Over the last couple of weeks we have been looking at some of the more difficult sayings of Jesus. Seeing in chapter 10 the cost of following Jesus, the difficult road that He lays out before his disciples so that they will know what to expect when committing to follow Him. Although back in chapter 7 we saw in His concluding statements in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus making it clear that the narrow road is not one to be chosen lightly and that there are many on the broad road who have been deceived.
Jesus warned in 10:16 that as His disciples He will “send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves,” and that the message we have been given to bring to the world will cause “brother (to) betray brother to death, and a father his child… You will be hated by all because of My name, and it is the one who has endured the end will be saved.” He warned in verse 34 “do not think I came to bring peace on earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” In verses 37-39 He laid out the full cost of following Him, “he who loves father or mother… Son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take up his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me.” If we are going to be His disciples then we must forsake everything in this life, we must put him ahead of everything, being willing to lose everything including our own life for His name sake.
Why? Why would anyone do this? Well for one, and it is kind of the big one, because of the eternal reward that is promised. These are the requirements and the warnings for one who walks on the narrow road. But there is a reason you do not hear this preached at revival meetings, it is not the most enticing message. Chapter 10, with all of its difficult statements are made to disciples, those who have already chosen to follow Jesus, chosen to accept His message, chosen to commit themselves to Him. It is a warning to believers. It is not the gospel itself, it is the difficult truths that come after.
What is the gospel? The gospel is Jesus. The gospel is that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, He came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to offer Himself and His righteousness freely to all those who would choose to follow Him. In John 6:35 Jesus said, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to me will not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst.” Over and over again we see Jesus saying “come.” Over and over again Jesus offers Himself as the only way to life and salvation. In John 8:12 he says “I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” In John 11:25 He says, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me will live even if he dies and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”
Last week we looked at the Lord’s condemnation of those who had heard His message and dismissed it either through criticism of the messenger or through simple indifference. We saw in verses 20-24 the particularly harsh but necessary words Jesus has for the cities of Galilee and the warning to those who had seen His miracles and heard His message and yet continued in unbelief. The warning that “it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.” Why? Because they were rejecting their only chance at life and forgiveness from God, they were rejecting Jesus.
Jesus follows these pronunciations of warning and woe with this beautiful cry in verses 25-30 to “come to Me.” Versus 16-24 are warning of what will happen if you fail to come to Jesus, but our passage for this morning, verses 25-30 are a great promise of blessing for those who take up that message, to those who “come to Jesus.” It is a most refreshing and uplifting statement to understand. A statement that should bring the greatest joy. Let us read our passage for this morning, and this magnificent invitation from our Lord.
“At that time Jesus said, ‘I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these thigns from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this was well pleasing in Your sight. All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.
Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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 your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
This is such a great and uplifting text. I am sure many of you know verse 29 quite well. This is one that is often quoted and it should be, but it is one I think that is often also misunderstood. As with any passage we must understand it in its context in order to not ascribe to it something that it is not saying and I believe that the more clearly we understand it, the more uplifting it will be. The focus of this passage is the invitation in verse 28 “Come to Me” and the beautiful reason he gives as to why, “I will give you rest.” But before we can get into that we need to spend a little time in verses 25-27 because there is a great deal of truth that Jesus lays before us before this beautiful invitation.
Matthew transitions from the Lord’s denunciations of the unrepentant cities with the phrase “at that time.” Though the nation of Israel and especially the people of Galilee had turned their back on the Messiah, Jesus continued to call out to them to come to him. Even though he would have been perfectly within his right to shake the dirt off of His sandals and walk away, Jesus continued to offer himself and the message of salvation. But Jesus did not begin this invitation with a call to come, rather he begins with what is really a prayer to His Father that was meant to be heard by those listening around him.
He begins this prayer in verse 25, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.” The overall focus of this section is on salvation and Jesus is calling attention to the sovereignty of God over all creation. Salvation is given by God alone, the Lord of heaven and earth. It is not a result of man’s power or actions, it cannot be reached by his wisdom or plans. It is only God the Father who initiates it and therefore all praise and glory go to him and him alone.
That is something that all believers must remember in evangelism. No matter how dedicated we are, no matter how intently we serve, no matter how well we present the gospel, no matter what formula we come up with, there is nothing we can do to ensure those listening to us will accept the truth. We are called to go out as wise, as shrewd as serpents and as innocent as doves, we are called to work diligently at proclaiming the message, we are called to be prepared to give a defense of the hope that is in us, but no matter how clear, how loving, and how powerful the presentation of the gospel may be, it is God alone who changes the hearts of men.
We need only to look at the Gospels, look at Matthew as we have been reading and the section that we read last week. If men could reject salvation from the lips of Jesus Christ himself, watching him perform miracle after miracle, hearing the perfect presentation of the truth, we can hardly expect every person who hears our imperfect witness to come to Christ. It should cause us to mourn, but we must recognize that is our Heavenly Father alone who changes hearts.
All the more praiseworthy is how he chooses to do that. In our Sunday school, we have been looking at the 12 apostles, the 12 men that Jesus chose to take his gospel message to the world and found his church. What stands out about these men is there ordinariness. Jesus did not choose from among the scribes and Pharisees, he did not choose from the religious or academic elites. He chose ordinary men, fishermen and craftsmen. Why? Because as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 1 “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise.. So that no man may boast before God.”
In the same way Jesus praises God’s sovereign wisdom in having “hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and having revealed them to infants.” He is talking about the message of the kingdom. “These things” in the middle of verse 25 is referring to the message of the gospel and His teachings about who he is as the Messiah, His Lordship, about salvation and submission.
God has hidden these truths from “the wise and intelligent.” This really is a sarcastic way of referring to those who are intelligent in their own eyes and who rely on worldly wisdom rather than on God’s. It is not to say that God excludes wise and intelligent people from His kingdom; we see throughout history how God has raised up men of incredible insight to further the message of the gospel or to defend the truth of God’s Word against attacks from outside of the church as well as from within. If you read through the book of Proverbs, wisdom and its benefits are praised and acclaimed.
What Jesus is speaking against here is not intelligence or wisdom in and of itself, but an intellectual pride that shuts people out from Christ and His kingdom. It is a pride that becomes a barrier to God as people begin to exalt the gift of wisdom or intelligence over God. This includes both the religious and nonreligious wisdom in the world. No philosophy or religious thinking can never raise one up to the truth of who God is and what he demands for salvation. No science can ever explain the holiness of God for His righteous requirements.
Instead, Jesus continues, “you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to infants.” A baby is completely dependent on others to fulfill its needs. A baby has no ability, no knowledge, no skills to help itself; and the babies know this, that is why they cry. But Jesus is not referring to physical age or capability but rather a humble spiritual attitude. Spiritual infants are those who acknowledge their utter helplessness in themselves. They recognize that they have no capacity in themselves to obtain salvation. It is the very definition of the Beatitudes. Someone who is poor in spirit, who hungers and thirsts after righteousness because they know they have none of their own. Spiritual beggars who are destitute and unwilling to lift up their head to heaven like the publican praying to God and beating His breast saying “be merciful to me a sinner.” They are looking to God for everything.
The contrast between the wise and intelligent and the infants is not between knowledgeable and the ignorant, it is not between those who are wise and those who are simple; it is a contrast between those who think that they can rely upon themselves, on their wisdom, on their achievements, on their ability to save themselves and those who know that they cannot. The truth of the gospel and the message of Salvation is only revealed to spiritual infants
In verse 27 Jesus makes the claim that the truth of this message is revealed by the Son. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” How do we understand this? This is an incredible statement. No one can know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son will reveal Him. How does that work? We know from Romans chapter 1 that God has revealed himself to the world through His creation. Even though they reject Him, and they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, there is an underlying knowledge that God is there to begin with and that is the basis for their condemnation. The fundamental sin of man is not that he does not know God, but that knowing God, he refuses to honor Him as God.
This would have been all the more confusing and even probably even taken as insulting to the Jewish people listening because in their minds, they were the chosen people, they were the ones who God had revealed himself to in the Old Testament. He appeared to Moses directly and given Him the law. “What you mean we do not know the Father? We are His chosen people! We have the law of God!”
It goes even further than that. This statement is even more shocking than the one that comes after it. Jesus said “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father.” Jesus is making a very clear claim to deity, clear as day. We see similar statement at the very end of Matthew in the great commission, “all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.” It is a statement of the deity of Jesus and he is making it clear that he is the heart of the kingdom of God, Jesus is the gospel, Jesus is God and that is the heart of our faith and he is in authority over everything; heaven and earth, natural and supernatural, sin and forgiveness, life and death, judgment and grace, truth, righteousness, glory, peace, and rest.
And it is only Jesus that truly knows the Father and only the Father who knows the Son. Jesus has complete knowledge and understanding of the father because he is fully God. Every perfection of God is shared within the Trinity, all knowledge and understanding. God is so divinely other that we can never comprehend him, the knowledge of divine truth is bound up within the Trinity and no man in our limited finite being can perceive that knowledge.
So then how did we ever get it? How can we attain the knowledge of the father, the knowledge of God requisite for salvation? “nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” It is only through Christ and whom he chooses to reveal the truth that man can have any understanding of God. It is completely dependent upon Jesus and His will. There is no way that we can force His hand, no way that we can require that knowledge of him. Any knowledge of God and salvation comes only through the determination of Jesus and whom he will reveal himself and the father to. And remember, this is the Trinity and so we see the work of the Holy Spirit is well. In 1 Corinthians 2 Paul makes it clear that no one can know God but through the spirit of God which we have received from him, and that we have salvation as he says in verse 13, “not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”
How do we obtain this knowledge, how do we come to an understanding of who God is, to whom does the Son reveal the Father and the knowledge of salvation? We must be a spiritual infant, no trust or pride in our own understanding, no resources or ability to truly perceive God and it is to that kind of person that Jesus chooses to reveal the knowledge of salvation. Salvation then becomes a combination of a humble heart and an infinite God revealing himself.
There are two elements that are always balanced in understanding salvation. It begins with God’s sovereign and gracious revelation of himself. Fully dependent upon His will, His choice, His election. It is only by His grace and His foreknowledge and predestination that we are granted an understanding of the truth. So that if you know who God is, if you know His son, and it is not because of your flesh. It is because of His mercy and grace that he reveals himself to us so that we may know him in a saving way.
At the same time, you have man’s heart, a prepared and ready open heart of humility that when called by Christ receives the invitation that is offered. Man’s part is simply to be relieved of His burden by taking upon himself the yoke of Christ. It begins by coming in faith. “Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.” First, we must come to Christ. To come is to believe in who he is and to choose to follow him. We could just as easily substitute the word “come to” with “believe in me.”
Those who are weary and heavy laden are those who are struggling under terrible burdens, but what are those burdens? It is the burden of a sin laden, guilt ridden conscience that is struggling, laboring to earn salvation through a series of futile efforts and works righteousness. The rabbinical law had become so massive, so demanding that the formulas and standards were impossible. In Matthew 23, Jesus will accuse the Pharisees of “tying up heavy burdens and laying them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them so much as a finger.”
This is not the burden of a self-righteous and proud Pharisee. They had convinced themselves that there was no pain, they were not weary or heavy laden. They were not struggling, they did not feel the need to come to Jesus because they liked their own burden, and they liked it because they could push the guilt they should be experiencing onto somebody else. “I know I am a sinner, but I am so much better than that other guy.” What did the Pharisee pray in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector? “God, I think you that I am not like other people, swindlers unjust adulterers or like that tax collector.” They shift their burden on to others rather than accepting it themselves.
That is not who Jesus is speaking to, he speaking to the person who recognizes their sin, who feels their guilt. The people who feel that are the ones who the Pharisees called sinners, you know, the ones that Jesus was accused of hanging around. Those who are overpowered and overburdened by guilt and their sin. Jesus calls them from their futile despair and self-effort to the free provision of God’s grace. When a person comes to the end of their own ability, to the point of desperation, to the point of being willing to turn away from self and from sin and turn to God.
Desperation, weariness are so often times prerequisites to faith. For some people, it was a growing dissatisfaction with the world and frustration at pointlessness of sin. “What is the point? Living for today is not enough.” For some people it is the guilt of something they had done in their past, a life-time of sin and debauchery, maybe a terrible crime they committed or hurt they perpetrated against a loved one and the guilt is tearing them up inside. Some people have heard enough of the gospel through their lives to know they are sinner, to know that they need to turn to God but they were just holding out. Whatever it is, the burden builds on their back, presses them into the dirt until they have nothing left but to turn to God.
Pilgrim’s Progress is such a wonderful illustration of this. If you have not read the book you really need to. Through the first section of book 1, Pilgrim, the main character, carries this enormous weight and is trying to be rid of it. It grew as he read from Scripture, convicted of his sin. He tries numerous ways to get rid of it until he finally goes to the cross, and the burden falls off his back and he lays it at the feet of Jesus. That baggage was his guilt and sin.
Jesus sees the people around him, weary and burdened by their sin and their guilt, heavy-laden with the added requirements of self-righteousness of the Pharisees that was never enough; and he says to them “come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.” It is not rest from the struggles with the difficulties of life, it is not rest from your job or from the sinful world that we live in. That will come later, that rest we will enter into eternity, when we reach heaven and when God creates the new heaven and the new earth. “you will find rest for your souls.” We find rest for our souls. Rest, relief from the burden of guilt, relief from the weight of sin, release from the burden of trying to earn our own salvation.
How does Jesus give us this rest? Where do we find this relief from our burden? “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart… For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Now there may be a few of you here who remember watching your parents or your grandparents hooking up animals to a yoke. They may not have used a solid piece of wood on the shoulders of the animal like ox, but you understand the principle of harnessing an animal to a plow or a wagon. In the ancient world, the yoke was a symbol of submission. A student was described as being under the yoke of his teacher.
Jesus is saying, “come to me and I will give you my yoke, and my yoke is easy, learn from me.” And it is not just to learn from him, it is to learn of him. It is to submit ourselves to His authority, to be His servant. Paul’s most common title for himself is that of a slave to Christ, a bondservant to Christ. Unless or until you become a slave of Christ, you will never know freedom. And it is only His yoke that will not crush you. Christ will never oppress us, he will never land us a burden that is too heavy to carry. His yoke has nothing to do with the demands of works or law, when we understand what it truly is the Christian’s work of obedience to Christ as a joyful and happy thing even in the midst of persecution.
I make my boys repeat regularly Matthew 22:37 as a response to the question “what is your purpose in life?” It is the first and greatest commandment, to love God with your heart mind soul and strength. And then I asked them what that means and they repeat 1 John 5:3, “for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.”
Submission to Christ brings the greatest liberation a person can experience, it is the only true freedom and rest that you can have on this earth from the effects of sin and guilt. The yoke of Christ is the only way to be free to become what God has created you to be but that means submitting to that yoke. Fully and completely becoming a slave of Christ and when you do you will learn the greatest joy that you can have comes with that submission even if all of that hard stuff from chapter 10 comes along with it.