The Great Invitation: Unforced Rhythms of Grace

Top 12 Scripture Texts: Number 7B
Matthew 11:28-30
Bob Rakestraw


Last time we began to look at one of the most remarkable passages in all of the Bible. I have called it “The Great Invitation.” These astounding words of Jesus are found in Matthew 11:28-30.

"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, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light” (New Living Translation).

This scripture portion has been one of my top-twelve all-time favorites for over four decades, but it has become especially meaningful—even revolutionary—to me during the past few weeks. What has helped me so greatly in my practical, everyday life has been there all the time, looking out at me from the gospel of Matthew and even stored in my memory. I wrote about the new insight in my previous posting, so I will only briefly review it here.

In essence, I realized I had been denying the full truth of Matthew 11:30. I felt that the yoke of Christ was uncomfortable, and that his burden was heavy. I was resting in the knowledge of sins forgiven, eternal life, and the truth that he was working everything—even adversity—for my good. I was also looking to God daily for strength, patience, and love. But I found life hard. I came to see that I needed to make a major attitude adjustment, which I have begun to do during the past few weeks. While I still find external aspects of life difficult, especially because of my poor health, I am now viewing my life from a different perspective. I am focusing on the grace-full quality of Christ’s expectations for me (his “easy” yoke) and the true lightness of the burden he places on me daily.

Before I move on, I want to present Eugene H. Peterson’s paraphrase of our text in The Message:

"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" (Matthew 11:28-30).

Only in Matthew’s gospel do we find this remarkable invitation. It follows Jesus’ words of thankfulness to his Father, and his joy in the Spirit at the divine revelation of God’s secrets to “infants”—those who are not proud of their position or intellectual skills, but are simple, dependent, and eager to learn God’s teachings (Matthew 11:25-27; Luke 10:21).


The Order in Jesus Invitation

It is quite helpful to note the order in Jesus’ invitation. He first says, “Come to me.” In the original language this is not so much an imperative as an urging, “Come, come on,” Jesus says. You are so tired and worn out from the pressures of life and heaviness of your load, that you need to come to me. The pronoun “me” is emphatic; no one else will do. The invitation is to all: young, old, boys, girls, men, women, educated, unskilled, religious, non-religious, and whatever color or race you are. Literally: “Come on to me, all of you, you ones becoming weary and being burdened, and I (emphatic) will refresh you and rest you.” I am the one who is able and willing to help you—to teach you the things that are hidden from the proud and arrogant but are revealed to you who come to me as infants.

The second and third steps of Jesus’ invitation are imperatives, and are meant to be observed closely together: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me.” “Take” is “lift up, take up” my yoke—this symbol of your obligation, loyalty, submission, and discipleship to me. This is an act of the will, just as when we come to Jesus at first. We see Jesus holding out his yoke to us—an easy, gentle frame to help us pull or carry our burdens through life. Jesus is not saying that we will have no burdens, but that he will teach us to pull them and carry them in such a way—figuratively speaking—that does not jerk our bones or tear into our flesh. His yoke is gentle (literally kind, good, comfortable).

The yoke in biblical times was a wooden bar that connected two or more draft animals at their necks so that they might work effectively together, pulling a plow or load or working in other ways. This is the literal sense of the word. The Bible also uses the term metaphorically to refer to work or bondage (Genesis 27:40). Sometimes the yoke was placed on God’s people by foreign rulers and sometimes by Israel’s own kings (2 Chronicles 10:4-14). When a person carried a yoke, he or she would carry it on one’s shoulders as a sign of submission to the ruling power (Jeremiah 27:2-12). Jewish people spoke of carrying the yoke of God’s law and the yoke of his kingdom, which one accepted by acknowledging that God was one and by keeping his commandments. Our “Great Invitation” text immediately precedes a passage showing how the “yoke” of God’s law, as interpreted by the Jewish leaders, was a miserable, harsh, and legalistically weighty burden (Matthew 12:1-14). How refreshing Jesus’ words would have been to them!


The Ongoing Cycle

There is a continuing cycle in these verses, beginning with one’s initial coming to Christ at conversion. Jesus is saying, “Come on.” (I picture him with outstretched arms, perhaps on the cross, or maybe in a recliner chair.) We come to him and receive forgiveness of sins and a new relationship with God. This is called regeneration—the “new birth.” People who become weary enough, or burdened enough by their sin and other trials, come to Jesus for that initial rest he gives. Jesus then, knowing that we are made for work—knowing that fruitful, honest labor is good for us—offers us his yoke. We place his yoke on our shoulders and find that it is surprisingly comfortable. It fits well and feels good as we learn (become discipled by experience) from observing and serving with Jesus (learn “from me” is emphatic—we must learn ultimately from the Master himself). We learn because he is such a humble teacher, not arrogant or rough with us, and we learn that he is humble and willing to take the lower position, being humble in his heart.

It is when we become diverted from this God-ordained cycle that we find ourselves becoming weary, overloaded, and stressed-out again. Then we need to come to Jesus again, admitting that we have been trying to handle life in our own strength. He rests us again, offers to exchange his yoke for the painful one we somehow managed to pick up, and then we get back to plowing the fields—living life—and learning from our Master Teacher again. We find it so much easier that we wonder why we moved away from him. We seem to need to learn this lesson over and over in life, yet Jesus still stands there, arms outstretched, saying “C’mon, Come to me.”


Community and Commitment

There are two final thoughts that should be mentioned before we close this piece. First, in Matthew 11:28-29, from the exclamation, “Come on,” to the mention of rest for our souls, the language is plural. Jesus is addressing all of us, and saying that we all need to do this together. Of course, each person individually needs to come to Christ, but even here others usually need to help us come. And when we are his disciples, we need to learn from Jesus together. It is too difficult to serve God as lone-rangers. We simply will not do it well, and others will know we are not doing it well. Take Jesus’ yoke, learn and serve people together, and, as a group committed to Christ and to one another, you will find rest for your souls.

Second, already obvious from above, there is no distinction in the teachings of Jesus, or in the New Testament, between receiving Jesus as Savior and receiving Jesus as Lord. There is no use in asking whether The Great Invitation is Jesus’ appeal for “salvation” or for “discipleship.” Yes, the word for “disciple” (“learn”) is found in the middle of verse 29, but this is expressed as part of the one invitation: “Come…take my yoke…learn.” Jesus walks by the Sea of Galilee of our lives and calls us to come—at whatever stage in life we are, and in whatever spiritual condition. The solution to our weary, restless, burned-out souls is the same: “Come to me.… 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” (The Message).

The Great Invitation: The Heaviness and Lightness of Life

Top 12 Scripture Texts: Number 7A
Matthew 11:28-30
Bob Rakestraw

The scripture passage for this month is found in Matthew 11:28-30. It is a well-known section of God’s Word, spoken by Jesus, and is packed with spiritual insight.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
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.
(New International Version)

Every word of this amazing scripture portion is so rich with meaning that I want to encourage you, first of all, to soak long and often in its healing waters. Fill your tub with the warm water of God’s Spirit, add these mineral-rich words of Jesus, and climb in. Receive the rest God gives you (verse 28b is literally, “I will rest you”) and, at the same time, inspect every word with an attitude of anticipation and submission. Memorize these verses, quote them often aloud, obey them faithfully, and the spiritual nutrition in them will sustain you for the rest of your life. I say this from personal experience. Whether you are a Christian or follower of some other religion or perhaps have no religion at all, Jesus invites you to come. There is no greater service I can offer you than to point you to the Author of these words, and the literally life-saving and life-sustaining truth in them. I am convinced that every one of you who asks God with a sincere heart the meaning and application of these words for your life, will find true hope and help for this life—every day—and for the life to come.

Denying the Words of Christ

It is my personal situation that serves as the motivation for selecting this text at this time. While meditating on this passage, God showed me that there was an inconsistency between what I said I believed about these verses and my daily life experience and thinking.

Even though these verses have had a powerful effect on me throughout my life, I recently realized that I have been, lately, denying the truth of verse 30: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Whatever else verses 28-30 are teaching, this much seems clear from verse 30: the person who is “yoked” (joined by submission) to Jesus and instructed by him will find daily life in Christ to be not only bearable, but agreeable and pleasant.

Verse 30 is one of the most remarkable descriptions of the daily life of the faithful Christian! I have been thrilled by some of the translations, paraphrases and text notes I have come across. “For My yoke is easy [comfortable, or pleasant] and My burden is light” (New American Standard Bible). “For my yoke is mild and pleasant, and my load is light in weight” (The New Testament: An Expanded Translation, by Kenneth S. Wuest). “I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly” (The Message, by Eugene H. Peterson).

My basic error is that I was not viewing Christ’s yoke as pleasant, nor his burden light. Since my heart transplant in 2003 I have been battling rejection of the heart by my immune system. (In any other health situation a strong immune system is greatly desired!) As many of you know, this battle has not gone well. It has been very unpleasant at times—physically and psychologically, and even spiritually and socially. I have been living for these past several years by the grace of God, resting often in his care, but nevertheless with the view that my place in life was difficult, and that my burdens were heavy. Of course, I realized (and do increasingly the longer I live) that my trials in life are quite small in comparison with millions of the world’s people. My so-called “sufferings” are minor relative to theirs. I know that. But I still viewed my burdens as hard and heavy, not easy and light.

Why has this been an error on my part? Because of Matthew 11:30: “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Jesus is saying that the life of the one who is yoked or bonded to him is not to be thought of or experienced as primarily difficult and severe, but rather as grace-enveloped and pleasant.

The Heaviness and Lightness of Life

Here is where the matter gets a bit complicated. While Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden light, he also says that his followers will face trials and sufferings, and he expects of us a very high level of Christian commitment. He told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mt. 16:24). “The cross was an instrument of death and here symbolizes the necessity of total commitment—even unto death—on the part of Jesus’ disciples” (NIV Study Bible note). He also spoke of persecutions and hardships and suffering as part of the life of discipleship. Which is it? Does he offers us a life of comfort and ease or a life of trials and difficulties?

This is not simply an academic issue for me. I am struggling with it as I write these words, and I struggle with it daily. The greatest health issues for me since my heart transplant, in the sense of physical symptoms, are dizziness, breathing problems, bodily weakness, and headaches. These leave me drained and pained daily.

Until recently, I would look upon these afflictions as part of my calling here on earth. I asked God for the strength daily to endure them without complaining, and to have courage, stamina, and ability to continue serving him with joy and grace. I still believe and pray this way, but the difference is that I now have begun to view my day not as a hard and burdensome ordeal but in the light of Matthew 11:30, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” What has changed is my perspective, and the reason for this change is my becoming convicted by the truth of this verse. Jesus speaks only the truth. I cannot continue to look upon my life primarily as one big trial or ordeal. Instead, I am now trying to view my life as an experience of living under the “easiness” of Christ’s yoke and the “lightness” of his burden.

Have my circumstances changed with this past week or two? No. Life is pretty much the same. The difficulties have not lessened, and I continue to need to call upon the Lord daily for strength, freedom from pain, stamina, spiritual and mental focus, and kindness to those I encounter. My starting point and outlook are different, however. I choose to believe Matthew 11:30 is an all-encompassing statement of life for me and each one of Christ’s followers—even those with chronic illnesses, financial burdens, family issues and other stressful situations—or I will be denying one of the key, life-giving teachings of Christ about existence here on earth.

In my next posting I hope to unfold the remainder of our text. May the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ teach us all the true meaning and application of this remarkable scripture passage.