Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2003 : July 27, 2003
Take Jesus' Yoke of Rest
Pentecost 7
Are you tired? Some of you might say, "I got up early on a weekend, one of my days off, to be in church. I'm tired." That's normal. If we don't get as much sleep as we need -- doctors say we should get at least eight hours of sleep a night -- if we don't get that, we're tired. But I'm talking about being really, really tired. If you haven't run in years and you suddenly find yourself tying on a pair of running shoes and your feet hit the pavement, you're really tired. If you have 2.3 kids getting up in the middle of the night asking for everything from a drink of water to having you make sure there isn't a monster in the closet, you're tired, really tired. You may even have heard your mom say that she is sick and tired -- sick and tired of seeing a messy room, sick and tired of seeing mud tracked into the house, sick and tired of everything, it seems.
All of those are instances of people being really tired. But have you ever been really, really tired? When you're really, really tired, you're weary. "Weary" is quite a word. It reminds me of all the air being let out of a balloon, and then it just sits there, flat, lifeless. We feel that way from time to time, don't we? We might get tired of life itself. We seem to be caught in the same old rut -- get up, take a shower, eat, go to work, come home from work, eat, watch some TV, go to bed. Then wake up the next day and do it again. The next day do the same thing -- day in, day out -- year in, year out. Sometimes wondering if we make a difference. Sometimes just weary of it all. Sometimes just hoping today is going to be the day Jesus finally comes again so we can be free of this weary life. Sometimes we don't even know why we're so weary -- we just are.
Then we also get weary for another reason. We get weighed down with all the worries and cares of this life -- how we'll pay the bills; what we'll do about our job that maybe we just lost or might soon lose; how our friend hates us for some reason; how everything seems to work against us, nothing goes right. That wears us down, makes us weary. But then we think of the greatest burden of all -- our sins. Some days our sins hang over our head like a dark cloud. God described sin as crouching at the door, waiting to devour us. We try to forget about those sins, but they come back to remind us how we have offended the Almighty, the Holy One.
If you don't feel really, really tired, weary, and burdened by a difficult life and your sinful life, then just wait, sooner or later you will feel that way. And when that time comes, Jesus wants to make sure you know where to turn. Not to the bottle; not to an extramarital affair; not to some "pull yourself up by your own bootstraps" philosophy that promises but never delivers. Jesus wants you to turn to the only place where you can find real, lasting rest for your soul. Jesus is encouraging you to Take His Yoke of Rest. It's a yoke that gives rest to the wicked, and a yoke that gives rest to the weary.
Jesus says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me." When Jesus talks about a yoke, maybe some of us don't really have a good idea what that is. You don't have to go back to Jesus' time -- just back to the last century. When farmers wanted to plow their fields, they couldn't start up the tractor. When they harvested, they couldn't jump on the combine. They used animals, oftentimes oxen, to pull the plow. They would hitch up the oxen to a heavy wooden frame that kept them together and which pulled to the plow. That heavy, cumbersome frame was called a yoke. Many farmers throughout the world still use a yoke of oxen to plow their fields.
Jesus isn't comparing you to the farmer. He's comparing you to the oxen, weighed down in life by worries, cares, concerns, and especially your sins. You know which sins those are. You can list a whole host of them -- being a poor father or mother or rebellious child; being lazy; being concerned only about yourself, not others; living your life for yourself, not specifically for God. But there are usually a few sins that each of us has that get us time after time. We find ourselves falling prey to Satan in the same area. He knows just which buttons to push because we've fallen so many times before. The Apostle Paul describes sin as something that entangles us. It trips us up. Which specific sin does that to you? I don't know. Maybe no one on earth knows it but you. But God always knows. Jesus is pictured in Revelation with eyes of fire -- he sees everything; he knows everything. We can't hide our sins from him. When we think about the judgment we deserve because of those sins, we have to despair. We know we are wicked through and through. The Bible tells us that our wickedness is part of us, that by nature every inclination of the thoughts of our hearts is only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5). God doesn't tell us our sins are just times we've been a little naughty, things that God will just forget about. He tells us that we deserve to be thrown out of his presence forever because of them. That ought to wake us up. That also ought to weigh us down even more. Then think of how that one particular sin or combination of several sins in your life has been driving you farther and farther away from your Savior. That ought to make us feel like that deflated balloon. The weight of our weakness and our sins is too much for us to bear.
But that's why we have to listen to Jesus' invitation: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." Notice whom Jesus is calling. Do you feel that your sins are too great to be forgiven? Jesus says, "Come to me, all." That means that no matter how great your sin, God's grace in Jesus is greater. Jesus is talking to you. If you are wearied by this life; if you are burdened with your sins and your conscience is working overtime, then listen to Jesus' invitation: "I will give you rest."
Have you ever heard a workaholic say, "There is no rest for the wicked"? While others enjoy some time off, these people will keep their nose to the grindstone and keep working. But that phrase originally meant that for the wicked, for despicable sinners, there is no place in heaven. But spiritually speaking, we are all wicked, despicable sinners. We should have to pay for that wickedness for all eternity. Everyone in this world deserves God's wrath for eternity. Everyone in this world has to find out how we can escape from God's wrath. Everyone naturally thinks the only way we can escape is by being good. The people at Jesus' time did. That idea had crept back into the church by Martin Luther's time. Saving yourself is what most people today believe. Even Christians can think that from time to time. But that is the weight we are carrying, the yoke that enslaves us to fear and dread and misery and weary life.
But Jesus offers us and the whole world rest -- rest for our souls. "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." There is rest for the wicked -- for us. How? The Bible says that "God justifies the wicked" (Romans 4:5). Jesus came to free us from that weight. That is the gospel, the good news that Jesus came to give us. That gospel message is summed up in the Word of God that says, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:8). Jesus came to give life to all people. Jesus lived the perfect life -- that was God's plan. Jesus died for your sins on the cross -- for every sin we could throw at him. He suffered and died to pay the price for your sins and the sins of the world. Simply believe it and your sins are forgiven and eternal life is yours. Trust in Jesus as your Savior, put all your weight on him, and you can rest secure for eternity. You might think, "That's too good to be true. I have to do something for my salvation!" Jesus says, "No. I've done it all. My resurrection from the dead proves it." Jesus' yoke is no yoke at all because his gospel message gives life to the sinner, rest to the wicked.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.... For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Do you feel weighed down, wearied, by your sins and this world? Take Jesus' yoke that he offers to you. Feel the whole weight of your sins lifted off and feel the gospel of peace and forgiveness take its place. That is what gives us rest, puts the air back into our balloon so we live in this world, not for ourselves, but for our Savior. When a farmer trains a young ox to pull a plow under the weight of a heavy yoke, he yokes the young ox together to an older, experienced ox who is used to being under the yoke. At first, the young ox, dwarfed by the mature ox, won't be pulling any weight at all. Then, when it gets used to it and gets older, it will start shouldering the weight.
That is a good illustration of a Christian. When it comes to our salvation and our forgiveness, Jesus has shouldered the entire burden himself to give it to us for free. Simply trust that what he's done for you is all you need to be saved. Then, knowing our full and free forgiveness, we will more and more be happy to live our lives for our Savior. Will that be an easy life? No. It will be very difficult at times, with the devil, the world, and our sins harassing us at every turn. But the more we think of how Jesus did everything for our salvation, how heaven is ours through faith in him because through faith our sins are forgiven, we will want to show our appreciation by shouldering the burden of living for him, which will be no burden for us at all. After all, since when is saying thank you to someone who saved your life a chore or a burden? God's commands are not burdensome to us who know that we don't earn forgiveness by them. They aren't burdensome because forgiveness and new life is already ours.
Yes, there is rest for the wicked. It is found in Jesus. Yes, there is also rest for the weary. It is found in Jesus too. When life weighs you down, when your sins make you weary, look to Jesus. He will fill you with his forgiveness and a renewed reason for living -- for him. Amen.
