THINK TOGETHER.
When was the last time you felt so tired that you just had to rest?
READ TOGETHER.
Matthew 11:28-30. 28Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
This is one of the greatest things Jesus ever said.
Jesus is using a very common farming idea to tell us what he is like. Many people in Jesus’ day were farmers, so they would understand what he was talking about. Most of us are not farmers, so we might not know what Jesus is talking about.
Twice Jesus uses the word yoke. Do you know what a yoke is? A yoke was a large piece of wood that was used by farmers to connect two animals together and to connect them to a plow. When they were yoked together, the animals could not pull apart. They had to work together. They had to pull the plow in the same direction. The plow was another piece of wood that would dig up the soil so that the farmer could plant seeds in it.
So what makes this saying by Jesus so great?
Jesus says that anyone who is tired and feeling exhausted can come to him and I will give you rest. But Jesus isn’t really talking about being physically tired. Read verse 29 again. Jesus is offering rest for our souls. Your body is the outside part of you, but your soul is the inside part of you. Did you know that you had an inside part? It’s the part of you that thinks, and cares, and gets happy or sad. Your soul is the part of you that can be worried or angry, but also joyful and content. Just like your body, your soul can feel tired and weighed down. Have you ever felt this way? As you get older you will feel more and more tired in your soul.
How does Jesus help us to feel rest in our souls? By being yoked to us. He says that we don’t ever have to pull the heavy plow through the dirt alone. Yes, we will still have a heavy yoke to carry, we will always have problems (just ask mom and dad), but Jesus will always carry those problems with us. That’s why he says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, because Jesus is the one lifting it for us.
And the best thing about Jesus is that he is gentle and lowly. That means that he is always kind and caring. He never gets angry with us or loses his temper. He never asks us to do more than we can. He never yells at us or makes us pull the plow by ourselves. Instead he is always inviting us to join him in pulling the plow.
Why? So that God can plant seeds. Jesus helps us go through hard things so that we can learn how to be kind and gentle with others like he is with us.
Because of Jesus we never have to go through hard things alone.
With Jesus we can go through hard things and still be kind like him.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Look up pictures of a yoke online. Why might Jesus use this image to describe how he is with us?
PRAY TOGETHER
Jesus, you are always gentle and lowly with me. Help me to know that you are always with me. Amen.
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