These concluding verses from Matthew 11 are among the most quoted and beloved statements ever to come from the mouth of Jesus. That celebrated preacher of the first half of the twentieth century, G. Campbell Morgan, once said about them: “In all probability no words that ever fell from the lips of our blessed Lord have more remarkably and profoundly taken hold on the heart of man than those of the last three verses of this paragraph.” With them, Jesus extends to US, as he did his own disciples, two very specific invitations. In the FIRST half, we are invited to “come” to him, that is, we are asked to approach him and yield ourselves up to him- any persons who may be feeling overwhelmed and overburdened for one reason or another. He says, “Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Jesus means any and all BURDENS, any and all CARES, any and all GUILT and FEARS and ANXIETIES, any and all SORROWS and PAINS, TRIALS and DIFFICULTIES. He wants us to bring ANYTHING that might rob us of our faith, our hope, and our joy, ANYTHING that might serve as an impediment in our relationships between ourselves or with him. We are to take ALL of them to Jesus because he understands just how we feel and he knows what to do with them better than WE could OURSELVES. 

The reality is that ALL of us are burdened in one way or another with some of us having to bear far GREATER loads than others. Who among us HASN’T felt the impress of deep loneliness, regardless of how many family and friends we may have. Who among us DOESN’T have some fear of advancing age and the physical and financial limitations that come with growing older. Over the past few years, I’ve lost two first cousins whom I grew up with and some very close friends from a former pastorate- one of whom was my age and another who had served as a kind of surrogate father to me over the years. Where I once believed I would live forever, the scent of mortality now surrounds me and grows stronger with each passing day. The truth is that ALL of us at one time or another must shoulder the burden of BEREAVEMENT, the burden of UNRELENTING GUILT, the burden of REGRET, the burden of FESTERING ANGER and HATRED, the burden of POVERTY and HUNGER and of DECLINING RESOURCES. We can ALL find ourselves dominated by various problems and concerns and responsibilities- to the extent that our faith is weakened and our joy much rarer. But Jesus KNOWS and UNDERSTANDS our situation and concerns, and this why he invites us to “come” to him for he ALONE is able to give us rest from life’s crushing loads WHATEVER they may be!

All that Christ demands of us is NOT that we make some kind of theological confession such as “Jesus is divine” or declare him to be part of the Blessed Trinity; nor is it that we are to join his church and begin proselytizing others on behalf of his kingdom. He simply says “Come”- “COME to me” and I will take care of the rest. It is his summons for us to enter into relationship with him and it is that relationship with him which will change our lives forever. How often did he say during the course of his ministry, “come to me,” “learn of me,” “follow me,” “love me,” “obey me.” He’d state “I am the Good Shepherd,” “I am the True Vine,” “I am the Light of the World,” and “I am the Bread that came down from heaven,” meaning that all truth, morality, and religion were contained NOT in his dramatic miracles or profound teachings but in his own PERSON, and that we can only know and discover what REAL truth and morality and religion is only when we enter into a dynamic and personal relationship with HIM. The most revolutionary aspect of Christ’s ministry was that he illuminated the world, not by what he did or what he said but by what he WAS, and by coming to him, we are invited to share in his life AS WELL. 

A couple of years ago, I read how when John Lennon, the former Beatle, could no longer walk around in public due to his great fame, he became addicted to television as that was the only way he could still see what was going on in the real world. He particularly enjoyed watching some of America’s best-known evangelists- Pat Robertson, Billy Graham, Jim Bakker, and Oral Roberts. In 1972, he wrote a desperate letter to Roberts confessing his dependence on drugs and his fear of facing up to “the problems of life.” He expressed regret that he had said that the Beatles were more popular than Jesus and enclosed a gift for Oral Roberts University. After quoting the line “money can’t buy me love” from his former number one hit, he said, “It’s true. The point is this, I want happiness. I don’t want to keep on with drugs. Paul told me once, ‘You made fun of ME for taking drugs, but you will REGRET it in the end.’ Explain to me what Christianity can do for me. Is it phony? Can He love me? I want out of hell.”

Well Oral Roberts wrote back to Lennon saying, “I thank God that you see this, John, and finally regret thinking any man or group could be more popular than Jesus. Jesus is the only reality. It is Jesus who said ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life.’ So, you see, your statement that because of your hard background you've never wanted to face reality is actually really saying you've never wanted to face our loving Lord. What I want to say, as I tried to say in my other letter, is that Jesus, the true reality, is not hard to face. He said, ‘Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest…For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’ You said, John, that you take drugs because reality frightens you. Remember as you open your life to Jesus, He will take all the fear away and give you peace. Peace that passes all understanding.” Though Lennon later rejected Christianity, declaring himself instead a “born-again pagan,” it shows that the invitation to come to Christ with all our burdens and problems DOES have a universal attraction and when we DO hear its call, when we do sense its clear summons upon our heart, THEN is the time to respond in faith.

But there is a SECOND part to Christ’s invitation, when he said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest unto your souls.” This is a rather strange request for if in the first half of it, we are enjoined to simply “come to him” with all our burdens and problems and we will find rest for our souls, then in the SECOND half, we discover that this rest involves assuming the same yoke that oxen are outfitted with to pull heavy loads and placing it upon our OWN shoulders. To experience this rest, we are first required to slip an ox yoke over our necks—a horizontal wooden bar that binds two oxen together for the purpose of pulling a cart, a plow, or a stone grinding wheel--and only THEN will we sense the relief we all yearn for so deeply. Thus we are confronted with a bewildering paradox- the idea that this rest Christ offers us involves strenuous exertion- only how are we to rest and work at the same time? Jesus asks us to surrender our burdens to him all the while expecting us to become something akin to a beast of burden OURSELVES. 

From the vantage point of human logic, it makes absolutely no sense and yet when viewed from the perspective of GOD’S logic, it makes all the sense in the world. However, to understand what Christ means, we first need to clarify his reference to an ox yoke and just how it worked. One commentator has tried to explain it THIS way:

There was an old farmer plowing with a team of oxen. As I saw this team I was somewhat amazed, for one was a huge ox and the other a very small bullock. That ox towered over the little bullock that was sharing the work with him. I was amazed and perplexed to see a farmer trying to plow with two such unequal animals in the yoke and commented on the inequality to the man with whom I was riding. He stopped his car and said, “I want you to notice something. See the way those traces are hooked to the yoke? You will observe that the large ox is pulling all the weight. That little bullock is being broken into the yoke but he is not actually pulling any weight.” My mind instinctively came to this passage of Scripture where our Lord said, “Take my yoke upon you, learn of me; for I am…” In the normal yoking the load is equally distributed between the two that are yoked together, but when we are yoked with Jesus Christ, He bears the load and we who are yoked to Him share in the joy and the accomplishment of the labor but without the burden of the yoke.

In the ancient world, the yoke was a powerful symbol of subjugation and submission. It was not only laid on the necks and shoulders of oxen but even prisoners of war and slaves. The Jews would frequently speak of “the yoke of the Torah” in reference to submitting oneself to the yoke or authority of Jehovah and of his Word. When Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,” he is saying the same thing- he invites us to become his pupils, his disciples and to submit ourselves under his lordship. If we do, he promises to give us rest from our burdens. With Christ always at our side to help us, our load, regardless of how heavy, will suddenly become light and easy, ESPECIALLY SINCE HE IS SHOULDERING MOST OF IT. We may bear half of it, but HE bears the OTHER half, the HEAVIER half. 

And because he IS gentle and humble in heart, we never have to fear that he might reject or abandon us and find someone ELSE to take our place. As the younger, smaller, and much weaker bullock had to learn to not fight the yoke or the larger and much stronger ox at the other end of it, so WE must become “meek and lowly in heart” OURSELVES and learn to trust Christ who bears the greater responsibility and burden in the relationship. We can then be assured that if we ever grow weak or stumble and fall along the way, he will be there to support us until we reach our goal- of that we can be confident. It is that confidence in him, that assurance of his abiding love and care WITH us and FOR us that serves for us as the basis of all our rest, our peace, and our security. 

But we must keep in mind that, in spite of the rest we are promised, Jesus never calls us to a life of ease. The rest he offers us is never rest FROM work but rest IN work. Bearing the yoke of Christ will always involve effort; following him will always be full of its risks and challenges. St. Paul instructs the church in Galatia, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” In other words, just as Christ shoulders us and our burdens with HIS yoke, so are we now to strengthen and support others with OUR yokes as well. Just as he makes it possible that we never have to walk alone, we can ensure that SOMEONE ELSE never has to walk that mile alone EITHER. To selflessly give ourselves over to someone else's cause, to help them when they stumble, to feed them when they hunger, to clothe them in their nakedness, to be present in the midst of their loss and sorrow- this is what it means to offer OUR yoke to others whose burdens may be crushing THEM down. In this way, we become a series of crutches to each other and the church a community of yoke-bearers- each of us connected to and bearing one another up throughout life. Thus, even as Christ invited us to himself with the words, "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you...for my yoke is easy, and my load is light," so those same words now become OUR invitation for others to assume OUR yoke, the offer to help them bear their load so they might never be crushed beneath its weight.

But here comes the MOST IMPORTANT point. If you think that by coming to Jesus and trusting him and submitting to his lordship that suddenly all your burdens will disappear and all your troubles will be gone, IT ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN. The fact is that as long as we live in this world, still awaiting the promise of heaven, we will STILL have to contend with some modicum of guilt and fear and loneliness and anger and insecurity in our lives. However, because we know that we ARE tethered to someone who loves us with an everlasting love, one who promises that nothing will ever separate us from either his presence or his love, whatever burdens we DO carry will hardly seem burdensome any more. In fact, they will prove to be quite light and even BEARABLE. This is the effect that LOVE has on us, that when we love, even as WE are loved, we then have the capacity to endure the worst afflictions and the heaviest loads that life can lay on us and that we can do so humbly and joyfully without complaint. William Barclay, the Scottish biblical scholar, tells about a man who came upon a little boy carrying a still smaller boy who was lame upon his back. “That’s a heavy burden for you to carry,” said the man. “That’s no’ a burden,” replied the little boy- “That’s my wee brother,” the point being that any burden which is given in love and carried in love is ALWAYS light. 

My friends, this morning there are many kinds of burdens among us whether they are the burdens of declining health or of broken relationships, burdens of bereavement or guilt over a troubled past, the burden of loneliness or the oppressive burden of poverty. But we also have a surplus of yoke wielders, of burden bearers among us so that when you joined Christ’s Church, you discovered that you never had to carry them yourself, that the Church is a fellowship of burden bearers who have learned THEMSELVES how impossible it is to carry them alone. So I would ask you to remember the words of the Psalmist when he says, “Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you.” Do not refrain from bringing to Christ every one of your needs, your cares, your worries. Trust that Jesus is more than willing to impart to you his own strength. But ALSO remember that when you chose to join THIS or ANY fellowship in which Christ is the head, WE--your brothers and sisters in Christ--assumed an obligation to help bear yours and each other’s burdens REGARDLESS of what they were. As St. Paul exhorted the church in Galatia, “Bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ.”(6:2) It does not say that we are to carry them all FOR you but to stand WITH you and to help you shoulder them just as we would expect YOU to do FOR US. Then you may be certain that the joy and the peace and the rest you have longed and desperately looked for your entire life has finally been found. Let us pray…

Heavenly Father, help us to turn our life with all its cares and problems and worries over to you because we know YOU know and understand better than anyone else. Help us to experience and exhibit the peace and joy and rest that comes when we truly learn to trust in you. In Christ’s name we pray. Amen.