Title: Five Burdens You Need Not Carry
Matthew 11:28-30:
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Matthew 11::28-30 (translated)Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and *burdened*, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you… and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my *burden* is light.’
Eugene Peterson translation of Matthew 11:28-30, ‘Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I will 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 is Jesus’ invitation when he calls out, ‘Come unto me.’ This is an invitation to all who need him, and an unconditioned promise of welcome.
- Only God can unburden people’s cares.
- His favorite word is ‘Come.’ Not, go to Moses, to a rich man, to a King, to a prophet, to a pastor, to a teacher, to someone. To Jesus we must come, by a personal trust. Not to a doctrine, ordinance, or ministry are we to come first; but to the personal Savior (who is also a personal deliverer).
The phrase ‘to those who labor and are heavy laden,’ the word ‘labor’ implies the burn we take upon ourselves, and heavy laden implies the burden others imposed upon us.
Even as Christian today, we used the idea of yoke to express our obligation to God. There is the yoke of the Kingdom, the yoke of the law, the yoke of the command, the yoke repentance, the yoke of faith and the general yoke of God. More often than not, these obligations, seemingly godly, are Pharisaic enactments imposed upon us by others or even imposed upon us by ourselves.
The yoke is easy and the burden is light because He bears it with us.
The yoke of life for a true child of God is made easy because we have a savior who is called alongside to bear, strengthen and intervene and deliver at all times.
The rest mentioned here is not that those who come to Christ will have no more work but that Christ will give them at once such rest and refreshment of soul that they may be fit for work. Rest does not refer to perpetual inactivity, but a to a time of refreshment and training so as to move out into useful service for Christ.
So, what does this rest consist of?
The soul of man in weariness and unrest craves for peace and repose (tranquility and calmness). This is more than the outward calm of quiet circumstances. Many of us are victims of unrest to a storm of unrest within.
And Jesus said, ‘learn.’ It means to study, absorb and acquire. It is a learning process to enter into that kind of rest. Paul already says, to strive to enter into that rest. The message bible already said it so clear. ‘Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.’ There is the grace involved in our work when we yoke with Christ
- The burden of anxiety
Psalms 68:15-20
The hill of God is as the hill of Bashan; an high hill as the hill of Bashan.
16 Why leap ye, ye high hills? this is the hill which God desireth to dwell in; yea, the Lord will dwell in it for ever.
17 The chariots of God are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them, as in Sinai, in the holy place.
18 Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among them.
19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
20 He that is our God is the God of salvation; and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death.
Anxiety is defined as ‘distressed or uneasiness of mind caused by fear of danger or misfortune.
John Newton said, ‘We can easily manage if we will only take each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.’
Mountain is always a metaphorical depiction f God. Mountain gives the picture of:
- Splendor
- Enduring life
- Enduring times
- Everlasting
- Successful
Verse 18 says God give gifts to men. The Peshitta has this interpreted as: ‘thou has blessed men with gifts; but the rebellious men shall not dwell before the presence of God.’
The implication of verse 18 is:
- that God receives the gifts of the nations and redistributes them to His people.
- God empowers His church with new revelation.
- God has sent the power and the gifts of the Holy Spirit to us to overcome daily the burden of anxiety.
And verse 19 says, this Jehovah God, daily bears our burden. God is with you and God will deliver you. To say that he daily bears our burden denote:
- YHWH’s constant presence with you
- Our constant need of a savior/salvation/deliverance (spiritually and physical and secular).
- The truth that YHWH carries His own.
- God daily gives benefits to His people. God who daily bears our burden is translated as God daily gives benefits to His people.
- The burden of failure
John 18:25-27
And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not.
26 One of the servants of the high priest, being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off, saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him?
27 Peter then denied again: and immediately the cock crew.
Peter realized, as most of us do from time to time, that he had failed Jesus. Peter was so discouraged by his failure that he quitted. A sense of failure can be a great burden.
After his resurrection, Jesus met with Peter and reinstated him, forgiving him for this failure and commissioning him once more and used him as powerfully as anyone in human history.
Like Paul said, ‘I am what I am.’ Christ has forgiven me. Therefore, instead of carrying the burden of failure, I admit it freely and press on to the prize that God has called me into.
- The burden of injustice
Jesus, too, had to bear a totally unjust trial. It is a basic principle of every fair system of justice that you are innocent unless proven guilty. But when Pilate asked, ‘What charges are you bringing against this man?’ the high priest replied, ‘If he were not a criminal, we would not have handed him over to you.’ Jesus endured an unjust trial and far worse, the unfair penalty of crucifixion and death for you and me.
Well, the bible is also very clear on this. God has seen the injustice they committed against me. God has not overlooked their mischief and spite; the day of payment for their wickedness will come. J. I. Parker said, ‘The character of God is the guarantee that all wrongs will be righted someday; when the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. When it finally arrives, retribution will be exact, and no problems of cosmic unfairness will remain to haunt us.’ God is the judge, so justice will be done.’
- The Burden of Sin
Jesus is innocent. Barabbas the sinful goes free. The symbolism is clear. On the cross, Jesus, the innocent, died so that we the sinful (Barabbas) may go free.
- The burden of guilt
Guilt is a horrible burden. Someone in a small group in the church described the physical feeling of guilt as being like ‘a very bad case of indigestion.’ But guilt is more than just a physical feeling. It has even more serious emotional and spiritual consequences. God has given us all a moral sense – a conscience.
Many that are‘ conscience -stricken’ clearly has a very sensitive conscience and felt the burden of guilt for having done this or that. We live in a very difficult age. The present culture and era present some challenges that lambast our weak conscience constantly.
Psalms 103:8-12 says, ‘The Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
In conclusion, we all carried many heavy burdens in life especially in this 21st century. The burden of anxiety, the burden of failure, the burden of sin, the burden of guilt and the burden of injustice. We do not know how to deal with it and many simply gave up and succumb to its heavy laden. But there is another man who because of us, carried the burdens for us. His name is Jesus. The burden was so heavy that he cried, ‘Father, if it is possible please remove this cup of burden from me. Nevertheless, not mine will yours be done.’ The burden of the cross on via Delarosa was so heavy that he fell beneath the weight. The weight of the sins of the whole world because of us, was too great and sinful that His Heavenly Father turned his face away from him. Yet for all our burdens he went to the cross and paid for every single defeat, failure, sins, injustice and anxiety for us. But then he was resurrected and conquered all the burdens upon us. And he said, come to me, let me carry the burden for you. You are not to carry them alone anymore. Come to me. And I will give you rest and clear your mind and cleanse your soul and set you free to have joy and strength and peace of mind.
