Come and Learn from Me

 Read Matthew 11:25-29

I have looked forward to this message since we began this Words of Jesus series 4 months ago. In many ways but different words we arrive where we began.

We love the first part of this pericope. 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

That’s some cool beans right there. How many times are we overwhelmed by our circumstances, at least in our hearts and minds? We need rest, respite, relief, and probably some words that don’t begin with the letter R.

We want the rest of the Lord. We want rest like we can find nowhere else. We know that God grants us peace that goes beyond understanding. He grants us peace not as the world knows peace but as only God knows it. We want and need and long for rest that goes beyond what we can get in this world.

We need more than the world can give.

Jesus went up mountains to get his relief from the world.  We go to Jesus.

We love that, but that’s not the part of this pericope that we are focusing upon at the moment. We continue reading to the end of this scripture set.

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.

And so we come to a word that we don’t use much anymore—yoke.

If I tell you something funny, it’s sometimes called a joke.

If I push my finger into your belly, it might be called a poke.

The white part of the egg is called the albumen. Got ya!

But we are not talking about the yolk but the yoke and we don’t do a lot of yoking these days.  When we did, the yoke was often a wooden crossbar that connected two animals used for pulling something—a wagon, a plow, or a stump that needed to be removed from a field.

A yoke is a cross beam from which bells are hung—at least back in the days when bells needed to be substantial enough to alert a community.

Animals were yoked together. Paul talked about being unequally yoked—bound together with a pagan.  That creates problems just as yoking a huge animal and a small one together might create problems if you wanted your furrow to be straight.

This is western Oklahoma so I probably don’t need to explain furrow. If you don’t know, you can google it or ask a farmer. It’s a plowed row.

There is another form of being yoked. It is being yoked to your rabbi and his teaching of the Torah.

Priests came from the tribe of Levi—the Levitical order. They did the work in the temple, including the sacrifices, incense, and I’m guessing that the junior priest was also in charge of the cleanup. There was surely a lot of blood and some guts on sacrifice day.

Rabbis were teachers.  What did they teach?

They taught how to apply the Torah in the lives of God’s people. It was surely a respected profession or calling. It required work. It required commitment. A heart for God would surely come in handy as well.

To understand the rabbi and his yoke, you need to understand elementary education in Israel.  Great! If Tom sees 2 or 3 teachers gathered together after the service, he always scolds them and says, you better not be talking school on your day of rest.

But Tom gets to talk about elementary education. Yes, we are talking 2000 to 3000 years ago, but elementary education nonetheless.

Everyone went to school. The curriculum was not approved by the superintendent or a committee. It was approved by God.

Education back in the day didn’t involve multiplication and division as much as it did knowing God’s word. Every kid learned the Torah. Every kid knew the first 5 books of the Bible. These young men knew what it said and had much of it memorized.

Sorry girls, but it was a different time.

Some had a natural inclination to learn what God had to say to them. A rabbi might come across such a child and challenge him to follow me and I will teach you the ways of God so you can teach them to others.

If they accepted the call, they were said to have taken on the yoke of the rabbi. They were bonded to him by his teaching and application of God’s word.

What about the other kids?

At some point, those not chosen to take on the yoke of a rabbi were told to go learn to do what their fathers do:  Stonemason, carpenter, worker in the fields, rocket scientist, or fisherman.

So, what was expected from the student—or disciple—of the rabbi?  Learn from him.

Learn from him!

The disciple was to learn from his master. Just to tie up this part a little more succinctly, rabbi means my master.

The word rabbi was pronominal.  That is, it is a noun meant to be used as a pronoun.

Teacher was a good form of address. My master offered a hint of a deeper relationship.  This was my rabbi. I am yoked to him because I am seeking God and his ways and desire to learn from the one that he sent me.

It was a very special relationship, one in which the rabbi would teach his disciples how to put God’s words into practice.

OK, thanks for that tidbit on history and education. Can we go to lunch early today?

We could, but you will be fed better here if you can hang in there for the charge or challenge.

What about us?

Jesus was teaching. He was speaking to those who followed him or were considering it. He was speaking to some who might one day profess Jesus is Lord!

We say that Jesus is our Savior. Amen and Hallelujah.

We say—or at least we are working towards—saying that Jesus is Lord.  That’s a tough one but we have committed to get there.

·       The Bible tells us that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

·       He is Messiah.

·       He is our intercessor at the right hand of the Father.

·       He is the best hotel manager ever. Our room is already ready for us.

·       He is the light of the world and the bread of life.

·       He is the Gate and the Good Shepherd.

·       He is the resurrection and the life.

·       He is the Son of God.

·       He is Lord!

Are we ready to call him my Teacher and my Master? Are we ready to take on his yoke and learn about his Father’s ways from him?

Are we ready to take on the yoke of our Master and learn from him?

Hear the verse again.

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.

In taking the yoke of Jesus upon us, we not only learn from the Lord, we receive rest for our souls. We are granted rest beyond what we can get in a good night’s sleep or the best nap ever.

We can rest to the core of our very being.

If we really want peace, rest, and the assurance that in Christ we are made whole and complete and completely healed of what is killing us, we need to learn from our Master.

Do we want to have this sort of rest and relief and reprieve from what ails us? Do we?

You kids won’t know the band Badfinger but they had a song that went If you want it, here it is. Come and get it.

Jesus wasn’t quite so glib but he was that simple in his offer.  He was telling those gathered and us, your peace is here for the taking.

The answer to receiving real peace lies in learning from our Master and putting his words into practice.

But that comes with the risk of persecution and being ostracized and not fitting in with the world. Yes, it does and all those things are signs that we are seeking the Lord, not the world. We are seeking the rest that only he can give.

We are seeking rest that goes to our very souls.

The rest that we can get in the world is great if you can get it, but we need rest that engulfs us, protects us, and assures us that we can make it. That can only come from the Lord.

Hear the verse once again.

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.

God is love and in his love, we may find genuine rest. Let us take his yoke and learn from him and rest from the world.

Let us take his yoke, learn from him, put his words into practice, and know what it is to really rest.

Can we do this?

Jesus said:  My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Amen. 

Rest

Read Matthew 11:28-30

We have spent the better part of this year on love, love and action, love and peace, and the fact that love and peace have great companions.

I think that we get this.  We are trying to put the words of our Master into practice.  We want this thing called life to be built on solid rock not shifting sand.

We are loving one another, to include some people who we don’t really like, and they might not like us either.  But we do our best to love them.

We are not content with just knowing that we are saved.  Our love compels us to reach others with good news.  We do take our commission seriously.

We know that we are being shaped by God.  He is taking our hearts and shaping them like his.  We are being made in the likeness of Christ Jesus.  It’s all about love and we are known by our love.

We are Christ’s disciples.  The world knows that we belong to Christ because we love one another.

Sometimes that creates problems for us.  Sometimes we are persecuted.  Some people don’t like us or this whole truth thing.  We know that the truth sets us free.  The world has been blinded and thinks that the truth imprisons them, and they reject it.

We will have trouble in this world.  We follow Jesus and know that trouble is just part of the deal until he comes again.  We are encouraged that he will come again.  He has overcome sin and death.  He has overcome the world.

That brings us joy.  This is victory and we are happy about it. 

We even have peace in the midst of the world’s turmoil.  We have peace that goes beyond our understanding. We have a covenant of peace.  God promised not to remove his peace from us.

And we as God’s people are leaning into this love, and love in action, and peace stuff with all we have.  Yes, we are learning to set aside our own understanding and trust God with all of our heart.

Yes!  Do you know what a victory that is?  These are powerful steps in our growth.  We are growing in grace.  We are pressing on towards the goal.  We are living for Christ.  We are a living sacrifice.

Yes, there are hiccups in our discipleship, but we confess and live in the promise of forgiveness, and get right back in our race of faith.

We are getting the hang of this discipleship stuff, this abundant life stuff, and we are tired.  The Spirit revives and rejuvenates us again and again and we continue on, but we need some rest.

We need rest!

God designed us to work and to rest.  The original model was work 6 and rest 1.  God modeled this.  God does not necessarily continue this model for himself.  Jesus said that his Father is always working.

Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man not man for the Sabbath.  Rest is essential to our physical health and our spiritual wellbeing.  It is part of the design.

We need rest.  We are designed with rest in mind.

Sometimes that means sleep.  Sometimes it means just letting go of the demands of the world for a time. 

Sometimes it is just to take a load off.

We are designed with rest in mind.  We are to rest from our labors.

Have you ever been on vacation and when you got back, you were so glad to be back because you had to rest from your vacation?

Not everything that we do that’s not work is rest.  Rest is an entity unto itself.  Sometimes we rest when we partake of recreation.  Sometimes a vacation can be rest.  Sometimes solitude can give us rest.  Sometimes gatherings of family and friends bring us rest. 

It’s not the same for everyone.  What is the same is the fact that we are designed for rest.  Go on – Stay on is not our design.  We are all designed for rest.

There is another form of rest known a resting in the verse.  You take a scripture and read it, perhaps memorize it, but say it over and over in the course of the day.  You don’t study it.  You don’t analyze it.  You rest in it.

The 23^rd Psalm is an excellent example.  You can analyze this passage from now until Jesus comes again.  That will bear fruit.  On the other hand, you can rest in the verse.  Just come back to this verse time and time again during the course of the day and let God’s holy word work upon you.

Rest involves being relieved of our burdens, at least for a time.  The Greek word for burdened or heavy ladened is φορτίζω:  Phortizó (for-tid'-zo).

It means to be weighted down or overloaded.  Paul reminds us to carry our own load, but we are also called to help others with what they have to carry.  But sometimes we just need to let go of the whole load.

We must rest.  Listen to the words of our Master again.

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.  All of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

We need rest.  Jesus offers rest, but he really offers Rest Plus.  Plus what?  His way.

Our call is not only to get rid of our burdens but to take on his way.  His yoke is easy.  His burden is light.  He is gentle and humble at his core.  He is love as his Father is love and in him we find rest.

It’s not just come in, take a load off, and rest.  It’s come in, take a load off, rest, and learn from me.

Our carnal mind says, Well…. Learning doesn’t sound like rest but the vacation that exhausts us so that we have to come back to work in order to rest does?

If God designed us with periods of rest in mind (and he did), would we not want to know what the Designer has to say about this matter.

We understand, remember the Sabbath and keep it holy.  We at least get that intellectually.  In today’s world, we struggle to set aside an entire day be that Saturday or Sunday or another day set aside for that purpose.  We struggle.

So we should take the yoke of our Master and learn from him.  The Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  What does that mean?

It means that the Sabbath has self-contained benefits.  We were designed for rest.  The Sabbath was designed to give us that rest.

We think, well I set aside most of this day to rest, then we take a work-related call and while our body is resting in the recliner, our mind is back in the office or on the road or grading papers or calling on customers.

We think we are resting and then find ourselves in a political argument online.  Responding won’t wait until tomorrow.

We wonder if God knows how hard it is to give up a whole day?  Does he really expect that?  The answer is no.  That is not what he expects.

If you have read the Torah you will note that there are other days besides the Sabbath that are to be observed like a Sabbath.  We are to have recurring rest and we are to have feasts and more rest that comes in seasons.

We may not live in tents for a week.  That’s an acquired taste from God’s Chosen People whom he delivered out of bondage in Egypt.  We have been grafted into that family, but none of our natural ancestors lived in tents in the wilderness for 40 years.

It has become our history through the seed of Abraham, Christ Jesus, but it never was our culture.

We may not bring a first fruits offering from our fields, but when we bring food offerings, we know to buy something new and not dig that can of black beans that we bought 8 years ago, thinking it’s only 3 years expired.  We understand first fruits.

We don’t bring sin offerings.  We confess.  God is faithful and just to forgive. Yom Kippur is not really a big deal for us.  Jesus made the offering to atone for our sins.

We don’t do everything like the Law of Moses told his Chosen People to do, but we should understand rest.  We must understand that we are designed for rest.

God modeled rest for us.  Six days he labored—he created.  One day he rested.

Does he do that now?  I don’t think so.  Jesus said that his Father is always working.

So, is he always working or does God take a Sabbath?  Yes.  God took a Sabbath at the end of the creation process.  He had made humankind in his own likeness and modeled rest for us.

But now, he is always on the job.  Could you imagine lifting up your prayer and getting a recording?  Thank you for calling the heavenly realm.  God is out of the office right now for his Sabbath.  Please leave a message.

When Jesus walked the earth in the flesh he needed time away from everyone.  Mountain tops were good for teaching and good for getting away.  The area at Gethsemane seemed to be a good place to rest with his close friends who followed him everywhere.

The Jordan River area was a nice place to retreat and rest.  Jesus took rest in this world.

If you live in a vessel made from mud, you need rest.  If you live in these jars of clay, you need rest.  If you live in a human body, you need rest.

From generation to generation, rest has become more elusive.  Even when you are not at work, you are seldom resting.  We will talk about rest from now until Advent, but for now, know this.  You were designed with rest in mind.

You are designed with rest in mind.

Take a day from your labors and live according to your design.  Rest.

Amen.