Are You Tired and Worn Out? (Matthew 11 and Luke 7:18-50)
Are you tired of carrying the weight of life alone? Jesus invites the weary to find real rest by walking with him and learning his gentle way.
Matthew 11; Luke 7:18-50
Today's Scripture Passage
A Few Thoughts to Consider
Are you feeling emotionally or physically exhausted?
In Matthew 11 and Luke 7, Jesus speaks about the greatness of John the Baptist and issues some words of warning to those who do not repent. But then, at the end of Matthew 11, we see these words: 28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Building on his upside-down kingdom message from The Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows that God the Father chooses to work not with those who seem to deserve it most but with those who are lowly and humble. As N.T. Wright notes,
Jewish writings had, for a millennium and more, spoken warmly about the wisdom of the wise. God gave wisdom to those who feared him; a long tradition of Torah-study and piety indicated that those who devoted themselves to learning the law and trying to tease out its finer points would become wise, would ultimately know God. For the average Jew of Jesus’ day, this put ‘wisdom’ about as far out of reach as being a brain surgeon or test pilot seems for most people today. You needed to be a scholar, trained in languages and literature, with leisure to ponder and discuss weighty and complicated matters.[1]
Now, Jesus was showing that just the opposite was true. As D.A. Carson wrote, “Jesus offers eschatological rest, not to the scholar who studies Torah, but to the weary.”[2] It was the children, the people without deep theological training, and the poor of society through whom God was working. This reversal of roles “represents the basic reversal of human values which constantly recurs as the values of the kingdom of heaven are explained in this gospel, and Jesus, as the Son who alone fully understands his Father (v. 27), can declare that this is the way God intended it to be.”[3]
Eugene Peterson’s The Message paraphrases Jesus’ words as follows: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
