Probably the greatest identified and most comforting statements of Jesus can also be one in all his most enigmatic:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I gives you relaxation. Take my yoke upon you, and be taught from me, for I’m mild and lowly in coronary heart, and you will see relaxation in your souls. For my yoke is simple, and my burden is mild. (Matt 11:28–30)
Central to this passage is the “yoke” (ζυγόν, 11:29, 30) and the “burden” (φορτίον, 11:30) that Jesus presents to human beings and instructions them to bear. What’s it that Jesus holds out? Why do folks must obtain what he presents? What incentives does he give to us to obtain it?
The context of Jesus’s invitation
It is very important set Jesus’s phrases of their context inside Matthew’s Gospel. Within the first a part of this chapter (11:1–19), Jesus has set his ministry alongside that of John the Baptist. However the eschatological variations between these two ministries, what every has in frequent is their rejection by “this technology” (11:16). Such rejection results in Jesus’s prophetic declarations of eschatological judgment that may befall those that don’t repent at his preaching (11:20–24).
That so many individuals reply to Jesus’s preaching on this manner prompts the query, “Why is that this so?” The reply, Jesus insists, lies in the end within the objective of his Father (11:25–27). By his “gracious will,” the Father has “hidden this stuff from the smart and understanding and revealed them to little kids” (11:26). Jesus then affirms the mutually unique information that the Father and the Son have of each other (11:27a), and the singularly unique entry to the Father that the Son affords to human beings (11:27b). Solely by the Son’s sovereign revelation of the Father might an individual know the Father.
The context of Jesus’s invitation in Matthew 11:28–30, then, is twofold. There’s impending divine judgment for human sin, and there may be the Father’s sovereign mercy to sinners in Christ. Every, in its personal manner, underscores the urgency of this invitation.
The type of Jesus’s invitation
It’s at this level that Jesus points the invitation of Matthew 11:28–30. The invitation consists of three imperatives:
- “Come to me …” (v. 28)
- “Take my yoke …” (v. 29)
- “Be taught from me …” (v. 29)
Whereas the main target of 11:25–27 was the Father (talked about thrice), the main target of 11:28–30 is Jesus, his Son (be aware the predominance of the primary individual in these verses). The aim, after all, in coming to the Son (11:28–30) is in order that the Son might carry one to the Father (11:27).
The primary crucial (“Come to me …”) is linked with a promise (“I gives you relaxation,” 11:28). The second and third imperatives are conjoined and mutually interpretative. This pair of imperatives is, in flip, grounded by Christ’s declaration that he’s “mild and lowly in coronary heart” (11:29), tied to the reiterated promise of “relaxation” (11:29), after which grounded by the truth that Christ’s “yoke is simple” and his “burden is mild” (11:30).
We are actually capable of look extra carefully on the substance of the invitation that Jesus makes in these verses.
Jesus’s identification because the inviter
To start, you will need to replicate on the identification of the one extending the invitation.
Students have famous lexical resonances between Jesus’s invitation and Sirach 51:23–27. However whereas Ben Sira “is himself the recipient of Knowledge’s blessings, and invitations others to share what he has obtained from her, Jesus isn’t any middleman however points ‘Knowledge’s’ invitation in his personal individual.” Moreover, the promise “you will see relaxation in your souls” (11:29) is a quotation of Jeremiah 6:16, wherein “the Lord” invitations his folks to “stroll” the “historical paths” and thus “discover relaxation for [their] souls.” Right here, Jesus extends the promise of relaxation in his personal identify. Subsequently, each of those references—Sirach and Jeremiah—level in distinct methods to Jesus because the one true God of Israel.
Jesus discloses one thing else about his identity. He declares himself to be “mild and lowly in coronary heart.” The Greek phrase rendered “mild” (πραΰς) is used just one different time to explain Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. In Matthew 21:4–5, Jesus (“your king”) is alleged to return to “the daughter of Zion … humble, and mounted on a donkey” (Zech 9:9). Christ’s humility is demonstrated in his self-humiliation that culminates in his accursed loss of life on the cross as a “ransom for a lot of” (Matt 20:28). The one who extends the invitation, then, is the Son of God who, having taken on our humanity, endures the cross for the salvation of his folks.
Determine significant cross-references with the Vital Passage part in Logos’s Guides.
The character of Jesus’s invitation
Jesus extends three instructions, “come,” “take,” and “be taught.” The invitation is due to this fact the invitation to discipleship. Evaluate the invitation of Matthew 11:28 (Δεῦτε πρός με) with that of Matthew 4:19 (δεῦτε ὀπίσω μου).
Whom does Jesus invite to himself? He types them “weary and heavy laden” (11:28). The verb rendered “heavy laden” (φορτίζω) seems in just one different place within the New Testomony, Luke 11:46, which finds a parallel in Matthew 23:4, the place the cognate noun φορτίον seems. In each texts (Luke 11:46; Matt 23:4), Jesus speaks to or of the Pharisees whose teachings pose crushing burdens on the shoulders of their disciples. Their burden, then, will not be “the written Torah”—Jesus has come, in spite of everything, to meet the Legislation (Matt 5:17). The burden, reasonably, is “the Pharisaic oral traditions [which] have encumbered those that want to obey the Torah (cf. Matt 15:3–9).”
Jesus, then, guarantees aid from the crushing burdens of the extrabiblical teachings of Israel’s first-century spiritual lecturers. Such aid will likely be present in taking the decision to be Jesus’s disciple.
However right here a problem surfaces. Jesus instructions his hearers to “take my yoke upon you” (11:28). At first look, the command to bear a “yoke” hardly appears attractive to these already burdened. Wouldn’t following Jesus’s instruction serve to compound reasonably than relieve their distress?
However right here you will need to keep in mind plenty of particulars about this “yoke.” To make certain, the conception underlying the phrase “yoke” is that of “burden, obedience, subordination, and servitude.” However the level of an individual (versus an animal) sporting a yoke “is to make it simpler to hold or pull a load.” Thus, Jesus “is providing those that are discovering their hundreds too exhausting to hold a brand new yoke which, removed from including to their oppression, will ease the burden and, paradoxically, will carry not additional toil however ‘relaxation.’”
Why is that? The reply has to do with the sort of “yoke” that Jesus presents. He declares his “yoke” to be “straightforward” and his “burden” to be “mild.” That that is so has the whole lot to do with the individual and ministry of Jesus himself. The phrase rendered “straightforward” (χρηστὸς) is elsewhere within the Gospels used of the kindness of God towards the undeserving (Luke 6:35) and relies of Christ himself by Peter (1 Pet 2:3). We’re meant, then, to see the “yoke” as reflective of the character and work of Christ.
Jesus’s self-description in Matthew 11:29 echoes the character of the “blessed ones” in Matthew 5:1–11. And the “blessed ones” replicate the character of their Father in heaven. Thus, “in contrast to the lecturers of Matt 23:3, he submits to God’s rule and retains his instructions.” He not solely teaches the reality however he additionally “embod[ies] the reality he expounds … he himself is his most potent lesson.” Jesus, then, authoritatively teaches the Legislation of God (Matt 5:17–48) and uniquely embodies the Legislation of God. To “be taught” from such a one will not be crushing—it’s “straightforward” and “mild,” because the Apostle John would later testify (1 John 5:3, “for that is the love of God, that we maintain his commandments, and his commandments will not be burdensome”; emphasis mine).
Jesus’s disciples pursue conformity to the character of their heavenly Father, as these whom the Father has already forgiven and accepted for Jesus’s sake.
There’s one more reason that the “yoke” of Jesus is “straightforward.” Jesus commenced his public ministry by submitting himself to John’s baptism, a “baptism for repentance” (Matt 3:11). Jesus did this as a result of it was “becoming … to meet all righteousness” (Matt 3:15). From the start he set himself within the place of his folks to undertake on their behalf all of the calls for that the Legislation makes of them. It is because of this that his loss of life is ransoming and brings to them the forgiveness of sins (Matt 20:28; 26:28). Jesus’s disciples pursue conformity to the character of their heavenly Father (Matt 5:48) as these whom the Father has already forgiven and accepted for Jesus’s sake.
Jesus, due to this fact, invitations those that are wearied and burdened beneath the crushing load of Pharisaical educating to himself as his disciples. The way in which of following Jesus is the way in which of bearing his “yoke.” Jesus completely and purely embodies the Legislation of God that he teaches. To bear that burden, Jesus says in Matthew 11:30, isn’t any burden in any respect. What makes the yoke significantly bearable is that it’s the yoke of the one who died for the sins of his folks. As forgiven sons of their heavenly Father, Jesus’s disciples gladly obey the Son of God who authoritatively teaches and uniquely embodies the Legislation of God.
Jesus’s promise to these invited
What achieve will one discover by taking over the yoke of Jesus? Jesus twice guarantees his disciples “relaxation”—first, after the command to “come to me” (11:28), and once more after the twin command to “take my yoke upon you, and be taught from me” (11:29). Each cases stress the futurity of the remainder bestowed—the verb ἀναπαύσω seems sooner or later tense, and the cognate noun ἀνάπαυσιν is the thing of a verb sooner or later tense (εὑρήσετε).
Though students debate the purpose, the remainder in view have to be Sabbath relaxation. The instantly following verses (Matt 12:1–12) not solely describe Jesus engaged in controversies over the Sabbath, but additionally Jesus declaring himself “lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8).
In Matthew 11:29, when Jesus guarantees “relaxation in your souls,” as famous, he cites Jeremiah 6:16. There God had promised “relaxation” to Israel as the end result of a lifetime of strolling based on the Legislation (cf. Heb 4:1–10). However the remainder that Israel didn’t attain (“However they stated, ‘We is not going to stroll in it,’” Jer 6:16) Jesus freely offers. The Sabbath relaxation that we’re to “discover” is the very relaxation that Jesus will “give” (Matt 11:29, 28).
In what sense do Jesus’s disciples enter into the Sabbath relaxation that he offers? This “relaxation” is the remainder into which God entered after the creation (Gen 2:2). That God “blessed” that day and “made it holy” signifies God’s intention that human beings would expertise this relaxation within the gathered worship of God. God’s pattern of work adopted by relaxation was supposed as a sample for human beings to comply with (see Exod 20:8–11). As such, the weekly Sabbath remainder of worship pointed to the consummation of human existence as one in all communion with God.
By his sin, Adam forfeited the chance to enter this relaxation. The Legislation may level to this Sabbath relaxation (Exod 20:8–11; 31:12–17), however had no energy to ship it. It’s Jesus, the Final Adam (cf. Matt 4:1–11), who delivers Sabbath relaxation to his disciples.
Whereas this relaxation is predominantly future in its orientation, Jesus’s phrases right here point out that his disciples presently expertise this relaxation. The assertion of Matthew 11:30 is explanatory of the assertion of Matthew 11:29. Disciples expertise soul-rest exactly as a result of Jesus’s “yoke” is “straightforward” and his “burden” is “mild.” It’s within the disciple’s pursuit of Jesus and fellowship with Jesus that Sabbath relaxation is at the very least provisionally skilled on this life, in anticipation of the eschatological fullness of the remainder to comply with on the consummation.
The importance of Jesus’s invitation
Jesus is providing his disciples one thing that they can’t discover within the prevailing (Pharisaical) faith of the day. That faith, rooted because it was in human custom (Matt 15:1–9), was crushing and supplied its adherents no relaxation. What Jesus presents is himself—not solely because the trainer and mannequin of the Legislation of God, but additionally because the one who has met its calls for for sinners in order that they could enter into lasting fellowship with the Father by way of the Son (Matt 11:25–27).
The fellowship with God that disciples get pleasure from now could be a foretaste of the Sabbath fellowship to return on the consummation. To stroll with Jesus as his disciple brings relaxation and refreshment to the soul wearied by the man-made religions of the world.
As a result of nobody involves the Father besides by the Son (Matt 11:27), Jesus teaches that there isn’t any entry to this relaxation however by way of him. Jesus’s educating on this passage not solely asserts this declare however, in highlighting his distinctive individual and work, grounds this declare.
The excellent news for many who “labor and are heavy laden” is that this relaxation will not be a reward to be earned however a present to be obtained. That for which God made us—everlasting fellowship with him—is the free reward of Christ to sinners. And to a world weighed down and burdened with stress and nervousness, that message is actually excellent news.
Man Waters’s advisable assets for additional examine
- Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., “A Sabbath Relaxation Nonetheless Awaits the Folks of God” in Urgent Towards the Mark: Essays Commemorating Fifty Years of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, ed. Charles G. Dennison and Richard C. Gamble, 33-51. Philadelphia: Committee for the Historian of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, 1986.
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