The Great Invitation
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden of light. Matt. 11:28-30.
How to find God is the question of the human heart down through the ages. It was certainly the quest of Jesus' hearers. In Matthew 11:27 He had told His audience that the way to discover God was through Himself. He follows that announcement with an invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
The word "rest" is the key to understanding this passage. The Septuagint (Greek) translation of Exodus 33:14 uses the same word to signify the rest that God was to give Israel through Moses' leadership. Throughout the first Gospel, Matthew has been comparing Jesus to Moses, and its development parallels the Exodus experience. Jesus, in Matthew's eyes, is the prophet like Moses whom God said He would raise up (Deut. 18:15, 18).
But, the second Moses will succeed where the first failed. The second will give that "rest" promised through Moses but was never achieved (Matt. 11:28, 29). That argument dominates Hebrews 3 and 4, which argues that Christ is greater than Moses because He brings His people into true "rest."
Another key word in our passage today is "yoke." The rabbis spoke of "the yoke of the law" as a great blessing, but under their interpretation it had actually become a burden. Jesus later accused the scribes and Pharisees of making the people carry "heavy...loads" by their legalistic demands (Matt. 23:4, NIV). With their thousands of regulations and rules they had perverted God's intention in the law through Moses.
But Jesus seeks to bring His followers back to God's original plan: that the law be a blessing as people focus on its spirit and not merely the letter. With the multitude of extra baggage that the Jews had added to it, it had become massively heavy and impossible to bear.
Unfortunately, people are still in the business of making the yoke of the law heavier and heavier with this rule and that, with this restriction and that, until the law becomes something to escape rather than to delight in, as it was for the psalmist (Ps. 119:47, 70, 77).
Keep your eyes on Jesus as He continues to expound on the spirit of the law, but even more so as He indicates how His death will lead to ultimate "rest."
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden of light. Matt. 11:28-30.
How to find God is the question of the human heart down through the ages. It was certainly the quest of Jesus' hearers. In Matthew 11:27 He had told His audience that the way to discover God was through Himself. He follows that announcement with an invitation: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
The word "rest" is the key to understanding this passage. The Septuagint (Greek) translation of Exodus 33:14 uses the same word to signify the rest that God was to give Israel through Moses' leadership. Throughout the first Gospel, Matthew has been comparing Jesus to Moses, and its development parallels the Exodus experience. Jesus, in Matthew's eyes, is the prophet like Moses whom God said He would raise up (Deut. 18:15, 18).
But, the second Moses will succeed where the first failed. The second will give that "rest" promised through Moses but was never achieved (Matt. 11:28, 29). That argument dominates Hebrews 3 and 4, which argues that Christ is greater than Moses because He brings His people into true "rest."
Another key word in our passage today is "yoke." The rabbis spoke of "the yoke of the law" as a great blessing, but under their interpretation it had actually become a burden. Jesus later accused the scribes and Pharisees of making the people carry "heavy...loads" by their legalistic demands (Matt. 23:4, NIV). With their thousands of regulations and rules they had perverted God's intention in the law through Moses.
But Jesus seeks to bring His followers back to God's original plan: that the law be a blessing as people focus on its spirit and not merely the letter. With the multitude of extra baggage that the Jews had added to it, it had become massively heavy and impossible to bear.
Unfortunately, people are still in the business of making the yoke of the law heavier and heavier with this rule and that, with this restriction and that, until the law becomes something to escape rather than to delight in, as it was for the psalmist (Ps. 119:47, 70, 77).
Keep your eyes on Jesus as He continues to expound on the spirit of the law, but even more so as He indicates how His death will lead to ultimate "rest."
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