Mat 11:28 "Come to me, all
of you who are tired from carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Take my yoke and put
it on you, and learn from me, because I am gentle and humble in spirit; and you
will find rest.
Mat 11:30 For the yoke I will
give you is easy, and the load I will put on you is light."
With these
words Jesus opened the gates of heaven to anyone who was willing to admit who
they were, confess their inability to do it all on their own, and accept what
he was offering. To be only a three-letter word, “all” makes a lot of things
possible for us through the love and sacrifice of Christ we would otherwise
miss.
This last
weekend concluded a two-week golf tournament known as the US Golf Kids World
Championships. Nearly fifty foreign countries were represented along with
forty-nine states. Only Alaska went without a representative. This was a
tournament in which everyone was welcome. Of course you had to make it through
all the preliminary rounds played around the world, but if you made the lowest
score, you were welcome regardless of nation, color of skin, or family
traditions.
Jesus gives
an invitation to join him that is open to all. His invitation can be accepted
by anyone. He has not set any kind of pre-existing conditions about who is
receiving the invitation. He has not limited it to people of a certain race or
nationality or physical condition. He offers rest to anyone who will see him as
who he is, the One who can give rest and relief.
Unlike the
golf tournament, there are no preliminary rounds in which one must succeed to
be welcomed into the presence of Christ. We can all come as we are and be
accepted. Acceptance by Jesus depends not upon what we can do, but upon the
place we are willing to give him in our lives.
What Jesus
asks is that we become like him. We are to take his yoke and put it upon our
shoulders, allowing it to dictate what our lives will be. We are to learn from
him. We become the students while he remains the Master Teacher. We do not make
him fit our desires. In being fitted to his yoke, we become transformed into
his nature.
The rest we
find comes from allowing him to carry the load. We find rest as we conform to
his ways instead of fighting him as we seek to be acceptable in the eyes of the
world. We find the rest that no conflict in this world can destroy as we allow
the Master of the yoke to give guidance, teach the acceptable pattern of life,
and carry the heaviest of our burdens.
In the
Gospel of John we find a longer word that means the same thing as “all”.
Joh 3:16 For God loved the
world so much that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not die but have eternal life. (my
emphasis)
“Everyone
who believes” is welcome to come and find the rest Jesus has promised. Is there
a qualification to receiving this eternal life? Yes, it is a thing called
belief. Is there a qualification to receiving the rest Jesus has offered? Yes,
it is called taking his yoke upon our shoulders. To be a part of the “all” and
“everyone” to whom the invitation is extended, we must come with honest and
humble hearts that can receive the offer.
A short
story goes in some fashion as this: I asked Jesus how much he loved me. He
said, “This much,” and he stretched out his arms and died. He stretched his
arms wide enough to take in the world, all the world and everyone who would
believe. He bids us to welcome others in the same way.
