Weary or Wise

by Dorothy Gish

I began preparing this sermon while recuperating from surgery – a time of more rest than I cared to have. But it was also a time when I experienced the reality that one can have a lot of physical rest and still be weary. In fact the weary in this sermon is not related to the tiredness that is the result of a hard day of labour.

How many of us can honestly say that we have not come here to some extent weary? The very idea of retreat suggests at least some degree of weariness: coming apart to be refreshed, renewed, re-energized. Tonight I invite you to think with me about the rest Jesus was speaking of in Matt. 11:28-30:

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 for my yoke are easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light (New Living Translation).

Suppose you are in Chicago’s O’Hare airport and ahead of you is a smartly dressed woman stepped off the escalator which had taken her down to an artistically lit tunnel connecting two terminals. In front of her was a young man struggling with a child and all the paraphernalia that go with an infant as well as a large old-fashioned hard-sided Samsonite suitcase which was obviously heavy. She offered to take the suitcase and stepped on to the long moving walk way behind the man as she carries his suitcase. As the walkway carried her slowly forward, she tightened her grip on the suitcase straining to keep it from toppling her over with its weight. Wouldn’t you want to tap her on the shoulder and say “You don’t have to carry that suitcase. Put it down and the walkway will carry it and you.”

That is a bit of analogy for the context of the passage we are considering tonight. I think it is revealing that this passage is found only in Matthew. Who was Matthew? What was the audience for which he was writing? What was the heavy burden that those Jews carried?
Jesus, born as a Jew, came into a close-knit society which was eagerly awaiting the long-promised Messiah. However, their expectation was that the Messiah would be a powerful king who would subdue their enemies and rule the world. The context of our passage is just after Jesus had just uttered some startling words in vs. 27-29 that clearly indicated His divinity….something which did not fit into the wisdom of the religious leaders of his day.

That is not the kind of wisdom which the Weary or Wise title of my sermon refers to. Nor does the wisdom refer to academic degrees or book learning. It is the wisdom that begins with the fear of God. When Jesus said in vs. 27 that he was the revealer of God, He was assuming a position often assumed by Divine Wisdom in Jewish tradition which held that Divine Wisdom existed before the Torah and was greater than the Torah... In fact Jesus’ offer of rest for the weary echoes the words of Divine Wisdom in the Apocraphal book of Ecclesiasticus 24:19: Come unto me, all ye that be desirous of me, and fill yourselves with my fruits. This is a promise that no ordinary teacher would make. So, in ways that His Jewish audience clearly understood Jesus was indicating that He was the embodiment of God’s Divine Wisdom. And as such, He extends to His followers a three-fold invitation of one syllable, action words which they could choose or refuse: Come, Take, Learn.

COME: Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

As I worked on this sermon just after Christmas, there was a media blitz bombarding one with news of sales up to 75% or more off. In the stalled economy, unusual measures were being taken to get people to buy. But those “comes” rolled right off me because I had no need to buy more stuff. An invitation to come is effective only if one perceives that something will be gained by it. Thus, those who accept Jesus invitation admit that they are weary and carry heavy burdens.

Weary- fatigued, exhausted, worn out. We’ve all experienced this on a physical level, but there are many kinds of weariness. What kinds of weariness can you think of? here’s the weariness of trying to live up to other expectations or of never getting it all done. Perhaps the greatest weariness of all is that of trying to be good enough to earn one’s salvation.

What’s a burden? The dictionary says it is something that is carried, the bearing of a load. According to Wikipedia, a burden is a heavy weight that is difficult to carry. Metaphorically it refers to anything difficult or troubling. So, for example, if someone gave you a very small box weighing only a few ounces to carry with you on a trip in order to deliver it to a designated person, it would not be a burden. However, if that box contained an heirloom diamond, the responsibility of carrying it would be a burden.

You were given a note card tonight to write something for your eyes only. Quiet your heart for a moment and bring to mind the weariness and/or burdens that you came here with. List the most pressing of those. How did just naming that burden make you feel?

Jesus was speaking to people who were weary of trying to keep the Law. In addition to the Torah, the Law which God gave to Moses, there was the Talmud, which contained their oral traditions with so many laws it was almost impossible to keep them all. In fact, Jesus referred to the Pharisees as binding heavy and insupportable burdens, and laying them on men's shoulders.

So, Jesus was trying to help them see that He was the Messiah who came to fulfill the law. He wanted them to realize that he came to free them from that burden by taking it on himself. And as a result we are invited to come, give him the burden of trying to earn his favor or trying to be good enough to please Him. In exchange for that burden he offers us his love and forgiveness as a free gift. But gifts must be received and so he invites us

TAKE: Take my yoke upon you. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.
“Yoke" can mean “
A bar by which the end of the tongue of a wagon or carriage is suspended from the collars of a harness;
Or a bar carried across the shoulders, by which a person can carry goods, such as two pails of milk, one at either end; or the shoulder piece of a shirt...

But its primary meaning is a wooden beam which is used between a pair of animals to allow them to pull a load. According to my research there are three main kinds of these yokes: a bow yoke which fits over the neck, a head yoke which fits in front of the head and Withers yoke which fits on the highest point on the back of an animal, on the ridge between its shoulder blades.

Basically a yoke implies partnership and it is a partnership meant to facilitate carrying out a task. The footnote to this passage in the Contemporary English Version says: Yokes were put on the necks of animals, so that they could pull a plow or wagon. A yoke was a symbol of submission.

Because Jesus came to fulfill the Law, He freed us from trying to earn our righteousness through it. When we submit to him and give him that burden, he makes us his child. The one who created us for His glory offers us the choice of accepting His loving invitation to be adopted into His family. He paid a great price to make that choice possible for us. Receiving His free gift of salvation makes us a member of his family. That means that we put on the yoke of being His child. We no longer live to please ourselves or others but in obedience to His wishes.

So why did Jesus say his yoke is easy and his burden is light?

Because he carries the major part of the load. If two animals of unequal strength are yoked, the stronger one bears the brunt of the load. He saves us by grace and empowers us by his spirit.

Because he gives us a yoke which fits. Jesus, the carpenter—who, with Joseph, undoubtedly had experience making yokes hand crafting each wooden yoke to fit the body of each individual beast of burden. Just as a loving earthly parent nurtures a child in a way that takes that child’s personality and gifts into account, so our Heavenly Father chooses the yoke which best fits us. And having created us, He knows us better than we know ourselves and he helps shape us into what He made us to be.

That involves continued learning and some difficult lessons, so the third part of Jesus’ invitation was:

LEARN: Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Jesus was saying that just as He had taken on the yoke of entire submission to His Father's will, learning of Him how to meet the troubles of life with humility and meekness so when we are yoked with Christ in submission to Him, He wants to teach us to model his behavior.
Let’s consider the two specific traits Jesus used to describe his behavior.
Humble or lowly in heart

Listen to Philippians 2:5-8 from The Message

 5-8Think of yourself the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.

Humility was not a trait highly valued by the ancients…nor is it today. Phillip Brooks made an apt comment when he said, 'The true way to be humble is not to stoop until you are smaller than yourself, but to stand at your full height against some higher nature that will show you what the real smallness of your greatness is."

I think that’s what Paul had in mind when he said in Romans 12:2-4: For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you (NIV).

Or as the Contemporary English Version (CEV) says: I realize how kind God has been to me, and so I tell each of you not to think you are better than you really are. Use good sense and measure yourself by the amount of faith that God has given you.
Meek or gentle at heart
Meek: tractable, docile, free from harshness, sternness, or violence
- Kindly; serene; patient a gentle disposition
- Not violent, harsh, or rough
- Showing patience and humility; gentle.
- Easily imposed on; submissive.

Many people even in the church think that to be meek is to be weak. But the opposite is true. What the Bible is talking about is a powerful virtue. The slogan “strong enough to be gentle” comes close to defining it. True meekness is best seen in Christ. He was submissive, never resisting or disputing the will of God. His absolute trust in the Father enabled Him to show compassion, courage, and self-sacrifice even in the most hostile situation.

Modeling his meekness means that we will bear insults without lashing out in proud resentment or retaliation. We'll thank God in every circumstance, while using every circumstance, good or bad, as an occasion to submit to Him. Meekness would be weakness if it meant yielding to sin. But because it stems from goodness and godliness, it is a great strength.

As you think about humility and meekness, perhaps your response is similar to mine: How much learning I still have to do!

Jesus, the embodiment of Divine Wisdom, has offered His weary, burdened children rest by coming to and submitting to and learning from Him. What does that mean for me today?
Jesus is speaking about a spiritual rest.

Rest doesn’t mean cessation of activity but rather ceasing my striving to please Him in my own strength or trying to do things in my own way. It frees me from the need to be constantly busy. Indeed it helps me see the need to stop doing in order to spent time being and to just spend time in His presence.

I need to examine whose yoke I’m wearing.

At a recent dinner with friends, one topic of conversation was this passage. One of the guests told this very interesting story about Dr. Paul Meier, author and co-founder of the Minirth-Meier Clinics, who related the story of how at one time in his very busy, hectic life as a psychiatrist, father, church member, etc., he read in his devotions the passage in Matt. 11 where Jesus said, "Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me... for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." He became very angry with God, telling God that the yoke he was bearing was anything but easy or light, so how could Jesus make that statement? As he later shared this experience with his colleague, Dr. Frank Minirth, Dr. Minirth asked him to consider whose yoke he was actually bearing, his Heavenly Father's or his earthly father's. At that point Dr. Meier realized that his motivation was indeed arising from his upbringing in a very strong German family, where his father's motto was "Arbeit macht das leben zusse" (Work makes life sweet). Once he recognized this, he was able to reprioritize, and found that God's yoke indeed was easy in comparison. So many of us are weary because we are bearing the load of subconsciously trying to earn our parents’ or others’ approval even if they are long dead or trying to live up to other people’s expectations.

Experiencing his rest requires submission.

It is impossible for two beings yoked together to move in different directions. When we try to go our own direction or the direction which we think will please others or fulfill their expectations, all we succeed in doing is chaffing ourselves we are not submitting to his yoke but to one of our making. The choice is mine. Will I take the yoke he has tailored to fit me well and to lighten the burdens I must bear and accomplish the task of growing my faith? Or do I choose to be burdened with the yoke of my own making?

It means living out of a spirit of meekness and humility.

Nothing can overthrow one who is yoked to Christ and learning from Him to do it His way with humility and meekness. That is a way which requires a life time of learning because it is contrary to our world’s way of pride and right. That is the place of perfect rest to the heart.
We’ve considered Jesus three step invitation: Come to me, Take my yoke and Learn of me. We’re going to close with a time of quiet for you to reflect on what you have heard Him say. If it is helpful take that card on which you wrote your burdens and weariness and ask the Lord to show you which are not His yoke for you. If you are willing to submit it to Him, draw a yoke over it so signify that you will allow Him to carry that burden as you learn from Him how to respond to it His way with meekness and humility.

Dorothy Gish is retired from many years of teaching and administration at Messiah College, and currently is the dean of the Eqipping for Ministry program of the Brethren in Christ Church. She is a member of the Carlisle BIC Church.

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