The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost | 05.07.2026 | Matthew 11:25–30 | Andrew F. Weisner |

Matthew 11:25–30
25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; ²⁶yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. ²⁷All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

 

Homily

Sometimes, when we pause and ponder it, we can become captured by instances of sadness in the world. I hope that most of us do not pause for too long to ponder it, because we can too easily get caught up or pulled down into the sadness. Sometimes, it’s almost unavoidable, such as when we hear of the death of a child due to a birth defect; or we hear of someone we know — or actually, anyone — being killed in a senseless, random shooting. We may drive by an automobile accident, and that turns our minds toward a memory of someone we knew and loved who was killed, or permanently badly injured, in a car wreck. When we hear and see scenes in a television news report of war, such as the recent bombings in the middle east, or the war occurring now and in recent years between Ukraine and Russia; and when we hear of children (even in the U.S.) going hungry for the summer because they receive during the school year two meals each weekday at their public school… but they are not in school during the summer. So how, where, do they get their meals? When we hear of a friend being diagnosed with cancer, and when her treatments begin, we realize that her body is being ravaged by harsh chemotherapy.

All of these circumstances can challenge us emotionally, psychologically and spiritually, and if we pause to ponder them for too long, they can threaten our sense of hope, and our view of God’s goodness in the world. Yet, nonetheless, today we hear these words of Jesus: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens… 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.”

“Come to me,” says Jesus, the Lord of comfort, the Lord of life. The reason we can go to him is because we already belong to him. He, the crucified and risen Lord of glory, has claimed us his own in our baptisms. We were united with him in baptism. A popular scripture verse, in addition to “Come to me,” is words from our Lord in St. John’s gospel: “You did not choose me, but I chose you; you can love, because I loved you first.”

Christ Jesus is our source, the foundation of our lives. As one who is “of one being with God the Father,” he is the author of life. Our relationship with Jesus is not an “add on;” it is not something that we choose to add to our lives – like whether we choose to add tomatoes on our sandwich, or when we choose to add the evening news to our daily routine. The fact that we have a sandwich at all is due to Christ; the time we have – that the world  has – each day is a gift of Christ. When he invites us, “Come to me;” we hear, and heed, in order to be reminded and reassured: he is the source; he is the world’s foundation; he is the Lord of life, death, new life, and hope; with him, we find rest – in times of weariness, in times of fear, in times of sickness, in times of bewilderment and confusion. “‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, 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….” The image here,  as some of you who grew up in rural, farming  towns recognize, is, e.g., like a team of oxen, or a team of mules, or work-horses, that are “yoked” together: two or more together, side-by-side, related, connected by a yoke around their necks, together pulling the same cart, the same wagon, the same load. When we are yoked to, connected to Jesus, there is help and strength: the strong arms, the strong back of a carpenter, the strong inner strength of the Son of God, the One to whom we are “yoked,” joined, helping us to pull, to carry our burdens – or rather, more likely, heis pulling them for us!

“… Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”  And what do we learn from him? We learn an example of patience, and we learn from him trust in God our Father. For Jesus trusted; Jesus trusted all the way to – and through! – the arrest, the trial, the scourging, the long walk up Calvary Hill, all the way to the cross. He trusted that God his Father would not let him down, would not fail him, but would respond to it all with Life and Love and victory. To follow behind – or better yet, to walk beside, yoked to – Jesus, traveling along the inevitable path of suffering, we trust, knowing that God the Father is with us, even guiding, toward the fulfillment of our hopes, guiding all the way to the Light and Life on the other side of the cross. This is what we learn. And then, through it all, although the way, the suffering, may be severe, we can have “rest for our souls.”

“…For I am gentle and humble in heart…” There, there is where we have Christ’s promise of our salvation and new life, for he is gentle, and humble; not quick to anger or swift to punish, but gentle, and humble: sharing our humanity, “yoked” to us, he knows us very well; and yet, nonetheless, he loves us.
“…You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Sickness, sadness, loss, death of loved ones, job worries, financial worries, family worries: despite such worries, St. Paul wrote to the Philippians, chapter 4 verse 6, “Don’t worry about anything!” – How in the worldcould such be, not to worry about anything? That’s a challenge! Oh!, that’s a difficult one!, and I’ll be among the first to admit it! But St. Paul invites us, Jesus invites us, to give our burdens, give our worries, to Jesus. Be “yoked” along-side him, with prayer,  as a consciousness of his presence, and we will find that he is the one who carries the heaviest weight of the burden; and he can do so because he is Lord, he holds all authority and power in heaven and on earth; he has the power to – and did! – overcome the bonds of death.

“Come to me,” our Lord Jesus calls to us, “Come to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me…” Through Baptism we are yoked with Jesus; and thus yoked, joined to and with him. By our daily prayers we walk along with him. “Come to me,” he calls us; and we, here within this church, in the past have responded to him. “Come to me (he says): Take, eat, take, drink, my Body and my Blood, given and shed for you,” and then, not only does he walk beside us, but within us, working through us.

Not always can we respond to his call to receive him in the sacrament. So, until we can, we know that he walks together with us through suffering and trials; we are with him – and he’s with us – in daily prayer, in the reading of his word, speaking to us in prayer, and in the holy sacrament, on the way to new Life!

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.

Pastor Andrew F. Weisner, Ph.D.
pastorweisner@gmail.com
Pastor, New Covenant Lutheran Church
Morganton, North Carolina, USA
Faculty, North American Lutheran Seminary, USA