The Kindness of Christ
Kody Alvarez
You can find so much enjoyment in this life if you embrace the rest that God has to offer in the person of Jesus Christ. In the kindness of Christ, the soul can find rest and enjoy what God has set before us. We’re no longer burdened by the fear of our eternal destiny. We’re no longer burdened by the weight of all the struggles in this world. We’re free from anxious worry. When you embrace that freedom and when you embrace Christ in his kindness, you too can have rest.
Matthew 11:28-30
28 “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.”
In the kindness of Christ, He invites us to come.
Jesus told them in this passage that the only way they have access to the Father is through the Son. God Himself is the one inviting you to come. Because He’s God He has the power to grant your soul rest. He’s inviting you to draw close to Him. If you draw close to God, He promises that He gives you rest.
Jesus invites the hurting to come. He doesn’t invite you to do more to find rest. This invitation is totally dependent on you coming to Him alone. In this passage, the language of burden is in reference to the law. The law was celebrated for being burdensome and difficult to achieve.
However, the burden of the religious is the need for rest. We know that no one can stand under the weight of the law. We were given the law so that it would show us our flaws and point us to our need for Jesus. All religious leaders make similar claims to find rest, but they all require a flurry of good deeds where you can hopefully achieve this rest.
Sometimes we don’t even realize how much the bad things we do or we see, weigh us down. How can we find rest? Christ offers peace. Christ grants rest to the weary and beatdown soul. It’s only for them who come by faith alone. Sometimes I feel as though I have to clean myself up to present myself to Jesus. That’s no different than the burden of the religious.
In that flurry of action, instead of spending time with Christ, we lose intimacy rather than spending time in the Word and in prayer. If you recognize some sin in your life, understand that you don’t have to clean yourself. Go to Jesus with a repentant heart. The call to come to Christ is two commands – to take up and learn. It’s a call to be a disciple.
Jesus gives us a reason and a promise. Our Master is gentle, and He gives us rest. The burden is kind. Jesus’ yoke isn’t lighter or kinder because it demands less of us – it’s kind because He bore the burden for us. The way of Jesus examines not only our outward actions but the motives and the intentions of the heart. The demand on our lives is greater, we have the call to take up the cross and die to ourselves daily. Yet, his yoke is kind because He took on the penalty for our mistakes. A disciple walks in the gentleness and humility of Jesus. True discipleship requires that we take up the yoke of Jesus.