{"id":26443,"date":"2026-07-01T15:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=26443"},"modified":"2026-07-01T15:09:03","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T13:09:03","slug":"matthew-1125-30","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/matthew-1125-30\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew 11:25\u201330"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost | 05.07.2026 | Matthew 11:25\u201330 | Andrew F. Weisner |<\/h3>\n
\n

Matthew 11:25\u201330<\/strong>
\n25\u00a0At that time Jesus said, \u2018I 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; 26<\/sup>yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. 27<\/sup>All 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\u00a0\u2018Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29<\/sup>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<\/sup>For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Homily<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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: \u201cCome to me<\/em>, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens\u2026 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest<\/em> for your souls; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCome to me,\u201d says Jesus, the Lord of comfort, the Lord of life. The reason we can go to him is because we already belong<\/em> 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 \u201cCome to me,\u201d is words from our Lord in St. John\u2019s gospel: \u201cYou did not choose me, but I chose you; you can love, because I loved you first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Christ Jesus is our source, the foundation of our lives. As one who is \u201cof one being with God the Father,\u201d he<\/em> is the author of life. Our relationship with Jesus is not an \u201cadd on;\u201d it is not something that we<\/em> choose to add<\/em> to our lives \u2013 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<\/em> is due to Christ; the time<\/em> we have \u2013 that the world<\/em> \u00a0has \u2013 each day is a gift of Christ. When he invites us, \u201cCome to me;\u201d we hear, and heed, in order to be reminded and reassured: he is the source; he is the world\u2019s foundation; he is the Lord of life, death, new life, and hope; with him, we find rest \u2013 in times of weariness, in times of fear, in times of sickness, in times of bewilderment and confusion. \u201c\u2018Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.“<\/p>\n

\u201cTake my yoke upon you<\/em>, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls\u2026.\u201d The image here, \u00a0as some of you who grew up in rural, farming \u00a0towns recognize, is, e.g., like a team of oxen, or a team of mules, or work-horses, that are \u201cyoked\u201d together: two or more together, side-by-side, related, connected by a yoke around their necks, together<\/em> pulling the same cart, the same wagon, the same load. When we are yoked to, connected to Jesus<\/em>, 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 \u201cyoked,\u201d joined, helping us to pull, to carry our burdens \u2013 or rather, more likely, he<\/em>is pulling them for us<\/em>!<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 Learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.\u201d \u00a0And what do we learn from him? We learn an example of patience<\/em>, and we learn from him trust <\/em>in God our Father. For Jesus trusted; Jesus trusted all the way to \u2013 and through! \u2013 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<\/em> let him down, would not fail him, but would respond to it all with Life and Love and victory. To follow behind \u2013 or better yet, to walk beside<\/em>, yoked to \u2013 Jesus, traveling along the inevitable path of suffering, we trust, <\/em>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 \u201crest for our souls<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026For I am gentle and humble in heart\u2026\u201d There, there<\/em> is where we have Christ\u2019s promise<\/em> of our salvation and new life, for he is gentle, and humble; not<\/em> quick to anger or swift to punish, but gentle, and humble: sharing <\/em>our humanity, \u201cyoked\u201d to us, he knows us very well; and yet, nonetheless, he loves us.
\n\u201c\u2026You will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.\u201d 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, \u201cDon\u2019t worry about anything<\/em>!\u201d \u2013 How in the world<\/em>could such be, not to worry about anything<\/em>? That\u2019s a challenge! Oh!, that\u2019s a difficult one!, and I\u2019ll be among the first to admit it! But St. Paul invites us, Jesus <\/em>invites us, to give our burdens, give our worries, to Jesus. Be \u201cyoked\u201d along-side him, with prayer<\/em>, \u00a0as a consciousness of his presence, and we will find that he<\/em> 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 \u2013 and did! \u2013 overcome the bonds of death.<\/p>\n

\u201cCome to me<\/em>,\u201d our Lord Jesus calls to us, \u201cCome to me all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest<\/em>. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me\u2026\u201d Through Baptism we are yoked<\/em> with Jesus; and thus yoked, joined to and with him. By our daily prayers we walk along with him. \u201cCome to me<\/em>,\u201d he calls us; and we, here within this church, in the past have responded to him. \u201cCome to me<\/em> (he says): Take, eat, take, drink, my Body and my Blood, given and shed for you,\u201d and then, not only does he walk beside<\/em> us, but within<\/em> us, working through<\/em> us.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 and he’s with us \u2013 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<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.<\/p>\n

\n

Pastor Andrew F. Weisner, Ph.D.
\npastorweisner@gmail.com
\nPastor, New Covenant Lutheran Church
\nMorganton, North Carolina, USA
\nFaculty, North American Lutheran Seminary, USA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost | 05.07.2026 | Matthew 11:25\u201330 | Andrew F. Weisner | Matthew 11:25\u201330 25\u00a0At that time Jesus said, \u2018I 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26445,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,437,845,727,157,853,108,110,408,349,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-26443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-matthaeus","category-5-so-n-trinitatis","category-andrew-f-weisner","category-archiv","category-beitragende","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-11-chapter-11-matthaeus","category-kasus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26446,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26443\/revisions\/26446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26445"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26443"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=26443"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=26443"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=26443"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=26443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}