Rest, that thing we all desire, yet that thing that seems to allude us the most. As children we do not want to take a nap, as adults we wish we could take a nap. You know how it is, we work all week and we look forward to the weekend when we can sleep in. For too many people it seems that all there is to this world is “working for the weekend.” And then, on the weekend we do not rest (voice inflection). No, we play hard, we garden hard, we do everything except rest and we are glad to get back to work on Monday so we can rest.
One of the difficult issues Jesus faced while on this earth, and still today, was and is His identity crisis. Who is this Jesus? In His day, and still today, suggestions as to His identity range from His being a good man, a good person, a good teacher, a good prophet, and the like to Peter’s confession and our confession, that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world. He is true God and true man. He is the Messiah. Still today there are those who would deny Jesus identity, usually because it is not logical or reasonable. I would suggest that I like the fact that God is beyond my comprehension. Think about it this way, how puny God would be if He were so small and so simple and so logical that I, with my little brain, of which scientists tell us that we only use about 10% of anyway, how puny He would be if I could completely understand Him. I worship a God who is so much bigger than I am and a God who is beyond my own comprehension, however, I also worship a God who has revealed to me everything I need to know for my salvation. I worship a God who has done everything for me and given everything to me. I worship a God who is so much greater and beyond me, but who has made Himself very personal to me. But let us get to our text.
Earlier Jesus had sent His disciples out in order to get some “on the job training.” He “gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” Now, they had returned and Jesus turns to His Father in prayer for their experiences. Jesus praises the Father for concealing hidden things from the wise and the learned, that is, the self wise and the self learned. Jesus’ prayer speaks through the ages as we see the same self wise and self learned today who think they are so much bigger and smarter than God and announce certain things, certain characteristics about God, such as His inability to do miracles and the like. The god about which they speak is a god of their own creation, an idol. That is why they do not know Jesus, the one true God and that is why He is hidden from them. Of course, we know that, in our text, Jesus is referring to the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law, and they know it too. In His prayer we come to understand even more about Jesus, our Savior.
In His prayer, and in many other places in Scripture, Jesus establishes Himself as God. He is not explicit in His words and in His prayer and that may be why so many miss it, why it is hidden. Jesus’ prayer reminds us that He is God with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In other places in Scripture He is more explicit reminding us that He is Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, God who died and was raised to life.
Very often, in the Gospels, we hear Jesus speak the “I Am” words, that is, Jesus says, “I am . . ., “I am the way, the truth and the life.” These words go all the way back to the Old Testament and the call of Moses in the wilderness. When God called Moses, from the burning bush, to bring the children of Israel out of bondage of slavery in Egypt Moses asked, “who shall I say sent me?” and God said, “tell them ‘I Am’ has sent you.” “I Am,” that is God’s name, Yahweh. When Jesus says, “I Am” He is claiming to be Yahweh, God, and that really grates on the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law.
In our text, in His prayer Jesus says, “No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” Jesus, the Son, and the Father are known by each other and through each other because they are one. Here again, we see Jesus establishing Himself as God, with the Father.
Jesus, true God, comes to bring rest, true rest. Here, again, Jesus is aiming His words at the Pharisees and teachers of the Law and at the Pharisees and teachers of the Law in our world today. These Pharisees and teachers of the Law were bringing a burden, a yoke on the children of Israel. And for those of you who do not know what a yoke is, a yoke is that thing which goes around the neck of an ox or a mule or a horse in order to attach a plow or trailer or other object and the reins to drive the animal. The yoke with which the Pharisees and teachers of the Law were burdening the people was the yoke of ceremonial laws. Today it is the yoke of obedience. So many laws they put on the people, in order to keep the ten commandments, it was unbearable, it was unrealistic for the people to be able to carry such a load.
The third commandments says the we are to “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” Simply stated, in good Lutheran terms we ask, “What does this mean?” and answer, “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and His Word, but hold it sacred and gladly hear and learn it.” Simple enough we might suggest. This commandment reminds us of the importance of not despising the Word of God and the preaching of such Word, because of our love for God and it reminds us of the importance of gladly reading our Bibles, having family and personal devotion, and attending Divine Service and Bible class, again, because of God’s love for us and because of our love for God. The Pharisees and teachers of the Law, however, made up many tedious rules and regulations in order to “help” the children of Israel to keep this commandment. Rules such as, a person can walk only so many feet on the Sabbath day. A person could lift only so much weight on the Sabbath day, a person was not able to cook a meal on the Sabbath day and so on. It was these rules, to which Jesus was referring, which were a yoke and a burden to the children of Israel.
Instead of giving the people a difficult yoke to bear, Jesus simply gives gifts. He tells us that His yoke is a yoke of peace and rest. And when I say peace and rest, I am not speaking about the type of peace and rest we think of in our world today, an hour or so, maybe a day of peace and calm. No, His is true peace, a peace which surpasses all understanding. His yoke brings true rest, not just a nap or a time to sleep in, His is a true rest, a rest of mind and spirit, a rest of forgiveness of sins which brings a rest of body.
And even more than just giving us an easy yoke, Jesus takes our yoke, our burden of sin and guilt. He who was without sin became sin for us. Our Old Testament lesson for this morning is the promise of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem where He came to give His life on the cross for us, in our place. Paul reminds us in our epistle lesson, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Christ comes to rescue us. He comes to take our heavy yoke of sin and to give us His easy yoke of forgiveness.
The trials and tribulations of this world are indeed heavy. The struggles of this world weigh heavy on us. Day in and day out we struggle against sin and temptation and we lose. Our fight is not against powers and principalities but is against the spiritual forces which fight against us. Every day there is the temptation to sin, not against just one of the commandments, but against all of the commandments. And have you ever noticed, when we do sin against one of the commandments, we have probably sinned against two or three others as well. I would suggest that our temptation and sin today is not that we have so many rules and regulations to help us to keep the Ten Commandments, but that we have so much freedom to not keep the commandments. The question is not how much we should not do in order to keep the Sabbath day, but the fact that we have the freedom to do whatever we want, even, not the freedom of religion, but the freedom from religion.
Thanks be to God that He is a God who gives and we are His people to whom He gives. He has given us Jesus who is God. Jesus is God who comes with power, might and authority. And if we question if Jesus is God all we need to do is to go to His Word and in His Word Jesus shows Himself to be God. He shows Himself to be God through His signs, wonders and miracles which He performed while on this earth.
It is important that Jesus is both God and man. It is important that Jesus was a man so that He might identify with us, so that He might be our substitute, that is so that He might give His life for ours. It is important that Jesus is God so that He might be holy, and so that He might be able to live for us, the perfect life demanded of us, for us, in our place. So that He might take our sins, suffer, die and rise from the dead, for us, in our place. Thus, the ultimate showing of Jesus to be our God and Savior is the fact that He gives His life for ours on the cross. He takes our burdens, He took our yoke, He took our sins upon Himself. He suffered and died the eternal death penalty for us in our place.
Jesus gives all things, faith, forgiveness and life and we are given to. He takes our yoke and gives us His which is a light yoke, a light burden. And what is more, He also gives to us so that we respond according to the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Yes, a nap would be a good thing. Physical rest is important. Unfortunately, the reason many people are unable to get enough physical rest is because they are needing spiritual and emotional rest. Sin, temptation and guilt are overpowering. The world imposes a heavy burden, very much like the Pharisees and teachers of the Law. Jesus comes to take that burden and to give us His yoke, a yoke of forgiveness, a yoke of love, a yoke of gifts, a yoke of eternal life. And with His yoke comes rest, a rest the world cannot give, a rest of spirit and soul. Yes, Jesus prayer is for us, for you and for me, His offer is to us, to you and to me, “come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Thanks be to God and to Him be the glory for Jesus’ sake. Amen.
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