TR Hartley

At the end of Matthew 11, we find these familiar verses:

Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ 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 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Those words, spoken by Jesus, are a source of great comfort to believers. But just a few chapters later, Jesus speaks words that are more concerning or challenging. Let’s look at Matthew 16.

Matthew 16:24-27: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow Me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for Me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? ²⁷ For the Son of Man is going to come in His Father’s glory with His angels, and then He will reward each person according to what they have done.”

So, let’s ask the obvious question: Is Christianity supposed to be easy, even restful? Or is Christianity supposed to be hard, a daily ‘death to self’ that demands much of us?

For Whom Do You Live?

I think the correct way to understand these two passages isn’t to assume a contradiction, but rather a concurrence. I think these two passages are actually getting at a similar thought.

If your primary concern is to be right with God, to live with Him in right relationship and fellowship, there is great news: What God is asking from you isn’t hard! You don’t have to prove yourself to Him, you don’t have to (can’t) earn your place. All that is required is that you give yourself to Him, in surrender and allegiance. That’s an easy yoke and light burden (Matthew 11).

But, if your primary desire is to live for yourself, and you also want to be right with God, there’s difficulty ahead of you. You actually need to decide: for whom will you live? You actually cannot live for yourself, dedicated to your own desires and your own glory, and be right with God. People in this camp need to daily take up their cross and follow Jesus (Matthew 16).

Let’s go back to Matthew 16 and look at the prior verses to our passage (my emphasis added).

Matthew 16:21-23: “From that time on Jesus began to explain to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that He must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.

²² Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to You!”

²³ Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; you do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.‘”

Peter wanted a life of privilege and glory as one of the Messiah’s chosen disciples. He didn’t yet have an understanding that being at Christ’s side would bring hardship and persecution. He couldn’t allow a crucified Messiah; that’d mean he was on the losing team!

Jesus rebuked him for that. Jesus wanted Peter to understand: Being a follower of Jesus is easy, it’s simple, but it’s also costly; it costs a daily decision to follow Him and His wishes, rather than living for yourself. Followers of Jesus are to “have in mind the concerns of God”, not “merely human concerns.”

That’s… encouraging and discouraging at the same time?

Wanting to Want Him

If we are honest with ourselves and God (and I would encourage you to be honest with yourself and God), for most of us there are seasons of life where we deeply want God, more so than anything else. In those seasons, great! Just give yourself to Him.

But for most of us, there are also seasons where we are distracted, self-absorbed, caught up in our plans, dreams, ambitions (the “merely human concerns” of Matthew 16:23). What about those seasons?

How ought we to handle it, when, more than wanting to be surrendered with God, we only want to want to be surrendered to God? Or put another way, what about people who want to deeply and fully love God, but that isn’t honestly where they’re at? People who want to surrender to God, but are unsure of how to do that practically.

To such struggling Christians (and to myself, because that’s often me too!), I would say something simple, in a few different ways.

• Let us fix “our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:2)
• “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6)
• “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” (1 John 1:9)
• “Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)
• “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of Earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.” (Hymn)

All of that is to say: If you are aware that you only have a half-hearted “yes” to God, that you are only willing to surrender some and not all of yourself to Him, bring that to God in prayer.

There’s a trap that is easy to fall in to: As we gain awareness of our own sinfulness, we feel that very human urge to clean ourselves up, so that we can get back to being in right relationship with God.

And that would be a great idea, if it were possible. But we cannot, ever, do enough to merit God’s favor, love, and acceptance. He is perfect, and our best still falls short of that.

The only solution to this trap is the Gospel: That we can’t ever do enough to clean ourselves up; He has to be the One to clean us. He has to be the One to help us die to ourselves.

And so, we give of ourselves as fully as we can to Him, and ask Him to soften our hearts, ask Him to help us surrender more.

His reply? “Of course I will.” After all, His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.

And so we grow in awareness of His goodness, His grace, and His mercy as we continue through a lifetime of learning to surrender more and more of ourselves to Him.

So, if you’re know as you read this that there are parts of your heart and life that you haven’t fully surrendered to God: Bring that half-heartedness to Him, and ask for Him to change you.

Reflection

Where, within your heart, is life in Christ an “easy yoke”? Thank God for that!

And where, within your heart, is a need to more fully “take up your cross and follow” Jesus? Bring those things to Him. He really, truly cares for you!