Probably the greatest identified and most comforting statements of Jesus can also be considered one of his most enigmatic:
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will provide you with relaxation. Take my yoke upon you, and be taught from me, for I’m mild and lowly in coronary heart, and you can find relaxation on your souls. For my yoke is simple, and my burden is gentle. (Matt 11:28–30)
Central to this passage is the “yoke” (ζυγόν, 11:29, 30) and the “burden” (φορτίον, 11:30) that Jesus provides to human beings and instructions them to bear. What’s it that Jesus holds out? Why do folks have to obtain what he provides? 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 widespread is their rejection by “this era” (11:16). Such rejection results in Jesus’s prophetic declarations of eschatological judgment that can 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 finally within the function 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 youngsters” (11:26). Jesus then affirms the mutually unique data 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 may be impending divine judgment for human sin, and there’s 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 3 times), the main target of 11:28–30 is Jesus, his Son (word 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 deliver one to the Father (11:27).
The primary crucial (“Come to me …”) is related with a promise (“I will provide you with 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 gentle” (11:30).
We at the moment are 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, it is very important mirror 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 can find relaxation on your souls” (11:29) is a quotation of Jeremiah 6:16, through which “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 identification. 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 come back 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 important 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 kinds 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, shouldn’t be “the written Torah”—Jesus has come, in spite of everything, to meet the Legislation (Matt 5:17). The burden, relatively, is “the Pharisaic oral traditions [which] have encumbered those that want to obey the Torah (cf. Matt 15:3–9).”
Jesus, then, guarantees reduction from the crushing burdens of the extrabiblical teachings of Israel’s first-century non secular lecturers. Such reduction shall be present in taking the decision to be Jesus’s disciple.
However right here an issue 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 relatively than relieve their distress?
However right here it is very important keep in mind quite a lot of particulars about this “yoke.” To make sure, 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 masses too exhausting to hold a brand new yoke which, removed from including to their oppression, will ease the burden and, paradoxically, will deliver not additional toil however ‘relaxation.’”
Why is that? The reply has to do with the sort of “yoke” that Jesus provides. He declares his “yoke” to be “straightforward” and his “burden” to be “gentle.” That that is so has all the things 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 is based 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” mirror the character of their Father in heaven. Thus, “not like 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 shouldn’t be crushing—it’s “straightforward” and “gentle,” because the Apostle John would later testify (1 John 5:3, “for that is the love of God, that we hold his commandments, and his commandments should not 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 may be another excuse 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 underneath the crushing load of Pharisaical educating to himself as his disciples. The best way 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 notably 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 on 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 remaining 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 remaining in view should be Sabbath relaxation. The instantly following verses (Matt 12:1–12) not solely describe Jesus engaged in controversies over the Sabbath, but in addition Jesus declaring himself “lord of the Sabbath” (Matt 12:8).
In Matthew 11:29, when Jesus guarantees “relaxation on your souls,” as famous, he cites Jeremiah 6:16. There God had promised “relaxation” to Israel as the result of a lifetime of strolling in line with the Legislation (cf. Heb 4:1–10). However the remaining that Israel didn’t attain (“However they mentioned, ‘We won’t 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 remaining 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 sample of labor adopted by relaxation was supposed as a sample for human beings to observe (see Exod 20:8–11). As such, the weekly Sabbath remainder of worship pointed to the consummation of human existence as considered one of 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 “gentle.” It’s within the disciple’s pursuit of Jesus and fellowship with Jesus that Sabbath relaxation is no less than provisionally skilled on this life, in anticipation of the eschatological fullness of the remaining to observe 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 provided its adherents no relaxation. What Jesus provides is himself—not solely because the instructor and mannequin of the Legislation of God, but in addition because the one who has met its calls for for sinners in order that they could enter into lasting fellowship with the Father via the Son (Matt 11:25–27).
The fellowship with God that disciples take pleasure in now could be a foretaste of the Sabbath fellowship to come back 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 a entry to this relaxation however via 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 individuals who “labor and are heavy laden” is that this relaxation shouldn’t 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 present of Christ to sinners. And to a world weighed down and burdened with stress and anxiousness, that message is actually excellent news.
Man Waters’s really useful sources for additional examine
- Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., “A Sabbath Relaxation Nonetheless Awaits the Individuals 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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