Come to Me

Advent Meditations

December 9, 2020

Come to Me

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

Matthew 11:28

Read Matthew 11:28-30

Many years ago, I discovered in Clearwater, Florida a place of prayer on the shores of Tampa Bay. Near one of the buildings there was a rose garden and in the center of the rose garden there was a ten-foot-high statue of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, with a lamb across his shoulders. That statue captivated me because of the way it expressed the gentleness and kindness of Jesus. When I was in Israel, I chose as a keepsake to bring home an olive wood carving of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. My sense of Jesus, the Good Shepherd, the seeker of lost sheep, is the reason I focus on the words weary, rest, gentle, humble, easy, and light in today’s passage. However, if I am not careful I will miss the point Jesus was making. That point is within a word used twice in the passage: yoke.

For Jesus, the yoke represents obedience to God. To take Jesus’ yoke is to be obedient to His commandments about the Kingdom of God. It means a willingness to serve others with humility and mercy. His yoke is easy and his burden is light, not because there is little to do for His followers; this is a yoke he is offering, not a hammock. Being yoked with Jesus means, in a world that can be very hostile to God’s Kingdom, we will affirm each day our desire to fulfill God’s will in our lives,

My Takeaway: Even though Jesus’ yoke calls me to a self-sacrificial life, it is appealing to me because his yoke is the only place my soul has found true comfort, rest and satisfaction. That’s because being yoked to Jesus is where I was created to be.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

 

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com.

 

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

 

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.