Sermons 2026

“Jesus Gives Us Rest by Bearing Our Burdens”

Matthew 11:25-30

In the name of Jesus…

    How the time has flown! Many of you have seen me grow up over the years and it hasn’t even seemed that long. In another aspect, it is now July, summer is in full swing, the Fourth of July/Fort Benton Summer Celebration have come and gone, and things don’t seem to slow down much. We are busy people always looking at the next thing and while some things can be exciting, it can also be very tiring. Work, school, eat, sleep, do it again the next day. When can I just get some rest? In our Gospel reading, Jesus talks about rest and where to find it.

(JESUS GIVES US REST BY BEARING OUR BURDENS.)

I.
    “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’” (Matthew 11:25). There are many things that we would like to know that we can’t explain. We are tempted to want to know and explain everything according to our human reason, but some things have not been revealed to us. Worrying about our life of faith and the future can be exhausting. Consider some of those biblical doctrines that we try to wrap our heads around. How can the Incarnate Christ be both fully God and fully man? How can Jesus’ body and blood be truly present at multiple altars at the same time? Why are some saved and not others? By trying to explain these doctrines beyond what Scripture says, we do nothing but buy ourselves trouble. We know what Scripture says and we can leave it at that. What are those burdens in your life that you seek to answer? Why must our friends and family die? Why did I have to receive a bad medical diagnosis? What did I do to deserve this? Why is God punishing me? Our human reason seeks to answer the questions that we cannot answer. So, why can’t the knowledge of salvation depend on human reason? Well, what does Scripture say? We are sinful beings who cannot fully understand everything in God’s creation. We do not have the same knowledge that God has by design.

Jesus thanked his Father for revealing the truth of the Gospel to children. While little children ask questions (sometimes too many) and desire to know things, they also receive what has been revealed to them with great faith. Children can proudly proclaim that Jesus died for them without trying to explain the how. Jesus said, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it” (Mark 10:14-15). May we have a childlike faith by trusting in God’s Word and leave it at that without trying to explain beyond what Scripture has revealed to us. These are just some of the burdens we face when we worry about the things we don’t know by not having a childlike faith.

In addition to those burdens, we are also burdened with sin which is at the root of our earthly problems. In our Epistle reading, Paul talks about something we can all relate to, that is, wrestling against our own inclination to sin even though we desire to do good (Romans 7:15). God’s commandments teach us how to live and from a young age, we are taught the difference between right and wrong. We know this, yet we find ourselves doing the opposite of how we should live and conduct ourselves. The Old Adam still dwells in us after Baptism. Therefore, as Luther teaches us in the Small Catechism, “the Old Adam in us should by daily contrition and repentance be drowned and die with all sins and evil desires, and that a new man should daily emerge and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.” It is tiring to keep fighting against sin and temptation by drowning the Old Adam each and every day by confessing our sins receiving forgiveness. Though it is a daily struggle, we must focus on the cause of the burden of sin. We must diagnose the problem.

We are burdened when we don’t keep the law because nothing good dwells in us (Romans 7:18). We are poor miserable sinners, plain and simple. The problem is that sin dwells within me (Romans 7:17). The problem is not the law (Romans 7:16, 22) even though the law is heavy and weights us down by showing us our sin. St. Paul says, “Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good” (Romans 7:16) and “I delight in the law of God, in my inner being” (Romans 7:22). We know that the law is good since God gave it to us as a guide for how we are to live our lives. However, we cannot keep the law even though we know it is good. Therefore, “I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate” (Romans 7:15). As sinners, we deserve nothing but God’s wrath and punishment, resulting in our eternal death. “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25).

II.

    Jesus bears our burdens in his death on the cross. This morning, we are blessed with that reminder of Palm Sunday in our Old Testament reading. “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). In context, Judah had just returned from exile in Babylon. What a heavy burden God’s people had suffered during their seventy-year period of captivity. To say they must have been tired is probably an understatement. Zechariah assured Judah that their king would protect them from foreign enemies. To God’s people, the exile was like a yoke which is what an animal wears to pull a wagon or cart. On Palm Sunday, Jesus humbly rode into Jerusalem on a donkey toward the yoke of the cross which he would carry to Mount Calvary. By bearing our burdens on the cross, Jesus rescued us from sin and the burden of knowing that we fail to keep the law and live a Christian life as we should. Where can we find our rest and some relief from our burdens?

    We find our rest in Jesus. He said, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus tells us where to find rest, by being yoked to him. This means living each and every day of your life as a disciple of Jesus, reading God’s Word, and receiving His gifts. When our sins our forgiven, the yoke is lifted off our shoulders, just like when “we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from the pastor as from God Himself, not doubting but firmly believing that by it our sins are forgiven before God in heaven.” We also find rest where Jesus has promised to be, in his Holy Supper where we eat and drink his body and blood for the forgiveness of our sins. Here, Jesus makes our burdens light. All of our sins and sorrows were carried by Jesus and were nailed with him to the cross. He died for each and every one of our sins – when we weren’t content with what Scripture has revealed to us, when we wanted to know why this or that happened and demanded answers. All of those things that cause us to become restless, tired, and exhausted, Christ died for them and gives us rest even when we fail to put our trust in him. By assuming human flesh, Christ was tempted in every way that we are but did not sin. He bore the weight of the entire world’s sin so that we don’t have to. He died so that we might live.
    Even though we continue to feel the burden of exhaustion, we take comfort knowing that we have rest in Jesus. While time will continue to fly by despite us wanting to just slow down and relax, God is always with you through it all. Remember the words of Jesus: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Thanks be to God for the rest that He continues to give us each and every day. Amen.

Now may the peace of God…