'The Rest' of Your Life :: Matthew 11:25-30

[Jesus said,] Come toward me all who are laboring and have been burdened and I will rest you. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me that I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your whole being. For my yoke is good, and my burden is light (vv 28-30).

1.

Please note turn to page 326 in our (Lutheran Service Book) and join me in confessing our faithful doctrine on the Office of the Keys. 

What is the Office of the Keys? The Office of the Keys is that (unique) authority which Christ has given to His church on earth to forgive the sins of repentant sinners, but to withhold forgiveness from the unrepentant as long as they do not repent.

Where is this written? This is what St. John the Evangelist writes in chapter twenty: The Lord Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” (John 20:22–23)

What do you believe according to these words? I believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by His divine command, in particular when they exclude openly unrepentant sinners from the Christian congregation and absolve those who repent of their sins and want to do better, this is just as valid and certain, even in heaven, as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us Himself.

2.

One would think that people, lost in sin and subject to pain and death, would welcome this Good News. But all too often they don’t. Their only interest is ... what’s in it for me? 

As the world groans under the weight of sin and sickness, one would think it would long to receive rest. But it doesn’t. The world doesn’t believe in real forgiveness. The world wants to know only ... What’s in it for me? 

The world doesn’t believe that the Lord is still moved by his sympathy and empathy into compassion ... that he not only can and will do something about the suffering you feel but that he will lift your burden from you, inviting you to come toward him. Too often the world thinks its suffering is its cross to bear. People, then, keep their suffering to themselves. I don’t need your prayers and good thoughts, the world says. I don’t need you. Why should I come to you?

Brothers and sisters in Christ, we are surrounded by the poor and hungry, the blind and deaf, the weak hearted, the lame. The streets of our cities are filled with the homeless and drug addled and addicted. It is shocking ... horrifying actually ... to see the despair and filth that fills our city streets. The world needs Jesus. They need Good News. 

You might think Appleton City is unaffected by this problem. But you’d be wrong. People everywhere experience disappointment because of false and unfulfilled expectations. They are a world that doesn’t believe that when the called ministers of Christ deal with us by his divine command ... this is just as valid and certain as if Christ our dear Lord dealt with us himself. We want God to act in accord with our whims ... according to our sense of justice. We want Good News only on our terms. 

3.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, do you not see what your sin is doing to you? Is your sin not consuming you? Have you become so burdened by your sin that you are numb to it ... the idolatry, the adultery, the immorality, the deceit of half truths? Are you interested only in the Good News of our Lord Jesus on your terms, at your hour, when you feel like it? Do you not hear the invitation of your Lord to come?

Jesus encountered this unbelief and unrepentance everywhere he went. He was constantly confronted by people who were interested only in making him a bread king ... one who would take care of them on their terms. They were too interested in preserving their status quo. They were too interested in protecting my feelings ... me, myself, and I ... much like the so-called Christian churches today that are now confessing the so-called Sparkle Creed that tries to suggest Jesus had two dads whose pronouns are plural ... that Jesus is OK with you doing you ... and saying sin is only sin if you think it is sin. Woe to anyone who rejects God’s Word! 

So hear now the plea of our Lord in the immediate context of our Gospel reading from Matthew chapter 11: In the name of Jesus, repent everyone of you, not only in your heart but in your outward life. And believe and receive the Good News. 

THOSE WHO HEAR THE GOSPEL WILL RECEIVE CHRIST’S INVITATION FOR REST

This is the place our Gospel reading has been leading us. Jesus’ call to come is not an imperative but an invitation. He promises the best rest ... heavenly rest ... to those who unburden themselves in confession and repent ... trusting in the Good News of Jesus.

4.

Your burden is unrepentance. And unrepentance is killing you. Unrepentance is the source of your pain. As our Gospel reading opens, Jesus is deeply grieved that God’s chosen people ... among them the people of Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum, three Galilean cities on the north shore of the sea there ... that they refused to repent ... that is to mourn their idolatry and to have faith in Jesus. I tell you, Jesus said, it will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you (Chorazin and Bethsaida). And you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to Hades because if the mighty works had happened in Sodom that happened in you, (Sodom) would have remained to this day (vv 22-23).

Think about that ... Sodom would have welcomed the Good News of Jesus. Tyre and Sidon, the home of Jezebel and King Ahab, the most evil of all kings, would have been better places to live. But Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum ... three cities that witnessed the blind receiving sight, the lame walking, the lepers being cleansed, the deaf hearing, and the dead being raised (v 5) ... they rejected the Good News and refused to repent and trust Jesus. 

5.

So Jesus turned to his Father in prayer, saying, I myself confess to you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, since in this way good pleasure happened before you (vv 25-26). The thing hidden from the wise and intelligent is God’s gracious plan of salvation revealed in the Christ crucified and risen. This is the mystery of the kingdom of God. This is the Good News. This is what the wise and intelligent refuse to believe. But Jesus still promises rest for weary souls that hear the Gospel. Jesus is still calling you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Jesus is still providing new life to all who have faith in the Good News being revealed to you in Christ (v 27). Jesus still cares for those who trust him.

Have you not heard? Do you not believe? Our Lord Jesus Christ was born without sin and lived without sin. He is the sinless Lamb of God who takes the sin of the world. He has taken our burden upon himself ... all of our sins and sorrows, the yoke we all bear. He weighed himself down with our suffering, our anxiety, our terror and carried our sin to his cross to free us. He has paid the price of your sin, redeeming you. Our Lord Jesus didn’t deserve the whipping, the bleeding, the nails, the shame ... death upon a cross. And we don’t deserve eternal life. 

But thanks be to God: He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Hallelujah! 

This is the Good News ... on account of the blood of Jesus, you are forgiven and free to come to unburden yourselves. Eternal life belongs to those who receive the rest of repentance. 

Now when you come to Trinity ... now when you look up to the crucifix ... and yes, that is Jesus at the center of the cross ... you will see the source of your rest. So, Jesus invites you, come toward me and I will be [the source of your] rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me that I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your whole being. For my yoke is good, and my burden is light (vv 28-30).

6.

Talk about Good News! This is “The Rest” of your lives. 

When sin has been forgiven and the conscience has been liberated from the burden and sting of sin, then a Christian can bear everything easily ... then we can long for and receive the gifts Christ freely gives through the font and the altar ... and there we will find true rest. Then we understand how true Peter’s exhortation really is ... Having put away all wickedness, all deceit and hypocrisies, envies and all slander, as newborn babies ... we can ... long for the pure milk of the Word, that with it you may be increased into salvation (1 Pt 2:1-2). 

So come, all you who are weary and burdened. Have faith that your called ministers will give you the rest of Christ. The Greek word for this true rest is ἀνάπαυσις. Listen to it again ... The word pause is embedded in this rest of your life. More than that, there is an aspect of upward movement within it. This is a heavenly pause ... heavenly rest ... that Christ delivers to everyone who has faith in him that his rest in green pastures and beside still waters is our rest ... that he will feed and nourish. This is the yoke that is good. So come ... approach the One who freely gives. In him we find the Sabbath rest. The rest of your life belongs to those in his name.