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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 11:28

Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 11:28

Come unto me, all [ye] that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

28. Come unto me ] Jesus does not give rest to all the heavy laden, but to those of them who show their want of relief by coming to Him.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

28 30. Rest for the heavy laden

These words of Jesus are preserved by St Matthew only. The connecting thought is, those alone shall know who desire to learn, those alone shall have rest who feel their burden. The babes are those who feel ignorant, the laden those who feel oppressed.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

All ye that labour and are heavy laden – The Saviour here, perhaps, refers primarily to the Jews, who groaned under the weight of their ceremonial laws and the traditions of the elders, Act 15:10. He tells them that by coming to him, and embracing the new system of religion, they would be freed from these burdensome rites and ceremonies. There can be no doubt, however, that he meant here chiefly to address the poor, lost, ruined sinner: the man burdened with a consciousness of his transgressions, trembling at his danger, and seeking deliverance. For such there is relief. Christ tells them to come to him, to believe in him, and to trust him, and him only, for salvation. Doing this, he will give them rest – rest from their sins, from the alarms of conscience, from the terrors of the law, and from the fears of eternal death.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 11:28

Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden.

The burdened directed to Christ


I.
The persons whom our Lord here addresses.

1. As burdened with convictions of sin and the keen remorse of a wounded conscience.

2. That sinners under these circumstances labour to be released from their burden.

(1) They resolve in their own strength to forsake their sins.

(2) There are others who are ignorant of the righteousness of God, and go about to establish their own righteousness.

(3) In looking to the mercy of God irrespective of Christs propitiatory sacrifice.


II.
Our Lords tender solicitude for the happiness of such.

1. The invitation is condescending.

2. It is extensive and unconditional..


III.
The promise annexed.

1. Rest in your conscience from the dread of Divine wrath.

2. Rest in the will from its former corrupt propensities.

3. Heavenly rest for the people of God. (R May.)

Rest in Christ for the heavy-laden


I.
What it is. Rest, not rest in sin, not rest from trouble. It is rest from sin-its guilt, misery, power. It is rest in trouble.


II.
Of whom is this blessing to be obtained. The conscious greatness these few simple words indicate. Have you ever tried to comfort a troubled heart? Beyond your power. It is the prerogative of Him who made the soul to give it rest. There is more power in Him to comfort than in the world to disquiet.


III.
Who may obtain this rest from him-All that labour. These words express the inward condition of man. We do indeed toil. Some weary themselves to work iniquity. The world has worn some of you out. The burden of affliction; guilt-our corruptions.


IV.
How they who desire may obtain it-Come.

1. Literally, when lie was on earth.

2. Faith in operation. Hagar went to the well and drank, and was saved. Those who have found rest in Christ, remember where you found it. See on what easy terms we may find rest. Some know they are sinners, but are not weary of sin. (C. Bradley.)

Rest for the weary

1. The promise is faithful.

2. It is a precious promise.

3. It is an appropriate promise.

4. It is one of present accomplishment. (D. Rees.)

The way of coming to Christ

1. The most obvious is Christ historically taught.

2. Men seek to come to Him speculatively. Who can find out a being by a pure process of thought?

3. There are those who seek Christ by a sentimental and humanitarian method. This will not fire zeal. How then are men to come to Christ? Through a series of moral, practical endeavours to live the life which He has prescribed for us. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christs word to the weary

There are three sorts of trouble.

1. There is head-trouble-to do what is right.

2. There is heart-trouble. The interior grief.

3. There is soul-trouble. Christ gives rest from these. (W. G. Barrett.)

A special invitation

1. It is personal-Come unto me. God directs to Christ, not to His members.

2. It is present-Come now, do not wait.

3. So sweet an invitation demands a spontaneous acceptance.

4. He puts the matter very exclusively. Do nothing else but come to Him.

Arguments which the Saviour used:-

1. Because He is the appointed mediator-All things are delivered unto me of My Father.

2. Moreover the Father has given all things into His hands in the sense of government.

3. Christ is a well-furnished mediator-All things are delivered unto Me. He has all the sinner wants.

4. Come to Christ because He is an inconceivably great mediator. No man knows His fulness but the Father.

5. Because He is an infinitely wise Saviour. He understands both persons on whose behalf He mediates.

6. He is an indispensable mediator-Neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Invitation based on saving power

In a previous verse our Lord had said, All things are delivered unto me by My Father: meaning that all power is given unto Him for the instructing, ruling, and saving of mankind; from whence He infers those comfortable words in the text.


I.
A gracious invitation made by our Saviour.


II.
The persons invited.


III.
A promise of ease and benefit.


IV.
The way and manner of coming to Christ.


V.
A farther encouragement hereunto, from an inward sense and feeling of the promised rest.


VI.
A good reason to back and enforce it-My yoke is easy. (Matthew Hole.)

Ways of coming to Christ

Coming to Christ and believing, are in Scripture used to signify one and the same thing.


I.
The first step in coming to Christ is by baptism.


II.
The next step is by prayer.


III.
A farther step is by repentance and confession of sin.


IV.
We are said to come to God by hearing His Word, and receiving instruction from Him.


V.
Also by receiving His Holy Supper: and-


VI.
By putting our whole trust and affiance in Him, relying upon Him for salvation, and placing all our hopes and confidence in His merits and satisfaction. (Matthew Hole.)

Coming to Christ

This implies three things.


I.
Absence: for what need is there of oar coming to Christ unless we are previously at a distance from Him? Such is the condition of every man. Naturally, all are without Christ as to saving influence; as to a proper knowledge of Him, love to Him, confidence in Him, and union and communion with Him.


II.
Accessibleness. We come to Him; we can find and approach Him. Not to His bodily presence. As man He is absent; as God He is still present. He said to His apostles, Lo, I am with you always; even unto the end of the, world.


III.
Application. For this coming to Him is to deal with Him concerning the affairs of the soul of eternity. (W. Jay.)

Christs rest


I.
A negative description.

(1) Rest, not lethargy. A condition in which the powers of the soul are quickened, rendered alive to its capacities, duties, and privileges.

(2) Rest, not inactivity. Release from weariness rather than from labour.

(3) Rest, not confinement. Not isolation or routine.

(4) Rest, not leisure. Not a brief season of relaxation, but a lasting state of peace and strength.


II.
A positive description.

(1) Rest, that is, peace. Conscience is at ease. The mind is satisfied. The heart is filled with love.

(2) Rest, that is, fearlessness. Not only is there present satisfaction, but assured confidence in the future.

(3) Rest, that is, fortitude. The burden may not be removed, but Christ gives us such a temper that we are as happy with our burden as though we were without it.

(4) Rest, that is, security. He shields us from every adverse power. He gives us ground for our confidence. (Stems and Twigs.)

Christ relieving us of natural burdens

1. Spiritual burdens.

2. Mental burdens.

3. Providential burdens.

4. Physical burdens. (Bishop Simpson.)

Christianity lightens physical burdens

Go to-day into heathen countries, into Mohammedan lands, and what do you find? The village on the hill top, the old wails, the spring down near the roost of the hill, the water carried by hand, the pitcher, the goat skin-just as it was in ancient times. The burden is borne by men upon their backs. Go to China, and travel from place to place. It is difficult, and oftentimes the traveller must be carried by men, and, if not by men, by a rude cart. When I was in Palestine, a year ago, there was only one wheeled vehicle in the whole territory, and that had been brought there by the Russian Embassy. Burdens were borne on the back, and in the simplest way-. Turn to Christian lands, and what are they? See what you call civilization-that is, Christianity affecting the minds and occupations of men-how it works! How is this city of a million and a quarter supplied with water? A great engine pumps it up from the river; iron pipes carry it to every house. You turn the tap and have it in almost every room. There is no broken back or burdened frame carrying from some spring this water. Go into countries partly civilized, and you find a few public pumps or wells, and the multitudes go there. It is a mere physical thing, you say. Yes; but it is God working in the subjugation of nature to mans comfort. Moreover, you turn these taps in your room without thinking of it; and yet you have here a proof that God is taking care of the labour-burdened, and ought to remember how Christ has said, Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Go out into the fields. What was the old way? Men, bowed down in the heat of an August sun, took the sickle in hand, and tried to reap the harvest. Now the reaping-machine, drawn by horses, moves into the field, throws out its bound-up sheaves without human toil: and the harvest is gathered without man being bowed down to the earth. What is it? Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Go into the house: long ago, needlewomen, from early morn until night, and late into the night, stitched carefully, slowly, regularly, on their endless task. Now look at the sewing-machine, and see the amount of work that can be done without, comparatively speaking, human toil. Turn your eyes over to this light, and whence comes it, and how? Look at the little lamp of old, with its lard and wick, then the tallow candle; and now, wandering through all these pipes, comes this air or gas to be lighted, and what a change in human labour i From the darkness, from the atmosphere around us, men are gathering this electric fluid, and throwing light over the darkest of streets and alleys of your city, and thus enabling thousands of men to work as by daylight in your manufactories. What a change in human labour! There must still be labour, but it is not to be of that toilsome character that it once was. (Bishop Simpson.)

It is not a local coming to Christ, which is now impossible, but a movement of heart and mind to Him.


I.
The class of persons that our Saviour wan supposed to have in view.

1. Such as were laden with the burden of ceremonial obedience. The observances of Christianity were few and simple, neither occupying much time, nor incurring much expense. They recommended themselves by their significance and force.

2. Such as are oppressed and burdened with a sense of guilt.

3. Such as are endeavouring to erect an edifice of righteousness out of their own performances.

4. Those who are overwhelmed with worldly calamities-the victims of worldly sorrow.

5. Those who are engaged in a restless, uncertain pursuit after felicity in the present state.

6. Those who are heavy laden by speculative pursuits in matters of.religion. (Robert Hall, M. A.)

A word in season to the weary

Causes of weariness.

1. Wounded affections.

2. The disappointment of our desires.

3. Vacancy of mind and the sense of monotony.

4. The load of a guilty conscience is fatiguing.

5. The burden of earnest thought and noble endeavour. (E. Johnson, M. A.)

Desire outruns faculty anal causes weariness

The result would be something monstrous if their energies and abilities grew as fast as their aspirations or their ambitions. As the eye carries the mind in the flash of a moment over a space of country which it would require hours to traverse in the body, so the hot speed of human Desire outruns our slow and pausing faculties. And this a great cause of fatigue; we cannot keep up with ourselves; one part of our nature lags behind another. Or, no sooner is the goal which we had thought a fixed one reached, than another starts up in the new distance, and Desire is still goading us on refusing us rest. (E. Johnson, M. A.)

Rest not found in mere ceremonial observances

Both the Wesleys, and Whitefield also, fell for a time into the same mistake. In their endeavours to obtain peace of conscience, in addition to attending every ordinary service of the church, they received the sacrament every Sunday, fasted every Wednesday and Friday, retired regularly every morning and evening for meditation and prayer; they wore the coarsest garments, partook of the coarsest fare, visited the sick, taught the ignorant, ministered to the wants of the needy; and, that he might have more to give away, John Wesley even for a time went barefoot. And yet, with all this, they did not obtain the peace for which their souls craved. (R. A. Bertram.)

The reality of rest

Come, saith Christ, and I will give you rest. I will not show you rest, nor barely tell you of rest, but I will give you rest. I am faithfulness itself, and cannot lie, I will give you rest. I that have the greatest power to give it, the greatest will to give it, the greatest right to give it, come, laden sinners, and I will give you rest. Rest is the most desirable good, the most suitable good, and to you the greatest good. Come, saith Christ-that is, believe in Me, and I will give you rest; I will give you peace with God, and peace with conscience: I will turn your storm into an everlasting calm; I will give you such rest, that the world can neither give to you nor take from you. (Thomas Brooks.)

Rest only in God

Lord, Thou madest us for Thyself, and we can find no rest till we find rest in Thee! (Augustine.)

The weary welcome to rest

A poor English girl, in Miss Leighs home in Paris, ill in body and hopeless in spirit, was greatly affected by hearing some children singing, I heard the voice of Jesus say. When they came to the words, weary, and worn, and sad, she moaned, Thats me 1 Thats me i What did He do? Fill it up, fill it up! She never rested until she had heard the whole of the hymn which tells how Jesus gives rest to such. By-and-by she asked, Is that true? On being answered, Yes, she asked, Have you come to Jesus? Has He given you rest? He has. Raising herself, she asked, Do you mind my coming very close to you? May be it would be easier to go to Jesus with one who has been before than to go to Him alone. So saying, she nestled her head on the shoulder of her who watched, and clutching her as one in the agony of death, she murmured, Now, try and take me with you to Jesus. (The Sunday at Home.)

Rest for all

There are many heads resting on Christs bosom, but theres room for yours there. (Samuel Rutherford.)

Rest not inaction

It is not the lake locked in ice that suggests repose, but the river moving on calmly and rapidly, in silent majesty and strength. It is not the cattle lying in the sun, but the eagle cleaving the air with fixed pinions, that gives you the idea of repose with strength and motion. In creation, the rest of God is exhibited as a sense of power which nothing wearies. When chaos burst into harmony, so to speak, God had rest. (F. W. Robertson.)

Rest In trouble

I say that men want rest from their troubles, and that the only worthy rest is rest in our trouble. We have our first real impression of what toil is, when we begin, as an apprentice, to learn some trade. Our first real impression of toil brings the first real desire for rest. But all the rest the young man thinks of is the rest of laying down his tools, and leaving the workshop or the warehouse to spend the evening in manly sports. He has no thought yet of that higher rest, which will come, by-and-by, out of skill and facility in the use of tools. (R. Tuck, B. A.)

Resting on the Bible

In Newport church, in the Isle of Wight, lies buried the Princess Elizabeth (daughter of Charles the First). A marble monument, erected by our Queen Victoria, records in a touching way the manner of her death. She languished in Carisbrook Castle during the wars of the Commonwealth-a prisoner, alone, and separated from all the companions of her youth, tilt death set her free. She was found dead one day, with her head leaning on her Bible, and the Bible open at the words, Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The monument in Newport church records this fact. It consists of a female figure reclining her head on a marble book, with our text engraven on the book. Think, my brethren, what a sermon in stone that monument preaches. Think what a stunning memorial it affords of the utter inability of rank and high birth to confer certain happiness. Think what a testimony it bears to the lesson before you this day-the mighty lesson that there is no true rest for any one excepting in Christ. -Happy will it be for your soul if that lesson is never forgotten.

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 28. Come unto me] This phrase in the new covenant implies simply, believing in Christ, and becoming his disciple, or follower.

All ye that labour and are heavy laden] The metaphor here appears to be taken from a man who has a great load laid upon him, which he must carry to a certain place: every step he takes reduces his strength, and renders his load the more oppressive. However, it must be carried on; and he labours, uses his utmost exertions, to reach the place where it is to be laid down. A kind person passing by, and, seeing his distress, offers to ease him of his load, that he may enjoy rest.

The Jews, heavily laden with the burdensome rites of the Mosaic institution, rendered still more oppressive by the additions made by the scribes and Pharisees, who, our Lord says, (Mt 23:4,) bound on heavy burdens; and labouring, by their observance of the law, to make themselves pleasing to God, are here invited to lay down their load, and receive the salvation procured for them by Christ.

Sinners, wearied in the ways of iniquity, are also invited to come to this Christ, and find speedy relief.

Penitents, burdened with the guilt of their crimes, may come to this Sacrifice, and find instant pardon.

Believers, sorely tempted, and oppressed by the remains of the carnal mind, may come to this blood, that cleanseth from all unrighteousness; and, purified from all sin, and powerfully succoured in every temptation, they shall find uninterrupted rest in this complete Saviour.

All are invited to come, and all are promised rest. If few find rest from sin and vile affections, it is because few come to Christ to receive it.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Our Lord having before showed;

1. That all power was given to him;

2. That none could know the Father but by and in him; closes his discourse with an invitation of persons to him. By the weary and heavy laden, in the text, some understand those that are laden with the sense of their sins, and the feeling the guilt of them. Others understand, with the burden of the law, which the apostles called a yoke, Act 15:10.

Mr. Calvin thinks this too strait an interpretation. Others understand heavy laden with trials and afflictions. Christ will give rest to all those of his people that are any ways weary and heavy laden, but in an order first to souls wearied and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, and their want of a righteousness wherein to stand before God. Then to such to whom he hath given this rest, he promises also rest from their troubles and persecutions in the world, Joh 16:33. It is very like he used this term, Come, with respect to that of Isaiah, Isa 55:1,2. That by coming is to be understood believing is plain from Joh 6:44-46; Heb 11:6. The rest promised chiefly respecteth the soul, as appears from Mat 11:29. The promise may be understood both of that rest which believers have in this life, Rom 5:2; 15:13, and also of that rest which after this life remaineth to the people of God, Heb 4:9. Whatever the rest be, it must be of Christs giving and our seeking; nor is it to be obtained without labour and suffering, for it followeth,

Take my yoke upon you. The members of Christ are not without a yoke, a law and rule by which they are obliged to walk; and though the service of God be a perfect freedom, yet to flesh and blood it is a yoke, grating upon our sensitive appetite, and restraining our natural motions and inclinations.

For I am meek and lowly. Humility and meekness are in themselves yokes, as they are contrary to our pride, and aptness to swell in a high opinion of ourselves; and to our wrath and danger, which sometimes boils to a great height, without any due fuel: and as in themselves they are a great part of Christs yoke, so they fit and dispose us to take Christs further yoke upon us, and may be here considered as means directed for the better performance of the precept,

Take my yoke upon you. Our Lord also by this precept lets us know there can be no true faith without obedience to the commands of Christ. Though true faith and obedience be two things, yet they are inseparable; Show me thy faith (saith James) by thy works; and the rest of the text is not promised to either of them severally, but to both jointly.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Our Saviour had before (Mat 7:13,14) told us that the way to heaven is a strait way, how doth he now tell us his yoke is easy and his burden light?

Answer:

1. Nothing makes it hard or burdensome but our corruption, which floweth from the depravation of human nature.

2. It is much easier than the yoke and burden of the law.

3. Though it be hard to beginners, yet it is easy when we have once accustomed ourselves to it.

4. It is easy, considering that we do it not in our own strength, but by assistance from God, Jer 31:33; Eze 36:25,26; Joh 15:3, we are delivered even from the moral law, considered as a covenant, and as merely commanding us, and affording no help and assistance.

5. It is also easy; as we are by the love of God constrained to our duty, so we are freed from the rigour of the law. It is easy and light, as it is a course of life highly consonant to our reason, once delivered from a bondage to our passions. Finally, it is much more easy and light than the service of our lusts is. There is no greater slavery than a subjection to our lusts, that if a drunkard saith “Come,” we must come, if an harlot saith “Go,” we must go. Or than our service to the world, &c. To say nothing of the exceeding easiness of it, from the prospect of the great reward proposed and promised to those who keep the commandments of Christ, the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2Co 4:17; as Jacobs hard service of fourteen years seemed to him but a few days.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

28. Come unto me, all ye that labourand are heavy laden, and I will give you restIncomparable,ravishing sounds theseif ever such were heard in this weary,groaning world! What gentleness, what sweetness is there in the verystyle of the invitation”Hither to Me”; and in the words,”All ye that toil and are burdened,” the universalwretchedness of man is depicted, on both its sidesthe activeand the passive forms of it.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Come unto me,…. Christ having signified, that the knowledge of God, and the mysteries of grace, are only to be come at through him; and that he has all things relating to the peace, comfort, happiness, and salvation of men in his hands, kindly invites and encourages souls to come unto him for the same: by which is meant, not a local coming, or a coming to hear him preach; for so his hearers, to whom he more immediately directed his speech, were come already; and many of them did, as multitudes may, and do, in this sense, come to Christ, who never knew him, nor receive any spiritual benefit by him: nor is it a bare coming under the ordinances of Christ, submission to baptism, or an attendance at the Lord’s supper, the latter of which was not yet instituted; and both may be performed by men, who are not yet come to Christ: but it is to be understood of believing in Christ, the going of the soul to him, in the exercise of grace on him, of desire after him, love to him, faith and hope in him: believing in Christ, and coming to him, are terms synonymous, Joh 6:35. Those who come to Christ aright, come as sinners, to a full, suitable, able, and willing Saviour; venture their souls upon him, and trust in him for righteousness, life, and salvation, which they are encouraged to do, by this kind invitation; which shows his willingness to save, and his readiness to give relief to distressed minds. The persons invited, are not “all” the individuals of mankind, but with a restriction,

all ye that labour, and are heavy laden; meaning, not these who are labouring in the service of sin and Satan, are laden with iniquity, and insensible of it: these are not weary of sin, nor burdened with it; not do they want or desire any rest for their souls; but such who groan, being burdened with the guilt of sin upon their consciences, and are pressed down with the unsupportable yoke of the law, and the load of human traditions; and have been labouring till they are weary, in order to obtain peace of conscience, and rest for their souls, by the observance of these things, but in vain. These are encouraged to come to him, lay down their burdens at his feet, look to, and lay hold by faith on his person, blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; when they should enjoy that true spiritual consolation, which could never be attained to by the works of the law.

And I will give you rest; spiritual rest here, peace of conscience, ease of mind, tranquillity of soul, through an application of pardoning grace, a view of free justification by the righteousness of Christ, and full atonement of sin by his sacrifice; and eternal rest hereafter, in Abraham’s bosom, in the arms of Jesus, in perfect and uninterrupted communion with Father, Son, and Spirit. The Jews say y, that , “the law is rest”; and so explain

Ge 49:15 of it: but a truly sensible sinner enjoys no rest, but in Christ; it is like Noah’s dove, which could find no rest for the soles of its feet, until it returned to the ark; and they themselves expect perfect rest in the days of the Messiah, and call his world , rest z.

y Tzeror Hammor, fol. 39. 3. z Tzeror Hammor, fol. 150. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Come unto me ( ). Verses 28 to 30 are not in Luke and are among the special treasures of Matthew’s Gospel. No sublimer words exist than this call of Jesus to the toiling and the burdened (, perfect passive participle, state of weariness) to come to him. He towers above all men as he challenges us. “I will refresh you” (). Far more than mere rest, rejuvenation. The English slang expression “rest up” is close to the idea of the Greek compound . It is causative active voice.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Labor and are heavy – laden [ ] . The first an active, the second a passive participle, exhibiting the active and passive sides of human misery.

Give rest [] . Originally to make to cease; Tynd., ease; Wyc., refresh. The radical conception is that of relief.

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

JESUS’ CALL OF COMPASSION

V. 28-30

1) “Come unto me,” (deute pros me) “Come ye to me;” When you have a need, the one to whom all power and help has been doled out or given; whether saved and burdened with earthly cares, or unsaved with a sin-laden soul; Come in humility, and simple trust, Isa 55:1-2; Rev 22:17; Joh 6:37; 1Pe 2:25.

2) “All ye that labor and are heavy laden,” (pantes hoi kopiontes kai pephortismenoi) “All those having been burdened (for a time) and now laboring, struggling:” under a burden of sin. To whom also men may still go for relief of sin’s burden, and a guilty, accusing conscience of fear? Rom 10:3-4; Eph 2:9-10.

3) “And I will give you rest” (kago anapouso humas) “And I will rest you all,” or relieve you of your struggling burden of sin, a thing ceremonial observance can not give, Mat 23:4; Ga 51; Act 15:10. The peace and rest Jesus gives in salvation, is a cessation, an end, of a conscience of guilt, shame, and fear of soul, when thoughts of death and judgment come to one, Heb 2:9; Heb 2:14-15; Rom 5:1; Pro 3:13; Pro 3:17.

INVITATION OF CHRIST

During a religious awakening in a factory-village in New England, a foreman was awakened, but could not find peace. His superior sent him a letter, requesting him to call at six o’clock. Promptly he came. “I see you believe me,” said his master. The foreman assented. “Well, see; here is another letter sending for you by One equally in earnest,” said his master, holding up a slip of paper with some texts of Scripture written on it. He took the paper, and began to read it slowly, “Come unto me all ye that labor,” etc. His lips quivered, his eyes filled with tears; then he stood for a few moments, not knowing what to do. At length he inquired, “Am I just to believe that in the same way I believed your letter?” “Just in the same

way,” rejoined his master. This expedient was owned of God in setting him at liberty.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

28. Come to me all that labor He now kindly invites to himself those whom he acknowledges to be fit for becoming his disciples. Though he is ready to reveal the Father to all, yet the greater part are careless about coming to him, because they are not affected by a conviction of their necessities. Hypocrites give themselves no concern about Christ, because they are intoxicated with their own righteousness, and neither hunger nor thirst (Mat 5:6) for his grace. Those who are devoted to the world set no value on heavenly life. It would be in vain, therefore, for Christ to invite either of these classes, and therefore he turns to the wretched and afflicted. He speaks of them as laboring, or groaning under a burden, and does not mean generally those who are oppressed with grief and vexations, but those who are overwhelmed by their sins, who are filled with alarm at the wrath of God, and are ready to sink under so weighty a burden. There are various methods, indeed, by which God humbles his elect; but as the greater part of those who are loaded with afflictions still remain obstinate and rebellious, Christ means by persons laboring and burdened, those whose consciences are distressed by their exposure to eternal death, and who are inwardly so pressed down by their miseries that they faint; for this very fainting prepares them for receiving his grace. He tells us that the reason why most men despise his grace is, that they are not sensible of their poverty; but that there is no reason why their pride or folly should keep back afflicted souls that long for relief.

Let us therefore bid adieu to all who, entangled by the snares of Satan, either are persuaded that they possess a righteousness out of Christ, or imagine that they are happy in this world. Let our miseries drive us to seek Christ; and as he admits none to the enjoyment of his rest but those who sink under the burden, let us learn, that there is no venom more deadly than that slothfulness which is produced in us, either by earthly happiness, or by a false and deceitful opinion of our own righteousness and virtue. Let each of us labor earnestly to arouse himself, first, by vigorously shaking off the luxuries of the world; and, secondly, by laying aside every false confidence. Now though this preparation for coming to Christ makes them as dead men, (71) yet it ought to be observed, that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit, because it is the commencement of repentance, to which no man aspires in his own strength. Christ did not intend to show what man can do of himself, but only to inform us what must be the feelings of those who come to him.

They who limit the burden and the labor to ceremonies of the Law, take a very narrow view of Christ’s meaning. I do acknowledge, that the Law was intolerably burdensome, and overwhelmed the souls of worshippers; but we must bear in mind what I have said, that Christ stretches out his hand to all the afflicted, and thus lays down a distinction between his disciples and those who despise the Gospel. But we must attend to the universality of the expression; for Christ included all, without exception, who labor and are burdened, that no man may shut the gate against himself by wicked doubts. (72) And yet all such persons are few in number; for, among the innumerable multitude of those that perish, few are aware that they are perishing. The relief which he promises consists in the free pardon of sins, which alone gives us peace.

(71) “ Combien que ceste preparation a recevoir la grace de Christ despouille desia entierement les hommes, et monstre qu’ils sont du tout vuides de vertu;” — “though this preparation for receiving the grace of Christ already strips men entirely, and shows that they are wholly devoid of virtue.”

(72) “ Par une desfiance et facon perverse de douter;” — “by a distrust and wicked manner of doubting.”

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(28) Come unto me.As in the consciousness of this plenitude of power, the Son of Man turns with infinite compassion to those whose weakness and weariness He has shared, and offers them the rest which none other can give them.

Labour and are heavy laden.The words arc wide enough to cover every form of human sin and sorrow, but the thought that was most prominent in them at the time was that of the burdens grievous to be borne, the yoke of traditions and ordinances which the Pharisees and scribes had imposed on the consciences of men. (Comp. Mat. 23:4, Act. 15:10.) The first of the two words gives prominence to the active, the latter to the passive, aspect of human suffering, by whatever cause produced.

I will give you rest.The I is emphasized in the Greek. He gives what no one else can giverest from the burden of sin, from the weariness of fruitless toil.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

28. Come unto me Me, the very me to whom John has lately sent his message, Art thou He, or look we for another? Yet the very me who am the revealer (Mat 11:27) of God to man. The very me who exists in ineffable unity with God the Father Almighty this person now stands as in the centre of a labouring, laden, oppressed world, and sends his piercing, mellow, tender voice to all the suffering sons of sorrow to escape all bondage by entering his bonds.

Labour and are heavy laden The poor peasantry and common people toil and sweat under the burdens of their masters, the middle classes. And these middle classes struggle beneath the pressure of a higher aristocracy. And the higher aristocracy are scorched by the intolerable rays of the emperor. And the emperor groans under the cares and weight of empire, and works as for his life that neither rebellion nor assassination may lay him low. High and low are alike labouring and heavy laden. For high or low there is no relief, no rest. Then says Jesus, “Come unto me I will give you rest.”

And I will give you rest I, a spiritual Redeemer, am the one to redeem you. For know, all ye labourers, from lowest to highest, the real burden that bears you down is the world and the flesh; and your true oppressor is the devil. Be delivered individually from these, and you are truly free. Be delivered in mass from these, and you will cease to oppress each other. Thus is the same redemption a relief alike from internal and external oppression. Rest No one can read the history of early Christianity without seeing that in its first Pentecostal power it was in the soul a fountain of peace and joy. Though the iron hand of despotism pressed heavy upon the world, and a fierce turbulence reigned among the tribes of the earth, yet the followers of Jesus rejoiced in a sweet resource within, which was a repose to the soul. When in the fulness of time its Pentecostal freshness shall return, and its abounding power be universally accepted; when those hapless sons of folly, “the wise and prudent,” shall become babes, then not only will the individual soul feel that Christ can give the true rest within, but the nations of the world will acknowledge that he alone, the Prince of Peace, is the giver of universal repose.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

The call ‘come (deute) to Me’ made to those who are labouring can be compared with Isa 55:3, where it is God Who speaks, and the aim there is that men might enjoy the life of the new age by entering into the everlasting Davidic covenant with Him. Here then is a call to men by the son of David to enter into covenant with Him, the covenant concerning which more detail will be given later (Mat 26:28). But here it goes further for we have already been told that it is Jesus who make know to those who come to Him the truth about the Father (Mat 11:27). Thus He is calling men to come and learn from Him.

This is similar to His words in Joh 7:37, ‘if any man thirst, let Him come to Me and drink’ where the idea is of drinking of the Spirit. For the idea of ‘coming to Him’ compare Joh 6:37, ‘all whom the Father gives to Me will come to Me’, tying in with the idea that they will come because the Father has revealed to them His truth (Mat 11:25).

‘Those who labour and are heavy laden.’ This may well refer to those who are labouring (or weary) and heavy laden under the requirements and the burden of the Law, the yoke of the Law (contrast Mat 11:27). For elsewhere we are told that heavy burdens are laid on men by the Scribes (Mat 23:4; Luk 11:46), who in Jewish tradition are said to put on men the yoke of the Law. Compare Sir 51:26 which says, ‘Put your neck under the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction’ (the yoke of the Torah. Compare Act 15:10; Gal 5:1 where the same thing was being done by the Judaisers). In chapter 12 these burdens are illustrated in two ways. Notice the double reference to ‘it is not lawful’ (Mat 12:2; Mat 12:10). Regularly in his life a Jew seeking to live rightly would hear the stern words, ‘it is not lawful’, and would discover yet another commandment that he had not known a bout. It was a warning. If he breached that warning he would be punished, But we need not limit Jesus’ words to that kind of burden. For Jesus has the solution to all men’s heavy weights and burdens of whatever kind (compare Gal 6:2 where Christians are to bear one another’s burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ).

‘I will give you rest (anapauso).’ Jesus may here have in mind creation, when God rested (katapauso) from His work, as expanded in the rest offered to all men through the Sabbath (from weary labour) when He said ‘you shall do no manner of work’ (Exo 20:10). The Sabbath (rest) was often translated as ‘anapausis’ (see e.g. Exo 16:23; Exo 23:12). Such a rest was a theme in Isaiah (Isa 28:12; Isa 30:15) where the idea was of resting on the faithfulness of God which would bring them through to lives of peace and rest. In Isa 11:10 the nations will look to the root of Jesse (David’s father) and he will offer glorious rest (LXX anapausis). In Isa 32:17 it is righteousness deliverance that brings rest. In contrast the wicked who are like the troubled sea find no rest (Isa 57:20).

In Hebrews 3-4 Israel in the wilderness wanderings are seen as an example of those who did not find rest (katapausis). They were unable to enter into his rest (into Canaan) because of unbelief (Heb 3:19 compare Psa 95:11 – katapausis in LXX). But those who believe enter into rest (Heb 4:2) which is connected with God’s rest in creation, ‘there remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God’ (Heb 4:9). And the one who enters into that rest (katapausis) has himself rested from his works as God did from His (Heb 4:10).

Thus Jesus may well here be indicating entering into a spiritual Sabbath rest, a rest from labour and being heavy laden. This again ties in with Mat 12:1-16 where Jesus relieves the burden of the Law by reversing the edicts of the traditions of the elders, and making the Sabbath a more genuine rest without it being a burden.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

A General Appeal To Men And Women (11:28-30).

This final general appeal to all who will hear confirms that in spite of His words to the towns, for those who will respond there is a way back to God. In the turmoil of a troubled world there is a place of rest, and it is under His yoke which will result in walking as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount. So He calls on men and women to turn from the yoke of the Scribes and Pharisees and come under His yoke and walk with Him.

The yoke was a well known picture in Judaism of anything to which men committed themselves. The Scribes spoke of the yoke of the Law and of it as the yoke of the Kingly Rule of Heaven. The removal of this yoke as regards the Sabbath is found in Mat 12:1-16 where the Scribes seek to bid the disciples and Jesus under the yoke of the traditions of the elders, only to find themselves confuted by the One Who is Lord of the Sabbath and can thus provide perfect rest.

Analysis.

a Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden (burdened).

b And I will give you rest (Mat 11:28).

c Take my yoke upon you,

d And learn of me,

c For I am meek and lowly in heart.

b And you will find rest to your souls.”

a For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Mat 11:30).

Note that in ‘a’ the people to whom Jesus is speaking labour and are heavy laden, and in the parallel those who take Jesus’ yoke on them find it easy and light. In ‘b’ Jesus will give them rest, and in the parallel they find rest. In ‘c’ He calls them to take His yoke on them, and in the parallel that yoke is one of meekness and lowliness of heart. Centrally in ‘d’ they must learn of Jesus.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

The gracious invitation:

v. 28. Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

v. 29. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

v. 30. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.

No mere man could have spoken these words, so full of heavenly majesty and divine comfort. Christ purposely makes use of many Old Testament phrases, but He applies them all to Himself, thus showing that all the types are realized and fulfilled in Him. Full of both authority and kindness is His call, going out to the fatigued and the burdened, to the poor sinners whose weight of transgressions is bowing them down to earth, who can find no solace or relief in all the wide world. In Him they all find rest, relief, new life, new strength, whether their burden be one placed upon them by others or foolishly taken up by themselves. Instead of this load, which is bound to drag them down to everlasting damnation, Christ will supply another, far different burden, one which, by a paradox, is rather a privilege. For it is His yoke, the yoke of the cross, which the Christians must bear in this world, as followers of Him that bore His cross for our sake. His example will be a steady reminder that we must learn in all things, in the midst of the sorrows and tribulations of the world, to follow His meekness and lowliness, which was not outward, assumed, but a meekness of the heart. This burden of Christian obligation is kindly to bear, it is light to stand up under; there is nothing grievous and oppressive about it, because, in the final analysis, He bears both us and our burdens in love: He gives rest unto our souls, such rest, such complete satisfaction as comes through the knowledge of the Savior and His complete redemption, 2Co 4:17; 2Co 7:4; Rom 8:35. Far from separating us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, the tribulation of this present life, the cross which we bear for the sake of our Lord, binds us more closely to Him with bands of everlasting strength. “The believers look upon the invisible only and not upon the visible, they adhere with simple, pure faith to the Word. And it is true also in regard to temporal things, as we said above, that the goods which we have from God are more important and more excellent than temporal misfortune can be. But how much more is this true in the Church, where this word is sounded: My burden is light, namely, for those that believe My words; and My yoke is easy, namely, if we look upon Christ, who has promised to give us rest, as He Himself says there: And ye shall find rest unto your souls. For these words: Ye shall find, indicate that the pious are without rest for a time. But such turbulent time is short; the rest of the souls, however, which the believers will find, will be important and eternal. ” That is the final comfort of the Gospel-promise: There remaineth a rest to the people of God, Heb 4:9.

Summary. John sends a delegation to Christ, which gives the latter an opportunity to testify concerning the Baptist and His own work. Jesus also pronounces a woe upon the chief Galilean cities and issues a majestic Gospel invitation.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

Mat 11:28. Come unto me, &c. Our Saviour here shews to whom he is pleased to reveal these things. Warmed with the most ardent love to men, he graciously invites all who are weary of the slavery of sin, and desire to be in a state of reconciliation with God, to come unto him or to believe in him: not because he expected any advantage from them, but because he both knew how to give them relief, and was willing to do it, upon no other motive whatever, but merely to satisfy the immense desire he had to do them good. In this invitation our Lord seems to have had his eye on Isa 50:4 where the Messiah is introduced, saying, The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary, for, his having all things delivered to him of the Father, is parallel to the Lord’s giving him the tongue of the learned; and his inviting all who labour and are heavy laden, is the end mentioned by the prophet for which the tongue of the learned was given him; and this, possibly, is the reason why many critics, by rest offered in this invitation, understand that freedom from the burdensome services of the law which Christ has granted to men, through the promulgation of the gospel, termed in the prophesy speaking a word in season to him that is weary; and it must be owned that this interpretation is favoured by the subsequent clause, in which men are invited to take on them Christ’s yoke, from the consideration that it is easy, in comparison of Moses’s yoke; and his burden, from the consideration that it is light, in comparison of the ceremonial precepts of the law. There is no reason, however, for confining the rest of the soul here offered, to that particular privilege of the Christian religion; it is more natural to think that it comprehends therewith all the blessings whatsoever of the gospel. Dr. Doddridge has well paraphrased it, “All ye that labour and are heavy-burdened, whether with the distresses of life, or with the sense of guilt, (See Psa 32:4.) or with the load of ceremonial observances.” It has been well observed, that Christianity, accompanied with the power of divine grace, gives rest to the soul, because, 1st, it clearly informs the judgment concerning the most important points, removing all doubts concerning them; because 2nd, it settles the will in the choice of what is for its happiness; because 3rdly, it directs the passions aright, and so keeps them under good government. See the Reflection

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 11:28 . ] gratia universalis . “In this all thou oughtest to include thyself as well, and not suppose that thou dost not belong to the number; thou shouldst not seek for another register of God,” Melanchthon.

. .] through the legal and Pharisaic ordinances under which the man is exhausted and weighed down as with a heavy burden , without getting rid of the painful consciousness of sin, Mat 23:4 . Comp. Act 15:10 ; Act 13:39 .

] emphatic: and I , what your teachers and guides cannot do.

] I will procure you rest, i.e . (Euth. Zigabenus), so as to secure the true peace of your souls , Joh 14:27 ; Joh 16:33 ; Rom 5:1 .Mat 11:29Mat 11:29 tells in what way .

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1349
THE HEAVY-LADEN INVITED TO CHRIST

Mat 11:28. Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.

IT is thought by many, that the Gospel is a mere system of notions, which may be received without benefit, or rejected without loss. But it is rather proposed to us as a remedy for all the miseries, which sin has brought into the world. In it we are represented as guilty and undone: but Christ is set before us as a Saviour, and is exhibited under every figure that can unfold his excellency, or endear him to our souls. Under the Old Testament, he is shadowed forth as a brazen serpent to heal the wounded, as a city of refuge to protect the man-slayer, and as a sacrifice to remove the sinners guilt. In the New Testament, he speaks of himself as bread for the hungry, as living water for the thirsty, as a physician for the sick, and, to mention no more, as a kind and hospitable friend, who invites to him the weary and heavy-laden.
In the words here addressed to us, we may notice,

I.

The characters invited

Under the description of the weary and heavy-laden we must certainly include those, who groaned under the burthen of the Mosaic law

[The ceremonial law required a great multitude of ritual observances, which, to those who saw not their typical use and tendency, must have appeared frivolous and arbitrary; and, even to those who had some insight into their meaning, they were an irksome task, and an intolerable burthen. From this yoke however the Messiah was to deliver them; he was to annul the old covenant with all its ceremonies, and to establish a better covenant in its stead [Note: Heb 8:8; Heb 8:13.]. When therefore our Lord proclaimed himself to be the Messiah, he invited to him all that were weary and heavy-laden with the Mosaic law, and assured them, that the yoke which he would impose upon them was light and easy.]

There is however a further reference to those who laboured under temporal afflictions

[None are such strangers to the common lot of mortality, as not to know that mankind are subject to many grievous troubles. Indeed, such are the calamities incident to life, that few, who have been long in the world, can cordially thank God for their creation. But more especially when the hand of God is heavy upon us, and we feel the weight of great and multiplied afflictions, we are ready to hate our very existence, and to choose strangling rather than life. Many probably of those, to whom Jesus addressed himself, had drunk deep of the cup of sorrow: for their encouragement therefore he promised that, whatever their trials were, whether in mind, or body, or estate, if only they would come to him, they should find a relief from all, or (what would be of equal value) support and comfort under their pressure.]
But doubtless we must principally understand by these terms those who are oppressed with a sense of sin

[Though all are sinners, all do not feel the weight of sin, because they know not what tremendous evils it has brought upon them. But when any are awakened from their lethargic state, and see what a good and holy God they have offended, they begin to tremble, lest the wrath of God should break forth upon them to consume them utterly. Perhaps they obtain a transient peace by means of their repentance and reformation; but their subsequent falls and backslidings rend open the wounds afresh, and make them feel how hopeless their condition must be, if they be left to themselves. Even after they have attained peace through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus, so that they no longer tremble for fear of condemnation, they groan more than ever under the burthen of their indwelling corruptions, saying, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me [Note: Rom 7:24.]? These are the persons for whose relief our Lord came into the world, and whom, above all, he invited to him in the words before us.]

To ascertain more fully the import of his address, we proceed to consider,

II.

The invitation itself

By the expression, Come unto me, our Lord could not mean to call them nearer to him, because they were already round about him: but as he himself explains the words, he called them to believe on him [Note: Joh 6:35; Joh 6:37; Joh 6:44-45; Joh 6:65.]; or, in other words, to come to him in the exercise of faith, of hope, and of love.

Its import will best appear in a short paraphrase
[To impart rest unto you all is the great end of my appearance in the world. Seek it therefore in me, and come to me, that ye may receive it at my hands. Turn not away from me as an impostor; for I am the very person referred to in your prophecies, and sent unto you by the Father. Go not any longer to the vanities of this world in search of rest; for it is not in them; it is a gift which none but myself can impart unto you. Keep not back, from an apprehension that you can make satisfaction for your own sins, or cleanse yourselves from your iniquities: for you can never have redemption, but through my blood; nor can you ever subdue your lusts, but by my all-sufficient grace. Neither delay your coming on account of your own unworthiness, as if it were necessary for you to bring some meritorious services as the price of my favour: come, just as you are, with all your sins upon you; stop not to heal yourselves in part; but come instantly to your Physician; come and receive all my blessings freely, without money, and without price. Come in faith, believing me able to save you to the uttermost, and as willing as I am able. Come also in hope: let your expectations be enlarged: ye are not straitened in me; be not straitened in your own bowels. Count up all the blessings of time; survey all the glories of eternity; stretch your imagination to the uttermost; ask all that eye ever saw, or ear heard, or heart conceived; and I will not only grant your requests, but give exceeding abundantly above all that ye can ask or think: open your mouths wide, and I will fill them. Come moreover in love. Be not like persons driven to me through mere necessity, and influenced by nothing but a dread of condemnation; but contemplate my character, meditate on my kindness, strive to comprehend the heights and depths of my love; and let a sense of my love constrain you to walk with me, to depend upon me, to delight yourselves in me.

Such may be supposed to be the import of the invitation. And every one who is weary and heavy-laden, whatever his burthen be, may consider it as addressed to himself in particular, as much as ever it was to those, who waited on the personal ministry of our Lord. Let us then hear him thus inviting us, as it were, with his dying breath, and from his throne of glory: and let us go to him with one accord; yea, let us fly to him on the wings of love, even as the doves to their windows.]

That nothing might be wanting to give efficacy to his invitation, our Lord added,

III.

The promise with which it is enforced

The world are glad to see us in our prosperity, and when we can participate in their pleasures: but in a day of adversity, when want and trouble come upon us, they are but too apt to lessen their regards, and to grow weary of our complaints. How different is the conduct of the Lord Jesus! He bids us call upon him in the time of trouble, and, instead of turning a deaf ear to our complaints, promises to give us rest.
How suitable is this promise to those to whom it is made!

[What do the weary and heavy-laden desire? If their troubles be of a temporal nature, they wish for something that shall soothe the anguish of their minds, and be a support unto their souls: and this our blessed Saviour administers by the aids of his grace, and the consolations of his Spirit. Are their sorrows altogether spiritual? He speaks peace unto their conscience, saving unto them, Be of good cheer, I am thy salvation: he discovers unto them the sufficiency of his blood to cleanse them from sin, and the efficacy of his grace to subdue and mortify their lusts. He gives them that, which nothing else in the universe can supply, a firm and stable hope of pardon and peace, of holiness and glory. Whatever other blessings he should offer to the soul, they would all be despised in comparison of this: it is bread to the hungry, drink to the thirsty, healing to the sick, and life to the dead.]

And can any thing be more precious to a heavy-laden soul?

[The term used in the text imports far more than an exemption from labour and trouble: it implies also that refreshment which a great and seasonable relief administers. And how sweet is that peace which he imparts to a believing penitent! it is a peace that passeth understanding, a joy unspeakable and glorified. Surely the consolations of his Spirit are not unfitly called an earnest of our inheritance, since they are indeed a beginning and foretaste of heaven in the soul. But we must extend our thoughts yet further, even to the rest that remaineth for the people of God. Doubtless that was most eminently in the view of our blessed Lord; nor shall any thing short of all the glory and felicity of heaven be the portion of those who come to him aright.]

That it is also a true and faithful saying, there can be no doubt

[Never did any come to our Lord without experiencing his truth and faithfulness. Many indeed there are who profess to follow him, while yet they are far from enjoying this promised blessing: but, instead of coming to him in faith and hope, and love, they are impelled only by terror; they listen to the suggestions of despondency; and they live under the reigning power of unbelief. No wonder then that they find not the rest which they desire. But if any go to him aright, there is no guilt, however great, which is not removed from their conscience, no tumult of contending passions that is not moderated and restrained, nor any earthly trouble in which they are not enabled to rejoice and glory. If under any calamity whatever we go to him like the Apostle, like him shall we receive such an answer as will turn our sorrow into joy, and make the very occasions of grief to be the sources of exultation and triumph [Note: 2Co 12:7-10.].]

Application
1.

To those who feel not the burthen of sin

[If we be exempt in a measure from earthly calamities, we have reason to rejoice. But to be unacquainted with spiritual troubles is no proper subject for self-congratulation. It is the broken and contrite heart only which God will not despise. We may boast of our goodness, like the Pharisee, or the elder brother in the parable [Note: Luk 15:28-29; Luk 18:11; Luk 18:14.]: but, like them, we shall have no forgiveness with God, nor any part in that joy, which returning prodigals shall experience in their Fathers house. We must sow in tears, if ever we would reap in joy: we must be heavy-laden with a sense of sin, if ever we would experience the rest which Christ will give [Note: Jer 2:35.].]

2.

To those who are seeking rest

[It is indeed a mercy to have an awakened conscience: but you must now guard with earnest and equal care against self-righteous hopes on the one hand, and desponding fears on the other. You may be ready to fear that your burthens are too heavy to be removed, and your sins too great to be forgiven: but the persons, whom Christ invites, are the heavy-laden, yea, all of them without exception, whatever be their burthens, and whatever be their sins. On the other hand, you may be tempted to seek rest in your duties or your frames: but it is Christ alone that ever can bestow it, and from him you must receive it as a free unmerited gift. Endeavour therefore to draw nigh to him in his appointed way; and be assured that he will draw nigh to you with his promised blessings.]

3.

To those who have attained rest and peace

[A deliverance from fear and trouble, instead of relaxing our obligation to watchfulness, binds us to tenfold diligence in the ways of God. When therefore our Lord invites us to come to him for rest, he adds, Take my yoke upon you; and then repeats the promise, in order to intimate, that a submission to his will is as necessary to our happiness, as an affiance in his name [Note: ver. 29.]. Let this then be your daily care. If his yoke were ever so grievous, you could not reasonably hesitate to bear it, since the burthen of sin and misery, that he has removed from you, is infinitely heavier than any other can be. But his yoke is easy and his burthen is light; and the bearing of it will conduce no less to your present, than to your everlasting felicity.]


Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Ver. 28. Come unto me ] Why do ye go about, as Jeremiah Jer 31:22 hath it, and fetch a compass? “Why labour ye for that which satisfieth not?” Isa 4:2 ; “Can the son of Jesse give you vineyards and olive yards,” &c.? as Saul said; so say I, Can the world or the devil do for you as I can? Why come ye not unto me, that ye may be saved? Can you mend yourselves anywhere? &c. But the poor soul is ready to hang her comforts on every hedge, shift and shark in every bycorner for comfort, and never come at Christ with the hemorrhoids, till all be spent, till she be forsaken of her hopes. Men will not desire Christ, till shaken, Hag 2:7 .

All ye ] All is a little word, but of large extent. The promises are indefinite, and exclude none. It is not for us to be interlining God’s covenant, and excepting ourselves, however bad, if broken hearted.

That labour ] Even to lassitude ( ), but to no purpose, labour in the fire where you can make nothing of your labour.

And are heavy laden ] Poised to an inch ( ), ready to be weighed down to hell with the turn of a scale, with the dust of a balance superadded. Others might have Christ if they would come to him; but till then none will come. Steep thy thoughts in this sweet sentence, thou burdened soul, and come away to the Master (as they said to blind Bartimeus), for, “behold, he calleth thee.”

And I will give yon rest ] No rest to the weary soul but in Christ (as the dove found no rest till she returned to the ark). It flies from this thing to that, as the bee doth from flower to flower to get honey, as Saul sought his asses from place to place. But as he found them at home after all, so must we find rest and refreshing in Christ, or not at all. Let him that walketh in darkness, and hath no light, “trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” As for those that will kindle a strange fire, and compass themselves about with the sparks of their own tinderboxes, let them walk while they will in the light of their fire, and in the sparks that they have kindled, but this shall they have of Christ’s hand, they shall lie down in sorrow,Isa 50:10-11Isa 50:10-11 .

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

28. ] This is the great and final answer to the question , ; . As before, we may observe the closest connexion between this and the preceding. As the Son is the great Revealer , and as the is by His grace extended to all the weary all who feel their need so He here invites them to receive this revelation , . But the way to this heavenly wisdom is by quietness and confidence, rest unto the soul, the reception of the divine grace for the pardon of sin, and the breaking of the yoke of the corruption of our nature. No mere man could have spoken these words. They are parallel with the command in Isa 45:22 , which is spoken by Jehovah Himself.

, the active and passive sides of human misery, the labouring and the burdened , are invited. Doubtless, outward and bodily misery is not shut out; but the promise, , is only a spiritual promise. Our Lord does not promise to those who come to Him freedom from toil or burden, but rest in the soul , which shall make all yokes easy, and all burdens light. The main invitation however is to those burdened with the yoke of sin, and of the law, which was added because of sin. All who feel that burden are invited.

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 11:28-30 . The gracious invitation . Full of O. T. reminiscences, remarks Holtz., H.C., citing Isa 14:3 ; Isa 28:12 ; Isa 55:1-3 ; Jer 6:16 ; Jer 31:2 ; Jer 31:25 , and especially Sir 6:24-25 ; Sir 6:28-29 ; Sir 51:23-27 . De Wette had long before referred to the last-mentioned passage, and Pfleiderer has recently ( Urch. , 513) made it the basis of the assertion that this beautiful logion is a composition out of Sirach by the evangelist. The passage in Sirach is as follows: , . , ; , , . , , . [72] There are unquestionably kindred thoughts and corresponding phrases, as even Kypke points out (“Syracides magna similitudine dicit”), and if Sirach had been a recognised Hebrew prophet one could have imagined Matthew giving the gist of this rhetorical passage, prefaced with an “as it is written”. It is not even inconceivable that a reader of our Gospel at an early period noted on the margin phrases culled from Sirach as descriptive of the attitude of the one true towards men to show how willing he was to communicate the knowledge of the Father-God, and that his notes found their way into the text. But why doubt the genuineness of this logion ? It seems the natural conclusion of Christ’s soliloquy; expressing His intense yearning for receptive scholars at a time when He was painfully conscious of the prevalent unreceptivity. The words do not smell of the lamp. They come straight from a saddened yet tenderly affectionate, unembittered heart; simple, pathetic, sincere. He may have known Sirach from boyhood, and echoes may have unconsciously suggested themselves, and been used with royal freedom quite compatibly with perfect originality of thought and phrase. The reference to wisdom in Mat 11:19 makes the supposition not gratuitous that Jesus may even have had the passage in Sirach consciously present to His mind, and that He used it, half as a quotation, half as a personal manifesto. The passage is the end of a prayer of Jesus , the Son of Sirach, in which that earlier Jesus, personating wisdom, addresses his fellowmen, inviting them to share the benefits which has conferred on himself. Why should not Jesus of Nazareth close His prayer with a similar address in the name of wisdom to those who are most likely to become her children those whose ear sorrow hath opened? This view might meet Martineau’s objection to regarding this logion as authentic, that it is not compatible with the humility of Jesus that He should so speak of Himself ( Seat of Authority , p. 583). Why should He not do as another Jesus had done before Him: speak in the name of wisdom, and appropriate her attributes?

[72] Of the above the R. V. gives the following translation: “Draw near unto me, ye unlearned, and lodge in the house of in struction. Say wherefore are ye lacking in these things, and your souls are very thirsty? I opened my mouth and spake. Get her for yourselves without money. Put your neck under the yoke, and let your soul receive instruction. She is hard at hand to find. Behold with your eyes how that I laboured but a little, and found for myself much rest.”

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Mat 11:28 . : vide ad Mat 4:19 , again authoritative but kindly. , the fatigued and burdened. This is to be taken metaphorically. The kind of people Jesus expects to become “disciples indeed” are men who have sought long, earnestly, but in vain, for the summum bonum , the knowledge of God. There is no burden so heavy as that of truth sought and not found. Scholars of the Rabbis, like Saul of Tarsus, knew it well. In coming thence to Christ’s school they would find rest by passing from letter to spirit, from form to reality, from hearsay to certainty, from traditions of the past to the present voice of God. , and I , emphatic, with side glance at the reputed “wise” who do not give rest (with Meyer against Weiss).

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

Matthew

THE REST GIVER

Mat 11:28 – Mat 11:29 .

One does not know whether tenderness or majesty is predominant in these wonderful words. A divine penetration into man’s true condition, and a divine pity, are expressed in them. Jesus looks with clearsighted compassion into the inmost history of all hearts, and sees the toil and the sorrow which weigh on every soul. And no less remarkable is the divine consciousness of power, to succour and to help, which speaks in them. Think of a Jewish peasant of thirty years old, opening his arms to embrace the world, and saying to all men, ‘Come and rest on My breast.’ Think of a man supposing himself to be possessed of a charm which could soothe all sorrow and lift the weight from every heart.

A great sculptor has composed a group where there diverge from the central figure on either side, in two long lines, types of all the cruel varieties of human pains and pangs; and in the midst stands, calm, pure, with the consciousness of power and love in His looks, and with outstretched hands, as if beckoning invitation and dropping benediction, Christ the Consoler. The artist has but embodied the claim which the Master makes for Himself here. No less remarkable is His own picture of Himself, as ‘meek and lowly in heart.’ Did ever anybody before say, ‘I am humble,’ without provoking the comment, ‘He that says he is humble proves that he is not’? But Jesus Christ said it, and the world has allowed the claim; and has answered, ‘Though Thou bearest record of Thyself, Thy record is true.’

But my object now is not so much to deal with the revelation of our Lord contained in these marvellous words, as to try, as well as I can, to re-echo, however faintly, the invitation that sounds in them. There is a very striking reduplication running through them which is often passed unnoticed. I shall shape my remarks so as to bring out that feature of the text, asking you to look first with me at the twofold designation of the persons addressed; next at the twofold invitation; and last at the twofold promise of rest.

I. Consider then the twofold designation here of the persons addressed, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.’

The one word expresses effort and toil, the other a burden and endurance. The one speaks of the active, the other of the passive, side of human misery and evil. Toil is work which is distasteful in itself, or which is beyond our faculties. Such toil, sometime or other, more or less, sooner or later, is the lot of every man. All work becomes labour, and all labour, sometime or other, becomes toil. The text is, first of all, and in its most simple and surface meaning, an invitation to all the men who know how ceaseless, how wearying, how empty the effort and energy of life is, to come to this Master and rest.

You remember those bitter words of the Book of Ecclesiastes, where the preacher sets forth a circle of labour that only comes back to the point where it began, as being the law for nature and the law for man. And truly much of our work seems to be no better than that. We are like squirrels in a cage, putting forth immense muscular effort, and nothing to show for it after all. ‘All is vanity, and striving after wind.’

Toil is a curse; work is a blessing. But all our work darkens into toil; and the invitation, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour,’ reaches to the very utmost verge of the world and includes every soul.

And then, in like manner, the other side of human experience is set forth in that other word. For most men have not only to work, but to bear; not only to toil, but to sorrow. There are efforts that need to be put forth, which task all our energy, and leave the muscles flaccid and feeble. And many of us have, at one and the same moment, to work and to weep, to toil whilst our hearts are beating like a forge-hammer; to labour whilst memories and thoughts that might enfeeble any worker, are busy with us. A burden of sorrow, as well as effort and toil, is, sooner or later, the lot of all men.

But that is only surface. The twofold designation here before us goes a great deal deeper than that. It points to two relationships to God and to God’s law of righteousness. Men labour with vague and yet with noble effort, sometimes, to do the thing that is right, and after all efforts there is left a burden of conscious defect. In the purest and the highest lives there come both of these things. And Jesus Christ, in this merciful invitation of His, speaks to all the men that have tried, and tried in vain, to satisfy their consciences and to obey the law of God, and says to them, ‘Cease your efforts, and no longer carry that burden of failure and of sin upon your shoulders. Come unto Me, and I will give you rest.’

I should be sorry to think that I was speaking to any man or woman who had not, more or less, tried to do what is right. You have laboured at that effort with more or less of consistency, with more or less of earnestness. Have you not found that you could not achieve it?

I am sure that I am speaking to no man or woman who has not upon his or her conscience a great weight of neglected duties, of actual transgressions, of mean thoughts, of foul words and passions, of deeds that they would be ashamed that any should see; ashamed that their dearest should catch a glimpse of. My friend, universal sinfulness is no mere black dogma of a narrow Calvinism; it is no uncharitable indictment against the race; it is simply putting into definite words the consciousness that is in every one of your hearts. You know that, whether you like to think about it or not, you have broken God’s law, and are a sinful man. You carry a burden on your back whether you realise the fact or no, a burden that clogs all your efforts, and that will sink you deeper into the darkness and the mire. ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour,’ and with noble, but, at bottom, vain, efforts have striven after right and truth. ‘Come unto Me all ye that are burdened,’ and bear, sometimes forgetting it, but often reminded of its pressure by galled shoulders and wearied limbs, the burden of sin on your bent backs.

This invitation includes the whole race. In it, as in a blank form, you may each insert your name. Jesus Christ speaks to thee, John, Thomas, Mary, Peter, whatever thy name may be, as distinctly as if you saw your name written on the pages of your New Testament, when He says to you, ‘Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.’ For the ‘all’ is but the sum of the units; and I, and thou, and thou, have our place within the word.

II. Now, secondly, look at the twofold invitation that is here.

‘Come unto Me . . . Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.’ These two things are not the same. ‘Coming unto Me,’ as is quite plain to the most superficial observation, is the first step in the approach to a companionship, which companionship is afterwards perfected and kept up by obedience and imitation. The ‘coming’ is an initial act which makes a man Christ’s companion. And the ‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me,’ is the continuous act by which that companionship is manifested and preserved. So that in these words, which come so familiarly to most of our memories that they have almost ceased to present a sharp meaning, there is not only a merciful summons to the initial act, but a description of the continual life of which that act is the introduction.

And now, to put that into simpler words, when Jesus Christ says ‘Come unto Me,’ He Himself has taught us what is His inmost meaning in that invitation, by another word of His: ‘He that cometh unto Me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on Me shall never thirst’; where the parallelism of the clauses teaches us that to come to Christ is simply to put our trust in Him. There is in faith a true movement of the whole soul towards the Master. I think that this metaphor teaches us a great deal more about that faith that we are always talking about in the pulpit, and which, I am afraid, many of our congregations do not very distinctly understand, than many a book of theology does. To ‘come to Him’ implies, distinctly, that He, and no mere theological dogma, however precious and clear, is the Object on which faith rests.

And, therefore, if Christ, and not merely a doctrinal truth about Christ, be the Object of our faith, then it is very clear that faith, which grasps a Person, must be something more than the mere act of the understanding which assents to a truth. And what more is it? How is it possible for one person to lay hold of and to come to another? By trust and love, and by these alone. These be the bonds that bind men together. Mere intellectual consent may be sufficient to fasten a man to a dogma, but there must be will and heart at work to bind a man to a person; and if it be Christ and not a theology, to which we come by our faith, then it must be with something more than our brains that we grasp Him and draw near to Him. That is to say, your will is engaged in your confidence. Trust Him as you trust one another, only with the difference befitting a trust directed to an absolute and perfect object of trust, and not to a poor, variable human heart. Trust Him as you trust one another. Then, just as husband and wife, parent and child, friend and friend, pass through all intervening hindrances and come together when they trust and love, so you come closer to Christ as the very soul of your soul by an inward real union, than you do even to your dear ones, if you grapple Him to your heart with the hoops of steel, which, by simple trust in Him, the Divine Redeemer forges for us. ‘Come unto Me,’ being translated out of metaphor into fact, is simply ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.’

And still further, we have here, not only the initial act by which companionship and union with Jesus Christ is brought about, but the continual course by which it is kept up, and by which it is manifested. The faith which saves a man’s soul is not all which is required for a Christian life. ‘Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me .’ The yoke is that which, laid on the broad forehead or the thick neck of the ox, has attached to it the cords which are bound to the burden that the animal draws. The burden, then, which Christ gives to His servants to pull, is a metaphor for the specific duties which He enjoins upon them to perform; and the yoke by which they are fastened to their burdens, ‘obliged’ to their duties, is His authority, So to ‘take His yoke’ upon us is to submit our wills to His authority. Therefore this further call is addressed to all those who have come to Him, feeling their weakness and their need and their sinfulness, and have found in Him a Saviour who has made them restful and glad; and it bids them live in the deepest submission of will to Him, in joyful obedience, in constant service; and, above all, in the daily imitation of the Master.

You must put both these commandments together before you get Christ’s will for His children completely expressed. There are some of you who think that Christianity is only a means by which you may escape the penalty of your sins; and you are ready enough, or fancy yourselves so, to listen when He says, ‘Come to Me that you may be pardoned,’ but you are not so ready to listen to what He says afterwards, when He calls upon you to take His yoke upon you, to obey Him, to serve Him, and above all to copy Him. And I beseech you to remember that if you go and part these two halves from one another, as many people do, some of them bearing away the one half and some the other, you have got a maimed Gospel; in the one case a foundation without a building, and in the other case a building without a foundation. The people who say that Christ’s call to the world is ‘Come unto Me,’ and whose Christianity and whose Gospel is only a proclamation of indulgence and pardon for past sin, have laid hold of half of the truth. The people who say that Christ’s call is ‘Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me,’ and that Christianity is a proclamation of the duty of pure living after the pattern of Jesus Christ our great Example, have laid hold of the other half of the truth. And both halves bleed themselves away and die, being torn asunder; put them together, and each has power.

That separation is one reason why so many Christian men and women are such poor Christians as they are-having so little real religion, and consequently so little real joy. I could lay my fingers upon many men, professing Christians-I do not say whether in this church or in other churches-whose whole life shows that they do not understand that Jesus Christ has a twofold summons to His servants; and that it is of no avail once, long ago, to have come, or to think that you have come, to Him to get pardon, unless day by day you are keeping beside Him, doing His commandments, and copying His sweet and blessed example.

III. And now, lastly, look at the twofold promise which is here.

I do not know if there is any importance to be attached to the slight diversity of language in the two verses, so as that in the one case the promise runs, ‘I will give you rest,’ and in the other, ‘Ye shall find rest.’ That sounds as if the rest that was contingent upon the first of the invitations was in a certain and more direct and exclusive fashion Christ’s gift than the rest which was contingent upon the second. It may be so, but I attach no importance to that criticism; only I would have you observe that our Lord distinctly separates here between the rest of ‘coming,’ and the rest of wearing His ‘yoke.’ These two, howsoever they may be like each other, are still not the same. The one is the perfecting and the prolongation, no doubt, of the other, but has likewise in it some other, I say not more blessed, elements. Dear brethren, here are two precious things held out and offered to us all. There is rest in coming to Christ; the rest of a quiet conscience which gnaws no more; the rest of a conscious friendship and union with God, in whom alone are our soul’s home, harbour, and repose; the rest of fears dispelled; the rest of forgiveness received into the heart. Do you want that? Go to Christ, and as soon as you go to Him you will get that rest.

There is rest in faith. The very act of confidence is repose. Look how that little child goes to sleep in its mother’s lap, secure from harm because it trusts. And, oh! if there steal over our hearts such a sweet relaxation of the tension of anxiety when there is some dear one on whom we can cast all responsibility, how much more may we be delivered from all disquieting fears by the exercise of quiet confidence in the infinite love and power of our Brother Redeemer, Christ! He will be ‘a covert from the storm, and a refuge from the tempest’; as ‘rivers of water in a dry place, and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.’ If we come to Him, the very act of coming brings repose.

But, brethren, that is not enough, and, blessed be God! that is not all. There is a further, deeper rest in obedience, and emphatically and most blessedly there is a rest in Christ-likeness. ‘Take My yoke upon you.’ There is repose in saying ‘Thou art my Master, and to Thee I bow.’ You are delivered from the unrest of self-will, from the unrest of contending desires, you get rid of the weight of too much liberty. There is peace in submission; peace in abdicating the control of my own being; peace in saying, ‘Take Thou the reins, and do Thou rule and guide me.’ There is peace in surrender and in taking His yoke upon us.

And most especially the path of rest for men is in treading in Christ’s footsteps. ‘Learn of Me,’ it is the secret of tranquillity. We have done with passionate hot desires,-and it is these that breed all the disquiet in our lives-when we take the meekness and the lowliness of the Master for our pattern. The river will no longer roll, broken by many a boulder, and chafed into foam over many a fall, but will flow with even foot, and broad, smooth bosom, to the parent sea.

There is quietness in self-sacrifice, there is tranquillity in ceasing from mine own works and growing like the Master.

‘The Cross is strength; the solemn Cross is gain.

The Cross is Jesus’ breast,

Here giveth He the rest,

That to His best beloved doth still remain.’

‘Take up thy cross daily,’ and thou enterest into His rest.

My brother, ‘the wicked is like the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt.’ But you, if you come to Christ, and if you cleave to Christ, may be like that ‘sea of glass, mingled with fire,’ that lies pure, transparent, waveless before the Throne of God, over which no tempests rave, and which, in its deepest depths, mirrors the majesty of ‘Him that sitteth upon the Throne, and of the Lamb.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Mat 11:28-30

28″Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Mat 11:28-30 These verses are unique to Matthew. Mat 11:28 affirms the doctrine of justification, while Mat 11:29 affirms progressive sanctification.

SPECIAL TOPIC: NEW TESTAMENT HOLINESS/SANCTIFICATION

Mat 11:28 “Come to Me” “Come” is an adverb used as an aorist active imperative. It denotes an immediate faith response to Jesus Himself and His radical new covenant message. Notice the emphasis was on personal relationship, not on doctrinal content or ritual only. This same truth was repeated often in the Gospel of John.

“weary” This is a present active participle. The terms “weary” and “heavy-laden” in this verse describe hard labor. They are synonymous.

“heavy-laden” This is a perfect passive participle. These two terms related culturally to the heavy obligations of rabbinical Judaism (cf. Act 15:10). This same idea is expressed by the Hebrew idiom “yoke” (cf. Mat 11:29-30; Mat 23:4; Luk 11:46). This was also used metaphorically for the Oral Tradition of the Jews (Talmud), which had become such a burden that it separated mankind from God rather than bringing them to Him. Judaism had become a barrier instead of a bridge!

The new covenant in Jesus has requirements just like the old covenant. However, they do not bring us to God and make us acceptable. They become the natural result of knowing Him in Christ. God still wants a righteous people who reflect His character to the world. I usually state the NT requirements as

1. repentance

2. faith

3. obedience

4. perseverance

“I will give you rest” This is an emphatic grammatical construction. Jesus was saying, “I, myself, will lead you into rest.” ” Rest” did not refer to perpetual inactivity, but to a time of refreshment and training so as to move out into useful service for Christ. This concept of a rest goes back to the seventh day rest of Genesis 1. For a good discussion of the different ways this term was used in the OT see Hebrews, Matthew 3, 4.

Mat 11:29 “learn” This is an aorist active imperative. It is etymologically related to the word ” disciples” found in Mat 11:1. Believers are commanded to learn and mature.

“I am gentle and humble” These were not virtues in the Greek world, but Jesus made attitude the key. Humility and gentleness became the catch-words of the new kingdom of God.

Mat 11:30 “for My yoke is easy and My burden is light” There are new covenant tasks to be performed. Faith and repentance in Jesus’ name are the first step; the second is obedience and maturity; the third is perseverance. Jesus changed the burdensome task of the Pharisees (cf. Mat 23:4; Luk 11:46) into a life of gratitude and service in His name (cf. 1Jn 5:3).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

Come, &c. Here Christ refers, not to sins, but to service; not to guilt, but to labour; not to the conscience, but to the heart; not to repentance, but to learning; not to finding forgiveness, but to finding rest.

all. Here limited to those seeking “rest”.

labour = toil.

heavy laden = burdened.

give. His rest is given. Ours must be found in His gift. We have none to give.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

28.] This is the great and final answer to the question , ; . As before, we may observe the closest connexion between this and the preceding. As the Son is the great Revealer, and as the is by His grace extended to all the weary-all who feel their need-so He here invites them to receive this revelation, . But the way to this heavenly wisdom is by quietness and confidence, rest unto the soul, the reception of the divine grace for the pardon of sin, and the breaking of the yoke of the corruption of our nature. No mere man could have spoken these words. They are parallel with the command in Isa 45:22, which is spoken by Jehovah Himself.

, the active and passive sides of human misery, the labouring and the burdened, are invited. Doubtless, outward and bodily misery is not shut out; but the promise, , is only a spiritual promise. Our Lord does not promise to those who come to Him freedom from toil or burden, but rest in the soul, which shall make all yokes easy, and all burdens light. The main invitation however is to those burdened with the yoke of sin, and of the law, which was added because of sin. All who feel that burden are invited.

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 11:28. , come ye) sc. immediately.-See Gnomon on ch. Mat 4:19.- , unto Me) Since the Pharisees, and even John himself, cannot satisfy you.-, all) Let not the limitation in Mat 11:27 deter you.- , that labour) Refer to this and , yoke, in Mat 11:29-30.-, heavy laden) To this should be referred , learn, in Mat 11:29, and , burden, in Mat 11:30. The Hebrew signifies a burden, i.e., doctrine, discipline.-, and I) Though you have sought elsewhere in vain, you will find it with Me, Mat 11:29.-, I will make you rest) This is explained in the next verse.-, …, because, etc.) I will make you rest, and ye shall find rest, are correlative.

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Come

The new message of Jesus. The rejected King now turns from the rejecting nation and offers, not the kingdom, but rest and service to such in the nation as are conscious of the need. It is a pivotal point in the ministry of Jesus.

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes

The Great Invitation

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.Mat 11:28.

1. There were several reasons which made this gracious invitation and glorious promise specially appropriate to the age in which it was spoken. It was an age of political revolution. The old Roman Empire was breaking up, and already the seeds were being sown in it which left it, a few hundred years afterwards, an easy prey to the incursions of the Goths. It was an age of moral collapse. The old stern morality which had made Rome was breaking up like rotten ice. Marriage became a mere temporary convenience, which lasted for a time and then was laid aside. It was an age of social unrest. It was an age of much despair in individual souls. As always, with the decay of faith came in the prevalence of suicide.

When all the blandishments of life are gone,

The coward slinks to death, the brave live on.

And the great number of suicides at that time in the Roman Empire pointed to the despair which was creeping over soul after soul. It was in the midst of such a world that Jesus Christ uttered this splendid invitation: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Despair is the vilest of words. That expresses Fitzjamess whole belief and character. Faith may be shaken and dogmas fade into meaningless jumbles of words: science may be unable to supply any firm ground for conduct. Still we can quit ourselves like men. From doubt and darkness he can still draw the practical conclusion, Be strong and of a good courage. And therefore, Fitzjames could not be a pessimist in the proper sense; for the true pessimist is one who despairs of the universe. Such a man can only preach resignation to inevitable evil, and his best hope is extinction. Fitzjames goes out of his way more than once to declare that he sees nothing sublime in Buddhism. Nirvana, he says in a letter, always appeared to me to be at bottom a cowardly ideal. For my part I like far better the Carlyle or Calvinist notion of the world as a mysterious hall of doom, in which one must do ones fated part to the uttermost, acting and hoping for the best and trusting that somehow or other our admiration of the noblest human qualities will be justified.1 [Note: 1 Leslie Stephen, Life of Sir James Fitzjames Stephen, 458.]

2. Those to whom Jesus spoke that day in Galilee were conspicuously the labouring and the heavy laden. They were a labouring and a heavy-laden people, because they were in the worst sense a conquered people. The lake district was rich in national products, the fields brought forth largely, and the lake with its fishings was a very mine of wealth. But the land was overrun by the invader. The conquerors tax-gatherer was everywhere to be seen, and the wealth of Galilee went to feed the luxury of Rome. Hence the husbandmen and fishermen in the worst sense laboured and were heavy laden. Their rich crops fell to their sickle, their nets were often full to the point of breaking, necessitating hard toil to bring them to the shore, but the tax-gatherer stood over the threshing-floor and in the market, and swept the profits into the emperors hands. Nor did their revolts bring them anything but harder labours and a heavier load. Their wrestling and struggling only procured them the sharp pricking of the goad and the firmer binding on their shoulders of the yoke.

How large the taxes were in Palestine about the time of Christ will probably never be known. Shortly after Herods death a committee of Jews stated to the emperor that Herod had filled the nation full of poverty and that they had borne more calamities from Herod in a few years than their fathers had during all the interval of time that had passed since they had returned from Babylon in the reign of Xerxes. It is said that he exacted about three million dollars from the people. His children did not receive quite that amount, but to raise what they received and what the Roman government demanded, nearly everything had been taxed. There was a tax on the produce of land, one-tenth for grain and one-fifth for wine and fruit. There was a tax of one denarius on every person, exempting only aged people over sixty-five years, and girls and boys under the age of twelve and fourteen respectively. Then there was an income-tax. There were also taxes levied on trades, such as that of hosier, weaver, furrier, and goldsmith, and on movable property, such as horses, oxen, asses, ships, and slaves. The duties paid on imported goods varied from two and one-half to twelve per cent. Then the homes were taxed, at least the city homes, and there was bridge money and road money to be paid. There was also a tax on what was publicly bought and sold, for the removal of which tax the people pleaded with Archelaus, apparently in vain. Besides this, every city had its local administration, and raised money to pay its officials, maintain and build synagogues, elementary schools, public baths, and roads, the city walls, gates, and other general requirements. Tacitus relates how the discontent occasioned by the burdensome taxation in the year 17 A.D. assumed a most threatening character not only in Judea, but also throughout Syria. Taxes were farmed out to the highest bidders, who in turn would farm them out again. They who got the contract were not paid by the government from the taxes they collected, so that their support, or income, must be added to the taxes. How large that was we cannot know, but it was very large, as the collectors would, taking advantage of their position, often be very extortionate. Amid these unfortunate economic conditionsanarchy, war, extravagance, and taxationthe people grew poorer and poorer. Business became more and more interrupted, and want, in growing frequency, showed its emaciated features.1 [Note: G. D. Heuver, The Teachings of Jesus Concerning Wealth, 31.]

3. But the national feeling which held them together as a people, had it not its side of faith? It had not. Faith, as it found expression in the Rabbis words, only added a thousand times to the labour and the yoke. What of money the tax-gatherer left the priest devoured, and what the priest left the scribe laid hands upon; and as the masses sank deeper and deeper in poverty, only the more were there heaped upon them the curses of the law. Robbery, impiety, cursing, were all the multitude saw in faith. Can we not picture that weary crowd of waiting men and women, with, as Carlyle says, hard hands, crooked, coarse; their rugged faces all weather-tanned, besoiled; their backs all bent, their straight limbs and fingers so deformed; themselves, as it were, encrusted with the thick adhesions and defacements of their hopeless labour; and seeing no cause to believe in, and no hope for rest? But Jesus spoke of rest, and not idly, or to delude them with a dream. He, like themselves, was a toiler, and offered no hope that with His own hand He would drive out the Roman, or even put the priest and scribe to flight. He did not speak of rest in the sense of relief from labour. His exhortation, Take my yoke upon you, makes that conclusive. His relief and rescue were along a totally different line. Rest can be understood only when labour is properly undertaken. When work is regarded as a task, then the only possible rest is relief from it. If, however, labour is undertaken as cordial service, it is quite different. Rest may then mean additional labour; it does then mean harmony and peace of mind and soul.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. It is thus that this saying of Jesus is rendered in the Latin Bible, and, after it, in the version of old John Wycliffe. And thus rendered, it was associated by the devout men of medival days with the sacred ordinance of the Supper. Thou biddest me, says St. Thomas Kempis, confidently approach Thee, if I would have part with Thee; and accept the nourishments of immortality, if I desire to obtain eternal life and glory. Come, sayest Thou, unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you. 1 [Note: D. Smith, The Feast of the Covenant, 123.]

I

The Call

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.

1. In the history of the world was ever an utterance made like this? Was ever a claim of power or an assertion of supremacy so vast, so calm, so confident? Could we have endured it from one of the teachers of the worldfrom Socrates, from Seneca, from Isaac Newton, from Kant, or from Shakespeare? Would not its utterance have repelled and disgusted us? Its arrogance would have been intolerable. And yet have these words from the lips of Christ ever produced repulsion? Is it not the case that they have ever been regarded as among the most gracious and lovely of the Saviours words? And why so? Has it not been because it was known and felt that these were the words of Him who was God as well as Man? They follow in this chapter of St. Matthew the verse in which Jesus has said, All things have been delivered unto me of my Father. The beauty and the sweetness of the invitation, Come unto me, depend upon the sovereign right to give it. He who is the Son of God as well as the Son of Man alone has the right. In His mouth alone such words possess not only beauty but also the force of genuineness.

Thus we see that beneath the tenderness of this evangelical message, Come unto me, lies the bed-rock foundation of the Christian faith, that Christ is God as well as Man. Call it dogma; if dogma be the epitome of belief, it is the dogma of dogmas. Call it Christian truth; it is the one truth without which Christianity fades into an airy system of baseless speculation, and its claims shrink and shrivel to the dimensions of a human imposture. It is the Divinity of our Lord that makes these words of His so splendid and inspiring in their strength and comprehensiveness. There is no hesitation in their tone; they strike no apologetic or self-depreciatory note. It is not the outcome of long argument to advance or prove His claims. It is not the vague pronouncement of bliss and reward upon those who followed His cause. No; it is the simple authoritative personal invitation of Christ to the people of the world; it is an imperial message given in infinite love and proclaimed with infinite power to the souls of men and women. And we, whether we teach it to our children or repeat it to the dying, can attach no adequate meaning to the words unless we are convinced in our hearts that He who spoke them was God as well as Man, and could really give what He promised.

We are making trial of the belief that in Christ we see the Power by which the world is governedthe Almighty. But the world, if we regard its present condition in isolation, is most manifestly not governed by any such Power. The Sin and Pain of the world we know cannot be themselves the goal of the Purpose of God, if God is the Father of Jesus Christ. Either then Christ is not the revelation of God, or else the world as we see it does not express its real meaning. Only, in fact, as Christ is drawing men to Himself from generation to generation is the victory over evil won, and His claim to reveal the Father vindicated; we can only regard Him as Divine, and supreme over the world, if we can regard Him as somehow including in His Personality all mankind. If the Life of Christ is just an event in human history, what right have we to say that the Power which directs that history is manifest here rather than in Julius Csar or even Nero? We can only say this, if He is drawing all men to Himself so that in Him we see what mankind is destined to become.1 [Note: W. Temple, in Foundations, 245.]

2. The call is addressed to all who labour and are heavy laden. To all; not merely to a few favoured souls, not merely to the Jews; it is an invitation to mankind. Our Lord, when He uttered the words, was looking out with the gaze of Omniscience across the ages. He saw each human soul, with its capacity for eternal blessedness or endless loss. Generation after generation swept before His vision, as He longed that they might all come unto Him and find rest. No one is excluded, for all need the healing of Christ. Christ sawas the painter of The Vale of Tears has vividly portrayed in his last pictureall conditions of men, weary of the sorrows, trials and burdens of human life, as well as of its pleasures, ambitions and prizes, when He uttered the tender, authoritative, universal invitation, Come unto me.

(1) First, He invites those who labour; or, perhaps more correctly, all who are toiling. Can we venture to reconstruct the scene? Close beside Him stand His immediate disciples, who alone had been privileged to hear the language of His prayer. But beyond the circle of His immediate followers is gathered a crowd of the inhabitants of Capernaum, who had been passing homeward at the close of the day. Labourers would be there in plenty, coming back from their toil in the fields; women also, returning from the market or the well; and fishermen too, doubtless, who had stopped awhile to listen on the way to their nocturnal labours on the deep. On the outskirts of the crowd there might be others, shop-keepers, working men, and farmers; and perhaps women such as Mary Magdalene, for Magdala was not far from Capernaum. Such, in some degree at least, was the character of the multitude on whom our Lords eyes could rest. And as He gazed upon that group of peasants, representative as they were of human weariness and suffering, there welled up in His heart a great compassion for the souls before Him, weighed down with a load that was too heavy for them to bear. So, conscious of His power to alleviate the woes and sorrows of humanity and to lighten the common burdens of mankind, He who claimed a knowledge of the unknown God, and had been rejoicing in communion with the Father, opened His arms to the listening multitude and cried, Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

(2) But Christ called not only those who labour or toil; He called those also who are burdened or heavy laden to Him. As the idea of toil refers to what we may call the active side of life, to what we do or attempt to do, so the term heavy laden or burdened refers to the passive side, to that which we bear or endure. Frequently this latter is a condition added to, or even responsible for, the former. We may be toiling while we are heavy laden, or our work may actually be toil because while we work we have also to bear a heavy burden. If we consider the burdens of life they fall into two classes; we may term these the self-imposed and the inevitable: those which are due, and those which are not due, to our own actions. And many of us would be surprised, after a strict self-examination, to find how large a proportion of the whole of our burdens the self-imposed ones are. We may not like to confess this, but still it is true. The burdens imposed by carelessness and thoughtlessness, by sin in the present and in the past, by the force of evil habits which have been allowed to grow unchecked, by our declining to exercise self-discipline and by our refusing to submit to the wise discipline of othersall these various not inevitable burdens will be found to outweigh and outnumber the burdens which are really outside our own control.

(3) What must especially have distressed Jesus and filled Him with pity was that men turned their very religion into a burden and a toil. That which was meant to give them strength to bear all other burdens they turned into an additional load. Instead of using their carriage to carry themselves and all their belongings, they strove to take it on their backs and carry it. All that religion seemed to do for them was to make life harder, to fill it with a thousand restrictions and fretting duties. They toiled to keep a multitude of observances which no man could keep; they bound heavy burdens of penances and duties and laid them on their backs, as if thus they could please God. The sinner was in despair, and the religious man a heartless performer. They had fancied that God was like themselves, a poor little creature, revengeful, spiteful, liking to see men suffering for sin and crushed under His petty tyrannies. They thought of a God who must be propitiated by careful and exact performances and to whom the sinner could find access only after crushing penances. As if the pain of sin were not enough, and as if the bitterness of a misspent life were not itself intolerable, they sought to embitter life still further by emptying it of all natural joy and by hampering it with countless scruples.

The kernel of the law was found in the Jewish scriptures. But this was augmented by four tremendous accumulations. First, there was the Mishna, which was an elaborate reiteration of the law with innumerable embellishments. Then there was the Midrash, which consisted of volumes of the minutest explanations of the meaning of every part of the law. Then there were other bulky tomes called the Talmud, which was a formulation of the law into doctrine at portentous length. And finally there was an intricate mass of comments and legal decisions of the Rabbis. And for a Jew to live right he must be in complete harmony with all this mass of accumulated tradition, speculation, allegory, and fantastic comment. And as every Rabbi had the right and, indeed, the duty to add to it, it is easy to see how the burden would grow. Rabbis were said to make the law heavy, to burden people, and many of them regarded this as their chief duty.1 [Note: N. H. Marshall.]

(4) But primarily Christ addressed Himself to the sin problem. Indisputably sin is the cause of all unrest, the poison which has fevered every life. Sin is the root of all the weakness and weariness which rob life of its true quality. Sin it is that blurs the vision of God, and blinds men to His unfailing nearness and help, as also to the true issues of life, for the realizing of which they do so much need Him. And when Christ offers rest to the weary and heavy laden, He is proposing to deal with the sin which has created their need.

Sin is the greatest disturbance of mens souls, far deeper than any agitation or perturbation that may arise from external circumstances. It is our unlawful desires that shake us; it is our unlawful acts that disturb us, rousing conscience, which may speak accusingly or be ominously silent, and, in either case, will disturb our true repose. As our great dramatist has it, Macbeth has murdered sleep. There is no rest for the man whose conscience is stinging him, as, more or less, all consciences do that are not reconciled and quieted by Christs great sacrifice. Such an one is like the troubled sea that cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt; whilst they who come to Jesus are like some little tarn amongst the hills, surrounded by sheltering heights, that heareth not the loud winds when they call, and has no more movement than is enough to prevent stagnation, while its little ripples kiss the pure silver sand on the beach; and in their very motion there is rest.1 [Note: A. Maclaren, A Rosary of Christian Graces, 152.]

Browning has suggested that, among those who heard the Lord Jesus invite the weary and heavy laden to come to Him, was one of the two robbers who were eventually crucified at His side. The poem describes the emotions which passed through the mans soul, and he is made to say:

The words have power to haunt me. Long ago

I heard them from a StrangerOne who turned,

And looked upon me as I went, and seemed

To know my face, although I knew Him not.

The face was weary; yet He spoke

Of giving restHe needed rest, I think

Yet patiently He stood and spoke to those

Who gathered round Him, and He turned

And looked on me. He could not know

How sinful was my life, a robbers life,

Amid the caves and rocks. And yet He looked

As though He knew it all, and, knowing,

Longed to save me from it.

It may have been so, or it may not. Brownings fancy may have a basis in fact; we cannot tell. But this at least we knowthat he who suffered by the side of Jesus is one of those who have proved the truth of His saying, and have found Him able to make good His word.2 [Note: H. T. Knight.]

II

The Gift

I will give you rest.

1. Rest, then, is a gift; it is not earned. It is not the emolument of toil; it is the dowry of grace. It is not the prize of endeavour, its birth precedes endeavour, and is indeed the spring and secret of it. It is not the perquisite of culture, for between it and culture there is no necessary and inevitable communion. It broods in strange and illiterate places, untouched by scholastic and academic refinement, but it abides also in cultured souls which have been chastened by the manifold ministry of the schools. It is not a work, but a fruit; not the product of organization, but the sure and silent issue of a relationship. Come unto me, and I will give you rest.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Who but would test this gracious promise? Who is altogether free from the heavy load of pain, either bodily, mental, or spiritual? Yet how many spend half their lives in vainly seeking rest! If ever there was a question which it concerns us all to answer it is this, Where is rest to be found? The larger part of mankind seek it in wealth, in honours, in worldly ease; but they do not find it. Covetousness, greed, envy, fraud, conspire to spoil all thought of rest in the good things of this world. Others seek rest in themselves, but what can be expected from our weak, changeable natures? Society, literature, science may occupy, but they cannot satisfy or rest, the heart. There is no rest for the heart of man save in God, who made him for Himself. But how shall we rest in God? By giving ourselves wholly to Him. If you give yourselves by halves, you cannot find full restthere will ever be a lurking disquiet in that half which is withheld; and for this reason it is that so few Christians attain to a full, steadfast, unchanging peacethey do not seek rest in God only, or give themselves up to Him without reserve. True rest is as unchanging as God Himselflike Him it rises above all earthly things: it is secret, abundant, without a regret or a wish. It stills all passion, restrains the imagination, steadies the mind, controls all wavering: it endures alike in the time of tribulation and the time of wealth; in temptation and trial, as when the world shines brightly on us. Christ tells you of His peace which the world can neither give nor take away, because it is Gods gift only. Such peace may undergo many an assault, but it will be confirmed thereby, and rise above all that would trouble it. He who has tasted it would not give it in exchange for all this life can give: and death is to him a passage from this rest to that of eternity.1 [Note: Jean Nicolas Grou, The Hidden Life of God.]

2. Many of the great gifts of life are not transmissible. Ask the artist for the power by which he gives us the inspired painting, ask the poet for the power by which he is able to sing and touch mens hearts into enthusiasm, and they cannot give it. There is always just the inexpressible something which they can never impart. It is the spirit of the thing, which is incommunicable, the Divine touch; the fairy has not given her kiss at birth. But here is Christ who can impart restfulness of soul, that which transforms the soul from being worldly and agitated to being a spirit possessed of calm. It seems to be a miracle that a subtle quality should be transmissible from the Lord to His disciples. Here He stands above all other instructors in being able to pass on that which otherwise is incommunicable, but which, in His hand, has been a real persistent heritage in the Church.

On the way to Chapra from Ratnapur Miss Dawe, of the Church of England Zenana Mission at Ratnapur, told me of a Hindu with whom Gods Spirit worked before he met any missionary and gave him a sense of sin, so that he became dissatisfied. He visited various places of pilgrimage seeking rest. One day he picked up a piece of paper on which were written the words: Come unto me, and I will give you rest. He did not know where they came from and went inquiring from one to another. At length a fakir who had heard something of Christianity told him they were to be found in the Christian books. Then he came to a C.M.S. Mission at Krishnagar, where he was instructed, and a Bible given him, and he was baptized. Then his great desire was for his wife. He wrote to her telling her he was a Christian, and asking her to come to him. She was a remarkable woman, and had taught herself to read through her little brother, who went to school. She consented to come to him, as she was his wife. There was great opposition from the family, but he carried her off. On his way he passed a tree where Miss Dawe was preaching, and took his wife to her. Miss D. was astonished that she knew how to read, and put a New Testament into her hand On opening it, her eye fell on: Let not your heart be troubledjust the word for her. Miss D. pitched her tent near her village and gave her a course of instruction every day for some weeks. At the end she wished to be baptized. This was many years ago. They are now in Calcutta, working in connexion with the London Missionary Society.1 [Note: Life Radiant: Memorials of the Rev. Francis Paynter, 144.]

3. The rest which Christ gives is based on a perfect reconcilement to God. He gives us an eternal settlement, adjusting us to a place which we feel to be thoroughly suitable, and satisfying all in us which we feel deserves to be satisfied. He gives us rest by making life intelligible and by making it worthy; by showing us how through all its humbling and sordid conditions we can live as Gods children; by delivering us from guilty fear of God and from sinful cravings; by setting us free from all foolish ambitions and by shaming us out of worldly greed and all the fret and fever that come of worldly greed; by filling our hearts with realities which still our excited pursuit of shadows, and by bringing into our spirit the abiding joy and strength of His love for us. We enter into the truest rest when we believe that He takes part with us and that we can depend upon Him.

What the man who is burdened with a bad conscience needs is the assurance that there is a love in God deeper and stronger than sin. Not a love which is indifferent to sin or makes light of it. Not a love to which the bad conscience, which is so tragically real to man, and so fatally powerful in his life, is a mere misapprehension to be ignored or brushed aside as insignificant. No, but a love to which sin, and its condemnation in conscience, and its deadly power, are all that they are to man, and more; a love which sees sin, which feels it, which is wounded by it, which condemns and repels it with an annihilating condemnation, yet holds fast to man through it all with Divine power to redeem, and to give final deliverance from it. This is what the man needs who is weighed down and broken and made impotent by a bad conscience, and this is what he finds when he comes to Jesus.

I hear the low voice call that bids me come,

Me, even me, with all my grief opprest,

With sins that burden my unquiet breast,

And in my heart the longing that is dumb,

Yet beats forever, like a muffled drum,

For all delights whereof I, dispossest,

Pine and repine, and find nor peace nor rest

This side the haven where He bids me come.

He bids me come and lay my sorrows down,

And have my sins washed white by His dear grace;

He smileswhat matter, then, though all men frown?

Naught can assail me, held in His embrace;

And if His welcome home the end may crown,

Shall I not hasten to that heavenly place?1 [Note: Louise Chandler Moulton, In the Garden of Dreams.]

4. The rest which Christ gives is not rest from toil, but rest in toil. That toil may be excessive, may be incompatible with health, may be very slightly remunerative, may be accompanied with conditions which are disagreeable, painful, depressing; but Christ does not emancipate the individual from this toil. He does indeed slowly influence society so that the slave awakes to his rights and the slave-owner acknowledges them; and so that all grievances which oppress the various sections of society are at length measured by Christs standard of righteousness and charity, and tardy but lasting justice is at length done. But until the whole of society is imbued with Christian principle thousands of individuals must suffer, and often suffer more intensely because they are Christians. Yet even to ordinary toil Christ brings what may well be called rest. The Christian slave has thoughts and hopes that brighten his existence; he leads two lives at oncethe overdriven, crushed, hopeless life of the slave, and the hopeful, free, eternal, Divine life of Christs free man. And, wherever in the most shameful parts of our social system the underpaid and overdriven workman or workwoman believes in Christ, there rest enters the spiritthe hunger, the cold, the tyrannous selfishness, the blank existence are outweighed by the consciousness of Christs sympathy, and by the sure hope that even through all present distress and misery that sympathy is guiding the soul to a lasting joy and a worthy life. And surely this is glory indeed, that from Christs words and life there should shine through all these centuries a brightness that penetrates the darkest shades of modern life and carries to broken hearts a reviving joy that nothing else can attempt to bring.

There is a sweet monastery in Florence, fragrant with sacred memories, rich with blessed history to the religious soul. Its very dust is dear, for there the saintly Bishop Antonio lived as Christ lived, and there the prophetic Savonarola wore out his noble heart, and there also lived the pious painter, Fra Bartolommeo. It stands the forlorn relic of a dream. And even yet it breathes of the true domestic peace, with secluded cloisters where the noise of the city is hushed; with its little cells, whose bare whitewashed walls are clad with the pure delicate frescoes of the angelic painterthe reflection of his own pure soul. In the centre is a little garden kissed by the sunshine; and up from it is seen the deep blue of the Italian sky, speaking of eternal peace. It is natural to think that one might cultivate the soul there; might there forget the world, its hate, ambitions, and fierce passions. It is a dream. Christs peace is not a hothouse plant blighted by the wind; it rears its head to meet the storm. Christs ideal is love in the world, though not of the world. It is rest for the toil; it is peace for the battle. You must have a cloister in your heart; you must not give your heart to a cloister. You can have ityou, in your narrow corner of life; you, amid your distractions and labours; you, with your fiery trials and temptations; you, with your sorrow and your tears. It cannot be got for gold; it cannot be lost through poverty. The world cannot give it; the world cannot take it away. It is not given by any manipulation of outward circumstances; it rules in the heart; it is an inward state. To be spiritually-minded is life and peace.1 [Note: Hugh Black.]

My real feelings about my work and duty have been so aroused by recent experiences that I do not estimate these external matters as I used to do. And it would be well indeed for my peace of mindI do not see any other real source of peaceif I could rise above them altogether, and do all I do simply from a sense of duty, from thoughtful and quiet religious impulses, making my work as thorough and as good as I can, and leaving all the rest to God. That is the only rest, if one could only attain to it; but with an excitable, sensitive nature like mine, so alive to the outside world, and with such an excessive craving for sympathy, it is very difficult to do this. If I could only learn quietness and patience, and not self-trust, which is simply self-delusion; but I trust in God. If God will, I will learn this.2 [Note: Memoir of Principal Tulloch, 202.]

The Great Invitation

Literature

Allon (H.), The Indwelling Christ, 43.

Beecher (H. W.), Henry Ward Beecher in England, 101.

Brandt (J. L.), Soul Saving, 251.

Burrell (D. J.), The Wondrous Cross, 18.

Burrows (W. O.), The Mystery of the Cross, 141.

Chapman (H. B.), Sermons in Symbols, 8.

Clark (H. W.), Laws of the Inner Kingdom, 98.

Curnock (N.), Comfortable Words, 56.

Denney (J.), The Way Everlasting, 308.

Dods (M.), Christ and Man, 38.

Holden (J. S.), The Pre-eminent Lord, 180.

Hopkins (E. H.), The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, 79.

Hutton (W. R.), Low Spirits, 147.

Kelman (J.), Redeeming Judgment, 19.

Maclaren (A.), A Rosary of Christian Graces, 145.

Morgan (G. C.), The Missionary Manifesto, 143.

Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 9.

Owen (J. W.), Some Australian Sermons, 93.

Pierson (A. T.), in Dr. Pierson and His Message, 233.

Rate (J.), Leaves from the Tree of Life, 119.

Russell (A.), The Light that Lighteth Every Man, 293.

Shepard (J. W.), Light and Life, 279.

Temple (W.), Repton School Sermons, 84.

Christian World Pulpit, xii. 142 (A. P. Peabody); xxiv. 30 (H. W. Beecher); xlii. 102 (G. MacDonald); lxiv. 289 (W. B. Carpenter); lxvii. 246 (C. S. Horne); lxviii. 183 (E. Rees).

Church of England Pulpit, lxi. 414 (H. E. Ryle).

Weekly Pulpit, i. 71 (C. H. Spurgeon).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

Come: Isa 45:22-25, Isa 53:2, Isa 53:3, Isa 55:1-3, Joh 6:37, Joh 7:37, Rev 22:17

all: Mat 23:4, Gen 3:17-19, Job 5:7, Job 14:1, Psa 32:4, Psa 38:4, Psa 90:7-10, Ecc 1:8, Ecc 1:14, Ecc 2:22, Ecc 2:23, Ecc 4:8, Isa 1:4, Isa 61:3, Isa 66:2, Mic 6:6-8, Act 15:10, Rom 7:22-25, Gal 5:1

and I: Mat 11:29, Psa 94:13, Psa 116:7, Isa 11:10, Isa 28:12, Isa 48:17, Isa 48:18, Jer 6:16, 2Th 1:7, Heb 4:1

Reciprocal: Gen 8:9 – found Exo 2:11 – burdens Exo 33:14 – rest Lev 23:32 – a sabbath Num 10:10 – in the day Num 10:33 – a resting place Num 35:6 – six cities for refuge Deu 21:3 – an Deu 33:23 – O 1Sa 22:2 – distress 2Ch 14:7 – and he hath given Job 6:3 – heavier Psa 25:13 – His soul Psa 55:22 – Cast Psa 95:11 – my rest Pro 3:17 – ways of Ecc 10:15 – labour Isa 42:3 – bruised Isa 45:24 – even Isa 50:4 – a word Isa 54:6 – a woman Isa 55:3 – come Jer 31:2 – when Jer 31:25 – General Jer 35:16 – General Zec 10:8 – hiss Mat 12:20 – bruised Luk 1:79 – to guide Luk 6:47 – cometh Luk 9:41 – Bring Luk 14:21 – the poor Joh 1:39 – Come Joh 6:35 – he that cometh Rom 15:7 – as 2Co 7:5 – our Gal 4:3 – in Phi 2:26 – full Col 2:17 – the body 2Ti 3:6 – laden Heb 4:3 – we Heb 4:11 – Let 1Pe 1:6 – ye are 1Pe 2:4 – To 1Jo 5:3 – and Rev 14:11 – no

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

CHRIST AND LABOUR

Come unto Me, all ye that labour.

Mat 11:28

We have witnessed the entry upon the stage of our political history of a new powerthe power of labour, united, organised, conscious of its strength. In spitenay, in viewof all possible anxieties, we dare to say to the new power, Welcome! and God be with you. God be with you: that is the root of the matter. If the new power will only say, If Thy Presence go not with us, carry us not up hence! The effect of the new force for good or evil depends in the last resort upon the moral and religious ideals by which it is inspired, upon the quality of personal character that lies behind it.

I. The leader needed.And thus it is that all our sympathy for this new, fresh, real spirited movement cannot blind our eyes to the great need in which it stands. What is that need? It is the need of a Moral Ruler, a Leader, a Spiritual King, filled with compassion for its wants, vindicating its best desires, uniting its truest ideals; and yet chastening its self-will, subduing its passions, uplifting its character. We know that there is such a leader watching and waiting for itJesus, the Redeemer, the Lord and Brother of men, unseen, but real and watching. This Leader can bring to the men who need Him the gifts which no other leader can command.

II. A spiritual ideal.He can bring a spiritual ideal and example, one which will call upon them indeed to come to the service of their fellows but remind them that they must first discipline themselves. It will teach them that, if the Kingdom of God is to come without, it must first be established and embraced within. It will teach them that to conquer the evils in the world they must also conquer the evils in their own souls. He will give them an example which will strengthen them by humility and rebuke their self-seeking.

III. Spiritual power.This Leader brings a power to enable men to rise to His own example. It is not so much fine moral sentiments that the people need. There are plenty of them in the air. It is the power, the resolute strength to enable them to keep true to their better selves and to resist the personal temptations with which they are encompassed. What they needwhat we all needis a personal influence dwelling with us in the very sanctuary of our own heart and keeping us loyal to our best selves. That personal influence is the grace of God, the indwelling Christ passing into the spirit of man through the Holy Spirit of God.

IV. A steadfast faith.This Leader can give what no other leader can givethe rest, the tranquillity of a steadfast faith to believe that on the side of the bettering of the world stands, eternally, God; to know that however ones efforts may be thwarted and buffeted for the time, yet the cause is secure in the hands of the Divine Will. This is the only source of the patience which makes a man strong to wait as well as eager to fight, and gives him in the midst of his feverish activity a sense of inner sureness and calm. Come unto Me, all ye that labour, and I will give you rest.

Our English Church must seek to stand in the midst of all the hopes and fears, the toils and energies, of this English people as one, like its Master, that is content to serve.

Bishop C. G. Lang.

Illustration

A Socialist candidate at the General Election of 1906 thus described the reason why he felt driven, by his own need, to come to Christto return to Christianity:I know that I am like other men, weak and frail; that I commit sin and often do things that I should not do; but I also know that whatever strength to fight sin, whatever enthusiasm I have for working with and for others for their social salvation, comes from the fact that I believe that Christ first loved and cared for me, and from my absolute faith that beyond me, yet all round about me is the power of God. After active work in the labour movement for thirty-five years I am convinced that there is only one solid foundation on which that movement can rest, and that is the foundation fact which Jesus Christ laid down, that he who would gain his life must lose it.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1:28

The willingness of Jesus to share the forementioned blessing with others is indicated by the rest of this chapter. This whole passage is often called Christ’s world-wide in-vitation. To labor means to be distressed with the hardships of life, especially those brought about by sin. The kind of rest to be given will be shown next.

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

Mat 11:28. Come unto me. Christ now shows first of all His willingness (comp. Mat 11:27) in this invitation.

All ye that labour, etc., all the laboring and the burdened. A figurative description of men seeking to become holy by external acts of righteousness. The immediate reference is to the Jews struggling to obtain deliverance through the law, and oppressed by the yoke placed upon them by the Pharisaical interpretation of it. It is applicable to all men as subject to misery, actively and passively; but most directly to those conscious of sin, striving to make themselves better, or sinking under a sense of their guilt

And I will give you rest. I is emphatic; other teachers lay burdens on you, I am able, as well as willing, to end your useless labor and remove the crushing burden.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here we have a sweet invitation, backed with a gracious encouragement: Christ invites such as are weary of the burden of sin, of the slavery of Satan, of the yoke of the ceremonial law, to come unto him for rest and ease; and as an encouragement assures them, that upon their coming to him they shall find rest.

Learn, 1. That sin is the soul’s laborious burden; Come unto me, all ye that labour. Labouring supposes a burden to be laboured under; this burden is sin’s guilt.

2. That such as come to Christ for rest must be ladden sinners.

3. That ladden sinners not only may but ought to come to Christ for rest; they may come, because invited; they ought to come, because commanded.

4. That the laden sinner, upon his coming, shall find rest. Come, &c.

Note here, That to come unto Christ in the phrase of the New Testament is to believe in him, and to become one of his disciples. He that cometh unto me shall not hunger, he that believteh on me shall not thirst. Joh 6:35.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 11:28. Come unto me Our Lord here shows to whom he is pleased to reveal the Father, and the things said above to be hid from the wise and prudent; to those that labour, or, are weary, as may be rendered, and are heavy laden; namely, those that are weary of the slavery of sin and Satan, and of the love of the world and the pursuit of its vanities, and desire and labour after a state of reconciliation and peace with God, and rest in him; and who, till they enjoy these blessings, are heavy laden with a sense of the guilt and power of their sins, and of the displeasure of God due to them on account thereof. To these, and also to such as are burdened with the distresses of life and various trials, Jesus graciously says, Come unto me The original word, , come, expresses not so much a command, as a friendly request; a familiar exhorting, desiring, and begging a person to do any thing, particularly what is pleasant, and would be profitable to him if done. To come to Christ, is to apply to him in faith and prayer for such blessings as we see we want. And I I alone, (for no one else can,) will give you freely, (what you cannot purchase,) rest, namely, from the guilt of sin by justification, and from the power of sin by sanctification; rest, from a sense of the wrath of God and an accusing conscience, in peace with God and peace of mind; rest, from all carnal affections, and fruitless worldly cares, disquietudes, and labours, in the love of God shed abroad in your hearts; and rest in the midst of the afflictions, trials, and troubles of life, in a full assurance that all things shall work for your good, and that, though in the world you may have tribulation, in me you shall have peace. Some commentators, by the rest offered in this invitation, understand that freedom from the burdensome services of the law which Christ has granted to men through the promulgation of the gospel. And it must be owned that this interpretation is favoured by the subsequent clause, in which men are invited to take on them Christs yoke and burden, from the consideration that they are light and easy, namely, in comparison of Mosess yoke. There is no reason, however, for confining the rest of the soul here offered to that particular privilege of Christianity. It is more natural to think that it comprehends therewith all the blessings of the gospel whatsoever. Christianity, when embraced in faith and love, and possessed in the life and power of it, gives rest to the soul, because, 1st, it clearly informs the judgment concerning the most important points, removing all doubts concerning them; 2d, it settles the will in the choice of what is for its happiness; 3d, it controls and regulates the passions, and keeps them under subjection to the peace and love of God. Php 4:7; Col 3:14-15. See Dodds sermon on this text.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

THE DOUBLE REST

Mat 11:28. Come unto Me, all ye who are laboring and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. These laboring people are all convicted sinners, toiling to save their own souls, and at the same time heavy laden with guilt, realizing mountains on them, crushing them down to perdition. Millions are thus toiling beneath their intolerable burdens, but all in vain, as it is utterly impossible for them, with all the good works which they can do and the preachers can do for them, to ever get rid of their crushing load of guilt and sin, which will get heavier through time and eternity, not only dragging its victim down to hell, but sinking him to a deeper depth of damnation through the flight of eternal ages. Then, what shall the burdened soul do? Jesus here tells you, Come unto Me; not to the Church, to the preacher, to water baptism, to sacraments or duties, but unto Me, and I will give you rest. This is rest from that burden of sin, which Jesus takes from your soul, granting you a free pardon. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me, because I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. So here you see plainly that our Savior invites the same people who have come to Him and been relieved of their burden of guilt, to come again and find soul-rest; i.e., the sweet repose of the soul itself in Jesus. He has taken your burden, and now it is of the greatest importance that you get Him to take you.

This world is not our Paradise; it is full of foes and perils. We find our heaven here in Jesus, when we lie down in His arms, like a tired child, and sink away into perfect rest. Entire consecration puts us in the position of learners in the school of Christ. He is our Infallible Exemplar. When we learn to be meek and lowly like Him, then we find this wonderful soul rest for which the weary pilgrim sighs. Here He assures us that His yoke is easy and His burden light How blessed it is to take the yoke, because He is omnipotent! And when you put your neck under one end of the yoke, Jesus has His under the other. What is the result? He carries all the load, the yoke and you too, and you go shouting on your way, enjoying perfect soulrest, and flying up to heaven.

Fuente: William Godbey’s Commentary on the New Testament

This invitation recalls Jer 31:25 where Yahweh offered His people rest in the New Covenant. The weary are those who have struggled long and toiled hard. The heavy-laden are those who stagger under excessive burdens.

"The one [term] implies toil, the other endurance. The one refers to the weary search for truth and for relief from a troubled conscience; the other refers to the heavy load of observances that give no relief, and perhaps also the sorrow of life, which, apart from the consolations of a true faith, are so crushing." [Note: Ibid., p. 170.]

Jesus, the revealer of God, invites those who feel their need for help they cannot obtain themselves to come to Him (cf. Mat 5:3; Rev 22:17). Israel’s spiritual leaders had loaded the people with burdens that were heavy to bear. The rest in view involves kingdom rest (cf. Hebrews 4), but it is a present reality too.

Throughout Israel’s history God held out the promise of rest if His people would trust and obey Him. The Promised Land was to be the scene of this rest. However, when Israel entered Canaan under Joshua’s leadership, she enjoyed rest there only partially due to limited trust and obedience. As her history progressed, she lost much rest through disobedience. Now Jesus as her Messiah promised that the rest she had longed for for centuries could be hers if she humbly came to Him. He provided this rest for anyone in Israel who came to Him in humble trust. [Note: Feinberg, p. 66.] He will provide this rest for Israel in the future in the Promised Land. This will take place when He returns to earth to establish His kingdom.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)