A, Post Pentecost 6 Proper 9 - Matthew 11:28-30 A Balancing Yoke

When you read or hear God’s Word, does God reveal His message to you? Does hearing or reading His Word leave you wanting to know more, or do you find yourself thinking, “I’m glad that’s done; now I can do something more constructive”?

If so, you may be weighing up God’s Word in the wrong way, and the depth of God’s power in His Word may remain hidden from you. Perhaps you are not allowing God the Holy Spirit to open God’s Word to you. Perhaps it is not important enough in the scheme of your life.

Or perhaps your stubborn, independent self-sufficiency is not allowing the Holy Spirit the time to work His will in you. Like stubborn Pharaoh placing a harsh burden on the Israelites through hardheartedness, you may be placing a harsh burden on yourself through your own stubborn self-sufficiency.

The question we must ask ourselves is this: “Do I want to continue in self-sufficiency, letting my heart become darker and harder through stubborn perception and deception, with the very real possibility that God hands me over to drown in my sins and their consequences?” No! I believe most of us don’t.

Next Sunday we’ll hear Jesus’ address what can happen to the Word of God when it has been sown in the heart. For now, He invites those who are weary from human hardheartedness to come to Him, take on His yoke, and learn from Him.

This invitation from Jesus is not simply a comforting saying; it reveals what God is doing with our weariness. He is drawing us away from the exhausting burden of self-sufficiency and towards the rest that comes from being yoked to Christ.

Jesus says, “Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28–30 ESV)

We’ve all heard the saying, “there’s no rest for the wicked”.  This saying finds its origin in God’s Word where in Isaiah 48:22 we hear, “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.” (Isaiah 48:22 ESV)

But we’ve also just heard in Zechariah chapter nine, “Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope; today I declare that I will restore to you double.” (Zechariah 9:12 ESV)

We are prisoners from our wickedness, but ones with hope of restoration from the strength of God!

Chances are God is allowing your weariness to reveal something about yourself, just as He has done with individuals and groups throughout history. Perhaps God is teaching you how you relate to Him, especially when self-sufficiency leads you to forget or refuse to let Him be your God. Yet He remains the God whose kingdom, power, and glory are, were, and will continue to be.

God’s kingdom, power, and glory manifest themselves to us through His steadfast love. Our God is a God of generosity and mercy. So too are God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit invite us to receive Their generosity and mercy, and to live in the steadfast love of Their providence, salvation, and will.

We mostly think our heavy burden and weariness is a negative that has been inflicted upon us by the sins of others.  However, the reality is unlike Jesus, we are far from gentle and lowly in heart.  When push comes to shove from the sins of others our meekness or gentleness vaporises like an oasis in the desert, proving to be a mirage or deception.  Any lowliness of heart hardens in the heat of the moment.

Yet Jesus invites you to take on his yoke. A yoke still sounds like a burden to us. Most of us picture oxen yoked to a plough in the paddock, or a dray hauling heavy loads up a hill while the bullocky breaks the sound of shackles and chains on straining cattle with his most colourful language.

Jesus is not like a coarse bullocky, nor does His yoke make beasts of burden. No! “The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and his mercy is over all that he has made.” (Psalm 145:8–9 ESV) So too is our Lord Jesus since He and the Father are one!

But what is His yoke if it is not a beastly yoke? Another yoke is similar to that which rests on the neck of the beast, and it does carry things. However, the focus is more on balance than burden. In fact, if the balance is not right on a yoke the burden can be unbearable. So, what can we learn from Jesus about His yoke and the balance of what He bears and how He bears it? In other words, what does Jesus invite us to learn from Him?

As humans, we tire and weary ourselves with the old knowledge-of-good-and-evil narrative. As we all know, this is as old as humanity itself, reaching back to Adam and Eve. Since then, we have embellished this knowledge in countless ways. Unfortunately, these embellishments exhaust humanity more and more, as each of us uses this knowledge on others while it’s used on us.

As humanity prides itself on advancement in technological, social, academic, and practical knowledge, how much do these advancements become the very things that create a greater burden upon us? The things we thought would make life better often make us more anxious and burdened about living. This tiredness ends in eternal death when the knowledge of good and evil remains as one’s yoke.

What we learn from Jesus is that our balance is way out of whack! Judging ourselves and each other with a yoke of good and evil misjudges and misunderstands the yoke of Jesus. His yoke is a yoke of holiness built on the Law, that shows us that both the good and evil deeds that come from our natures are wicked. Our wickedness is that we do not fear and trust God but that we would prefer to fear and trust the desires of our hearts above God.

Jesus’ yoke rebalances the holiness of God in human life. In His meekness and humility, He removes the burden we place on ourselves and each other. Jesus’ yoke took Him to the cross, and He calls us to bear our cross. Yet the yoke of our cross is not the yoke Jesus bore in His death. That yoke has already been borne.

We learn from Jesus that bearing our cross is about putting off the very things that weary us. What we learn from Jesus is not that we must be good like Him and use Him as a method for our salvation. That would place Gospel before Law: Jesus did it, showed us what to do and how to do it, and now we must do it to be saved. Put simply, this is just a revised version of the knowledge of good and evil.

Paul shows us the reality of trying to make ourselves self-sufficient in Romans chapter seven, where he cries out, “For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.”(Romans 7:19 ESV)

In the exhaustion of Paul’s good and evil he celebrates, “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:25a ESV)

What we learn from Jesus while on earth, during life, ministry, cross, death, and resurrection is that He rested His divinity as the Son of God and was wearied with what worries every human being. But in the weakness of yours and my flesh He remained holy and without sin. Unlike us He was not wicked, and unlike us He lived life solely to please God the Father, setting Him aside in all holiness. And He did not do this from His own divinity but was led by the Holy Spirit in hallowing God and His name before all.

This is what it truly means to be gentle and lowly in heart, or meek and humble in heart. Where we become soft and sin making us hardhearted, Jesus was hard against sinning while becoming soft towards those who know their reality and call on the name of the Lord for help.

Jesus now yokes us with His Word of Law and Gospel. The Holy Spirit uses that Word to show you the weight of your sin and the weariness it brought upon Jesus Christ on the cross. Yet the same Word gives you the gift of His sinless life, which did not deserve the cross. By the power of God’s Word, you are made holy and given rest in the holiness of the Father’s presence, in peace.

Since this yoke balances yours and my debt with our Father, surely it gives you and me the will to walk in meekness and humility, to love others as Christ loves us, and to serve others as Jesus served us at the cross and as He continues to serve us before the Father in Heaven. Amen.

Heavenly Father, we bless You for blessing and balancing us with the yoke of Your Son, Jesus Christ. Help us to speak of the glory of Your kingdom and tell others of Your power. Let the Spirit dwell in us so Your power is made manifest in meekness and humility to others. Let us make known the glorious splendour of Your everlasting kingdom, now and forever. Amen.

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Sermon Summary

This sermon calls hearers to recognise how easily God’s Word can be treated as something weighed, judged, and managed by human self-sufficiency rather than received as the living Word through which God reveals Himself. The burden addressed is not only the suffering caused by others, but also the heavier burden created by stubborn independence, hardheartedness, and the old knowledge-of-good-and-evil narrative by which people judge themselves and one another.

Against this weariness, Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28–30 is presented as more than comfort. It is the gracious call of Christ to come to Him, take His yoke, and learn from Him. His yoke is not beastly oppression but holy rebalancing. By His Law and Gospel, Jesus exposes the weight of sin and gives the gift of His sinless life, which has already borne the burden of the cross for us.

The sermon therefore moves from human exhaustion to divine rest. Christ, gentle and lowly in heart, does not leave sinners to carry the crushing yoke of self-justification. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, Jesus joins us to Himself, we’re taught meekness and humility, and willed to rest in the Father’s presence. To bear the yoke of Christ is to be freed from sinful self-sufficiency, rebalanced by grace, and drawn into a life of humble service.

Bearing the yoke of Jesus in the wider context on Matthew 11

Matthew 11 places before us the picture of children in the marketplace calling, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.” Jesus uses this image to expose a generation unwilling to respond to God’s visitation, through Him and John the Baptist. John comes with the solemn dirge of repentance, yet they will not mourn. Jesus comes with the joyful music of the kingdom, eating and drinking with sinners, yet they will not dance. They reject both because they do not want God to set the tune. 

Reflection: What unrepentant things do I do to set the tune for my life?

This refusal is unrepentance. Christ’s mighty works are the music of God’s kingdom breaking into the world: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor receive good news. Yet Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum remain unmoved. They have heard both flute and funeral song but answer neither. Their burden is not lack of revelation but resistance to it; their hearts remain yoked to themselves.

Reflection: What goods and evils need to be unyoked from my life with the yoke of Jesus Christ?

At that time Jesus rejoices that the Father has hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children. These little children are not childish in stubbornness, but childlike in dependence, receptiveness, and trust. They receive what the Father reveals through the Son. Here the mourning of the burdened becomes blessed: those who labour and are heavy laden know the dirge of sin, disappointment, judgement, and death, yet Jesus does not leave them under that load. He reveals the Father and calls them to Himself.

Reflection prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, send the Holy Spirit to move me to proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ and to respond with thanksgiving when I hear it.  Help me to mourn over my sin, so in repentance I daily place it on the cross.

To take the yoke of Jesus Christ is allowing the Holy Spirit to teach and move us to respond to God’s music. His Law teaches and moves us to mourn what sin has done; His Gospel teaches and moves us to dance before God’s mighty works in Christ: His mercy, healing, forgiveness, cross, resurrection, deposit of the Holy Spirit, and promised rest. His yoke is not the heavy yoke of performing for God, nor the stubborn yoke of refusing God. It is the gracious yoke by which Christ brings mourners into joy and the weary into rest.

Reflection:  How does the yoke of Jesus encourage me to be humble in my blessings, and endure in the hardships, of this life?  How does the yoke of Jesus enable me to be “like Jesus” to my neighbour? 

C, Easter Sunday, The Resurrection of our Lord - 1 Corinthians 15:19-26 "Jesus' Fruitful Rs"

1 Corinthians 15:19–26 (ESV) If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.  But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.  Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

If you were asked, “What are the three Rs?”  What would be your answer?  Once upon a time most would have said, “Reading, Writing, and arithmetic (or reckoning)”.  Even though the words don’t begin with “R” they all have that strong “R” sound in their first syllables.

To ask the question of Google, “What are the three Rs?” There is a surprising number of variations.

Another educationally based three Rs are to Read, Reason, and Recite.  In the economy one might look to financial Relief, economic Recovery, and then economic Reform.  These were the three Rs President Roosevelt sought to implement when he entered office.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle are the philosophical three Rs and they’re also the environmental three Rs. These three can be a climate change mantra or even just a commonsense economical use of earthly resources.

Motivationally one might give, Rewards, Recognition, and Reinforcement to move people and productivity in an organisation.

Community orderliness calls for Rhythm, Routines, and Relationships; and those relationships call for Respect, Restraint, and Responsibility.  Marriage calls for Resilience, Respect, and Responsiveness.  In early childhood learning the focus is on Relationships, Repetition, and Routines.

The three R focus for God toward humanity is to Ransom, to Redeem, and to Reconcile. These are the relational three Rs of God to restore the fellowship humanity lost when sin enter the world through Adam and Eve.   Three things led to their sin.  They turned from God’s Reliability, no longer Relishing God, therefore they Required to be like God. God was now less fruitful to them then the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

So, God set about restoring this broken relationship so humanity could come back into fellowship with him.

During the Lenten season we have been called in God’s Word to Reflect, Repent, and be Reconciled.  Lent is a penitential season in the church year.  It is a season of sorrowful reflection, where we’re called to look at ourselves in the mirror of God’s Word and see our sins.  But not just our sins, but also the fruitfulness of God in his giving of a perfect fruit, the first fruit Jesus Christ, through whom we have freedom to continually have our humanity cleansed. 

The Holy Spirit shows us our sin in God’s Word, or the Holy Spirit causes us to know our sin by sending a servant to show us our error.  Therefore, reflection of the self, directed by the Holy Spirit, sees the call to repentance, as a gift, so a child of God can freely repent.  After reflection and repentance occurs, a repentant person knows they have been reconciled to God, as a child of God.  There repentance is not a work to earn salvation, but rather a willing reception of what God has done, what he continues to do, and what he will continue to do as we live and die in him.

In Jesus’ death, the ransom for your sin has been paid in full.  In his sinless death, he was raised as our Redeemer.  And now we are reconciled to God as his children.

So as a child of God what are your three Rs?   Well, there are not just three Rs, there are many Rs that God gifts us with, now that we’re his children. From Jesus’ resurrection we receive, Rebirth, Renewal, Restoration, Regeneration, Righteousness, Reconciliation, Respite, Relief, Rest, Re-creation and Holy Recreation.

Jesus himself is the new fruit of the resurrection.  The old tree of good and evil no longer grows in God’s Garden.  It has no place next to the Tree of Life, Jesus Christ, the fruitful tree of the Resurrection — the tree of Rebirth, Renewal, and Recreation.  The tree of knowledge of good and evil is dead to you in Jesus’ death and resurrection.  You know it because he shows you how good you must be to overcome your evil, and in that shows you your fruitlessness that leads to death.

In Christ’s resurrection Paul proclaims, “Jesus is the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.  For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.  Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power.  For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.  The last enemy to be destroyed is death.” (1 Corinthians 15:19–26 ESV)

Paul explains we are made alive in Christ; his resurrection is the hope of our resurrection.  We bear the new fruit of the resurrection which is destroying all the fruits of good and evil, every rule, authority, and power, of and in ourselves, the world, and the devil.  Let your faith in good and evil die with the death of death!  True life is living in the fruit of Jesus Christ.

As you tarry between the death of eternal death in baptism and your human nature’s earthly death, the Holy Spirit wills you to live in the three Rs of God’s fruitful righteousness and faith in Jesus Christ – that is Renewal, Repentance, and Rest.  Amen.

B, Post Pentecost 2 Proper 4 - 2 Corinthians 4:5-12 "Clay Jars that We Are"

Clay jars need rest!  But the power to rest in the right way does not come from the clay jar!  In its fragility the clay jar does not know how to rest, it needs a knowledge greater than the lack of knowledge it contains.  Clay jars can hold many things, but one thing they cannot hold is knowledge.

Saint Paul speaks of us as the clay jars holding the light that shines out of darkness.  A clay jar that has an absence of light contains only darkness.  Like creation we are clay jars without form and void.  Likewise, to creation, we need God to say, “Let light shine out of darkness,” “Let there be light”.  We need God the Holy Spirit to shine, “in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”  (2 Corinthians 4:6 ESV)

Clay jars need rest to be reformed and recast.  I’m not talking about pottery anymore, but the earthenware of our humanity, our flesh, our soul or being, both physical and spiritual.  We need the light of God that’s more powerful than the strongest laser light.  To cut with greater precision than a plasma cutter.  To open us and expose what’s hidden within.  And to burn out what’s rotting away inside of us!

Some clay jars believe that the darkness within is light, and therefore do not want to be reformed or recast.  At some point though, without rest, clay jars will return to the dust from which they’re made.  “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” (Genesis 3:19 ESV)

All clay jars will crack and fall apart, explode in a shower of shards from pressure, or on Christ’s return God’s decree will be fulfilled in him.

From Psalm two we hear, “I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, ‘You are my Son; today I have begotten you.  Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession.  You shall break them with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.’” (Psalm 2:7–9 ESV)

We, clay jars, need rest in God!  Why do we need this rest?  And what does this rest do?  How do we get this rest?  What does this rest look like? 

Returning to Second Corinthians four, we know that without God, there is nothing within shining the necessary light to recast and reform us in Jesus Christ.  Even Paul says, “For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants (slaves) for Jesus’ sake.”  (2 Corinthians 4:5 ESV)

Even Paul needs rest as a servant slave of the Lord Jesus Christ, as do all who preach and teach for Jesus’ sake!

So, why do we need this rest?

The fragility of our being is evident in this world.  This world is one bound by death.  In fact, death is the great unifier of all people, all animals, all things, in all of creation.  Everything is dying!   You, me, the person next to you, your animals, everything ever built, everything ever created.  This is fact, this is the world in which we die.  It’s not life we’re living, but death we’re dying!

After God created the heavens and the earth, on the seventh day he rested.  God called Saturday the Sabbath, to repose from work.  After the fall into sin, where humanity’s being got its clay jar fragility, to sabbath, or to rest in God, requires more than just a physical sabbath, but our fallen nature also needs a spiritual sabbath.  After God chose the Israelites as his own, he called them through the law to faithfully rest with him in repentance and atonement through the sacrifice for sin, performed by God’s representatives in the temple.

After the Word became flesh, Jesus Christ fulfilled the Word of the old covenant.  The Word enfleshed, revealed the fragility and futility of our flesh, and finished what Israel could not finish in the weakness of its human flesh.  The sabbath, the day of rest, had become for the Jews, a day of rules, rather than a day of faith where one could rest with God after atonement was made for sin.  Jesus said to the Jews, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27 ESV)

What Jesus was saying is, the day of rest, God’s holy day, or holiday,  is made for us to faithfully rest with God.  It’s not a day for a self-justifying stoppage of work.  The Jews had turned the Sabbath into a work of righteousness, by their good works of not working.  The focus was on themselves doing, rather than being with whom they were called to be!  Their motivation was on what they did, rather than being with God!

What is your motivation in coming to church?  If it’s for a work of some kind, let the example of the Jews of Jesus’ day, stand as a warning to you!  If your primary reason for coming to church is for community, morale, making an appearance, to be seen, to be a leader, to do a certain job, to move others by one’s own motivation, or for good morals, then you’re coming for the wrong reason!

As honourable as the tasks performed might be, (I include myself as your pastor in this), if I or you come for reasons other than to rest in God, through the forgiveness of sins, atoned for by Jesus Christ, you and I have come for the wrong reason!  We’re not here to work for God, but to be arrested by him, to allow him to work for us, in us, so we can rest in him.  And in doing so we glorify the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in their honourable tasks of reposing, recasting, and reforming the clay jars that we are!  

In Paul’s leadership as a slave or servant of Jesus Christ, even he needed to rest in the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  So too with you and me, now that we have been recreated and recast in Jesus Christ, as Sons of God in his works of righteousness, having been reborn with water and the word, as kings in God’s creation.  We are returned to Psalm two where we’re reminded, “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth.  Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.  Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”  (Psalm 2:10–12 ESV)

Every one of us who remains and rests in God’s Son, glorifies God by acknowledging God’s righteous judgement.  As we have just heard,  “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.”  What does this rest do?  It blesses us or balances us in the truth of God’s Word.  Hence, we find ourselves fleeing to this rest for refuge. 

We might think God’s judgement is Jesus’ anger as Psalm two says!  But it says this for us and others when we focus on ourselves.  When we kiss ourselves, someone, or something other than the Son of God.  However, when we’re led to kiss the Son, we trust in him and what he’s done to balance us with forgiveness and blessed rest with God our Father.

So, how do we get this rest?  We get this rest or sabbath, firstly, through Jesus Christ who being the only one to rightly rest in God the Father, paradoxically died for us who through sin struggle to rest with God.  Ironically Jesus’ rest was so perfect, this “Holy Clay Jar” rested in God’s holy judgement on Holy Saturday,  “that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,  in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison.”  (1 Peter 3:18–19 ESV)

In the continuation of Jesus’ perfect work and rest, the Holy Spirit continues this work by bringing us in faith into God’s rest.  We kiss the Son because the Holy Spirit brings us to the Son through his holy word and holy sacraments. 

The Holy Spirit calls you and me through the holy work and holy rest of Jesus, in other words, the gospel.  The Holy Spirit enlightens you and me with God’s gifts, of forgiveness, to confess, and forgive as we have been forgiven.  This happens with the enlightenment of God’s holy word and faithful trust in Jesus’ holy communion for the forgiveness of sins, continuation of life in the midst of death, and salvation from eternal death.  The Holy Spirit also makes us holy; he covers us with the robes of Christ’s righteousness, so we have free access into God’s holiness to pray and confess.

So, what does this rest look like?  We are still clay jars, fragile and easily broken.  We are holy with “the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”   But the darkness of our original state still lingers.  However, the Holy Spirit now works within you and me, so we, “remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy”, as we hear in the Third Commandment.

In his explanation, Martin Luther says in the Small Catechism, “We are to fear and love God so we do not neglect his Word or the preaching of it, but regard it as holy and gladly hear and learn it.”

The Holy Spirit leads us to church to hear the word, to stand under it in understanding, to unpack it in its truth and relevance for us, and to give us joy in gathering as forgiven people in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  However, we, being clay jars, don’t always appreciate the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Our fragility and futility, tends to lead us to see without eyes of faith, where we overlook the reality of what resting in God is all about.  Then we neglect his word and the preaching of it, regarding it as common, and turn against hearing and learning it. 

Every person struggles with this.  After all we are clay jars!  This is where we have the Holy Spirit to help us, to once again fear and love God, in a way where we no longer “have got to” read the bible.  Where we no longer “have got to” go to church.  And where we no longer “have got to” serve our neighbours as Christ serves us. 

Rather, we keep knocking on God’s door in prayer for the Holy Spirit to give us a hunger “to want to” read the bible, to give us a desire “to want to” go to church and rest in God, and to give us a longing “to want to” serve our neighbours as Christ serves us.

When you keep praying for the Holy Spirit to give you a love for God’s Word, he will lead you to Jesus Christ, deepening your knowledge of his grace and the depths of your sin in your self-justifying knowledge of good and evil.  You will get understanding as to why you might have struggled to find true joy in church, and why being daily in the Word is difficult. 

In God’s time you will find yourself looking forward to coming into rest in God.  To be forgiven and fed!  Rather than coming in cold to hear the Word of God on Sunday morning, your joy in the Word of God, will see you put off the world, so the Holy Spirit can prepare you, the clay jars, in the Word of God for rest with God in his word and sacraments.  Amen.