Come to Me

Reflection

"Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Jesus does not call the rested and the competent. He calls the tired. He addresses people worn down by the weight they are carrying — the burdens of religion, of guilt, of trying to be enough — and offers them rest. Then he says something surprising. The way to rest is to take on a yoke. A yoke is a piece of farm equipment, a wooden harness that joins two animals to pull a load together. We might expect Jesus to say, "Put down every burden." Instead he says, "Take my yoke upon you." The rest he offers is not the absence of all labour, but a different way of working — yoked to him, pulling alongside him, carrying only what he gives and sharing it with him. "For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The burdens that crush us are usually the ones we were never meant to carry alone: the pressure to prove ourselves, to control outcomes, to earn love. Jesus offers to take the straps of self-salvation off our shoulders and replace them with something that fits — a life lived in partnership with a gentle and humble master. If you are weary today, hear the invitation personally. You do not have to clean yourself up first. You do not have to carry it alone. Come to him, and he will give you rest.