This week the church celebrates the feast of St. Matthias, Apostle & Martyr (not today, but Friday). Now, I don’t want to look at all the readings for that feast – but I was struck by the last half of the Gospel text for that feast. Matthew 11:28-30, 28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NKJV)
This text struck me here for several reasons
Firstly, it reminds us that Lent is a season of Rest. And isn’t that so true? So often we view the season of Lent as being about what we do and what we don’t do. About eschewing sin and seeking self betterment. About our works our strife and our efforts. But none of that is true. Lent isn’t pointed towards us or at us or our self betterment or our transformation (as good and necessary as those things are) but at Jesus and His work for us on the cross. I pray that we understand that deeply in this church. That we see in lent NOT a second go at our failed new years resolutions, or a chance at self betterment or progress into self conceived holiness BUT – that we see Christ and the forgiveness of sins won for us by His blood, suffering, and death on the cross.
And this is what the Vespers group has been meditating upon for the past several weeks even before the season of Lent began. With SEVERAL weeks focused squarely upon Hebrews 4 and 5 and the 3rd commandment in the small Catechism we meditated together on the truth that JESUS is our rest. NOT the law but Jesus. That Jesus is our sabbath. Not Saturday nor Sunday. We saw there in these scriptures and in echoed back to us in our catechisms that rest is not something that we attain through economic abstinence. It is not had by our lack of buying, selling, working, trading. No. True rest is had by placing faith in the complete and finished work of Jesus Christ for you on the cross and your receiving it as a gift freely given.
And so this Gospel reading struck me as one perfect for this season – come to me you who are weary, you who are heavy laden, you who labor – and I will give you rest for your souls. This is the Lenten message. But this message carries with it a call to repentance, and good works, and love. Maybe we don’t catch it all the time because we don’t read that carefully but IT IS HERE. Listen; He says,take my yoke upon you, and you will find rest. for my YOKE is easy, and my BURDEN is light.
And some of us will hear that and think – WOW. That’s so much different from the appointed gospel reading for tonight. That’s light years of difference from Matthew 7s warnings about fruits and works and the doing of God’s commands. BUT IS IT? Let me ask you this, what is a yoke? Does anyone actually know? What does Jesus mean when He says my yoke is easy, my burden is light? Is he saying the yoke is easy and the burden is light because He asks nothing of us? Think – what is a yoke? A yoke is used to bind two oxen together so that they can pull more weight than they otherwise could independently. It’s derived from the ancient proto-indo-european word for bind or unite. And it is used in every indo-european language now to mean one thing and one thing only, the binding of two work animals together so that they can pull more weight as they work in the field.
So what is Jesus yoking together? What is He Binding us to, or uniting us to? And for what purpose? Do you know? Us to Himself. Us to Himself. He’s bring us into Him, through Baptism, uniting us with His death, and with His newness of life. Into His resurrection and glory. Into His righteousness and goodness. And Himself, into us. So that as Paul says in Gal 2:20, it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me and through me. This is why it’s easy. He’s bringing us into the work that He’s doing in us and through us and with us. Like children who help their fathers lift something 5 times their size, Jesus lets us share His yoke and His burden with Him. Is the child really helping? No. In this same way, are we really helping Jesus achieve the work He does through us? NO. Are we really helping Him to create faith in us? Are we really helping to do the works He does in us? No. Eph 2, you were dead in tresspassses and sins. BUT – God in Christ, through Christ, by Christ has made you alive IN christ and together with Christ. Not BY works, but FOR WORKS. For you were recreated in Christ Jesus, and made alive again in Christ Jesus, FOR good works, which God prepared in advance so that we would walk in them. Don’t you see?
This is why you have been saved – and this is itself your salvation WORKED OUT AND MANIFEST, God’s working goodness and grace and mercy through you toward others. This is your restoration. And it is, – don’t mishear me here, IT IS YOUR REPARATION (the repairing of both your self and the brokenness around you) that He is working in you. Not Him apart from you. But Him in you. Him with you. Him for you. Carrying the weight of that yoke, and you coming alongside with Him. Yet in such a way that you may say (in like manner with Gal 2:20) that it is not you doing this work, but Christ who does this work in you. This is exactly what St. Paul says in Philippians 2:13, when he says that “it is GOD who works in us both the will and the WORKS which please Him, and in Colossains, 1, when he says that it is form the hope of the gospel preached to us that both faith and love (that is, works) have sprung up within our hearts.
We know this as Lutherans. Don’t we? This is our Small Catechism. “I believe I cannot believe… but.” We confess this! Do we create our own faith? No. For faith is a gift, not our own doing. (Eph 2:8), and, this is the work of God, that you believe (John 6:29). Or, SC AC 3rd Art; I believe I cannot believe by my own reason, strength, understanding, will decision – BUT GOD has placed it in me, THROUGH HEARING THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST as Paul says in Rom 10:17. Yes? We know this. SO why would we think then that we make our own works? WE DONT. God does.
But heres the thing… do you still do these good things? Of course. Do you have FAITH? Of course. Yt neither originate from you. Both are from God. But where does He will to put these things? This faith and this love? In you! And so you have these things. And so you do these things. You believe in God, and you LOVE your God, and you love His creation. Yet you by yourself could neither believe nor do. Yet still by the grace of God, faith was worked into your hearts by Word and Sacrament. Yet still by the grace of God, love and good works were done through your hands by Word and Sacrament.
And this is why the call to do this work is a call to rest. A rest from attempt to produce our own goodness and righteousness. A call to lay down our decisions and our attempts to be or to do what Christ has already made us and prepared for us and to instead receive from Him this goodness, that it might become ours and abound in us toward others. This is what the apostles James has to say to us today, isn’t it? 16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. 17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from aboveSo also believe this, every GOOD THING, every good work, every good deed and action and intention – where does THAT come from? You? Come on. No. It comes from God. And this is how God has planned to save us James says, He planned to recreate us and give us new life and rebirth through the WORD OF TRUTH. But this Word of truth James says it is not one that we merely HEAR. But one that we do. One that is not merely outside of us, but one that comes from outside of us, and enters into us. This James calls the implanted Word. Or, the Word planted in you. This is Christ in you. He – this implanted Word – of GOd, and its being in you, and its reshapingyou, and its reforming you, and its restoring you, this – James says, this is able to save your souls. This, really, this – this IS THE SALVATION OF your souls. For God does not will to merely forgive you for being awful. But promises you that He will cleanse you and clean you. He will reshape you and reform you. He will mold you and recreate you. He will FULLY RESTORE YOU. That is His promise to you.
And so you are His church, His body. The limbs moved to action by the head who is Christ. The body animated by the BREATH dwelling in It, the Spirit of God. And so God uses His church to do His work as musician uses an instrument to play HIS music. Yet apart form him we are a headless and breathless body (a corpse), and an instrument left un-played. Do you see?
And so God asks us to work. He asks us to work in Isaiah 58, He asks us to work in James 1. He asks us to work in Matthew 7 and 11. He asks us to work all over His Holy Scriptures. But this work He asks us to do is one that God is working in us to do. Both to will it and to work it. Since the very beginning He has been drawing us into His work in the world. Hasn’t he? So also he does this now. For He says come unto me you who are weary and you who are heavy laden. I will give you rest. Not a rest into laziness or inactivity. But a rest from trying to produce what only He can give.
So, this Lent, let us rest in God’s promise that He will move us to will and to work for His good pleasure. For the good of those around us. And for the glory of our God. And let us live in His love, by His love, and for His love. And let us do – by His grace and by His power all that He has prepared and commanded us to do. And let us do it all, PRAYING – as He promised that HE would conform us into His image. And recreate us into His likeness as we do it. Trusting not IN OURSELVES but in the Lord, to move us to do the works and to make us to bear the fruits that we might live in the fullness of His love.
