“And I will give you Rest”

Do you have one quote from Scripture that has stayed with you for decades?  Something you’ve pondered deeply?  Which runs, like a refrain, through your life?  Lives within you?

Here’s mine:

28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. ²⁹Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

(from Matthew 11: 25-30)

Now the link above actually gives you both the quote and its the foregoing context.  (A context that links to the foot-washing in John 13.)  But from my childhood, when I first heard the words, nearly 60 years ago, the “come to me” has resonated so deeply.  And through the years individual words and phrases, ones you find all over the Bible, these too, I’ve pondered again and again:  Come.  Rest.  Mercy in a gentle, caring God.  Offering peace and rest.  A personal call.  The sense of mission – which actually scared me as a child of 8 or 9.  (What would God ask of me?)

I love that quote.

But now I know more.  Now I see that Jesus is revealing Divinity.  And sharing it.  Offering a share – in Himself.   Offering more than YHWH offers Moses:

¹⁴He said, ‘My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’

(Exodus 33:14)

Presence.  Rest.  Indwelling.  The spiritual reality we are given at Baptism.  The summit of our spiritual journey – if we live into it.

There’s so much here.  This is enough for now.