Jesus’ Gracious Invitation
Matthew 11:28
In John Bunyan’s classic analogy of the Christian life, Pilgrim’s Progress, the story opens with the character Pilgrim having a large and heavy burden upon his back. It weighs him down and makes everything that he does difficult. The first part of the story centers on Pilgrim’s efforts to find a way to get rid of the burden. It is not until Pilgrim comes to the cross of Jesus that he is set free from his burden. The rest of the story describes Pilgrim’s progress in the Christian life after he is freed of his burden.[1]
The analogy of a heavy burden on our back is a good description of what life is like apart from Christ. Even for the Christian, when we are not walking with the Lord in the power of His Spirit, striving to do things in our own power, it can feel like the weight of the world is on our shoulders.
Jesus invites the weary and burdened to come to Him for rest—not just physical rest or mental rest but rest for your soul. We are a restless people. Our lives are often filled with burdens, regrets, and guilt. People seek rest in activities, relationships, religion, entertainment, and other distractions but none of that cures the restlessness in our souls.
Augustine writes in his Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”[2] In Matthew 11:28, Jesus says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Do you want rest for your soul? If your soul is weary and burdened, if your soul is restless this morning, then this invitation is for you.
Remember the context in Matthew 11. Jesus has answered those who were critical of both Him and His forerunner, John the Baptist (Matt. 11:16-19) and He strongly rebuked the cities in which He did many miracles because they did not repent and believe in Him. Then He prayed a prayer in Matthew 11:25 where He praises His Father for hiding the truth about Jesus and His kingdom from the wise and prudent and revealing it to babes. Those who think they are wise and righteous do not receive the kingdom, only those who know they are humble and dependent. And He states clearly that the only way to know God the Father, the only way to salvation, is through Him, the Son—the Son that most of them thus far have rejected.
The context, then, highlights the wonderful grace of our Savior. For the most part, His own people are rejecting Him, and yet Jesus gives them this gracious invitation.
I want you to see three things in these words of Jesus: (1) The Lord’s saving invitation, (2) The Lord’s sanctifying instruction, and (3) The Lord’s satisfying assertion.[3]
1. The Lord’s Saving Invitation (Matt. 11:28)
Our Lord says, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Jesus’ invitation is “Come to Me.” It is an urgent invitation. The word “Come” is an adverb or interjection used as a command. It literally means, “Come here” and has the intensity of “Come here now!” And it is a personal invitation. His invitation is to come “to Me.”—meaning “to Me and Me alone” not any another. In fact, notice Jesus stresses Himself using the first person pronoun repeatedly in these three verses: “to Me”; “I will give”; “My yoke”; “learn from Me”; “I am gentle”; “My yoke”; “My burden.” Rest for your soul, relief from your burden, and salvation from sin, is in the person of Jesus Christ alone.
“Come to Me”, Jesus says. Don’t come to the law. Don’t come to “religion”. Come to the Savior! Come to Jesus. Come to the Son of God Who has said (Matt. 11:27), “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.” Come to Him directly and personally. He invites you. He welcomes you.
Notice those to whom Jesus gives this invitation. It’s for all those who “labor and are heavy laden”. Another translation says, “weary and burdened” (CSB). “Labor” comes from a verb meaning “to toil, expend great effort in hard and disagreeable work” making one “weary or tired to the point of exhaustion.”[4] “Heavy-laden” comes from a verb meaning “to place a burden upon; to load”[5] as when placing a load on a pack animal. Metaphorically, it came to mean “to oppress by legal burdens.”
I believe Jesus refers here first to those who labor and are heavy-laden under the horrible burden of trying to earn God’s righteousness by works of the law. In Matthew 19, we meet a man who came to Jesus under such a burden. We have labeled him the “rich, young ruler”. He was, outwardly, a righteous man who lived in strict conformity to the law of Moses. But he had no rest for his soul. He came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” (Matt. 19:16). Jesus told the man, “. . . if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” And when the man asked, “Which ones?”, Jesus said, “‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother,’ and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 19:18-19). Jesus told him what he already believed—that if he kept the commandments of God, he would have eternal life. And yet, the man knew that he did not have it. He had no rest for his soul. He told Jesus—in desperation, I believe—“All these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?” (Matt. 19:20). Oh, how weary of labor and heavy-laden any poor soul is who tries to make themselves perfect before God through keeping the law!
What’s fascinating is that Jesus then adds to his labor and burden even further. “If you want to be perfect,” He said, “go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me” (Matt. 19:21) And with that, the young man went away sorrowful, “for He had great possessions” (Matt. 19:22). This man wanted to know what “good thing” he must do that he may have eternal life. Jesus wanted him to realize what an impossibly wearisome and heavy burden it was that he was trying to bear.
The scribes and Pharisees taught a righteousness before God on the basis of outward obedience and conformity to the law of Moses. Jesus said, “they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders” (Matt. 23:4). It was an impossible burden to bear; because, as the Bible tells us, “by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified” (Gal. 2:16). Israel’s entire history is nothing but “labor and heavy laden”. Over and over, God had promised rest for His people (Deut. 12:8-10; 25:19; 1 Kings 8:56; 1 Chron. 23:25; Mic. 2:10; Heb. 4:8,9; 1 Pet. 1:3,4). But because of their sin, idolatry, and rebellion the Jews never truly received the rest God intended.
The heavy load of the law which they could not keep caused them to be weary with guilt over their sin. King David spoke of this in Psalm 38. He said, “There is no soundness in my flesh Because of Your anger, Nor any health in my bones Because of my sin. For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me” (Psalm 38:3-4). Have you felt the heavy burden of the guilt of your sin and the weight of the condemnation of God’s judgment on you?
To all these Jews who were laboring under the heavy load of the law, and the guilt of their sin, Jesus says: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” “For”, as Paul writes, “Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes” (Rom. 10:4). This is Jesus’ wonderful invitation to all men and women who labor under the impossible task of trying to earn God’s favor, and earn eternal life for themselves through their obedience to the works of the law, through trying to be a good person. Jesus invites them to come to Him and find rest! For those who take Him up on His offer, the work is already done; “knowing that a man is not justified by works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ” (Gal. 2:16).
Jesus Himself bore the weight of keeping the law of God perfectly. And Jesus Himself bore the guilt of our sin on the cross having been made a sin offering for us. And now, the promise of God is, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:1).
And so, for every man or woman who has ever felt the unbearable guilt of sin—guilt that no amount of good deeds could ever undo or erase—Jesus gives this invitation: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Notice the promise is to “all” who labor and are heavy-laden. It doesn’t matter who you are. It doesn’t matter if you are Jew or Gentile. It doesn’t matter if you are the world’s most outwardly moral Pharisee or the world’s most depraved sinner. Jesus extends this invitation to “all”.
Can you think of a more wonderful, more satisfying invitation than this? Have you come to Jesus for rest?
Next, please notice that the Lord not only gives a ‘saving invitation’ but we also see . . .
2. The Lord’s Sanctifying Instruction (Matt. 29a).
Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me . . .”. In the original language, those words are spoken in the imperative, a command to be obeyed, an instruction to follow. And it’s a “sanctifying” instruction because it’s how we grow closer to Jesus and He makes us more like Him as we follow it.
First, Jesus commands those who come to Him to take up His “yoke”. A yoke was a large wooden crossbar that was carefully carved to fit over the necks of beasts of burden, like oxen. Yokes were usually to hold two animals together, bound by leather straps, so that the animals could be made to carry a burden together or pull together. It was an instrument that curbed the will of the animal and bought it under the master’s control.
And there are a couple of interesting things to notice about this. The word “yoke” was sometimes used in Jesus’ day as a figure of speech. Sometimes, the word was used to symbolize a heavy burden. The Bible uses it as a figure of speech for the heavy burden of the law of Moses. In Acts 15:10 Peter used it as a figure of speech for the heavy burden of the law. He said to those who sought to put new Gentile believers under the law of Moses, “Why do you test the God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?” Paul also wrote about this yoke to the Galatian believers who were trying to keep the law of Moses as a means of making themselves more righteous in the sight of God, saying, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage” (Gal. 5:1).
Sometimes, the word “yoke” was used as a symbol of being under submission to someone else or of being a disciple under the authority of a master. The ancient Jewish advice to students was, “Put your neck under the yoke and let your soul receive instruction.”[6] The yoke here symbolizes obedience to Jesus which includes learning His ways and following them. The word “learn” in Matthew 11:29 means to receive instruction and is related to the word for “disciple”.
Jesus here says that we are not only to take up His yoke, but also “and learn from Me . . .” The Greek word that is used (apo) can either mean to learn “from” Him, in the sense that He is our divine Teacher, or to learn “of” Him, in the sense that He is the divine subject. I believe both are true. When we come to Him, we learn from Him and of Him. He is both the reason we learn and the lesson we are taught.
When Jesus tells you to take His yoke upon you, He is asking you to become His disciple. He invites you to follow Him and to serve Him as your Master. Jesus is inviting those who are weary and heavy-laden under the unbearable burden of the law to come out from under the burden of trying to find righteousness before God on the basis of their performance in the law, and to take up another yoke which is easier and a burden which is lighter. The law is a heavy taskmaster. But not Jesus. Jesus is gentle and humble in heart. And when you follow him, you will find rest for your soul.
When we take up Jesus’ yoke, we are trading away an old burden-that is, the burden of the law-that meant our death before God. We could never keep it or find favor with God through it. It would only condemn us and bring us under a curse—”Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them” (Gal. 3:10). Instead, when we come to Jesus, we take up a burden that gives us life. We enter into a relationship with One who kept the law perfectly on our behalf; and now, we walk in life when we walk in union with Him through the Holy Spirit. Paul writes in Romans 8,
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ has made us free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirements of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit (Romans 8:2-3).
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ; when we accept Jesus’ wonderful invitation, we come to obey a command. We come to put on a yoke. But what a blessed yoke it is! It’s a yoke that is nothing less than a relationship with the wonderful Savior Himself.
He puts us to work as His followers, but it’s a work that is a delight to do because of what a wonderful Savior He is. He has done all that is necessary for us to be in the favor of His Father. He has purchased our pardon at His cross, and earned our righteousness by His own obedience. There is no more satisfying and fulfilling place to be than under His yoke.
Have you truly come to Him in that sense? In coming to Him, have you truly taken up His yoke and learned of Him? If so, then finally we see . . .
3. The Lord’s Satisfying Assertion (Matt. 11:29b-30).
He says to take up His yoke and learn from Him; “for I am gentle and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
First, Jesus gives an assertion or promise about Himself. Jesus lets us know that He is “gentle” or “meek”. He is not harsh or rough on those who come under His yoke. He doesn’t beat His servants. He loves them, and is good to them, and is kind to them. This speaks of His manner toward us.
And He also lets us know that He is “lowly” or “humble” of heart. Now, understand: He Himself is never “lowly” or “humble” in His being. Far from it! He is the King of kings and Lord of lords, awesome in His majesty and fearful in His wrath! But to those who come to Him weary and heavy laden, He is “lowly of heart”. This speaks of His approachability. He humbles Himself to reach down to those who are poor and lowly, weary and burdened by sin and guilt.
What a wonderful Master and Teacher He is. We need never fear to take Him up on His great invitation. He will always welcome us and love us. He will never give us more than we can bear but will always strengthen us and enable us to bear the burden He places upon us.
That’s the satisfying assertion He says about Himself. And then, notice the satisfying assertion or promise He gives us concerning His command. He tells us that, in taking His yoke, we will find “rest for our souls”. Here, Jesus quotes from Jeremiah 6. In Jeremiah’s day, God offered this rest, but Israel refused it. Jeremiah 6:16 16 “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths, where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls.’ But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’”
Now God has sent His only begotten Son with the offer of rest for your souls. It is rest for the soul because the nature of the yoke or burden He places upon us is “easy”; and that means “well-fitted” or “agreeable” to us.
The Bible commentator William Barclay writes that when an ox was brought to a craftsman, it was first measured for the yoke. And then, the yoke was roughed out and the ox brought back to try it on. Then, the yoke was adjusted and shaped again, so that it would fit “easily” or “agreeably” to that animal-so that it wouldn’t hurt the animal to wear it.[7] And Jesus does the same for us. He knows us well; and will not place a yoke of service upon us that is not “easy” or “agreeable” to the way He has made us. He tailor-makes His yoke for those who come to Him.
And second, note that His burden is “light”. It is not something that we cannot carry. It’s not something that will crush us or destroy us. It’s something that He Himself gives us the strength to bear.
We cannot bear it in our own power. But we are not meant to bear it in our own power. Paul writes, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil. 4:13) His burden is light because it is Christ who gives it to us, and He who indwells us and empowers us to bear it.
Jesus has given His gracious invitation. But now there is a decision that you must make. Jesus is calling to you, “Come to Me.” Will you? Will you turn your eyes away from the sinful enticements of this world and look to Jesus? Will you lay down the burden of your sin and self-righteousness at the foot of the cross? Will you come to Him who can take your burden and give you rest for your soul? Will you take His yoke and be His disciple? Jesus is calling. Will you heed His call and come?
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[1] Scott Harris, Jesus’ Offer of Rest – Matthew 11:25-30, https://gracebibleny.org/jesus_offer_of_rest_matthew_11_25_30
[2] Augustine of Hippo, NPNF1: Vol. I, The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book I, Chapter 1, §1.
[3] Greg Allen, The Great Invitation, https://www.bethanybible.org/archive/2006/050706.htm, I adapted Allen’s outline and was helped by some of his points in this sermon.
[4] Larry Pierce, Outline of Biblical Usage, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2872/nkjv/tr/0-1/
[5] Larry Pierce, Outline of Biblical Usage, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g5412/nkjv/tr/0-1/
[6] Ecclesiasticus 51:26, https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Ecclesiasticus-51-26/
[7] William Barclay, The Gospel of Matthew, vol. 2, p. 17.
