Matthew 11:28-30 (part 1)

               Looking into Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus gives us a lot to think about within a few sentences. In fact, he gives us three steps on how to find rest in Him. This week, we will look at the first step, which is: Come to me (as in Jesus). Finding rest is not something we can do on our own. We need help in finding rest. We tend to find our rest with days off/vacations or by purchasing that new fun item we have been wanting. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that it is wrong. I’m only talking about moments of where we try to go and find rest on our own. That, is not what Jesus is talking about in this passage. We need to Come to him to find the rest we need.

               In the previous chapter (Matthew 10) we see that Jesus has sent out his disciples out to preach the Word. He gave a unique list of items to follow for this journey. There are a number of burdens and worries that came to mind and even more than one kind of burden. Physical: long trip; Mental: they could not bring any extra stuff; Spiritual: hope they say the right thing. There might have been more thoughts that the disciples had.

               Let’s go back to chapter 11, and look closer at those first few words Jesus says. “All who are weary and burdened.” Yes, Matthew was written to the Greek speaking Jews. However, it doesn’t say all Greek speaking Jews who are weary and burdened, but ALL who are weary and burdened. This can be used for our lives today. We might be thousands of years since Matthew was written, but we still have burdens and worries today. And, we still need to take the first step to find rest from our heavy burden. Let us, “Go to Jesus.”

Resource

               Scofield, C. I., English, E. S., Mason, C. E., Babb, W. S., & Karleen, P. S. (1984). Oxford NIV Scofield Study Bible: New International Version: New Scofield Study System with Introductions, Annotations, and Subject Chain References. Oxford University Press.