“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 MSG
I think this must be one of the most quoted verses from The Message version of the Bible. It is such a dynamic translation of Jesus words to the crowds that had gathered around him. He’d just been teaching his twelve ‘apprentices’, before they set out with him to the surrounding villages, teaching and preaching.
A group of the ‘apprentices’ of John the Baptist, who was in Herod’s prison at this time, came with a question from John, “Are you the Messiah…or should we keep looking?” As Jesus answered them, a crowd gathered, and after John’s apprentices went on their way Jesus began to speak to the crowd. He talked about John the Baptist’s place in the long line of prophets who spoke about God’s plan to Israel, and who were largely ignored. He went on to speak about how some people were ignoring his message too, before praying for the people who had gathered.
It’s then that he gives the invitation that in more traditional translations begins, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you… (Matthew 11:28-29 NLT).
In Jesus culture he was considered to be a rabbi (Hebrew “master” or “teacher”). Like every Rabbi of his day, Jesus will have had two things:
Firstly, he had disciples (‘apprentices ‘is a better word). To be an apprentice of Jesus (and any other rabbi) meant you organised life around three things
- Be with Jesus
- Become like Jesus
- Do what he would do if he were you.
Wow! More than anything else Jesus wants us to be with him, to spend time in his presence, to do what he does and become like him. I guess that’s why I started this journey of simplifying my relationship with him from all the “heavy, ill-fitting” burdens that cultural Christianity can lay on you!
Secondly, every rabbi had a yoke (not a literal one, he’s not a farmer! This is an agricultural reference to the way young oxen are yoked together with an older, more experienced one, so they learn how to pull the plough properly. In the first century a yoke was how people described the way each rabbi read and interpreted the Torah, or Law of Moses. But it was more than that…it was his set of teachings on how to be fully human. His way to bear the burden of the sometimes-crippling weight of life…marriage, divorce, prayer, money, sex, conflict, government…everything.
So, rabbi Jesus had the same things as other rabbis…he had apprentices, and he had a yoke BUT what was different about Jesus was that his yoke was an easy yoke that gives its wearers “rest”.
What is this rest that Jesus offers?
The people in Jesus day would have understood it like this: rest was life at its best and fullest, it was “spiritual rest” …having peace of mind and heart because of having peace with God.
So, the rest Jesus offers has to do with having a close relationship with God. It comes from knowing that we don’t have to be constantly trying to earn God’s approval. Because of Jesus we can be sure of God’s love and friendship and experience his peace.
It doesn’t mean inactivity, an absence of work and busy-ness, like leisure time or a holiday It’s about finding rest in our work, because every part of our being has found that rest in God, which spreads into every part of our lives.
It means that whatever we are doing, whatever our circumstances in life, our heart and mind can still be at rest, peaceful, because we know God’s presence and care…God is our faithful friend.
If that isn’t the way to live freely and lightly, I don’t know what is!
PS I’m really grateful to John Mark Comer for his explanation of Jesus as a rabbi in his book “Practicing the Way” (which was a development of his teaching in “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry”)
Pilgrim Traveller 