“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 (The Message Paraphrase)
I’ve always loved how Eugene Peterson paraphrased this well-known passage. Because I feel those words. Tired. Worn. Frustrated. The world around me needs a different sort of Christian than what I understand. I watch friends and social media influencers lean toward extremes of complete tolerance or complete isolation and I feel stuck. So I go back to the Gospels again, trying to unpack the person of Jesus, trying to cross the cultural barriers of a now ancient civilization and get to his heart, trying to figure out what it looks like for me to be a person steeped in the “good news.”
This passage is one we often see on coffee mugs or wall art, marketed to believers. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” And while I believe there is value in bringing our weariness and our cares to the Lord (a short glance at the Psalms will affirm this), I think the heart of these words spoken by Jesus are ultimately a gospel-carrying promise. The burdens from which he promises to relieve us in this passage are more than just the day-to-day stresses of the average believer. The burden he promises to take from us is our sin.
“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.” – Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
Right before Jesus speaks these words, he pronounces woe on some unrepentant towns – places that had seen his miracles and chosen not to believe in him (Mt. 11:20-24). He then praises God for His sovereignty in revealing the truth of the good news to those with childlike faith and speaks of his oneness with the Father (Mt. 11:25-27). And then these famous words – an invitation from the heart of a father to a beloved child to come and find relief from the thing that plagues you most deeply. An invitation for his divine holiness to be transferred to me that my soul would be at rest and access to the Father restored. We wear the yoke of sin, but Christ wears the yoke of holiness, and he offers to trade.
But even in this comforting promise, the action is two-fold. “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.” Peterson’s paraphrase says, “Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it.” Jesus doesn’t just take away the yoke of sin and send us on our way. He invites us to come and learn to be like him. To allow him to teach us how to live, how to walk in freedom, and how to demonstrate that same gospel that has been offered to us to others.
Centuries later, as civilizations and cultures have shifted and changed, the sin problem and the unbelief remain. But Jesus’ invitation also remains. He alone is still the only solution. As we sing the celebratory anthem with our church family that “God so loved the world”, may we remember the burden we’ve been relieved of and consider the burdens that remain upon others all around us. And as we “walk in freedom”, may that freedom never be an excuse to do as we please – we’ve been freed from that life – but a calling to continue learning from and submitting to Christ Jesus, the giver of that freedom, to whom we owe our very lives.
Looking for some music to enrich your personal worship throughout the week? Check our Calvary Worship Favorites playlist on Spotify. It’s an assortment of songs that we sing on the regular during our Sunday worship services.
If you want to get a taste of what we’ll be singing on any upcoming Sunday, check out our This Sunday At Calvary playlist. This list is updated weekly with the songs we’re planning to lead at the upcoming Sunday service.
God So Loved
Come all you weary
Come all you thirsty
Come to the well that never runs dry
Drink of the water
Come and thirst no more
Come all you sinners
Come find His mercy
Come to the table He will satisfy
Taste of His goodness
Find what you're looking for
For God so loved the world that He gave us
His one and only Son to save us
Whoever believes in Him will live forever
Bring all your failures
Bring your addictions
Come lay them down at the foot of the cross
Jesus is waiting there
With open arms
For God so loved the world that He gave us
His one and only Son to save us
Whoever believes in Him will live forever
The power of hell forever defeated
Now it is well I'm walking in freedom
For God so loved God so loved the world
Praise God praise God
From whom all blessings flow
Praise Him praise Him
For the wonders of His love
CCLI Song # 7138599
Andrew Bergthold | Ed Cash | Franni Cash | Martin Cash | Scott Cash
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CCLI License # 702888
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” – John 3:16-18 (NIV)
“Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.’” – John 4:12-14 (NIV)
“What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” – Romans 6:1-2 (NIV)
“Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” – 1 John 3:4-6 (NIV)