Rest for Your Soul

Reference

Matt 11:28-30

In 1735, two French scientists, Bouguer and La Condamine, set out with a team to the Andes Mountains in Peru to determine what the circumference of the Earth was.

Why go all the way to Peru to measure?
This was the 18th century: it took them over a year just to travel there. Further, the Andes mountains are some of the most notoriously difficult terrain on the planet. In fact, the entire expedition was plagued by problems. Mobs, division within, insanity, death, defections.

Why go to Peru!?

Isaac Newton’s calculation that the earth was not a perfect sphere. Impossible! Look at the moon, look at the other planets, they look like perfect spheres!

Newton explained that because of centrifugal force from the Earth’s rotation, the planet actually flattened slightly at the poles and bulged at the equator. Hence, the French Royal Academy of Sciences commissioned an expedition to travel to the equator to prove Newton wrong. And after nine-and-half long, grim, sun-blistered years, the French team confirmed that Newton was, regrettably, correct.

When I read that story, I thought about how most of us—how I *myself—*respond to the teachings of Jesus. I know that science is different—confirming or disproving hypotheses through experiment is kind of how the whole gig works—but isn’t there part of you, when you hear that story, that says: Newton already did the math! He’s really smart! Don’t kill yourself trying to prove him wrong!

Yet, when it comes to Jesus’ teachings—the wisest, smartest, and best of all teachers—we tend to set off to the proverbial mountains of Peru to see if He might actually be wrong. Consider some of His teachings:

“You cannot serve two masters, you will either love one or despise the other”

“Do not be anxious about life…which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his life span?”

“All who sin are slaves to sin…if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed”

“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me…for apart from me you can do nothing.”

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Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matt 11:28-30

An Invitation

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. - Matt 11:28

Jesus throws out an invitation to the weary and burdened.

“Labor” doesn’t refer to normal work—but is a present tense participle, meaning those who are perpetually working. Labor is not a curse, work is not evil. But work must be punctuated by rest. If one works without rest, you soon become exhausted.
- Thus, most translations use “all who are weary”.
“heavy laden” or “burdened”
- Cargo on a ship (Acts 27:10)
Isaiah’s perspective on the true God vs. false gods

Have you not known? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
- Isa 40:28-31
- Idols always leave you exhausted, always leave you burdened.
  - The word Jesus uses for “burden” he also uses to describe the punishing burdens the Pharisees would put on the back of their followers (Luke 11:46; Matt 23:4). False religion crushes you.
- What is an idol? It is taking anything in creation and treating it like the Creator; looking to it to give you a sense of identity, purpose, inner peace, and meaning in life.
- “Enoughness”
  - “Listen carefully and you’ll hear that word enough everywhere…You’ll hear about people scrambling to be successful enough, happy enough, thin enough, wealthy enough, influential enough, desired enough, charitable enough…good enough. We believe instinctively that, were we to reach some benchmark in our minds, then value, vindication, and love would be ours—that if we got enough, we would be enough.” (David Zahl, Seculosity)
What weighs you down?
- You are busy.
  - This is a sneaky sin because it looks good, respectable. Busyness is a badge of honor. Busyness makes you an adult, feel like you matter.
    - “Men tell not only their wives but themselves that it is a hardship to stay late at the office or the school on some bit of important extra work which they have been let in for because they and So-and-so and the two others are the only people left in the place who really know how things are run. But it is not quite true. It is a terrible bore, of course, when old Fatty Smithson draws you aside and whispers, “Look here, we’ve got to get you in on this examination somehow”… A terrible bore… ah, but how much more terrible if you were left out! It is tiring and unhealthy to lose your Saturday afternoons: but to have them free because you don’t matter, that is much worse.” (Lewis, The Inner Ring)
  - It’s good to be busy! But how do you know when it is being fueled by an idol?
  - You cannot slow down, there is always more to do, more to learn, more to see, more to experience. You feel guilty admitting you have limits, saying “no,” or resting.
- You are binging.
  - Scrolling ourselves to death, because numb feels better than guilty.
  - Internet brain. Addicted to dopamine, distraction, self-medicating—we skim along the surface of life.
  - Sometimes, we are busy because we are binging—we aren’t crazy busy, we are lazy busy.
- You are broken.
  - I don’t love the word “broken” because it excuses guilt, but it starts with B.
  - Weighed down by sin, maybe sin that you have struggled your whole life with, or maybe it is a sin that you never imagined would surface.
    - Why am I incapable of being content? Why am I lusting and envying for more?
Jesus invites any and all who are weighed down, exhausted, and depleted.
- “Let our miseries drive us to seek Christ” -Calvin

A Yoke

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. - Matt 11:29

Why a “yoke” for weary, exhausted people?
- “In the New Testament yoke is always used metaphorically and signifies bondage or submission to authority of some kind.” - PNTC
- Yoke as sign of being conquered (Jer 27:2-7; 28:10)
- Literally, a yoke is a wooden bar placed on the back of the neck of cattle or oxen, usually hitched to a plow or cart. It is an instrument of labor.
- Jesus just invited people who are laboring, who are bearing heavy loads—those who are suffering under a yoke already!
When Jesus invites you to take up His yoke, it is this interesting blend of images then:
- Are you weary and long for rest? Take my yoke and labor
- Do you want to be free? Submit and be conquered
- Do you want to live? Take up my cross and die
Jesus doesn’t call us out of labor to non-activity; He dignifies us with meaningful work. He renews our strength so that we can run and not be weary! We were made to work!
- We all long for a quest, a great task to give ourselves too, to sacrifice for.
- Jesus offers such a life. Paul can say: I worked harder than anyone else…I fought the good fight, I finished the race. That’s what we want!
The question is not whether we will bear a yoke, only “which yoke?”
Jesus gives you two reasons to take His yoke rather than the false gods:
- “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
  - “What can be lighter than a burden which unburdens us and a yoke which bears its bearer?” (Rothmann)
  - The yoke of false gods are exhausting. They are never enough.
    - The Greatest Showman (2017, dir. Michael Gracey)
      - All the shine of a thousand spotlights All the stars we steal from the night sky Will never be enough Never be enough
    - Get the promotion, get married, get children, get the vacation, get the package on your doorstep…whatever your “enough” is…get it…and find that it’ll never be enough. Everything fades. You’ll start looking for a new job, looking to move to another city, looking for another partner.
    - You did great on that presentation, but next time you’ll need to do even better. And with every success that cools into a new normal, or sours into failure, you’ll need to work harder to hit that next mountain top, that next high, and your yoke and burden will grow heavier and heavier.
- “…for I am gentle and lowly in heart.”
  - When you fail the idol of success, beauty, and power, it crushes you. If your functional Savior in life is your performance at work or at school, if you fail to hit your quota or get the grade, you won’t just feel sad, you’ll feel like someone should be punished, either yourself or someone else.
  - What happens when we fail Jesus? Jesus is gentle and lowly in heart. So gentle and lowly, He actually takes our punishment on Himself. He doesn’t humiliate us, He himself is humiliated. He bleeds for you.
  - False gods rely on law; Jesus provides gospel
    - “Even when we see the stupidity of our sins and how empty they are and how they only make us sad, that realization still does not change us. We start changing only when we see Christ.” - Ray Ortlund

A Promise

Rest

Immediately following this teaching, Jesus confronts false ideas the Pharisees have about the Sabbath and proclaims: “The Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” (Matt 12:8) Sabbath and rest are connected.

God rests on the seventh day and consecrates it as holy.
God doesn’t rest because He is tired, He rests to commune with His creation. Sabbath is about communion with God.
“All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” - Matt 11:27
The pathway to true rest, communion with God, is found through Jesus.
Give Jesus your attention
- 22 “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! - Matt 6:22-23
- Right before this, Jesus teaches us not to put our treasure on earth but in heaven (Matt 6:19-21) and then right after this He teaches us that no man can serve two masters (Matt 6:24). In both of those passages, He speaks specifically about money. In between, however, He puts this interesting passage about our eyes and what they are fixed on. Why? Because, like our money, our attention is a valuable commodity—you pay attention.
- Your eyes will be fixed on something just like your shoulders will be under a yoke. The question is only what they are fixed on.
  - Make Jesus the still turning point of your world. Learn from Him. Learn first what He has done for you and then learn second how He has modeled life to be lived.
“Learn from me.”
- Jesus’ yoke means following His teaching, following His life, which means many things, but at a bare minimum that means that He must have your attention.
What changes do you want to see in your life?
- To align ourselves with Jesus there may be things we need to cut out from our life.
  - What crowds Jesus out of your vision?
  - What makes you too busy, mentally or physically, that you cannot give Jesus your attention?
  - What binging habits do you have that leave you incapable of deep thought, prayer, reading, meditation?
  - Take the month of January as an opportunity to fast from certain habits that are leading to an impoverished spiritual life.
    - Fast from social media for the month
    - Make your phone “dumb” for the month
    - Talk as a family about what you want your TV habits to be.
    - Aim to read a chapter and pray the Lord’s prayer every day.