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Exposition of Matthew XI.
28-30.
The persons here addressed
are those who are in want of rest, the weary and the heavy laden.
This description is
applicable, more or less, to every man, until he finds rest in Christ. We
do not say that men know why they are not finding rest, or that they will
accept of the explanation of their condition which is given by Jesus; far
less that they will receive from Him the rest which He is willing to
impart. What we assert is, that men are seeking a rest for their being,
which they do not find.
A very remarkable instance
of this condition, so natural to all men, is that of Solomon. He, the
great king, the great conqueror, the great merchant, the man of taste, of
learning, and of wisdom pre-eminent, records in the book of Ecclesiastes,
his many and varied labours in order to find repose for his great mind and
heart. He says, for example:—
"I sought in mine heart to
give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay
hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men,
which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life. I made
me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards; I made me
gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits: I
made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth
trees: I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house;
also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were
in Jerusalem before me: I gathered me also silver and gold, and the
peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and
women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical
instruments, and that of all sorts. So I was great, and increased more
than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with
me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not
my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this
was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my
hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and,
behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit
under the sun." (Eccles. ii. 3-11.)
That is, he found no rest;
yet if any man could have found it in the creature, or in life without
God, it was Solomon. No doubt, after all this sad experience, he
discovered at last where repose was to be found, as well as where it was
not; for he thus sums up the results of all his labours, "Hear the
conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for
this is the whole duty of man."
In this weary and restless
state Jesus Christ finds every man; all seeking rest, each in his own
idol, but none in the living God; each following his own path, but all
departing from God through unbelief; and to every man Jesus says, "Come to
me, and I will give you rest."
We have often heard these
remarkable words, and they have been familiar to us from our infancy; but
have we ever pondered upon their meaning, so as to feel in some degree how
very wonderful they are? He who spoke them was a poor man, so poor that He
had not a place where to lay His head, yet He says, "Come to me, I will
give you rest." He "was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows
and acquainted with grief;" yet He says, "Come to me, and I will give you
rest." For Jesus did not address this invitation to those weary ones only
who gathered round Him when on earth to hear the gracious words which
proceeded out of His mouth. His words are of value to us, because they are
addressed to us as really and truly as they ever were to any. It is the
same living Person who speaks from age to age to the weary thousands in
all lands; to the philosopher, weary while seeking rest in science; to the
covetous, weary while seeking rest in wealth; to the ambitious, weary
while seeking rest in power; to the active, weary while seeking rest in
occupation; to the voluptuary, weary while seeking rest in passion; to the
poor and needy, the afflicted and bereaved, who think that for them rest
can be found on earth no more; to each and all is this invitation sent,
"Come to me, and I will give you rest." The cry of the prophet is repeated
by Him to whom the prophets gave witness:—"Wherefore do ye spend money for
that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not?
hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your
soul delight itself in fatness. Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear,
and your soul shall live."
Do you ask if these words
of our Lord are true? Is it certain that this person, Jesus Christ, can
indeed give rest to every weary one who goes to Him! We do not wonder that
you should ask such a question with deepest anxiety—yea, even with some
doubt and trembling; for if His words are not true; if there is no such
person now as this Jesus; if He does not, or cannot give, real abiding
rest to the human spirit—then where can rest be found for any of us in the
universe of God? If the whole living Church which has trusted Christ, and
found a rest in so doing, has been deceived; if the Christian's peace has
been but a deadly calm, his joy a dream, and his hopes delusions, how
shall we be assured of finding anywhere a truer rest without Jesus? If
this ark is but a cloud on the waste of waters, where can the eye of faith
discover within the circumference of the universe a more sure
resting-place for the weary soul? But such a supposition as the unreality
of Christ's life, and of the rest which millions have found in Him, would
land us in atheism; for there cannot be a God, under whose government
mankind could find perfect rest for their spirits, and possess holiness of
heart just in proportion as they believed in Him, and clung to Him with
their whole soul, if there be no such person as Jesus, and if,
consequently, faith in Him is a delusion, and love to Him an idolatry. But
as we believe in God, so do we believe also in Jesus; and we know in whom
we have believed, and know surely that His words are true, and His promise
faithful, when He says, "Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy
laden, and I will give you rest."
But how does Jesus gives
rest to the soul? This is a most important question, and one which we wish
you very earnestly to consider.
We bid you notice, first of
all, how He invites us to come to Himself—"Come to me." This is more than
going to the church, or to ministers, or to sacraments, or even to the
Bible. These tell us about Christ, and help us to go to Christ; but they
cannot, dare not, be made substitutes for Christ, or they will practically
become Antichrists—not for Him, but against Him. Our Lord invites us to go
to Himself, which is possible only on the supposition that He is a living
person, who knows us, and whom we may also personally know, and with whom
an intercourse, by means of prayer, is a reality, and no mere doctrine.
But this all living Christians practically believe, or love to Jesus would
be impossible; and equally impossible would it be to meet His wishes by
going to Him now with the same singleness of heart, the same necessity and
faith, as the poor and needy, the sinning and sorrowful, exercised when
they journeyed to meet Him while He dwelt among them, and fell at His feet
with the cry, "Lord, help us." We would, therefore, press this on all the
weary and heavy laden who seek rest in Jesus— go to Himself in prayer, and
pour out your wants before Him, sure of such a welcome as He alone can
give, and of finding such rest as He alone can impart!
But let us enter a little
more into the spirit of this blessed teaching. We notice further, then,
that when Christ offers us rest, it is the same kind of rest and repose of
soul which He Himself possessed; as when He says, "My peace I give unto
you," or prays "that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves." Is
it indeed possible that we can ever possess and enjoy the rest of Jesus?
Oh, who can comprehend the depth of such inward peace ! His soul was like
the temple of God: without, the storm might rage in fury, and the
thunder-cloud flash its lightning, but within all was the holy calm of
God's own peace, and the voice of prayer and praise ascended from it to
the throne of the Majesty on High.
But how shall this peace be
ours? This brings us to a point of the utmost importance for us to
understand. Observe, then, the remarkable process by which Jesus imparts
rest. It is by laying upon us His burden and His yoke. He finds every man
with a yoke and with a burden, and these He removes only by putting on His
own yoke and His own burden. So that the difference between one when he
first comes to Christ, weary and heavy laden, and when he finds in Christ
rest and peace, is not that once he had a yoke and a burden, but that now
he has neither; it is rather that formerly he bore his own yoke, which
made him weary, and carried his own burden which crushed him to the dust,
but now he has exchanged these for Christ's yoke, which is easy, and for
Christ's burden, which is light; and by this exchange does he enter into
Christ's rest.
But this leads us to
inquire still further as to the Divine secret of rest; and to ask what is
meant by these different yokes and burdens? Now the yoke, we know, is the
sign of servitude, and that which Jesus finds on every man's neck is the
yoke of self-will; and the burden which He finds every man bearing is the
burden of self pleasing. The individual will, without reference to God's
will, is by nature every man's rule ; and to please and indulge self, is
by nature every man's end. Each person, no doubt, has his own way of
finding rest and satisfaction for his being; but self, in some form or
other, is the sole rule and end of all his plans and purposes. "God is not
in all his thoughts." And the result is that no rest is found. "His life
is a false nature—it is not in the harmony of things." Living in self and
to self, he has missed "the way;" he knows not "the truth;" and possesses
not "the life." In exact proportion as he seeks for freedom in the
following of his own will, he becomes a slave, and his yoke becomes
uneasy; and just as he seeks to gratify self by the indulgence of self,
does he "loose himself" altogether, and becomes a weary and heavy-laden
man —a miserable prodigal, who, having departed from his father with the
portion of his goods to waste upon himself, soon spends all, until a
mighty famine arises in his soul, so that he perishes for hunger, and no
man can give unto him!
In this condition we have
all been; and in this condition Jesus finds us, and says, "Take my yoke
and my burden," and you will find rest.
And what was His yoke and
His burden?
Christ's yoke was the
service of God. Many are apt to think of Christ as having come to the
world only to die. This, indeed, was the grand end of His incarnation, and
this no Christian can forget who cleaves to the cross on which He died as
our atoning Saviour. But neither let us forget that He lived for upwards
of thirty years in the world, entering into every condition of humanity;
and that, if in His divine nature He revealed to us what God was towards
man, so in His human nature He revealed every day and hour what each man
should be towards God. And surely, in dwelling on the life of Christ, you
cannot fail to be arrested by His absorbing love to the will of His
Father. Ere He reaches the world, and is seen by the eyes of men, the
joyful cry is heard coming from the unseen, and heralding His approach,
"Lo, I come to do thy will, O God!" While He was on earth, it was His
"meat and drink"—the very element of His being—to do His Father's will. In
the depth of His agony in Gethsemane, He cried, '' If it be possible, let
this cup pass from me;" but though it was not possible to remove it, yet
He was so subject to His Father, that He said with peace, "Not my will,
but thine be done!" And while the world esteemed Him "smitten of God and
afflicted," and might be disposed to extend to Him its sympathy as one
subjected to a hard and cruel lawgiver, Jesus, who had true fellowship
with His Father, and who rejoiced in His will, knowing how holy and loving
it ever was, said, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but
I have known thee!"
Such was the yoke of loving
obedience which our Lord carried through life and in death. To do the will
of His Father was a joy constantly set before Him, for which He endured
the cross, and despised the shame.
And what was our Lord's
burden? It was the burden of the cross. And by the cross is meant, not His
sufferings only, which He endured upon Calvary, but all the sufferings of
soul which He endured through life in doing His Father's will. It is not
difficult to conceive perfect obedience without suffering; for the will of
God is done in heaven, by angels and by saints, without any pain; they
wear the yoke without the burden. But in this world it is not so; and in
redeeming us from sin, and fulfilling the good will of God towards a lost
world, it was necessary that ''the Christ should suffer" before entering
into His glory. But the Son did not the less "delight to do the will of
God," as man's Saviour and as man's example, or refuse to be " made
perfect by sufferings." He had a perfect knowledge before He came to the
world of all that was involved in doing the will of God. He was able to
measure beforehand every step, from the cradle to the tomb, and what He
must endure, ere He fulfilled all that was written in the law and the
prophets concerning Himself. But nevertheless, He accepted of the yoke,
and carried the burden; and accordingly His whole life was a constant
sacrifice of self, because it was a life and love which "seeketh not her
own." "Even Christ," says the apostle, "pleased not Himself." "The Son of
man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." This was His saying,
"It is more blessed to give than to receive." His sufferings were the
necessary accompaniment of love, and were the shadow cast by the sinful
world from "the light of life" which was in Him, and which shone upon the
darkness that did not comprehend it. It was His very delight in doing His
Father's will, and the reality and intensity of His love to His Father,
and of His fellowship with Him, which made the world's sin, and the whole
condition of God's creatures here such a burden to Him; and thus there was realised in Christ, as there must be in every believer, what seems a
contradiction and a paradox, viz., a peace and joy unutterable, along with
sorrow unutterable; for both spring from the same source— holiness in
contact with sin, or love in contact with hearts "hateful, and hating one
another," and "alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that
is in them."
It is this Jesus who has
come to the world to reveal to mankind where, and how, true life can be
obtained. He finds every man seeking rest, but not finding it, because
every man is believing a lie, and labouring under a terrible delusion. For
all are busy serving self and pleasing self, and are therefore "weary and
heavy laden." Jesus comes to such with a new idea of life altogether, and
one which He has realised in His own person and experience, as if He said,
"Come to me, and take my yoke; I have come not to do mine own will, but
the will of Him who sent me. Be like me; know my God and your God, and do
with me His will on earth, as it is done in heaven, and this yoke you will
find easy. Come, and carry my burden; it is light to the spirit; deny
self; take up your cross and follow me; so shall ye be my disciples, and
so shall ye enter into my rest."
This is "learning of Christ
Jesus." Such learning is a far deeper thing than a learning about Christ
Jesus, however profound or extensive such knowledge may be. The Apostle
Paul says to the Ephesians, "Ye have not so learned Christ; if so be that
ye have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off the
old man, which is corrupt, according to the deceitful lusts; and be renev)ed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which
after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." And such a
coming to Christ, and learning of Him, so as to take His yoke and carry
His burden, is being, in truth, His "disciples." It is a following of Him
in spirit, and being disciplined by Him—brought as pupils into His school,
in which the grace of God brings salvation by ''teaching us to deny
ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and
godly, in this present world ; looking for that blessed hope, and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave
himself for us, that he might redeem, us from all iniquity, and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."
And let us add, this
learning of Christ is being "meek and lowly in heart," as He was; having
towards God that babe-like spirit of holy confidence, dependence,
obedience, which spring out of love; instead of the proud self-reliance,
and separate-ness from God, which characterises us, while bearing our own
yoke, and carrying our own burden.
Our space does not permit
of our dwelling longer on this passage. We exhort you, in one word, to be
first at peace with God through faith in the blood of Jesus for the
remission of sins that are past, which He pardons freely by His grace;
and seek His Spirit, to be delivered from sin in time to come, by bearing
Christ's yoke, and carrying Christ's burden! |
