Come To Me All You Who Are Weary and Heavy Burdened – Jesus

June 19, 2015 Roland Kuhl 0 Comments

Matthew writes about Jesus in his gospel talking about Jesus’ ministry among the people, how he was about doing God’s business in the world, in the neighborhood – and then Jesus offers these words at the end of chapter 11 of Matthew’s gospel: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for you souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11: 28-30).

What Jesus has to say to every day people who are experiencing all kinds of things in daily life is you do not have to walk alone. As a community pastor I have encountered too many people trying to walk alone, trying to navigate the struggles of life alone. Yet, because the nature of life is difficult, it’s pretty near impossible to make it on our own – we need others, people who care about us, to come alongside of us and walk with us.

I realized in my own life journey, trying to make it on my own, trying to walk on my own – I almost ended up giving up before I even started. Life just had too many obstacles and barriers that were tripping me up. I remember thinking that maybe if I hung out with Jesus life might get easier, only to discover that how I experienced church and faith had me doing a lot of running trying to keep up with Jesus, with God in my life. Life got pretty tiring as I tried to have God in my life.

Yet, it was at a low point in my life, when I realized I did not have the energy to keep up with God, when I was becoming resigned to the fact that I would be living my life alone, that Jesus came to me and embraced me – I heard him say, “Roland, come to me. You’re weary and burdened – I will give you rest.” Now, what was different this time was that rather than my trying to do something to keep up with God, with Jesus, Jesus invited me and waited for me, stood there and actually came to me and took hold of me.

I look at these words of Jesus very differently since that experience. In one sense, hearing Jesus say “come to me” means that we have to get up and get moving and go to where Jesus is at – but what if we can’t? But now I have come to hear Jesus differently. Jesus still says, “Come to me,” but the point of the incarnation (of God taking on our humanity in the person of Jesus) is that God, Jesus is always coming to us. Jesus calls us to “Come to me,” but then he is the one who comes to us, reaches out his hand and offers to take our hand and lift us up so that we can walk with him. We don’t have to run a marathon to catch up with Jesus, Jesus is standing right next to us, reaching out to us, waiting for us to put our hand in his.

And when we do, rather than our trying to walk with Jesus, we discover that Jesus helps us walk with him. Jesus gives us the ability to keep up with him, because he walks with us.

And when we walk with him in this way – his walking with us, we discover that the first thing that we discover is “rest for our weary bodies, minds, spirits, souls.” Often times in conversation with others in my “offices” all over Lake County, I hear people say that after we meet together, they leave sensing the presence of God, the presence of Jesus, his Spirit with them. They came with anxiety and they leave rested and more at peace. Now its not me they’re meeting with, when we meet, I realize I am there because Jesus has brought me there – and so when we meet together, we are meeting together with Jesus – who has offered the invitation, “Come to me all you who are weary and burdened.” I find rest and refreshment in our meetings as well.

It’s interesting when we meet with Jesus. Not only do we walk with him as he walks with us, but we learn to walk in his ways in our lives, at work, at home, wherever we find ourselves, not just by wearing his “yoke” – something that holds oxen together as they pull a plough or cart (that’s the imagery of a yoke), we discover that a “yoke” connects us to Jesus and we learn to walk like him day to day, by looking to him, learning from him, because he connects himself to us – he offers to us to be yoked together with him, for he to be connected to us.

I have come to experience in my own life that this is the only way to live – to walk with Jesus Christ, to be yoked together with him.

And as community pastor, serving the residents of Lake and McHenry counties, by purpose is to come alongside of all who are weary because of the needs in their lives, that they might find rest by hearing Jesus say to them, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

May you grab hold of Jesus’ outstretched hand when he reaches out to you.