“The Saviour promises to give us rest, to find rest unto our heart and soul through love and healing.”
Laura Lane from ‘I Touch the Heavens’
I have been a Sunday school teacher for many years – more like a few decades now. Teaching both to adults and to the youth. Currently I am a youth teacher for a class of 12 to 18 year olds. But it has been weeks since I have taught. I travel a great deal and I have been sick each time I have come back from a trip.
This week I thought I would finally see my class again and get to teach them about one of my favourite scriptures in Matthew in the New Testament. But the weather and the road conditions all combined against me. Yet again I was not at church.
In order to assuage my guilt for not being there, I decided to share with you instead my notes about what Jesus was talking about then he promised us rest.
In Matthew chapter 11 verses 28 to 30, Jesus taught “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
A couple of years ago, I was struggling with the weight of my own difficulties coping with my grief, struggling with the weight of my responsibilities at home, at work in my own business and the family business and supporting my family members in their own difficulties.
During all that, I was drawn to this scripture in Matthew. More like the angels flipped the bible to this page and said, “here read this!” I knew it was exactly what I needed but at the same time I had no idea how Jesus’ words were actually going to help me.
There had to be something I was missing. There had to be more to this than I could currently see. I set out to find meaning through the etymology of the words he used. Did these words have a different meaning thousands of years ago that have been lost over the years?
I had researched the word yoke before. Yoke comes a Proto-Indo European word Yugum or yeug meaning join, unite or join together. Traditionally a yoke was used to tie two oxen or other farm animals together so that they could pull a heavy weight, distributing the weight evenly between both animals.
A good yoke must fit properly and be smooth so it doesn’t gall or choke. Ideally it would be made out of wood. Iron yokes were often times used on slaves and were heavy, irritating and humiliating.
So, when Jesus said “Take my yoke upon you … for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” He was inviting us to unite with him. He would share our burden and make it easy. It would be neither heavy, galling or irritating nor humiliating.
My bigger question was how? How was he going to do that? He first promises, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Then he says “learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
How will me learning of or about him give me rest? I’ve been learning about Christ my whole life, but I still feel the weight of my struggles.
The answer had to be there, somewhere. So, I looked again. He says “for I am meek and lowly in heart:” How does his being meek and lowly of heart help me? Obviously, I was missing something here. I looked up the words Meek and Lowly of Heart.
Meek in the topical guide in the back of my bible referenced words like contrite heart, humble, humility, poor in spirit, teachable. Again, my question: how does his being those things help me? I looked further.
Meek comes from the Middle English word Meoc means courteous, gentle, quiet, unaggressive, benevolent, kind, which comes from the old Norse word Mjuker meaning soft and gentle.
In the bible meek translates from the Latin word Manusuetus meaning tameness, gentleness, mildness. The Latin verb Mansuscare meaning ‘to tame’. Manus mean ‘hand” and Sucsere ‘to accustom or habituate’. It literally means ‘to accustom to the hand’.
How must we behave in order to tame or accustom to the hand something or someone who is fragile or frightened? Gently and softly. Jesus knows that when we are burdened and struggling that we can be emotionally skittish, frightened, wary and weary. He will be gentle with us.
The second thing Jesus says is that he is lowly of heart. The footnote in my bible says to look up Contrite Spirit in the topical guide, with humble and humility being the first references. So again, how does Jesus being humble help me?
Humble comes from the Latin word Humus meaning ground and Humilis meaning low or lowly (here is the key to lowly of heart) So lowly, on the ground, earth or soil. These are all related to the Sanskrit words: Ksa meaning field protector or cultivator of the field, and Ksam meaning be patient or endure.
The verb Humble is bend, kneel or bow. To be humble is also to reconnect with the earth, to plant your feet, to get back to nature and to be grounded, to come back to what is important.
Christ has set the example for us by being supple, bending to the weight of life like a young tender tree in the storm not rigid and unyielding. He is grounded in what is most important. He continuously reminds us we need to be rooted and grounded in love.
The prophet Moroni teaches the same principle and brings it all full circle. “Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope. And again, behold I say unto you that he cannot have faith and hope, save he shall be meek, and lowly of heart. If so, his faith and hope is vain, for none is acceptable before God, save the meek and lowly in heart; and if a man be meek and lowly in heart, and confesses by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus is the Christ, he must needs have charity; for if he have not charity he is nothing; wherefore he must needs have charity.” Moroni 7:42-44
What is charity then? Charity comes from the Greek word for Agape which is a heightened level of awareness, to see someone as God sees them.
When we are struggling and heavy with the weight of the world on our shoulders, the Saviour invites us to let him share our burdens. He promises to make it easy. He will be soft and gentle with us. He will be our protector. He knows what is most important and will love us conditionally. He sees us as God sees us. He will be our hope and we can trust him to support us in our time of need. We can be rooted and grounded in his love for us so it can bring us healing and wholeness and strengthen us so that we can accomplish all we need to do with his help.
“Love heals. Love transforms. Love creates.”
Laura Lane from ‘I Touch the Heavens’