COME FORTH

Jesus speaks into the weariness of our lives in His famous words of 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.”

Ours is a weary world, isn’t it?  Weary for a thousand reasons, all of them rooted in the fact that we live in a fallen, broken, longing world.  The stress, the strain, the everyday-ness of things, not to mention the weight of managing our own lives, crash into our world so consistently that peace and calm seem light years away from any hope of personal reality.   Yet, Jesus speaks.  Everyday, day in and day out, moment-by-moment, He stands before us and speaks into our longing, always calling us into His life.  He bids us come and find the rest we so much seek. 

I sometimes wonder if He is not standing before our lives almost as if the way He stood before the grave of His friend, Lazarus.  Deceased and hidden away in a grave, the story of Lazarus was over.  Or was it.  Jesus stands before the place of death, cuffs His hands to His mouth and speaks a ludicrous word to a dead man, “Come forth” (See John 11). 

What’s that about?  Dead men don’t hear words or follow commands.  Yet, surprise, surprise, Lazarus comes forth from the grave, still wrapped in the grave clothes.  Suddenly we are faced with a new reality.  Maybe death isn’t necessarily the final word about our lives, after all.  Maybe Jesus stands before our lives and says to us, “Come forth.” Maybe He weeps over us and calls us to life.  Maybe there is a whole of lot of living for us to do before they wrap us in grave clothes and hide us away in a grave.    

Maybe Jesus was totally serious when He cuffed His hands to His mouth and called out, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  Maybe He is calling out to us, “No longer be yoked to the things that weary you and burden you down.  Take my yoke to yourself, the yoke of mercy and grace and divine love, and let them be the driving force in your life.”  Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if we could find rest for our souls?  Could God possibly be that good to us? 

In his book The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard translated the famous John 3:16 this way: "God's care for humanity was so great that he sent his unique son among us, so that those who count on him might not lead a futile and failing existence, but have the undying life of God Himself."

Who are we counting on in this thing called life?  That’s our question.   Is a futile and failing existence to be our lot in life?  I think not. The God whose care for humanity was so great that He sent His unique Son to give us “the undying life of God Himself” is calling us to “Come forth! Take the yoke of My mercy and grace and love.  Come forth and live.”