Come, Take, Learn

Matt 11:28-30 "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

Great stuff. If you are feeling tired, if you are feeling weary, if you are feeling beat down, if you are carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, take Jesus' advice. Come…take…learn.

Come to me. This is an invitation. This is interesting. This isn't an invitation to everyone, it is an invitation to those who know that they have a need. It is an invitation to people who are exhausted. To people who are carrying stuff. Frankly, this really is an invitation to most of society. If you were to ask most people today, and if they were really honest, you would find that they are tired. Maybe not physically tired, but mentally tired. They feel the weight of responsibility. The feel the weight of the economy. They feel the weight of sin in their lives. To these people Jesus says: "Come to Me…I will give you rest." The word for rest really means to stop and take it easy. To be able to stop whatever activity you that is making you tired, for the purpose of collecting your strength and refreshing yourself. Jesus will do that. So many people think that they have to work hard to get into the kingdom. So many people think that if they do all the right stuff, it will give them favor with God. To this Jesus says; "No..just come to me. Stop your work. Stop your efforts. Stop. I am your rest. I am your Sabbath. Relax…I have done all of the work.

Take. Take my yoke. This doesn't sound like fun. I mean, a yoke is for working. Jesus just said that I should rest. Now He is telling me to take an implement that makes me work? Yes. We have to remember the yoke that these people had on them at that time. The yoke of the law. The yoke of what the Pharisees said that they had to do. The yoke of living by all of the rules and regulations that were in place at that time. Jesus was giving them a contrast. He was saying: "Throw down the yoke of works. Throw down the yoke of the law. Throw down the yoke of legalism and pick up my yoke. It is easy. Will there be difficult times? Yes, but in comparison they will be light. Why? Because Jesus is yoked with us. He has already taken up this yoke. He has already carried our burdens. Now we can find inner rest. No more burdened inside because He is with us in all of this. He is our partner in all of this. He is our teacher in all of this…so "learn from Me." Watch Me. Follow Me. Take My advice. Observe My gentleness. Observe My humility and live like Me.

That really is the key. We are so busy trying to work. Trying to make it. Trying to prove ourselves. Trying to gain favor with God, and all we need is to learn from Christ and take on His gentleness and humility. When I do that, things ease up.

Come to Him. Take from Him. Learn from Him.