Sermon July 11, 1999 Rest for the Weary based on Matthew 11:25-30
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Especially: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
We start today a bit differently, with an object lesson. I have here an object. How many of you can see what it is? That is why you don't want to sit so far in back. I have a balloon. Now, I can blow this balloon up and that works just fine. [balloon inflated and deflated]. Now that works well because I provide the air to fill the balloon up. However, if I held this balloon here, would we ever expect it to get blown up with out someone or something providing the air? No, it takes someone or something to inflate a balloon. You would be surprised if I just held it and suddenly it inflated itself. In fact, we would say the balloon plays no roll at all in its becoming inflated. Instead, it is one hundred percent the result of the effort of something other than the balloon. The balloon doesn't help when I blow it up. [inflate and deflate]
Learn from the balloon a lesson in how we are related to God. Before God, we cannot fill ourselves up. We count on God to do all the work when it comes to bringing us to faith, saving us, raising us from the dead and granting us eternal life.
Many people I meet seem to want to focus on themselves when it comes to religion. Their attention is directed inward rather than outside of themselves. One can hardly blame them, as there is much in our world and culture today which pushes us in this direction. There is the focus on self-esteem. I'm OK and you're OK. I need to feel good about myself. People flock to hear motivational speakers who make them feel special. Books and magazines are available to "lift the spirit" by emphasizing human goodness. The conclusion you are to reach is, "people really are pretty good, and so I guess I am pretty good also."
There is in our world also the growing interest in what they call "spirituality," though this label means something different. They often are involved in activities which focus their eyes on themselves. This may include meditation, where they are emptying their minds and seeking to find their "real self" inside. They are trying to find the answers to life's questions by looking within. They look for self-fulfillment.
This self-focus is like waiting for a balloon to inflate itself. It isn't going to happen. If we look in on ourselves, we won't find the answers to life and salvation.
Much of the self-focus is based on a widely held idea that our works can save us. This idea of works righteousness teaches that if we do enough good works, or don't do too many bad works, then we will be good enough. Here we are again focussing on self when we look at our works.
We began a new study today at 8 o'clock on Mormonism. One of the key teachings of the Mormon church is that you must earn your salvation by obedience to the Law. So, if the members of the Mormon church are true to what they are taught, then they will focus on themselves and their works and hope that those works are good enough to save them.
The trouble is that all this inward gazing really won't work. It may seem like it is working, but we are just deceiving ourselves. I suppose this is like the farmer trying to drive a straight row by looking over the side of the tractor. Now, I hesitate to use this example, because I have never driven a tractor. I am very impressed at the cultivating and re-planting of fields that I have seen recently. To do these things without destroying the growing crop is quite a task, I am sure. I am also sure that if you try to steer while looking over the side of the tractor, you are not going to do a good job. In the same way, if our focus is on ourselves, then we will be driving a crooked row.
So, did you come here this morning to find out more about yourself? Did you come to find the secrets inside of you? Did you come to hear how good of a person you are? If you did, I must give you the unfortunate news that there is not much of good to tell. In ourselves, we only find failures. The reading from Romans said: "the evil I do not want to do-- this I keep on doing." When you come to discover yourself, Christianity presents you with the truth that you are a sinner in need of forgiveness.
Christ says to us: "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." This means He calls those who are weary and burdened with their sins. They are tired of trying to save themselves. They are worn out from looking at themselves and finding failure. He promises them rest.
Jesus wants to teach us about His way to salvation, which is the only true way. He says, "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart..." Christ wants to teach us humility. This means we don't come to Him feeling good about ourselves. We don't come all excited and proud about how good WE do. Instead, we come humble.
He asks us to consider His example. The Old Testament lesson today was the prophecy of the coming of the peaceful savior riding on a colt of a donkey. Jesus fulfilled this several hundred years later on His triumphal procession into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. Jesus came to us as one who was humble and gentle, and we are to follow His example when coming to Him. Instead of being proud and arrogant, we are to approach God humble and even weary and burdened with our sins.
We come bearing our own yoke of sins, that is, carrying a load of our trespasses and wrongs. Then Christ invites us to take up His yoke. This is an exchange of yokes, one of our sins for one of Christ. There is something special about Christ's yoke when we try it on. What is special is that there is no load on the yoke!
Yokes are for connecting a team of animals to a load, such as a plow. When we put on Christ's yoke, we find there is no plow attached. In fact the field is already plowed. There is nothing left to do. This is because Christ already pulled the yoke to the cross of Calvary and to His death there. Christ already pulled the full load over the entire field. All the sins of all people of all time all around the world were on that load. He took it to the cross. Now that the field is plowed and it doesn't need to be plowed again. Because Christ died on the cross for our sins, there is no load left to pull with the yoke. This means, when we put the yoke on, we find that, as Christ tells us, "...my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
What an exchange! We can drop off our heavy yoke and pick up His light one. We don't need to pull the load of our sins anymore, because Christ already pulled them to the cross. This is the Good News to share.
This Good News takes our focus off of ourselves and puts it on Christ instead. We look to Him for our salvation. We look to Him to fill us up, like the balloon. We know that we cannot fill ourselves up. What we do instead, is count on Christ, one hundred percent, to fill us. So the focus goes away from ourself and on to Christ. When we are filled with Christ, we are put at rest. We are given rest by the one who did the work for us. "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
This rest is a wonderful gift from God. This rest gives us access to our Heavenly Father. It comes through Jesus Christ, who is a person of the Triune God along with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches us that He and the Father are one God with this statement: "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him." This really says that the Son Jesus Christ, and the Father know each other, which is what we would expect because they are one God. It also says that if anyone else is going to come to know the Father, it is something that will have to come through the Son. The Son reveals, or lets us know of the Father. He allows us to approach the Father, as we call Him "Our Father" in the Lord's Prayer. There is no way that those who are sinful and unholy are going to come near a holy, almighty, righteous Father, unless the burden of their sins is lifted. So, Christ opens the way to the Father. Only through Christ, that is, through having our burden lifted by Christ, can we come to the Father.
This is an important point when looking at other churches like the Mormons. For the Mormons and many others do not consider Jesus Christ to be one God with the Father. That type of teaching refuses to believe what is presented to us in Scripture, right in our text. This means those who don't believe that Jesus is God are going to miss the only way to be saved. The only way is through Jesus. He is the only one to give us rest from our sins.
We thank and praise God that He has revealed His wonderful gift to us. It is through the simple Gospel and the humble Savior that we gain forgiveness and eternal life. We would not have discovered this blessing on our own, for our thinking is corrupted by sin. This is why the Gospel is hidden from the wise and learned. They might tend to think they have the answers, but if they have missed Jesus or their own yoke of sins, they have missed the truth. The Holy Spirit has blessed us by calling us to faith. We could not come on our own and so, like the balloon, we need the Holy Spirit to breathe into us. With the Holy Spirit calling us to faith, we come as little children, that is those who are humble instead of arrogant. We come as little children, seeing our failures and seeing that Christ is our only way to salvation. Then we are told: "...my yoke is easy and my burden is light." We find rest for our souls and we find that rest outside of ourselves.
If we are focussed on ourselves, we find only failure and sin. The world tempts us to look inward, but the message of Christianity is not to look into ourselves, but to look outward to Christ. So, like the balloon, we must be filled by Christ, for we cannot fill ourselves. When we look outward to Christ, we find rest for our weary burden. We find the Good News where Christ promises to lift our burdens and lighten our load. We find rest from the burden of our sins because they were carried to the cross by Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.