Month: July 2018

Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.  Matthew 11:28

Rest for your soul – doesn’t that sound good? Some days I’m bone-tired, exhausted from going full tilt from sunrise until well after sunset. A quiet evening, an afternoon nap, a few days at a slower pace are enough to set things right. But then there are other times I’m soul-tired, weary from the hurt and brokenness all around me in a fallen world. A nap just isn’t enough to ease the weight of an aching heart.

Don’t get me wrong, a nap can cure many things. But what about when we need soul-rest? How do we get that? Jesus spells out the answer in Matthew 11 – Come to me. Take my yoke upon you. Learn from me.

Come to me. Move closer to what you want, what you’re seeking. There’s no other person, place, or thing that can give you what you’re longing for other than Jesus. It’s both knowing where to go and actually going.

Take my yoke upon you. Tether yourself to me. Join yourself to me. Get on my team. “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). I think we overlook the significance of ‘nothing’ – it’s not that we can do quite a few things but not everything. There’s nothing we can do apart from Jesus. Cut off from Christ, we’re as useless as a cut branch. In contrast, oxen are yoked together in order to do work. Joined to Christ, we’re part of His exceedingly magnificent work.

Learn from me. Get to know me. I will show you what God the Father is like – humble and gentle. In the person of Jesus, who left heaven to take the lowest position as a tiny baby born in a barn in a backwater town, we see that God stoops down, He lowers Himself, to rescue us. He doesn’t stay seated on His throne while we’re desperately lost, but He comes to save us.

Jesus reveals how to live in intimate relationship with God, a place of such security and confidence, there’s no room for anxiety. The soul is at peace, at rest, because it knows that it has nothing to fear. We have no reason to be afraid of the Sovereign Lord Almighty. He loves us. Jesus proves that. And we have every reason for confidence that He will radically transform all things from loss to restoration, from death to life. Jesus proves that, too.

The burden I give you is light. Jesus offers us a great exchange – our burdens for His. And while we might think His burden is a Cross, I don’t think that’s what He’s talking about here. The Cross was so heavy that Jesus needed someone to help Him carry it (Matthew 27:32). But Jesus says the burden He gives us is light. It’s small, gentle, soft. Easily endurable.

Our God loves to transform broken things into whole things, captive things into free things, destruction into beauty, tears into dancing, not-enough things into abundance. He is certainly capable of making the heaviest of burdens light as a feather. But I don’t think believers in the midst of death’s dark valley are stumbling under the weight of their desperate circumstances. The burden they’re carrying is hope.

Hope is the burden that lightens all loads, that lifts all cares. Jesus says, Give me your burdens, and instead carry around the weight of hope. Hold on to the confident expectation that God will make good on all His promises. That restoration is coming. That your inheritance is a kingdom.

Those who trust in, wait for, rely on, have all their hopes riding on God will not be disappointed. It’s a glorious burden.

There once was a young man named Jonathan. He lived in a little land under the dominance of a much stronger nation. To eliminate the risk of rebellion, no one was allowed to become a blacksmith – they couldn’t even sharpen their own tools. But one day something rather extraordinary happened. Jonathan’s father was appointed king over this subdued nation. And so Jonathan became a prince.

I don’t know exactly what Jonathan was doing before his circumstances drastically changed. When we’re introduced to his father, Saul, he’s out searching for lost donkeys. So it seems doubtful that Jonathan was doing anything particularly “princely.” But when God entered the scene, everything began to change. After his promotion, Jonathan led 1000 soldiers to victory against a garrison of the occupying Philistines. It was a spark that lit a fire for independence in the Israelites.

But when the Israelite army gathered, fired up and ready to kick out the invaders, they realized they were massively outnumbered and began to run away, hiding “in caves, thistles, rocks, holes, and cisterns” (1 Samuel 13:6). At that moment, Saul threw away Jonathan’s inheritance. He attempted to shore up morale by offering sacrifices to the Lord. But when Samuel installed Saul as king, he “told the people what the rights and duties of a king were” (1 Samuel 10:25). Offering sacrifices wasn’t the king’s job, and Saul failed the first test of his leadership in God’s Kingdom.

In the end, Saul’s power grab didn’t work. He and Jonathan were left with only 600 men against a fortified army. It was an inauspicious start to Israel’s rebellion. But Jonathan was undeterred. He said to his armor bearer, “Let’s go check it out”. Two men against a stronghold. As he led the way down the rocky cliff to the Philistine outpost, Jonathan said, “Perhaps the Lord will help us, for nothing can hinder the Lord. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!” (1 Samuel 14:6)

Maybe Jonathan understood that the kingdom had never been Saul’s. It had never been his. The kingdom had always belonged to the Lord.

Sometime later, in one of those “only God could make this happen” kind of ways, Saul’s successor came to the palace. His name was David and he wasn’t Saul’s son. But he didn’t come with an army to overthrow Saul. Instead he came with a harp to soothe him. And when he first picked up a sword, it was to kill the giant Goliath.

As David confronted Goliath, he shouted, “Everyone assembled here will know that the LORD rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the LORD’s battle, and he will give you to us!” (1 Samuel 17:47) Here was Jonathan’s compatriot.

How easy it would have been for Jonathan to hate David for taking the place that should have been his. Instead, Jonathan was able to love David; “there was an immediate bond of love between them, and they became the best of friends” (1 Samuel 18:1).

I think Jonathan was able to do this because he understood the sovereignty of God. How could Jonathan be king after Saul when God had already chosen David? It wasn’t about Jonathan’s kingship or his kingdom. He wasn’t looking for an impressive throne in a magnificent palace. There was an eternal kingdom at stake. Jonathan’s royal standing in the Kingdom of God was unchanged.

The trials, setbacks and disappointments that we face have absolutely no affect on our royal standing as beloved sons and daughters of the King of Kings. It’s an eternal and enduring relationship that will.not.fail. There’s an unfading crown, a priceless inheritance “kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay (1 Peter 1:4).