Emmanuel Lutheran Church - The Rest of Jesus

The Rest of Jesus

The Rest of Jesus

(NIV) Matthew 11:28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

These have been called some of the most beautiful words in Scripture. The word for rest is anapauō, which means take ease, refresh, rest. Literally, I will refresh you. These words speak to our bodies, our hearts, our minds and our souls.

Christ Refreshes the Body
In its simplest expression, this verse tells me that I can go to Christ and he will refresh my body from its wearisome labors. How? When I am at my wit’s end, when I am so exhausted I do not think I can put one foot in front of the other, I can pray and ask for his refreshing and I will receive it. He will give me the energy I need to finish the dishes, straighten up the house, throw in some laundry, or fix the meal in the midst of the mundane or the tragic. These may sound like silly things. But, when you’re watching a loved one die, or suffering through depression, facing a divorce, or simply trying to get through an ordinary and often overwhelming day, these things can be huge.

We are promised in Isaiah that God will renew our strength. In this Matthew verse, Jesus invites us to come to him and he will give us rest, or refresh us. So often we think of rest as the physical lying down and sleeping and sometimes that is exactly what God gives us. The angel met Elijah and gave him sleep and food after his showdown with the Baal prophets (1st Kings 19). More often though, it is the refreshing of body to continue, to do the next task, or to help our neighbor with his next task. Because as much as we’d like to escape the things of this world, we don’t get to.

This is hard for me because I have a tendency to simply want to escape. I’d rather find an isolated island and take my family there and spend my days in flip-flops and shorts, watching the sunrise. I don’t like challenges and rarely do I rise to the occasion. I’d rather hide in my bed and forget that the world exists. So, I have to take these words of Christ quite literally. He will give me the refreshment I need to do what needs to be done, no matter how trivial or difficult the next task is. And this is why this verse can bring such comfort to us. We don’t have to escape. We have something better—Christ, who is our refreshment.

(NIV) Isaiah 40:28–31 “Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Christ Refreshes the Heart
I remember spending the night with my grandmother when I was a child. Something she said affected me for years. I was being a typical child asking a lot of questions about her life and suddenly she said, “You’ll soon learn that life is one long disappointment.” At that point, my biggest disappointment was not getting everything I had asked for from Santa. I was still very young. But her words stayed with me and as I grew older I understood what she meant.

Years later, in my thirties, when I became a Christian, I remembered her words. I was told that I was a new creation in Christ, and I believed that—with the exception of my heart. I believed that God could save and sanctify me. In fact, I was hoping he would. But I did not believe that he could change my heart. It had seen too many disappointments—some very tragic and horrific, some the daily disappointments we all face. It was much later that I realized God was asking me to let him refresh my heart. I needed to let him heal the disappointments of life and give me a new heart that didn’t forget, but could feel again and love again and not be so guarded and protected and fearful. I didn’t jump right on that. After all, if I loved again, maybe I’d lose love again. But slowly I began to pray that God would refresh my heart and slowly he has. I thought my heart was so embittered and damaged that nothing, not even God, could change it back to a heart that could love again or express awe and wonder again. Do you know what I mean? Have you ever felt like you’ve experienced too many disappointments and hurts to ever have a heart that could openly love or be vulnerable again?

When our heart is breaking, when we cannot endure the loss, when we lose someone we love, even knowing they are with Christ in heaven, we are deeply changed. When dreams don’t come true, when promises are broken, or health lost, our worlds change. And no, nothing will be the same again. We lie to ourselves to try to make it so. But we will not have our “old normal.” We will have to adjust to a “new normal” and that takes time, and the journey can weary our hearts. Christ says to us: I will refresh you as you journey to a new world. I will refresh your heart. God is our comfort and he does not abandon us to grieve or to get ourselves through the changes or disappointment alone. He is the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort (2nd Cor.1:3–7). Only he can right what has gone nuts on us because he “rights” us in him. He is our anchor (Hebrews 6:19). Ask Christ to refresh your heart and allow you to see beyond the disappointments and hurts to the joy he has for you.

(NIV) 2 Corinthians 1:3–4 “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God.”

Christ Refreshes the Weary Mind
Some of us seem to have been born with the “faith of a child.” If it is God’s will, no matter how much we may not understand, we accept it. Some of us question and ask “why?” Since I fall into the latter category, I don’t believe wondering and asking why is necessarily a bad thing. Habakkuk did it. And God even answered him (Habakkuk 1 & 2). Sometimes God does reveal to us the mystery of his ways in our lives and we are privileged to see how he is working in a particular situation. Sometimes he does not—he expects us to believe in his goodness and know that his good and perfect will is just that. It is on those occasions that we must ask Christ to refresh our minds with his. We want our thoughts to be Christ’s thoughts, our thinking to be his. This is submission to him in all circumstances. Not an easy thing, especially if you are facing something that is breaking your heart in two and you don’t understand why God would allow it. It seems evil to you, or wrong, or unnecessary. But as we continue to ask him to transform our thinking from the ways of this world to his ways (and we do so by being in his Word), we will find we don’t need the explanation as much as we need him. The mystery of God can stay a mystery because we have come to trust him and accept his ways as good, even when they look anything but.

(NIV) 1 Timothy 3:16 “Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great…”

(NIV) Romans 12:2 “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.”

Christ Refreshes the Burdened Soul
This Matthew verse speaks ultimately to the weary and sin-burdened soul. The Pharisees of Jesus’ day had made religion so difficult that it was a burden and brought the people no relief, only condemnation. They labored under the difficulty of trying to please God by being good and keeping every law, both the oral and the written law. Jesus is telling them that his yoke is easy and his burden light. His salvation gives rest to a striving soul. This is the equivalent of a child always trying to get the approval of a disapproving parent. Try as they might, that parent will never see the child as good enough. Jesus says you are good enough, because I make you that way, not through anything you do.

(NIV) Matthew 11:29–30 “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

We are still to submit to Jesus, to his yoke. But notice he says that it is easy and the burden is light, and from him we will find rest for our souls. This word rest means to cease from our labors—the labor of having to keep the law, of always wondering if we are good enough. This is ultimately why Christ is our rest. His outstretched arms on the cross did the work for us. We are freed from ever having to work to please God because Christ, the Son of God, did that work for us. Now our souls can rest.

Last Updated ( Monday, 23 October 2006 )