Matthew 11:27-30 (NIV) All things have been committed to me by my father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (29) 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. (30) For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Why do we celebrate Christmas?
In v. 27 Jesus makes the claim that is at the center of our faith. Matthew 11:27 (NIV) All things have been committed to me by my father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
Why do we celebrate Christmas? Simple--because Jesus came to reveal God to us. Jesus told the disciples, John 14:6 (NIV) I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He then emphatically stated, John 14:9 (NIV) Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. Could it be any clearer—to know God, know Jesus.
If you want to see what God is like—if you want to see the mind, the heart, and the nature of God—look at Jesus! If you want to get through to God, come to Jesus. If you want to understand the very epicenter of God’s self-disclosure, you will find it only in Jesus.
What audacity! Yet this is what the Bible says, what God says about Jesus, and what Jesus claimed for Himself. This is what makes Christianity at once so widely attractive and so widely hated. There is no middle ground. The sheer exclusivity of the claim drives people in one direction or the other.
After making the astounding claim that He was the only revelation of God, Jesus then gives the most wonderful and warm invitation. Matthew 11:28 (NIV) Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
To a wedding and reception; to a party; to the theater; to someone’s house to just relax; to a housewarming; to a grandchild’s graduation; to church.
“Wait till your father gets home;” “Uncle Sam wants you;” “You are hereby summoned to appear before the district court;” and so on.
Jesus gave the happy kind of invitation. For the people of Jesus’ day religion was not happy. Their lives were filled with rules and regulations. For those who were trying to find God and who wanted to be right with God, the man-made requirements were more than they could bear.
There was a military punishment at Navy boot camp simply called buckets and sand. When a sailor was found guilty of misconduct, he had to report to the beach with his combat boots on.
With a small shovel he was required to fill two buckets with wet sand, pick them up, and then run 100 yards carrying the two buckets-full of wet sand. There he would dump the sand out, refill the buckets again with wet sand, and retrace the 100 yards. This is repeated over and over for the length of his punishment.
This was the kind of burden the people of Jesus’ day were under in their search for God. The Greeks were exhausted by their century’s long search for truth. And the religious leaders of the Jews had burdened the people with endless regulations which dictated every action of their lives.
The rabbinical teaching had become so massive and all-encompassing that they prescribed standards for virtually every human activity. It was impossible even to learn all the traditions and certainly impossible to keep them all.
It’s as if they were running back and forth through wet, clinging sand carrying the heavy burdens put on them by their rabbis. There was no joy in their religion.
As the early church grew and spread around the known world, many of its converts came from that kind of background. Some did not understand the grace of the gift given to them in Jesus Christ. It’s a gift! Repent and believe on Jesus Christ, and God gives you salvation forever.
Those who didn’t understand this tried to impose their rules and regulations upon people on how to become a Christian. Some coming out of Judaism were imposing faith plus circumcision on new believers.
It’s like someone today telling you that you must believe and be baptized before you can become a Christian. Or you must wear your hair a certain way; or wear a certain kind of clothes and so on.
Jesus came with a simple invitation, "Come to me." Do you wonder why He didn’t say, “Go to God?” Because the only way to God is through Jesus. and He says, “Come to me, no strings attached. Simple faith is the only requirement. God’s grace provides your salvation.” Jesus wants us to understand God’s grace—salvation is free for the accepting.
Our nation is not a whole lot different than the people of Jesus’ day. America is a very religious nation. 90% of us say we believe in and worship God in some way or another. Many are looking to religion for answers.
But being a religious nation is not cause for rejoicing. Paul said to the intellectuals of Athens, Greece, Acts 17:22 (NIV) Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. Then he said, “But what you really need is the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ” (Acts 17:31).
Religion does not make you right with God. Religion does not save you. No matter how religious you are, without Christ you will go into eternity. We celebrate Jesus because Jesus invites us to come to Him and He will give us rest.
Matthew 11:29a (NIV) Take my yoke upon you….
The yoke was a wooden collar that ran across the shoulders of a pair of oxen and enabled them jointly to pull enormous weights. It was how the animals were kept under control and guided in useful work.
A yoke was often used as a metaphor for submission. I.e., metaphorically the yoke was used to describe the law to which Jewish youth bound themselves to in the bar mitzvah ceremony.
Paul used the metaphor in Acts 15:10 (NIV) Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? He was talking about all the man-made regulations—oral traditions, etc. imposed on the people.
But Jesus said, “Take my yoke on you. It fits well. It will not rub your neck and shoulders. In Me you will find a deep peace and satisfaction that you can never find in the yoke of legalism and rules.”
We all wear a yoke of some kind. We are all bound to something. Too often we are bound to this world’s way of thinking, and to the world’s value system rather than the values of the Kingdom of God.
Many people have great misconceptions of Christianity. They say, “I’d become a Christian but I’m having too much fun.” The misconception is that Christianity is boring and dull. Christians can have fun, lots of it, and also enjoy peace and have joy in life.
For example, we often hear about the “good old days.” Were they so good? Why would we long for the good old days when we look at the unsmiling people in old photos? They look miserable. But that’s a misconception.
Those old photos give the misconception that the “good ‘ol days” were not. Because of the old cameras and shutter speeds, people had to maintain a pose for a long time. It was difficult to keep a smile pasted on your face. In the same way many have great misconceptions about the yoke of Jesus Christ.
Jesus’ yoke is gentle—but not in the sense that it is less demanding than Judaism. In some ways it is more demanding. But it is a yoke of love, not of duty. It is the response of the liberated, not the duty of obligation.
When you exchange the yoke of the world for the yoke of Christ, it fits just right. When you put yourself in submission to Jesus Christ rather than under the yoke of today’s culture, it brings the kind of peace you long for.
The yoke of Jesus fits. His blessings are not available from any other source. The commands of God in the Bible are not just “thou shalt nots.” Rather they are, “These are for your good and benefit, and in the long haul will bring you joy and peace like you never had before.”
Matthew 11:29b (NIV) …. and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Do you see the progression? First Jesus invites us to come to Him so that we can get to know God. Next He invites us to accept His grace (Take my yoke upon you…). Then when we have come and accepted His grace, He invites us to become like Him. Why? Because He reveals God to us. This is why we celebrate Christmas.
Do you want to know what God looks like? Children in a S.S. class were drawing pictures of their favorite Bible heroes. One little girl said she was drawing God. The teacher said that no one knew what He looked like. The little girl said, “They will when I get finished.”
Jack MacGorman, the great New Testament professor at Southwestern Seminary told about a little girl who had shown him a picture of Jesus. As she was walking away, she added, “Jesus is the best picture of God that’s ever been took.”
What a profound truth from the lips of a child. We don’t know what God looks like, or, for that matter, Jesus either. But the life of Jesus perfectly revealed the loving character of God. Jesus describes the character of God—He is gentle and humble in heart.
This is why Jesus said in John 10:30 (NIV), I and the Father are one. When you grasp this truth you will learn about God’s …
Matthew 11:30 (NIV) For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Why do we celebrate Christmas? Because when Christ came into our world He showed us the grace and provision of God. Do you sometimes struggle with doubts and fears, maybe even your faith? Jesus came to end your struggle by taking you in His loving arms. He came to lift your burdens off your aching back. He offers rest, not cessation from work, and peace and fulfillment and a sense of things being right. You have only to come and entrust yourself to Him, and you shall find that promised rest.
Trust is the key. It’s the knowledge that in our own strength we will continue to struggle to make ourselves better. Suppose I was buying a piece of property that already had a building on it. It had been empty for a long time—broken windows, trash all over.
The owner, anxious to sell, assured me he would fix up the place and clean out the trash. I would say, “Forget the repairs. When it’s mine I’m going to build something completely different. I don’t want that building, I just want the property.
This is what Jesus does when we give ourselves to Him. Compared with what He wants to do for us, our own puny efforts to improve our lives are as trivial as cleaning and repairing a house that is going to be torn down.
All Jesus wants is for us to accept His invitation, give Him ourselves and permission to build something new. Jesus came to reveal God to us. This is why we celebrate Christmas.