SCRIPTURE

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” —Matthew 11:28–30, New American Bible

MEDITATION

Twice in just two sentences Jesus promises his followers rest. Like any true gift, the rest that Jesus gives comes to us and to all his followers as an act of grace. He gives it freely to all who need it, all who “labor and are burdened.”

Our labors are varied and our burdens are many. We labor for pay in our work, yet we also labor silently to carry out tasks with no hope of pay, no promise of glory, and no end of responsibility. Some of these labors bring us joy, while others bear down upon us as burdens, loads to bear.

The promise Jesus offers is a simple one: come to him and he will give us rest. He does not promise an end to our labors, but instead he promises us a new way to bear them. He fits us with a yoke and he shows us how to wear it, how to bear our burdens in meekness and humility. When we do, we will—he promises—find rest.

This is rest of a strange sort. It is not the rest that brings to us the end of labor, the release of burdens, and the ease of leisure. Instead, the rest that Jesus Christ promises comes only by his grace, under his yoke, and in his footsteps.

When we realize how this gift of grace promises to change us, we see that following Jesus, living as his disciples and bearing his yoke, is not a quick and simple fix, a cheap solution to our problems that waves a wand and makes them go away. Instead, the grace of the yoke is costly because it is cruciform.

In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Lutheran pastor and martyr, wrote,

Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life …. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (p. 45)

Right there is the distinction between cheap and costly grace, between pointless and worthy burdens, between aimless wandering and Christian . When we shoulder the yoke that Jesus gives us by his grace and follow him, then we find the yoke makes each day’s burdens bearable and life’s journey purposeful.

REFLECTION

• What are your burdens? How do you labor? What does the yoke of Christ look like in your life? Along what path does he call you to follow him?
• What could we say and do as a congregation to tell others that Christian discipleship is a gift of costly grace, that Christ calls us to lives of meekness and humility?
• Who do you know who needs your prayers for the courage to submit themselves to the yoke of Christ? If you have not been praying for them, what stands in your way?

PRAYER

Gracious Father, open our ears to hear your Son’s promise to give us the gracious gift of his yoke. Stir up your Holy Spirit in us so that we may find rest in bearing our burdens under that yoke, while following in his footsteps. We pray to you through your Son, Jesus Christ—our Savior and Lord. Amen.

AUTHOR

David Frye is a member of the Spirit-Driven Task Force and its Steering Committee.

NOTES

The people of Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Hickman, Neb., have organized a Spirit-Driven Task Force, bringing together almost forty members who have committed to a year of study, prayer, reflection, and deliberation to discern how God is calling the congregation to renewal for the sake of his mission.

This is the twenty-fifth of a series of weekly meditations with the aim to inspire reflection and encourage conversation among the members of the task force as we journey together in obedience to our Lord’s calling to serve him.