Verse: Matthew 11:28-30
28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, 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.
Devotion:
Follow Christ and life will be easy! End of devotion.
If you are, know, or have ever met a follower of Christ, you know that’s not really the case, don’t you? So then, what does Jesus really mean by these words? If he’s not offering an easy life, what is the promise here?
Remember who his audience would have been. A nation of people struggling to connect with God, and being told by their religious leaders that the only way to do so was to follow not only the Mosaic Law, but also an unending list of civil and ceremonial laws that they had created themselves. The burden the people carried was their own sin; they were yoked by the religious leaders to the burden of these laws and regulations they were told were necessary to make them worthy of God.
But Jesus says, if we willingly yoke ourselves to him; if we choose to get up every morning and go about the work of learning from him and following him, that he will be the one to truly shoulder the burden. In fact, he already has! He took that burden of sin the Jewish people were carrying around, put it on his own back, and carried it all the way to the cross! Sadly, many of the people in his day, and many people since, choose to ignore his offer, and continue to labor under their burden.
Our physical lives are not made easy by Jesus. That’s not why he came. But our salvation used to be an unattainable goal, labored after under the weight of a burden we couldn’t possibly carry. And he came to say, “Let me make that easier for you. Let me give you a way to the Father. Follow me.”
Prayer
God, thank you for not making life easy. Because when things are easy, we don’t appreciate them. But thank you all the more for taking the impossible and placing it within our grasp, through your son, Jesus.. Amen.
Author: Dave MacDonald
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