relate

Psalm 116:5-9
Song of Solomon 2:10-13
Matthew 11:28-30

When I discovered the topic of our next study here at Gracefully Truthful, I immediately saw the hand of God all over it. You see, the Lord has had me on a journey since the Advent season of 2023, a journey of becoming aware of the tender invitations He extends to me. I read a handful of Advent books at the end of last year, and in every one, the word “invitation” kept popping up. That, my friends, is no coincidence. 

Though I have walked with the Lord for the vast majority of my life, only in recent months have I considered my relationship with Him as a series of gracious invitations. In light of the specific invitation we are discussing today, this realization is both a gift and a balm to my soul. 

I tend to be hyper-focused on my to-do list, always hurrying from one thing to the next, and subconsciously taking on the burdensome belief that everything depends upon me. So when I read these words of invitation from Jesus in Matthew 11:28-30, I am instantly stopped in my tracks:

“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Though I had read those words many times, I learned something striking about this passage in the following excerpt from John Mark Comer’s excellent book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry:

“Jesus was a rabbi (Hebrew, meaning ‘teacher’). Yes, He was more – the Messiah and the embodiment of God Himself. I deeply believe that. But if you had been a first-century Jew and Jesus showed up in your synagogue one Sabbath morning, the odds are, the category you would have put him in was that of a rabbi or a traveling sage. 

“And like every rabbi in his day, Jesus had a yoke. Not a literal yoke; He was a teacher not a farmer. A yoke was a common idiom in the first century for a rabbi’s way of reading the Torah. But it was also more: it was the rabbi’s set of teachings on how to be human. His way to shoulder the (at times crippling) weight of life- marriage, divorce, prayer, money, conflict resolution, government- all of it. It’s an odd image for those of us who don’t live in an agrarian society. But imagine two oxen yoked together to pull a cart or plow a field. A yoke is how you shoulder a load. What made Jesus unique wasn’t that He had a yoke; all rabbis had a yoke. It was that He had an *easy* yoke.”

These words stopped me in my tracks as I was reading. Jesus desires for us to live, as one Bible translation puts it, “freely and lightly.” Yes, we will face hardship in this life, but He wants us to live with an inner peace and lightness from Him, even in the midst of hardship. This means, then, there is no place for the heavy bondage of legalism, the soul-crushing pace of hustle and hurry, the life-draining idol of comparison, or the guilt and shame-inducing fearful lies of the enemy.

Imagine if we all lived with THAT kind of freedom. The amazing grace and beauty of the gospel is that we can, if we follow the way of Jesus! 

This brings me to the beautiful words of Song of Solomon 2:10-13, a passage which begins with the same invitation as Matthew 11,  the invitation to “come”.

“My love calls to me:
Arise, my darling.
Come away, my beautiful one.
For now the winter is past;
the rain has ended and gone away.
The blossoms appear in the countryside.
The time of singing has come,
and the turtledove’s cooing is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens its figs;
the blossoming vines give off their fragrance.
Arise, my darling.
Come away, my beautiful one.”

When placed alongside Jesus’ words in Matthew 11, this passage teaches us, with deep beauty and impact, about the nature of God’s invitation; it is all about relationship. We are invited and called to walk in step with Him, delighting in His presence, and feeling calmed and comforted by His love. 

Instead of striving, we now trust. 
Instead of rushing, we now slow down. 
Instead of thinking everything is on our shoulders, we realize, actually, He carries everything for us. 

What a beautiful relief!

Now, as I ponder my daily to-dos and encounter the events of each day, I am able to feel a soul-deep peace, for my Savior’s yoke is easy, and His burden truly is light.

“Return to your rest, my soul,
for the Lord has been good to you.”
(Psalm 116:7)