Today we conclude a study that we began last Sunday in Matthew 11 – answering the question: "What is God like"? If you missed it, pick up the tape.
But to bring us up to speed – John the Baptist, having baptized Jesus as the Messiah, has some doubts and sends his disciples to ask the question: "Are you the Messiah, or should we look for someone else?"
John asks this, most likely, because the kind of Messiah he might have expected – someone who fell in line with his message of repentance and judgment – was not the kind of Messiah Jesus was being – all this healing and love and forgiveness stuff.
Jesus, far from criticizing John, still doesn’t answer the question directly. He tells John to look at what he’s done and draw his own conclusions.
We learn from that that
1 – It’s okay to ask honest questions
2 – Jesus doesn’t always answer us straight out
3 – We need to look at what He’s doing and
4 – We need listen carefully – by changing 1 word Jesus hinted that He is the Messiah
5 – You can’t put labels on Jesus – He won’t be put in that kind of a box (glutton/sinner)
So we come to verses 28 through 30.
You know, Jesus is the best selling author of all time, but never wrote a word.
Jesus was one of the most popular speakers of his day, but He never pushed His own self on others
Jesus led the way to our eternal salvation, by living a perfect life and then dieing in our place – yet He said very little about Himself.
What we have in these three verses are some of the only autobiographical words Jesus ever uttered – and even those are filled with love for us.
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
This verse actually operates on several levels. One level is a comparison of the heavy yoke placed upon the Jews by the Pharisees – characterized by the law – compared to the different kind of yoke placed upon us by Jesus, characterized by love.
But there is another more personal level.
Jesus says: No one knows the Father but the Son – then He says He wants us to know Him so He can reveal the Father to us.
Jesus says: Come. It’s in the imperative – a command, not just an invitation. He urges us who are weary and heavy laden and He promises rest.
How do we get weary? We get weary from bearing the load ourselves – of trying to hold all of the things in our lives up and make them all work together. Before coming to Christ even the burden of "what happens after this life?" and "am I good enough to go to Heaven?" weigh us down. After coming to Christ it’s the burden of "am I failing God? Am I doing what He wants?" Maybe we are just weary from life and all the attacks of the enemy.
Jesus answers those questions by saying: Come! And you’ll find rest. The word rest is interesting because it means refreshment. You know how it is to work hard outside on a hot summer day, and someone hands you an icy glass of lemonade and offers you a lawn chair in the cool of the shade. You sit down and drink up – ahh – refreshment.
Jesus offers refreshment – taking our burden of "am I good enough" and saying "no, but I am and I’m going to take your load off."
But isn’t it funny how, as Christians, we still feel the burdens – the burdens of providing for our families, the burdens of keeping relationships going, the burdens of guilt, the burden of feeling that we just don’t measure up somehow.
Jesus calls us to come to Him in that space as well. He tells us to do two things:
Take My yoke upon you
Learn of Me
I think in here are two key ideas to having a successful Christian life:
1. Take on no other burdens than the Lord lays on you
2. Focus your efforts instead on becoming like Him
Some people just seem able to ignore burdens – but for many if not most of us – we feel the weight of responsibility – whether it’s to our family, our church, our work, even our friends. I would challenge you before you say "yes" say "Lord, is this of You?" This is something I struggle with – telling someone the Lord didn’t give me permission to do this seems like a cop out. And certainly I’m not advocating that we use the Lord as an excuse not to commit, not to work hard, not to be responsible.
What I am saying is that either we are taking on burdens He has not lain on us, or we are taking His burdens on ourselves – and not accomplishing His work in His way, His strength, His timing.
He says: "Take MY yoke." So what is the yoke of the Lord? We find it in John 13, Romans 13, 1 Peter 1, 1st John and 2nd John – it is the Lord’s command: "Learn to love one another."
You’ve heard me say it over and over: Become like Jesus so you can love like Jesus.
And what is He like? Jesus gives us one of the only autobiographical descriptions we find in the gospels. No, Jesus didn’t identify Himself as THE MESSIAH. He identified Himself with two characteristics: Gentleness and humbleness.
Gentleness to those living in this time would have been a vice – faked kindness in order to gain personally. But Jesus here raises the idea of gentleness to a virtue. It is not the idea of weakness, but of bridled strength. We choose to be gentle because of love.
Humbleness is literally "to be abased, to be of a low estate." As we realize who we are and who God is, we should be humbled, every day. When we start thinking we are something special in and of ourselves, it is because we have forgotten who we are compared to who God is.
Following Jesus isn’t a free ride
Notice He didn’t say: "Throw off all yokes." He said: "Take My yoke." The yoke is called "easy" but a better translation would be: "kindly." It’s a good yoke – a yoke designed to help and aid – both ourselves as we wear it, and others as we work it for Christ.
Plowing for the Lord is productive
The more we conjure up schemes for ourselves, the less we seem to accomplish. When was the last time you really sat down and asked God, sincerely, to guide you in both your everyday life, and in your long term goals? In doing that, we become more productive. Secondly, you don’t need to worry about the fruit of your labor with the Lord – He’s the one in charge, you walk with Him, and He’ll bring the fruit.
Oxen always plow in pairs
Yoke: "a coupling" The yoke consists of a wooden shoulder piece – one piece that goes over the shoulders of both animals. Then two other pieces attach the neck of each animal to the common yoke. Whose shoulders are broader – yours or the Lord’s? He wants to carry your burdens – but do you let Him?
What do you expect God to be like?
Is He to you a judge? A stern Father? A distant ruler? Or is He a gentle, lowly helper – willing to walk alongside you each and every day, helping to shoulder your burdens and guide you into going fruitful things for Him?
Finally – I want to leave you with this thought: What does this character statement of Jesus say to us about God? His true character is love and tenderness – and yet we see Him angry at sin and rebellion – judging sinners and condemning them to hell.
I think sometimes it’s the only picture we have, of an falling into the hands of an angry God. And yet that God took the time to reveal His TRUE character to us – gentle and humble – wanting to ease burdens and provide rest – THAT is your God, folks.
So how do we reconcile the two? I think God gets so angry at sin because He knows it is a foreign invader. He knows that sin is only out to cause us harm – it is only He that is out to cause us good.
Sin is like a disease – God reacts like a father whose child is sick. He reacts like a Father whose child has been attacked or hurt. Don’t we as parents react the strongest when something threatens to hurt our children? Don’t we strike out in anger – righteous anger? Don’t we want to remove that thing causing so much harm – even if our kids don’t understand why we are doing it?
God’s motive is always love. Even His discipline is motivated by love. He disciplines us so that we can be free from the effects of sin and walk closely with Him.
What does this tell us about sin? Does it tell us that God knows something we don’t? Think about it.
