“I need a rest! I’m tired. I’m tired of getting up early. I’m tired of staying up late. I’m tired of working my fingers to the bone. I rarely get a break. I have to keep going and going and going and there doesn’t seem to be an end to all the things I have to do. I work so hard, but I never catch up. No matter how hard I work, there’s always more to do. I’m tired! I want a break. I want a rest.” Can you identify at all with the sentiments I just quoted? Are you tired? Could you use a rest?

     If so, you have good company. Moses needed a rest. He had (reluctantly) led a whole nation out of captivity to another nation. After the miraculous plagues, after the amazing escape through the Red Sea, Moses was worn down with the people complaining. “Weren’t there enough graves in Egypt that you had to bring us out here to die?” That was one of their popular complaints to Moses. Boy, that had to drag him down. They complained they didn’t have enough to drink, another time they didn’t have enough to eat, another time they complained they didn’t like what they had to eat.

     You can imagine how Moses would tire of all that. It felt to him like he had to carry the whole nation. Then, when Moses is at the pinnacle, literally at the top of the mountain while God is giving him the Ten Commandments, the people are down below in the golden-calf incident, making their own god and worshiping it. The result is that a plague is sent, and many people die, and finally it all stops. But Moses is all tired out. He doesn’t want to go any further. He says to God in effect, “You told me to lead this people, but I can’t do it by myself!” God says, “I will go with you and I’ll give you rest.” (Exodus 33:14) That’s a great promise. I’ll give you rest I’ll refresh you. Wouldn’t you love to hear God say that to you, too? “Help me out, God, I can’t go alone.” “I’ll be with you,” God assures you! “I’ll give you rest.”

     As a matter of fact, God had designed it for us to have rest even long before Moses. Right from the beginning, God designed a Sabbath rest, a rest on the seventh day, a day to have our spiritual batteries recharged, to be refreshed in God and equipped to go forward. As a matter of fact, God has promised always to go with us, too. We never go alone.

     But we do wear down. We do tire out. And let’s face it, a lot of times we have no one to blame but ourselves, wretched people that we are. That’s the way St. Paul talks. Talk about a man who was tired, so drained of energy. He was practically speechless about what to do. Full of questions.  “What I do I do not know! For not what I want do I do. But what I hate, this I do.” (Rom 7:15) For the good I wish I do not do, but the evil I do not want, this I do.” (19) “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” (24) St. Paul is at the end of his rope. He’s tired. He’s worn out. He can’t fight anymore. The evil in his flesh is warring against the good he wants to do. It’s a battle. It’s tiring. “Who will rescue me?” he asks. Fortunately, St. Paul knows the answer: “Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (25)

     Every one of us knows the struggle that Paul had. We all struggle with sin. We all struggle to do what is good and loving and right, and yet the temptations seem so pleasant. They seem so desirable. They seem so irresistible! I can’t do anything else, we tell ourselves. And we tire. We grow weary. We need help. Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

     Here’s how God relieves us. Jesus said it plainly: “Come to Me, all you who are toiling and are weighed down, and I will give you rest.” (Mt. 11:28) Jesus is talking to you. Are you tired out? Feel like you have the weight of the world on your shoulders? Feel like your responsibilities are too much? Feel like you have no help? “Come to Me,” says Jesus. It’s another way for Jesus to say, trust Me, believe in Me. “Come to Me, and I will give you rest.” Oh, those are great words. Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. “I will give you rest.”

     But how does God give us rest? The very next thing out of Jesus’ mouth seems like a contradiction. “Take My yoke on you and ...” And we don’t hear any more. Take My yoke! Like I need another burden! You know what a yoke is! A pair of oxen would wear a yoke and they would pull against that yoke to move forward their burden. And it was a burden. When Jesus says take My yoke, the first thing I think is carrying one more burden all by myself. And I can’t do any more. I’m already past my limit! I need rest!

     “But don’t you understand?” Jesus says to us. “That’s the whole point of a yoke. It’s to help you. It’s My yoke. It’s how I help you with your load. We’ll take the load together.” And you find that when you and God are paired together as two oxen are paired under a yoke, that your burden is suddenly very easy to bear. Because God pulls with you.

     We get the idea we have to bear the burden all by ourselves. It’s my fault, my sin, I’m going to have to do something about it. I have to make things right. It’s my responsibility. Like Paul, we despair. It’s too much. We all have a bit of Pharisee living in us. No matter how many times we hear it, we think we have to make things right. We have to be good enough to get to heaven.

     The yoke we wear with Jesus is easy because Jesus bore His yoke alone. Picture Jesus walking through the streets on the way to His crucifixion, the cross over His shoulder. He’s carrying the yolk alone. He died alone. He carried our sins for us. And any burden we go through, we share with Jesus. His yoke is easy, because Jesus does the heavy pulling. His burden is light, because Jesus lifts the burden of our sins away by Himself.

     Jesus gives us rest. To worship is to rest, to be refreshed. For we rest in Jesus as we come to Him. And on the last day when Jesus comes for us to take us to be with Him, then will come the perfect, eternal rest. It will be wonderful. Rest is not just the end of bad things, the end of sickness and pain, the end of work and sins. Rest is that, but it is more. It is perfect peace in Jesus, and joy that knows perfect bliss and happiness. “Come to Me,” says Jesus, “if you are weary and loaded down, and I will give you rest.” Doesn’t that sound good? Rest in Jesus... now. Take up His yoke and learn from Him... and you will find rest for your souls.

July 3, 2005

I Need a Rest!

Scripture references: Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 7:15-25, Exodus 33:12-23

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