Title: Resting in the loving arms of Jesus!
Text: Matthew 11:25-30
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.
Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, "Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bows implies."
The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make. Aesop explained, "If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it."
People are also like that. That's why we all need to take time to rest. In today's Scripture, Jesus calls all who labor and are heavy laden, to Himself for rest. And in the Old Testament, God also set a pattern for us when He "rested from all His work" (Gen.2:3).
In the Lord we find spiritual rest and also God tells us that physical rest is needed. By setting aside a special time to relax physically and renew yourself emotionally and spiritually, you will be at your best for the Lord … if you have taken time to loosen the bow.
Our Daily Bread, June 6, 1994.
Resting in the loving arms of Jesus!
Jesus has been telling the disciples these last few weeks in our gospel lessons about the hardships they will encounter as they go forth as his messengers. Jesus tells them that the world we hate them and families will be divided by this word of the Gospel. We too know this at times in our own families where faith is fully realized with some members brought to faith and trust in our Lord and savior Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit while others seem distant and led by a different spirit, not trusting Christ or seeming to care much about Him.
Hope may be in the world and what it offers, in themselves and the wisdom of reason and understanding or just in peace where at times there is no peace. The burdens of life can be heavy. The scribes and Pharisees of Israel deemed themselves the custodians of the wisdom and understanding of the Law in all its applications. To them the Gospel is hidden, because they deliberately close their hearts and minds against its beauties. But to babes, those that are as ignorant of this world's wisdom as little children, God has revealed the glory of the Gospel.
The gospel promises that all by faith through God’s call will be brought to the loving arms of Jesus and there they will find rest. Just as rest is needed in life after physical activity also spiritual rest provides comfort and strength for the soul.
Resting in the loving arms of Jesus!
Ill.
A story is told of one man’s challenge of another to an all-day wood chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had.
"I don't get it," he said. "Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did."
"But you didn't notice," said the winning woodsman, "that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest."
Source Unknown.
Rest can be productive. It can be a physical rest that allows our bodies to take the tension of the bow off if you will. But also it can be a time of rest when the lord feed us and gives us His peace as we give our cares that laden our lives and the burdens that we carry every day to the Lord.
Ill.
Sometimes we can just be too busy. As has been said:
Beware of the barrenness of a busy life.
Chuck Swindoll once said:
Business can ruin relationships. It substitutes shallow frenzy for deep friendship. It feeds the ego but starves the inner man. It fills a calendar but fractures a family. It cultivates a program that plows under priorities. Many a church boasts about its active programs: "Something for every night of the week for everybody." What a shame, he says! With good intentions the local church can create the very atmosphere it was designed to curb.
Dr. Charles Swindoll.
Having worked for years in retail I know how much this cost me with regards to my family. Working Saturday and Sundays, evenings until 8 but many of us have to make our schedule work and unfortunately we can’t opt out. The one that bothered me the most was Amy’s first communion. It was on a Sunday, we had service and her first communion and then family at the house for a party. I was able to stay for a few minutes but we had the last day of our sale at Madonna University and I had to be there by 1:00 PM. I want to be at home with my family but also had an obligation to my boss and company. As we all know it has got harder for families. For many, two incomes are required or through the brokenness of the family the one parent has to do twice as much. The burden can be great.
Ill.
Visiting fellow member Dexter Jarrett in the hospital, who is battling cancer, getting blood, and dealing with surgery recovery. I asked, “Dexter, I brought communion would you like to receive it?” He said, “Sure.” And then turned to the nurse and said, “Were going to add a little life giving blood of our own!”
It was comforting to talk with Dexter. He said, “I never worry about my life and this stuff, I just give it all to the Lord!”
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Resting in the loving arms of Jesus!
Jesus began the Gospel reading today with these words:
“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children;
"There are two things over which Jesus here is glad. The first, that God has hidden such mystery from the wise and understanding. The other, that He has revealed it to the little ones, the simple, the babes. Those are the children and babes that do not talk against the Word of God, that do not murmur against God's will, but, as He deals with them, they are well pleased with it. This includes all those that are not wise and understanding in their own conceit, nor fall into God's work and Word with their reason."
Kretzmann vol. 1 pg. 65
This is what Luther had to say:
Therefore, know that Christ Himself was made our righteousness, virtue and wisdom by God (1 Cor. 1:30). In him God the Father gives all his wisdom, virtues, and righteousness in order that they might become ours. This is what it means to know the Son. Moreover, you should know that the Father in his mercy gives (reckons) to us His Son’s righteousness, which is His own righteousness; for the righteousness of the Father and the Son are one; it is one life and one virtue which is given to us. This is what it means to know the Father of Christ.
LW American Ed. Vol. 51 pg. 28-29
And Jesus adds:
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
Jesus’ burden is light, namely, for you that believe His words; and His yoke is easy, namely, if you look upon Christ … who has promised to give you rest, as He Himself says there: And you will find rest for your souls. For these words: “you will find”, indicate that who are in Christ are without rest for a time. But that the difficult time will be short and the rest of the soul, however, which the believers will find in Christ, will be important and eternal." That is the final comfort of God’s Gospel-promise: There remains a rest to the people of God:
9 So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, 10 for whoever has entered God's rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Heb. 4, 9.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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