1-25-2023

Good Morning All,

     Matthew 11:28; “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” 

     One of the more frequent themes of music is the plight of the working man.  Tennessee Ernie Ford sang of “Sixteen Ton.” John Fogerty sang of the “Fortunate Son.” Merle Haggard had a number of songs about the working man.  All these, and others, tell of working hard, barely hanging on, other people living off of our work; about a system that is stacked against us so that we can’t get ahead.  The plight of the man who carries a heavy burden in life, who is boned tired every night and often wakes up exhausted the next day still stiff and sore from the day before.  We often see the image of a man carrying a heavy pack on his back, all hunched over, stumbling, from the weight he bears.

    That is the image that Jesus wants us to have when we read this verse.  All those who labor and are heavy laden; all you who work hard every day, all of you who are totally exhausted from the demands of the day; come to me and I will give you rest.  The thing we want to remember is that this isn’t about physical labor; it is about spiritual labor.  It is about confessing our sins.

     When Jesus first spoke these words to his disciples, they were living under the law as interpreted by the Scribes and the Pharisees.  This led to a very work oriented path for forgiveness. Under the Pharisees, if you were a sinner, you had to make financial restitution, you had to pay for a “proper” sacrifice at the temple, and then you had to keep the law or repeat this procedure.  Well, as you can envision, the cost of a “proper” sacrifice was high and available only from the Pharisees.  This made them rich and feared for the cost was very arbitrary.  To the right people the cost was low; to the wrong people the cost was extremely high.  Often, the hardworking man barely made enough to live on, the burden of paying for this sacrifice was too much.  So, to the man who tried to be faithful to the teaching of his church, he was left with little hope.  He was trying to keep the law as the Scribes and Pharisees interpreted it.  When it was time to do a sacrifice to atone (or pay) for those sins, he had to buy the “proper” sacrificial animal from the Pharisees.  You can see how this is a losing proposition. 

     The devil tries to convince you of this same tactic.  The guilt that we feel after we sin is the devil trying to goad us into carrying that sin with us all the time.  He is weighing us down with the burden of paying for it.  He is placing the weight of that sin squarely on our back.  He wants you to carry it so he can use that sin to try and separate you from God.  He wants you to struggle and battle all day long, get no rest at night and then tomorrow he will add some more guilt, some more weight to that pack on your back.

    To this Jesus tells us come; come if you are heavy with burden, heavy with the weight of the guilt of sin, and Jesus will give you rest.  That is what confession of sins is about.  We are not telling God anything he doesn’t know when we confess our sins.  The confession of sins is about freeing yourself from the guilt of sin.  We take these sins and say, “Father, these are burdening me down please take them from me.” This is about having the burden taken from us, by Jesus, so that we may have true rest.

Dear Father in heaven, you call us through your Son to unload our burden and to receive from you your holy rest.  We are often too slow to hear these words of comfort and we carry the burdens of guilt that rob us of your grace.  Give us strength to come to you and receive rest.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret