Resting by carrying His yoke/ Matthew 11:25-30/ Pr. Lucas Andre Albrecht / July 9th, 2023/ Season of Pentecost

Matthew 11:25-30
Theme: “Resting by carrying His yoke”
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Sermon outline. You can listen to the full sermon on the Website: www.mountolive.ca

Intr – (carrying a suitcase). As you can see, I am already set for vacation this coming week. It’ll be just five days, but still, it is a good time to stop, to rest, to renew.

But wait a minute… A person would start a period of rest carrying a heavy suitcase or even a few of them? Is this how you rest: carrying weight? Well, it is interesting the ways in which rest these days by filling our weeks off with lots of other attributions.

“Resting by carrying a yoke” might not be that strange for us Christians though. The Gospel of Matthew helps us to understand why.

 
1 – THE YOKES

_Yoke – originally it is a wood beam used upon the shoulders of cattle to do some agricultural works.

_In our life, what is yoke the weights that we carry along our day, month and year? (pastor opens the suitcases which has bricks in it)

Take for example the words “heavy laden”. A good translation in the original Greek could read “exhausted’, “extremely tired of too much work.” How does that fit in our time? It is a good match for sure. We work, and work too much, and we worry, we get anxious, we give in.

As an example, in a pun with a word yoke, one of the things that get us exhausted this day is the pressure to be woke. You never know when a word is usable or not anymore, when you can say this or that, when you can voice your Christian opinion or when that is considered offensive, or liable of a law suit.

It is an exhausting World. There is no doubt that we need relief. We need rest.

2 – THE REST

Now, it is very interesting that Jesus says: “you will find rest for your souls”, for is not just interesting; it is crucial, fundamental.

It seems that Jesus is focusing on something very serious: the main cause of our exhaustion is not in the body, not in society, not “out there”. It's in here, in our soul. When our soul doesn’t have the rest in Him, other content may take over our heart and soul, and the situation gets worse.

If our problem was just a tired body, or just a lack of courage, maybe it would even be easy to solve. Alcohol, free sex, drugs, medication, meditation, positivity, getaways…so many offers around us.

But the beginning of the problem is in the soul. So it is for the soul that Jesus offers rest and refreshment. The rest of what He did to solve the greatest problem that most paralyzes and tires us, sin. He has already provided relief, by his work. By faith we are freed from the burden of condemnation and our soul has rest. And starting there, we can extend this healing, this relief to the other areas of our life.

 3 – The STRIFE

But this is where Jesus seems to contradict himself. What is the rest that he offers for our day today? "His rest is a yoke." That's weird. Resting by carrying yokes, stones, weights?

No. Jesus is talking less about weights of life, and more to the way of being. The way He lives is the yoke. Yoke because we work in subduing the flesh and fighting in the spirit, the struggle that Paul mentions in Romans 8. But at the same time, relief, because we know we have Someone who will make us win. He has already given us eternal victory. (Puts in Suitcase: The Bible, Faith, Trust, Word, Sacraments, Love)  He guides and leads us throughout this struggle, which is blessed, which is joyful, which rests the soul from exhausting itself so much with the things of the world, and not getting tired of doing good, living humility and so many other attributes that He has given us.

When we fail to see that our souls need the rest that bearing the burden of Christ gives us, we are almost certain to carry useless bricks, or look elsewhere for content. Because even if physical and mental relief happen, they shall pass; but when the soul rests in Christ, there is no burden we cannot bear. This is living from another perspective: living with peace in your soul.

Have you ever stop to think that as a Christian you have the privilege of living with peace in your soul? It doesn't matter what situation you find yourself in, where you live, who you live with, what you do, you have peace in your soul! Let's try to get a little closer to what this represents with an illustration:

It’s the fore last day of the month. Debts exceed more than twice your salary. The company where you work at is in a financial crisis and you can lose your job at any time. Your child may miss the school year at a private school you are paying for. And the doctor's consultation indicated that there may something of concern in your body that needs further investigation. How hard can that be? Well, on top of that, you are insecure about your appearance, you feel that you cannot perform as well as you would like at work and you take out these frustrations on your wife or people you love around you, who fight you back. The ambient at home is getting sourer by the day.
Suddenly, someone tells you, "Hey, I have paid your debts, you don’t need to worry about them anymore." Another person at you job says: "You're getting promoted, with a salary raise." Your child’s grades start to improve. With a lot of good things happening, you start to feel more secure about yourself and become more proactive with yourself and your family. Can you imagine the effect of these events?

Now multiply that over a thousand times. Jesus has paid a price that is completely un-payable. He won an unconquerable victory to save us from Hell and give us Heaven. He loved us in a way that no one else could. He extended to you forgiveness and the life that never ends for free. This is rest for the Soul! This is God’s providence for you!

It's kind of crazy isn't it? That's why Jesus thanks the Father for not having revealed it the wise, to the haughty, to the self-sufficient but to the little ones who know dependence, trust and love. This peace is different from anything else in the world – whose peace may be physical, mental, or psychological. A life centered on the principles of the Word of God, centered in Jesus is a life where peace is found in the soul, even when the body is tired or the mind worried. And, consequently, peace in the soul ends up being reflected in other areas. This peace is from the inside out, not the other way around.[1]

Here is one way to illustrate many occasions in which God’s providence and protection are there even when you don’t actively realize it: (short video of an unfazed child in a zoo while behind her there is a lioness behind a glass wall trying to reach her).

 Cc – Finally, depending on where we are going and how long we intend to stay there, it determines the size of the suitcase, or suitcases, that we choose.
Our life is a long journey, so don’t be content with “spiritual handbags”. We need content. When our luggage is full of what Christ offers us, we are able to go all the way. And yet, we do both at the same time. We rest, for we have His love. And we continue to fill it with the good content leading us to reach the last step of the journey, when we will be able to meet Jesus and rest. Then Jesus will invite us: “Come and enter my rest. You don’t need that luggage anymore. You will now carry never ending joy and contentment through all eternity.”

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[1] “But pastor, those other problems of the illustration could have the fast, easy solution you mentioned as well, right?” Indeed, we all would wish that, and it may happen sometimes. But we don’t want to fall into prosperity ideas like “those who have faith will be constantly wealthy and healthy”. This is not Jesus' light burden. Often times when we think such and such a thing would be good for us, God in his wisdom which surpasses ours knows better. I know cases of people who lost their jobs to completely change their lives; a disease that transformed people's perspective in life; a difficult situation that brought people closer to the Father. Or even a simple daily problem became a great opportunity to share Christ. Jesus’ yoke is our yoke; a light, beautiful and steadfast one.

 Photo by Robbie on Unsplash