Jesus, Our Peace

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

            The book of Matthew was written by the tax collector Matthew as mentioned in 9:9. Matthew is one of the 4 gospel books in the New Testament. It’s intended audience was Jewish. The opening of Matthew is Jesus’s genealogy that connects His ancestry with Israel’s. It is clear that Jesus was from King David’s line making Him royalty. But it is also important that Jesus’s lineage is traced all the way back to Abraham, which makes Him Jewish by birth as well (1). Matthew is a story from the beginning of Jesus’s life to His death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven.

            In Matthew 11, Jesus is teaching in towns of Galilee. He is with His disciples when John the Baptist’s disciples show up and ask Jesus if He is the expected Messiah (11:3). Jesus tells them to report back to John and tell him all they had seen and heard from Jesus (11:4-6). Then Jesus begins to teach the crowds (11:7-19). He names towns that have not repented and of the coming eternal death that will occur if they do not turn and repent (11:20-24). That is when Jesus begins to pray.

Read Matthew 11:25-30

            After Jesus’s short prayer, He says that all things are delivered to me, meaning that no one can know God without knowing Jesus, and Jesus must reveal Himself (2). Jesus did reveal Himself in person by taking on flesh and blood so that we could know Him, and therefore, know God. After saying this, He tells the crowd that He will reveal Himself one step further. He invites them to come to Him to receive rest for their souls, to lay down their heavy burdens, to take His yoke that is easy and take up His burden which is light to carry. The yoke here refers to a yolk that a young ox would wear that attached to an older ox around their neck, strapped closed. The younger ox would learn the job of the older ox, and would also not be able to go in any other direction than the older, stronger ox. Jesus depicts the crowd as the younger ox in this imagery as they learn to live like Christ.

            If we are to know Christ, we need to allow ourselves to be yoked to Christ so that we can learn His job. He makes it clear how we are to live by giving us His Word to read each day. He also gave us the Holy Spirit so that we can communicate with Him at any time. This gives our lives a sense of peace. We do not have to wander aimlessly trying to fill our desires with what the world can offer. But by taking on Christ’s yoke and burden, we have goal, organization and a purpose to our actions, which gives us peace – the opposite of chaos.

            What specific things can you do to take on Christ’s yoke? What burdens are you carrying that are not Christ’s? Take time to lay those down in prayer.

1.Schenck, Kenneth. Jesus Is Lord!: an Introduction to the New Testament. Triangle Publishing, 2009.

2.Water, M., Henry, M., Wesley, J., & Spurgeon, C. H. (2003). Parallel commentary on the New Testament: Charles Spurgeon, John Wesley, Matthew Henry. Chattanooga, TN: AMG Publishers.