The Invitation

 

                                                                                                                                Title and Other images courtesy of Pixabay.com

“My Father has entrusted everything to me.  No one truly knows the Son except the Father, and no one truly knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”  Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.  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.  For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”  Matthew 11:27-30

You might recall Alice in Wonderland is a children's story.  If you recall it in detail, you remember it is not a very pleasant children's story.  Alice falls through the looking glass down a long dark place; all alone, she faces some very scary and confusing circumstances. 

The difficulties Alice faced were fantasy.  Most of us will never be confronted with a Cheshire cat spouting riddles with a toothy grin, or a nasty Queen of Hearts shouting off with your head! 

The wonder in Wonderland is that same aloneness and desolation many of us felt when we saw the World Trade Center collapse on 9/11, or, more recently, the frightening experiences of children unsafe from a deranged shooter.  Columbine and Uvalde are not necessarily in our thoughts every day, but in times of common tragedy and anguish we recognize the burden of Wonderland all too well.

All through Alice’s adventure she was looking for direction, a road to travel.  Like Dorothy in the Land of Oz, there is the anticipation of rest and home, if we can just get where we're going. 

Comfort and peace can be in short supply when you need it most.  There are so many experiences of life that cause us to cry out, I just don’t understand!  One preacher said about this inner need for peace:

Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.  If only we could slip over into that Center!^[1]

Have you been there?  Everyone who has sensed that need for serenity has been at that place where rest seems like it will never come again, as if the burden is all we’ve ever known.  The pressure of life awakens us in the middle of the night.  Life can be hard!

In our text we meet Jesus swimming in a culture of incredible opposition; the pressure was intense: 

·       John the Baptist questioned Jesus.

·       The crowds were dwindling

·       Galilean cities were not responding to even great miracles

·       and the Pharisees were turning up the heat with political accusations.

And in the middle of the heat of battle we find Jesus not only serene, but he is filled with a calm and peace we’d expect as if he were home in the recliner, TV remote in hand. 

Jesus was the bedrock of peace among a culture in turmoil.

Please notice what happens when you take Jesus up on his offer:

You Get Rest when the Burdens are Overwhelming

In the middle of a world gone mad with Roman Emperors tightening the screws, local cheating tax collectors, rampant poverty and disease, and no relief in sight, Jesus turns to the crowd of anxious, haggard, over-burdened, and worn-out people and offers:

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.      Matthew 11:28

Weariness and burdens…sound familiar?  Life is wonderful, but it does take its toll. 

I read about a woman who telephoned a friend and asked how she was feeling, Terrible, came the reply over the wire, my head's splitting and my back and legs are killing me. The house is a mess, and the kids are simply driving me crazy. Very sympathetically the caller said:  Listen, go and lie down; I'll come over right away and cook lunch for you, clean up the house, and take care of the children while you get some rest.  By the way, how is Sam?  Sam? the housewife gasped. My husband isn’t named Sam.  My heavens, exclaimed the first woman, I must have dialed the wrong number.  There was a long, quiet pause, and then the weary mother asked, You’re still coming over, aren’t you?

Even though burdens, life’s sorrows, and hard times are part of living, Jesus' offer to us is to Come.  That is an invitation to come closer to Him, to connect to Him, so that the closer we come to Jesus the less our burdens can hold us down. 

Psalm 68:19 assures us, "Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.  Selah."  It is like the old hymn I learned as a child:

Cast your care on Jesus today, Leave your worry and fear;
Burdens are lifted at Calvary, Jesus is very near.^[2]

That coming near to Jesus, connecting to His grace, is vital.  Without a vital connection to Jesus, an intimate and personal fellowship, the so-called rest will be a fraud. 

We once had a toaster that provided entertainment, rather than toast.  It had a frayed wire.  The sparks were like Disney's light parade.  Electricity knows when you are not its' master.  I have a lot of respect for electricity.  But when I fixed that toaster, it became like some of our things that didn't get professional care. 

The family calls it a Dad-fixed thing.  Whatever dad fixes is sure to come unglued, undone, and certainly the results are unholy! 

It is like that with the Christian's walk with the Master.  Without a good connection we become short-circuited; there is no power, our rest is a fraud, a fake!  And, like me with toasters, and anything else mechanical or electrical, there’s no fixing it without a miracle.

When we come to Christ, we offer Him our past life.  We place the sinful things we have done on that altar, asking for His power to overcome those same temptations in the future.  This is the kind of rest that recuperates your whole being, and makes you fit for His service. 

Our son Jason was a Staff-Sergeant with the 35^th Engineers in Mosul, Iraq.  He had been there 6 months on his second tour.  After dealing with the stress of serving in a war zone for half a year his superiors said:  Go take a rest.  He took a plane to Germany and spent nearly 2 weeks with his wife and daughters.  R&R was refreshing, but then he went back with the men in the field, to serve again.  This is the rest Jesus promises; not a life free from work or problems, but an oasis when you need it.

A good solid connection demands that we daily put our life in His control by putting aside the love of sin; THAT is a good connection!  In the process, our burdens get lifted by the Prince of Calvary. 

Another thing that takes place is…

Your Life Gets Balanced  

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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:29-30

Balance is a matter of knowing and living by the right priorities.  For the believer, there is only one balanced priority:  Whatever Jesus wants is what I want.

Jesus says to take His yoke, and to learn by following in His footsteps.  There is (at least) some apocryphal evidence that Jesus, the carpenter, made some of the best yokes in Galilee.  A good yoke is light, doesn’t chafe while you work, and is balanced so the major load of the work is borne by the lead person or animal.

Jesus’ footsteps were balanced.  There were:

·       times of intense prayer, balanced by times to laugh when the children came running up to him. 

·       There was a time to heal, balanced by a time to swing the whip in the temple. 

·       There was a time to eat, balancing a time to fast for forty days. 

That is also the balance a Christian warrior needs.  Taking his yoke means joining with Jesus; it also means understanding that in His yoke, He is the leader. 

·       We serve, giving ourselves to Christ, allowing Him to take control…and he lifts our burdens. 

·       We serve, putting ourselves in His yoke, a place where He bears the leader’s weight. 

So…What?

·       What do we do about that? 

·       How shall we live our lives? 

·       How shall we apply this understanding that coming close to Jesus means having our burden lifted; and that coming close to Jesus means balanced lives? 

I’d say the conclusion is that we must spend our lives coming close, connecting with Jesus.  We must take the time to develop putting on the gentle yoke; accepting the leadership of the Master.

Today many of us may feel like Alice, having fallen through the looking glass.  Muddled deep in:

·       trials and temptations on every hand,

·       a bill that is bigger than your income,

·       a relationship that just won’t work,

·       or some mountain to climb that’s getting bigger each day

Whatever frenzy the world throws at you, know this…His yoke is easy; His burden is light!  And when you come close you find out that, as the songwriter put it, there is rest along the wearied way.

In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen!  

Blessing/Commissioning:

·       Go from this place with your burdens lifted, your soul rested

·       Go from this place with your shoulder well-fitted to the Master’s yoke, gentle and powerful.

·       Go from this place to bless and serve others in His name.

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[1] Harry Emerson Fosdick quoting a Quaker

[2] Burdens are Lifted At Calvary, Words and music by John M. Moore, copyright 1952