to each other where we have taken on burdens that we should, and always encourage one another to not give up when things get heavy.
*Because honestly those burdens I mentioned – loneliness, sickness, responsibilities, death – there isn’t all that much you can really do to actually take a burden from someone. And really another person cannot solve those problems for you internally; people aren’t equipped to do that. Sure we can help someone’s attitude improve or give them a push in the right direction, but really we have a limited amount of power. Jesus on the other hand isn’t limited that way. You see something happened 2000 years ago, something nearly unbelievable to those who witnessed it and has been a source of controversy ever since. Jesus took it upon himself to look at the heaviest burdens people had to deal with, choose the most difficult one, and decided to get rid of it. He was fed up with what was destroying our future and our joy, and decided to eliminate that burden that broke our back. He died and came back to life. Physically he was tortured and killed, and on a Sunday morning like this one, he emerged from where they had put his body casting off the burden of death. And he said that because of that the burden of spiritual death was also gone for anyone who wanted it. And that is the basis of his ability to say “come to me and I will give you rest.”
C. The one burden which the world claims is impossible to overcome is the one Jesus beat.
John 14:18-19 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.
*It changes the way you look at the world – it changes the expectations and that makes a huge difference. It comes down to whether or not you believe Jesus actually did what this book says he did – if he rose from the dead then it means he could promise things which no one else could ever promise. If death didn’t keep him how can anything else keep him? Here’s what he states. Jesus doesn’t lie, there are things you are going to have to deal with and there are going to be struggles but here is
1. You aren’t alone – It may seem like you are alone, it may feel like you have been abandoned but God does not go back on his promise. You take Jesus he takes you for eternity. Matthew 28:20 And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
2. You won’t suffer forever. Jesus said in John 16:33 " In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." You can dream of a place where things are better or hope that some religious act will get you there, but according to what Jesus said there is a place but only those who want to be where Jesus is will find it. Heaven is only great because God is there – suffering is gone not because of the place but because it is in the presence of life.
3. You will get stronger. What does Jesus say “learn from me…” meaning there will be strength given when you don’t think you have anymore. And because you know it won’t be forever and that you don’t have to do it alone the burden lightens. But remember the real lightening.
4. You will really live.
John 20:30-31 30Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may[a] believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Todd Coget tells the story of how he was driving to church on Resurrection Sunday and he was telling his young children the story. He said “This is the day we celebrate Jesus coming back to life.” Right away his 3 year old son Kevin spoke up from the back seat, “Will he be in church today?”
