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This Week's Sermon The Eighth Sunday after Pentecost 06 July 2008 "Come to me for Rest" Matthew 11:25-30 LSB Series A Pastor Philip G. Meyer Soli Deo Gloria!

After having come through the 10 weeks of renovation with all the moving and cleaning and other things, there was the Rite of Confirmation two weeks ago. Last Sunday we finally arrived at our big day, the 150th Anniversary of Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church. I think it is safe to say that while we certainly enjoyed everything associated with our celebration, not a one of us would wish for all the extra activity to continue right now. There are certain burdens that I am happy to lay down. I'm ready for that relief that comes at the end of a big project like this, and God willing, that will happen later today.

Our lives are restless anyway. Many people have the feeling that they aren't getting out of life what they want to. Problems and burdens push people to different places and circumstances, always looking for something better. It seems to be part of the American psyche that all change is for the better, but that would be true only for the truly naïve. Pollsters are constantly asking people if they are optimistic about the future. This translates into fodder for politicians to make all kinds of promises that they cannot keep, but people believe them anyway. They think that someone in the government is going to make their lives better, without realizing that those "saviors" can't really fix what is wrong.

What's really wrong? Cutting through the jungle of psycho-sociological babble isn't easy, but Jesus tells us rather clearly in the Gospels that sin is the underlying cause of all restlessness and all burdens. Flowing out of sin is guilt. Guilt itself becomes a great burden because one knows, or at least has an uneasy feeling, that something is wrong. Our hearts are restless before God, just like a little child who has been summoned before a parent for some infraction. We would rather not face God whom we have offended with our sins. We hide, we get restless, we deny our guilt, but the burden doesn't get any lighter.

Right before our text Jesus had pronounced a heavy sentence against the unrepentant cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum for their unbelief. He had done many miracles in them but they refused to repent. Instead, he said, Tyre Sidon, and even the infamous Sodom would be better off on judgment day than those people. And then Jesus issued his invitation to come to him for rest.

Strangely, religion often increases the burden. It wasn't that the people in those places weren't religious, but that their religion was wrong. It is the common denominator of every wrong religion, and that common denominator is that man believes that he can somehow make himself acceptable to God through what he does, whether he has many gods or even the true God. If one believes himself capable relieving himself of his burden of sin and guilt, then he makes a fatal mistake. It is a particularly sweet lie with which Satan tempts everyone, Christians in particular.

Jesus took aim at the Pharisees in particular, who kept adding to the Law of Moses. If the burden of the Law given by God were not enough to drive man to despair, then the Pharisees' additions certainly would. They added some 613 more laws to God's Law! Jesus said of them,

"The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses' seat, so practice and observe whatever they tell you-but not what they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger." (Matthew 23:2-4, ESV)

No wonder so many run away from religion as fast as they can! Sin itself is the burden man simply cannot bear! Tell him that by loading on more and more laws, regulations, and observances he can save himself, may get you some enthusiastic followers, but at some point they will come to realize that it is like Sisyphus. The Greek gods had condemned Sisyphus to ceaselessly rolling a rock to the top of a mountain, whence the stone would fall back of its own weight. They had thought with some reason that there is no more dreadful punishment than futile and hopeless labor.

Maybe you feel as though you are carrying the weight of the world on your shoulders, but that wouldn't be true, even if it feels that way to you. Whatever burdens you carry are heavy. Some of them may be of your own making, that is, you have nobody to blame but yourself for them, yet there is that one burden that lies heavy on all human beings, sin.

A person who tries to carry this burden is a lot like Sisyphus, the character of Greek fable who was eternally destined to roll a hug rock to the top of the hill. Every time he got to the top, however, the rock rolled back down to the bottom. He never really makes any progress, no matter how hard he labors. Did you hear how Paul described it in today's Epistle?

"Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out." (Romans 7:16-18, ESV)

. . . Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, "You know nothing at all. Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish." He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. (John 11:49-52, ESV)

For Christ says in Matthew 11[:28*], "Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." There are two parts here: being weary and carrying heavy burdens refer to contrition, anxieties, and the terrors of sin and death; to come to Christ is to believe that on account of Christ sins are forgiven. When we believe, our hearts are made alive by the Holy Spirit through the Word of Christ. Therefore, these are the two chief parts: contrition and faith. In the first chapter of Mark [v. 15*] Christ says, "Repent and believe the gospel." Where in the first part he denounces sin, in the second part he consoles us and shows us the forgiveness of sins. For "to believe in the gospel" is not that general faith, which the demons also possess, but it is properly speaking to believe the forgiveness of sins given on account of Christ. For this is revealed in the gospel. Here you also see that these two parts are joined: contrition, when sins are condemned, and faith, when it is said, "believe the gospel."¹

When Jesus says, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden," he is inviting you to come to the Divine Service because this is when he is present in his flesh to forgive your sins. Here he grants you his rest and all the full joys of your salvation [Collect of the Day]. Here is the "strength and support amid the wearisome changes of this world, and at life's end" [ibid]. Hear Jesus' invitation anew today! "Come to Me for Rest!"

¹Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord : The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, 193 (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2000).