Idle: The Greatest Gift You May Have Never Received (Matt. 11:28-30) Chris Altrock – February 21, 2016

When Normal is Abnormal

I played football in high school–running back. I know, based on my impressive size, that’s probably not surprising. My twin brother, whose body is a mirror of mine, was a lineman. Needless to say, we two puny players didn’t strike a lot of fear in the hearts of our opponents.

One of my strongest memories of football is how hard practices were. Our coaches believed in running hard. If one player did anything wrong in practice, the entire team was called to the goal line and we had to run sprints. If, while running sprints, the coaches deemed that a player was not running all out, the entire team had to run more sprints.

And to make matters worse, while our coaches did believe in running they didn’t believe in rehydration. No drinking of water was allowed at practices. If you had to drink water something was wrong with you.

As you can imagine, there were consequences to that belief. Players sometimes became ill at practice. I remember nearly blacking out and fainting.

But at the time we didn’t know any better. To us, no drinking was normal. That was what all football teams did, wasn’t it?

Of course, now I know better. I understand how important hydration is. I know that football players can die of heatstroke and dehydration.

I wish I could go back in time to that football field and grab myself by the shoulders and say, “This is not normal. Running your guts out and never rehydrating is abnormal. And it could kill you.”

Sometimes what we think is normal is abnormal – and that abnormal could kill us.

Jesus touches on this in a well-known text in Matthew’s Gospel:

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30 ESV)

 

Two Words for Normal: Worn Out & Weighed Down

Let’s look at the two words or phrases Jesus uses to describe people. These two words describe what’s normal for most of us: “labor” and “heavy laden.”

            First, Jesus describes our normal with the phrase “all who labor.” That phrase is a translation of one Greek word: kopiao. That word means “weariness as though one had been beaten” (similar to the way we sometimes say, “Man, I’m beat!”).^[1] We could summarize it as “worn out.” Paul uses this same word to describe famers:

It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. (2 Ti 2:6 ESV)

“Hard-working” is the word Jesus uses here. You know that farmers are hard-working, don’t you? They labor. They are often worn out.

And often that word describes our normal. Our normal is worn out. Some of you walked into this space this morning worn out. Beat. Exhausted.

Second, Jesus describes our normal with the word “heavy laden.” That phrase is the translation of the Greek word phortizo. Jesus will use this word again when he says, “my burden is light.” We could summarize it as “weighed down.” A form of that word is used in Acts:

“Sirs, I perceive that the voyage will be with injury and much loss, not only of the cargo and the ship, but also of our lives.” (Acts 27:10 ESV)

The word for “cargo” is a form of this word “heavy laden.” Jesus is referring to the experience of being weighed down. Overloaded.

And often that word describes our normal. Our normal is weighed down. Overloaded. Some of you walked into this space this morning weighed down. Carrying a lot of cargo. A lot of baggage.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden. For many of us, these two words describe the norm.

 

Our Normal: Run Down

And we could summarize both words with the phrase “run down.” Run down is normal for many of us who follow Jesus.

A doctor recently wrote an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe. It made this claim:^[2]

In the past few years, I’ve observed an epidemic of sorts: patient after patient suffering from the same condition. The symptoms of this condition include fatigue, irritability, insomnia, anxiety, headaches, heartburn, bowel disturbances, back pain, and weight gain. There are no blood tests or X-rays diagnostic of this condition, and yet it’s easy to recognize. The condition is excessive busyness.

For many of us run down is the norm. We are worn out and weighed down. We are run down. And that normal is killing us.

What’s crazy is that sometimes religion is the source of some of this fatigue. Jesus makes this blazing critique of religion:

1 Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, 3 so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. 4 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 23:1-4 ESV)

Sometimes religion, Toxic Faith Stephen Aterburn calls it, wears us out and weighs us down. Religion is what leaves us run down.

So many of us are weighed down and worn out. We are run down. And run down is normal for many who follow Jesus. And that normal is killing us.

 

A New Normal: Rested

But here’s the good news: what many of us have accepted as normal is abnormal. And there’s a different normal possible. According to Jesus, rested, not run down, is normal for all who follow Jesus. Listen again to Jesus’ words:

28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:28-30 ESV)

Jesus came to give us rest. The word “rest” means “to cease” or “to interrupt.^[3] We could use the word “pause.”

Jesus uses this same word elsewhere. He’s just sent the twelve apostles out on a mission of casting out demons and healing the sick. They then return and Jesus says this:

“Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” (Mk. 6:31 ESV)

Jesus wants to give the disciples a pause. He’s not interested in disciples who heal and help to the point of exhaustion. He does want us to engage in those things. But he also wants us to rest.

Rest is to be normative in your life as a follower of Jesus–because it was normative in Jesus’  life. Notice this pattern revealed in Luke’s gospel:

15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. (Luke 5:15-16 ESV)

Jesus regularly pressed “pause” on all the good things he was doing so that he could rest. He interrupted ministry so he could rest. Rest was normal in Jesus’ life

And he’s come to make it normal in our lives as well. I see Jesus grabbing us by the shoulders and telling us, “What you’re doing with your fast-paced life is not normal. Rushing to a million different things isn’t normal. It’s like running and never rehydrating.  Staying up late and getting up early isn’t normal. Being run down isn’t normal. There may be seasons for that. But what’s normal is rest.”

And not just rest that refreshes your body. But rest that refreshes your soul: Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Not all rest refreshes your soul. If you spend a vacation at Disneyland, you will come back and your soul will not be refreshed. You might even spend a vacation at the beach and your soul may not be refreshed. Jesus has come to make it possible for your to experience a rest at the soul-level.

 

A Rested Soul

Why?

Because when your soul is at rest, it doesn’t matter what’s going on externally. If your soul is at rest, you can endure any external situation with joy and peace. And that’s what we see in Matt. 11:

1. In vv. 1-6 Jesus encounters doubt. John the Baptist, one of his strongest supporters, is beginning to have doubts as to whether Jesus is the Messiah.
2. In vv. 7-19 Jesus encounters disappointment. Large crowds have been following Jesus. But now those large crowds voice their disappointment because Jesus isn’t meeting their expectations.
3. Then, in vv. 20-24, Jesus encounters defeat. Jesus makes a tour of three major cities. He does “mighty works” in these cities. But not a single person responds.

Ordinarily, many of us would wind up worn out, weighed down, and deeply discouraged if we faced doubt, disappointment and defeat. But not Jesus. In vv. 25-27 Jesus responds to all of this with delight:

25 At that time Jesus declared, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children…(Matt. 11:25 ESV)

Jesus responds to doubt, disappointment and defeat with delight. How can that be? This is what is possible when you have a soul at rest. When rest is normal in your life, especially the quality of rest that touches your soul, you are able to return to life, no matter the circumstance, and still have peace and joy intact.

 

Three Yokes

So, how does this happen? How do we get this rest? Jesus answers that question in this way:

Take my yoke upon you,..and you will find rest for your souls. (Matt. 11:29 ESV)

I’ll use three words to make sense of the phrase “take my yoke upon you.”

First, we can use the word “follow” to describe “yoke.” That word “yoke” was used in Jesus’ day to describe someone who follows a rabbi, someone who becomes a disciple of a rabbi. Jewish rabbis would invite potential disciples to put on the “yoke” of the torah, or their interpretation of the torah. To put on the yoke was to become a follower of that rabbi.^[4] Jesus is inviting you to follow him. When you truly follow him you find rest.

A second word we might use is the word “shadow.” About a year ago our daughter Jordan shadowed Brian Cain who works at Saint Jude. She wants to be a CRNA just like Brian. So, she went everywhere Brian did. Sat where Brian sat. Ate where Brian ate. Kept the same schedule as Brian. Experienced all the same things Brian did. That’s what it means to “take my yoke upon you.” Jesus is inviting us to shadow him. To live life in every aspect in just the way he did. Because when we do we find rest.

Third, and most importantly, we might use the word “leash.” Jesus is inviting us to leash ourselves to him, and to allow him to set the pace of each day. Let me flesh that out.

Rebecca Solnit is the author of a history of walking called Wanderlust. She writes about a particular kind of person in Paris, France called a “flaneur.”^[5] The verb form of that word meant “doddle.” Frustrated French parents might tell a child who was lazy or wouldn’t move, “Don’t doddle!” “Don’t be a flaneur!” It was never a positive thing.

But at one point it became a positive thing. In the 1800’s, it is reported that a small class of gentlemen arose in Paris. They were called “flaneurs.” And they were known for one thing: intentionally strolling casually through the city. Never in a hurry. Never on a schedule. While other Parisians raced around them, these men just walked in a relaxed manner, enjoying all the sights and sounds.

And it is reported that some of these flaneurs illustrated their commitment to restful walking by doing one thing: leashing themselves to a turtle. They would walk through the city so slowly they kept pace with their turtle.

Now, most of us could never do that. If we took a turtle for a walk, we’d take the turtle for a walk. We’d set the pace. We’d drag that slow turtle behind us saying, “Don’t doddle!” There is a humorous sketch of a precocious girl named Eloise. Eloise, in a famous set of children’s books, lived at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. She had a pet turtle. Sometimes she would take it for a walk. Only she would set the pace:

 

For many of us, that’s life. We may feel like the turtle and life is dragging us behind it, going too fast for us to keep up. For some of us, that is religion as well.  We may feel that Eloise is Jesus, and he’s dragging us behind him, telling us to do more and be more and to hurry up.

But in Paris, the flaneur with his turtle did not set the pace. He let the turtle set the pace:

 

This is what Jesus invites us to do in this text. He is the turtle. He sets the pace. The leash is the yoke. And if we’ll leash ourselves to Jesus and let him set the pace for our daily life, his slowness will become a source of great refreshment. If we’ll walk through every day letting Jesus set the pace, living at the speed of Jesus, we’ll discover rest. Rested is the result of being leashed to Jesus. Not just physical rest. But rest that reaches all the way down to our souls. And in so doing, while the the world rushes around us, we will finally be normal.