Rest Up

I think many of us are looking for rest these days.  Part of the rest that we need is physical.  We are exhausted from the schedules we keep, having far too much to do and too little time to do it.  Part of the rest that we need is spiritual.  We have a gnawing emptiness in our souls.  We are besieged with doubt, with fear, with anxiety, with guilt, and with a general sense of disquiet.  We want to turn the thoughts off in our brain but we don't know how.  Alcohol, drugs, entertainment- those are the things that we unsuccessfully use to try to keep our hearts, our minds, our souls at rest.

In Matthew 11, Jesus gives us a different path to rest.  He tells us how rest for our weary souls is found:

1. We admit that we are weary and tired.  This is implied in the words "Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened."  This invitation calls people to admit their weariness and their inability to handle life before they come.  Our society says the answer to feeding our souls is found in looking for the answers inside ourselves and calling on inner strength.  Jesus says the answer to finding rest for our souls is found in admitting that we don't have the answers.

2. We come to Jesus.  "Come to me."  This coming suggests that we are leaving all other things behind.  We are relying on Jesus plus nothing to find the rest that we need.

3. We obey Jesus.  In Jesus' day, the yoke was a symbol of discipleship.  When Jesus says, "Take my yoke upon you," he means "Follow Me."  "Obey My teaching."  "Live life as I did."  I think many Christians never find rest because they don't take this step.  They come to Jesus.  They confess Him.  But they never undertake the radical obedience of discipleship.  Without obedience, there is no rest.

It may seem odd to say that Jesus' yoke is "easy."  After all, any disciple knows that following Jesus is hard.  Taking up the cross is inherently painful and even humiliating.  When Jesus says His yoke is easy, He doesn't mean that following Him is without difficulty.  Instead, the Greek word translated easy means well suited or well purposed.  The life may be hard.  The body may not always rest easily.  But the soul knows it has found that meaning for which it was intended.  In confessing our shortcomings, in confessing Christ as our only hope, and in obeying Jesus, we find the rest for our souls that we crave.