The 5^th Sunday after Epiphany

SERMON

God be in my head and in my understanding. God be in my heart and in my thinking. God be in my eyes and in my looking. God be in my mouth and in my speaking. God be at my end and in my departing. Amen.

INI

Text: Matthew 11:28-30

In Christ Jesus, dear fellow redeemed:

One of the dangers in liturgical form of worship such as ours is the "sameness" week after week. In our consideration of the worship service over the last few weeks, we have seen how the truths of God’s Word are carefully laid out in our worship service The repetitive nature of our liturgical worship is good for impressing God’s Word in our hearts. However, because we are also weak sinners, the repetition may also lead to robotic worship—going through the motions of something so familiar we can do it without even thinking about it.

Old Testament believers probably faced some of the same challenges as they went through the same festivals and sacrifices week by week and year by year. To help the Old Testament worshiper, God built a certain kind of variety into their forms of worship. The coming Christ was the focal point and substance of every part of the Old Testament worship just as the risen and ascended Christ is the substance of all true worship today, but God created the Old Testament worship in such a way that with every part of worship the people would view Christ from a little different angle.

The sacrifices which God commanded, led the people to think of the self-sacrifice Christ would make to redeem the world. The food laws governing what was clean or unclean directed the people to realize that there are unclean/sinful things in this sinful life which are offensive to God. The Sabbath Days were God’s built-in reminders in the Old Testament worship that led the people to consider and rejoice in "REST."

SABBATH means "rest." There were also Sabbath Years in which God commanded that the land be given rest with no crops planted on it. On the weekly Sabbath Days, the people were to do no work, except worship the Lord their God. God put the Sabbath Day into each week so that His people would take care of their bodies and get proper rest, and so that they would take care of their souls and give them the rest of God’s Word. Both the physical and spiritual rest of the Sabbath Day pointed to the true SABBATH, THE REST—Christ!

Our worship, despite the "sameness" in the liturgy, also leads us to view our Savior and our Salvation from different angles and in that way avoid the pitfalls of "sameness." When you think of the blessings you receive from Christ’s work, one of the pictures God would have you ponder is: REST. JESUS GIVES A ‘NO STRINGS ATTACHED’ GIFT I. He gives deep rest II. He gives a light burden.

I.

Physical rest was indeed part of God’s purpose behind the Old Testament Sabbath Day. His will is still the same, namely, that we too make proper provisions for rest to our bodies. Yet, the rest to which Jesus invites us is not a physical / bodily rest. Jesus invites us to true rest for our souls. [Incidentally, this rest which brings peace and emotional rest to our lives may have the added blessing of enhancing our physical rest.] Jesus says, “Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” [v.28].

Two things are described by Jesus: our condition and then the load which we bear. First, our soul's condition is described as being beaten down and tired out with labor. Like coming home and relaxing after a hard day's work, so is the rest for our souls which Jesus brings. Secondly, Jesus describes a heavy burden dragging us down ever further. We are tired out and weary and at the same time a heavy burden is placed on us that pushes us down further and further!

The weary labor and heavy load which your soul endures is the load of sin. If there is any doubt that sin and its consequence places a heavy burden upon a person we need only talk to a sentenced prisoner who leaves prison early on parole. The guilt of punishment for sin places a load upon the sinner and when that punishment is lifted—even if only slightly—there is relief.

The sentence we rightly deserve in the court of God’s justice is eternal damnation in hell. The punishment which our souls deserve would be able to drive us into total depression and despair if not for the rest which Jesus brings by telling us, "I have died for you, your sins are ALL forgiven." The uncertainty and fears, the doubts and frustrations of life, would be much too heavy a burden to bear if not for the rest which Jesus brings by telling us, "I'll strengthen you, help you, and protect you with My all-powerful hand.

The rest which Jesus brings is the only place to direct our souls. It is a perfect rest which comes without strings attached. There is no "here’s what you need to do" clause in the REST which Jesus brings. The peace of knowing that your sins are completely forgiven and that your heavenly Father is guiding you in life, is given to you completely out of His gracious mercy. “Gracious is the Lord, and righteous; Yes, our God is merciful. The Lord preserves the simple; I was brought low, and He saved me. Return to your rest, O my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you” (Psalm 116:5-7).

This rest which we have through Jesus is a very deep rest. It is deep in the sense that it is a total rest—complete forgiveness given freely by His grace. Jesus gives this rest to you by one means—the Gospel, but just as the Old Testament worship included different views of the same wonderful salvation, so too God has given us different ways in which the Gospel comes to us and through which we find rest.

We are made participants in the true rest of Christ through baptism which creates faith in the hearts of even infant sinners. Baptism also gives us the abiding promise of Rest in Christ throughout our adult lives. We have Christ’s rest given to us through His Word as it is read and heard. When everything else fails around us, God’s Word will always stand ready to give us rest and to calm troubled hearts. Jesus also offers His REST to us in a remarkable way through the Lord’s Supper. In the Lord’s Supper, Jesus gives communicants His body and blood—the very body and blood which He sacrificed on the cross for your sins, to give you rest!

The rest Jesus offers is a deep rest also in the sense of its endurance. The rest to which Jesus invites each of us and which He gives freely from His grace is an eternal rest. Jesus is not just promising rest for the here & now. He promises a still greater rest forever in eternal life where there will be none of the effects of sin to inhibit perfect spiritual, emotional, and physical rest. The writer to the Hebrews reminded his readers that the Israelite’s rest in Canaan was not the end of the rest which God promised them: "Therefore, since a promise remains of entering His rest, let us fear lest any of you seem to have come short of it…. For we who have believed do enter that rest…if Joshua had given them rest, then He would not afterward have spoken of another day. There remains therefore a rest for the people of God. (Hebrews 4:1ff)

The rest which Jesus brings is a deep rest because it is ultimately all-inclusive and for eternity. It is a deep rest which is offered to you and comes to you without any strings attached.

II.

Jesus’ no-strings-attached gift, also includes an easy yoke. “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.” [vv.29-30].

A yoke is a wooden bar which went across the shoulders of two oxen and joined them together in order to share the burden in their work of pulling the load. Or in the case of human labor, the yoke was a bar over the shoulders which would balance out two weights, like a pail on each end. Thus, "the yoke" came to symbolize submission to an occupation or obligation.

The yoke we put on ourselves is oppressive. We place on ourselves the yoke of pride, self-interest, self-help, self-reliance, and worry. Under that yoke there is no rest. The yoke of Jesus and the Gospel is lightweight for it says that Christ has done everything for us. His rest is complete, “I have satiated the weary soul, and I have replenished every sorrowful soul” (Jeremiah 31:29).

Jesus describes His yoke as easy and His burden as light but it won't always seem that way to us. His burden truly is light for He tells us to rely completely on Him for salvation from sins and whatever else might bring weariness to our soul. His burden is light because He has already borne the burden of sin in our place and when troubles arise He will aid us. In other words, our burden is light because He is carrying us.

The yoke of Jesus is not going to seem light when we face some sort of trouble, yet, we have the assurance that God knows us and has promised that He won't allow us to endure more than we can withstand. Whenever we fall into sin we are throwing off the light yoke of our Lord, preferring instead to be under the oppressive yoke of sin, self, and the world.

When troubles and temptations are a direct result of trusting in Jesus then the yoke seems to get really heavy. The yoke of Christ felt so heavy to Peter that He denied Jesus in the courtyard of the High Priest. We throw off the yoke when, like Peter, we deny our Lord. This we can do without ever opening our mouth for when we don't speak up in defense of our God, His name, and His Word then we deny Him with our silence.

It is part of the total foolishness of our sinful nature that we who are under the light yoke of our God's grace and mercy, still long for and crave the sinful lusts and corruption. By nature we don't come to Jesus' invitation therefore we need to be changed and instructed lest we throw the yoke of our Savior off just as soon as we are brought to it. Jesus said, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart. . .”

Jesus bore the burden of our sins to the cross. It was not a painless experience for He endured the eternal punishment for the sins of the world. It was not a burden easy to bear and yet He did bear it out of love for you knowing that if He did not do it, you and I and all people would be lost eternally. Peter wrote to the Christians, “Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example, that you should follow in His steps: Who committed no sin nor was deceit found in His mouth; who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten. . .”

Jesus faced the ridicule and punishment with meekness and humility. Meekness, or gentleness, is the opposite of self-assertiveness and self interest. Jesus showed true meekness and humility in being our Savior.

If we are to live in the rest which Christ brings and not throw Him off and go back to the heavy yoke of sin, then sinful self-interest needs to be replaced with meekness. Sinful pride and self-reliance needs to be replaced with a humble trust in our Lord. These are things which we can learn from only one teacher—Jesus. "Learn from Me," He says.

Jesus has plucked us out of the unrest of unbelief, but we will always return there if left on our own. Through His Word Jesus instructs. Through the Spirit’s working in Word and Sacraments, He strengthens our faith to resist the temptation to return to sin and remain in the true REST. Combined with an ongoing use of God's rest-giving Word we keep before us also the prayer that God would crush whatever pride and self-reliance we have. That He would remove everything that would stand in the way, instruct us with His pure Word and so strengthen us for now and eternity. In other words, that He will give us REST! Amen.