Matthew 11:25-30 (Pentecost 6A)
St. John, Galveston 7/9/23
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

In this morning’s Gospel reading, Jesus reveals His heart for all those who labor and are heavy laden in life. It’s not a physical burden they bare. Rather, it is the weight of sin and all that goes along with it. We are laden with guilt. We are laden with shame. We are laden with pressure to achieve and to earn. We are laden with the burden to perform and to produce. We are laden by our desire to look a certain way, to be accepted by a certain group, to rise to a certain status, to acquire more stuff, and to hold it all together just long enough to convince ourselves and everyone else that we do actually have it all together.

To all of you who labor and is heavy laden, Jesus says,“Come to Me.” “Come to Me, 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.”

“I am gentle and lowly in heart, Jesus says.” I am reminded of statues in the Roman Catholic tradition that depict the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Pope Pius XII, in his 1953 encyclical on devotion to the Sacred Heart, spoke of the love of God being expressed by Jesus through a frail and fragile body since “in Him dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” As Lutheran Christians, we accept the description of the sacred heart of Jesus, although we reject any sort of idolatry that has been associated with the church’s tradition.

Years ago, a friend of mine’s congregation in Central Texas built a new sanctuary. There were a number of pieces of art that were commissioned for the new worship space. I believe the pieces were all ordered from an artisan in Italy. Most notable among those pieces was a life size statue of Jesus. The statue was to stand above the altar in the chancel of the church. When the statue arrived from overseas, it was discovered that the sacred heart image was prominently displayed on the chest of Jesus. The question arose among the members of the church as to how they could send the statue back without offending the artist and without suggesting something they didn’t want to suggest regarding their faith. I mean, do you say, “we want the Jesus without a heart?” Or, you misunderstood our order, “we wanted the heartless Jesus,” you see.  

They got it all straightened out without much of a problem. I just thought it was a bit of a humorous story, especially as it relates to the text for this morning about the heart of Jesus. “I am gentle and lowly of heart (Jesus says).” Perhaps the story might give us pause to reflect for a moment on whether there ever be a heartless Jesus. Could there be a man of sorrows without our sufferings and burdens etched into the very fabric of His being? Could there be a suffering servant without the thorns that torment our souls piercing His brow, and His hands and feet? Could there be a second Adam without the sins of the 1st Adam compelling Him to seek and to save the lost? Since Jesus is God in human flesh, and since “God is love,” could there be a Savior who did not so love the world that He gave Himself for it?

There are two things about this passage from Matthew 11 that I’d like to emphasize in the rest our time this morning. For a Lutheran pastor, who is always looking for Law and Gospel in God’s Word, this passage is like a softball pitch where the ball hangs out over the plate just waiting to be hit. The Law has been at work in those who labor and are heavy laden, and it is to them that Jesus speaks the kindest words of Gospel and of welcome, “Come to Me, for I am gentle and lowly of heart and you will find rest for your souls.”

I think the Law and Gospel aspect of this passage is so well illustrated in another section of Scripture. It’s a passage that I’m sure most you know quite well. A young man asked for his inheritance from his father. He received it and then he went off and squandered what he had been given on loose living. We call him, of course, the Prodigal Son. He came to a point in his life where the labors and hardships that he was bearing were simply too much for him. I suppose you could say that he thought all he needed was money and everything else in life would just sort of fall into place.

His life though actually fell apart. Like Adam in the garden when God said to him, “Adam where are you,” he must have thought to himself, that is a good question, “where am I?” What happened? I hate everything about myself and my life. I squandered it all! And worst of all, I treated my father as if he were dead. I mean, I asked for my inheritance while he was still living. What else was I saying to my Father, but that, I WISH YOU WERE DEAD! I’m a miserable sort of person! My guilt is overwhelming. And it never goes away.

It’s at this point in his journey that Luke tells us that the young man “came to himself.” Commentators generally agree that it was a moment of repentance for the prodigal. He turned around to go back home to his father. What was it though about his father that caused him to return? Was it that his father was ruthless and exacting? Was it that his father would likely not receive him back? Of course not! He returned because he knew the heart of his father.

The father in this parable is, of course, God. When his young son was making his way back home the father saw him, perhaps suggesting that he had made a habit of looking off in the distance to see if his son was coming home. At any rate, the father saw his son, and then, “while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 21 And the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ 22 But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet. 23 And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. 24 For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.’ And they began to celebrate.”

“Come to Me (Jesus says), 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.”

To be yoked with Jesus is to have your sin and guilt transferred from you to Him. There is actually another parable in the Bible that depicts this aspect of the heart of Jesus so well. In the parable of the Good Samaritan, it was a Samaritan who picked up the man he found beaten and left for dead on the side of the road. He bandaged up and his wounds and he took him to an inn where he might find rest. The parable has often been wrongly represented as a moral lesson in charity and kindness. We should all be like the Good Samaritan, and like not the other individuals who passed by the man who was beaten and left for dead. But the parable is not so much a moral lesson as it is a depiction of the heart of God.

The Samaritan in the parable is Jesus. He’s the One who finds us beaten and left for dead by the accusations of the Law. We are, as it were, labored and heavy laden. It’s He who picks us up and gives us rest. And, as the Samaritan said to the man at the inn, ”Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.” Do you see the heart of Jesus? What ever is charged to him, TO YOU, charge it to Me.

“Come to Me.” “Come to Me, 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.”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +