Daily Devotional For Saturday, November 1, 2025
Good morning Southside! Can you believe we are already into November? If you have been reading these devotionals, you know we are making our way through the Gospel of Matthew. Today, we come to Matthew 11:28-30;
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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.”
This is a passage that we all love and thank the Lord for it. We saw yesterday that those who are wise and learned in their own eyes are “blind to the truth” (Matt. 11:25-26). Here Jesus invites those who are weary and heavy-laded to come to Him for rest. The “wise and learned” were the religious leaders, who had the truth, but were blind to it. They in their own piety had placed so many rules, rituals and regulations on the people that faith in God was making them weary and heavy-laden. To these “little ones” (His disciples and us today) we read about yesterday, to them Jesus invited to come to Him to rest.
The good news is that Jesus’ invitation to His disciples is an invitation to us all who are in Christ. All it takes is swallowing our pride by humbling ourselves to acknowledge our need for Him. Jesus loves to help and free us from such burdens. The number one rest Jesus gives is eternal life (See Heb. 4:9). The point is not necessarily the cessation of work, love, restoration and peace from God. To the average Jew, “rest” reminded them of The Promised Land given to their ancestors (See Jer. 31:25).
If you have seen a yoke, you know it is a heavy wooden harness that first over the shoulders of a beast of burden. This yoke is also attached to some piece of equipment that the oxen or cow pull. Now what I like about this is that prior to His ministry, Jesus was a carpenter. This means He worked with wood. There is no telling how many yokes He made for farmers. I believe Jesus was very familiar with yokes.
In this case to Jesus, the Law had become a yoke that had now become so burdensome that the average Jew could not obey and honor it. So, Jesus was refuting and taking off the Pharisee based law with all its burdens. He wanted His disciples and us to instead put on His yoke. Do not misunderstand me, we do not get a “free ride.” There will be bumps, tough times, hardships, pain, persecution and death. But when take on His yoke, He makes this easier to bear.
Jesus told His disciples and us to “learn from Him.” Watch how He depended on, trusted and obeyed God the Father. When we emulate Jesus in this way, our burden gets easier and lighter. Jesus reminds us that He is gentle and humble. This is why He bids us to “come to Him.” Coming to Jesus involves belief (See John 6:35). If we come to Jesus in faith, He will not cast us out or aside (See John 6:37). Jesus does not offer us a chair on the beach with sweet tea. Our serving Him will be challenging but also rewarding.
All who labor will find rest. The Greek New Testament word Jesus uses here for “labor” is [κοπιάω; kopiao]. This word often refers to an unbearable load put on someone who is already so exhausted they are about to collapse. “Heavy-laden” is the Greek New Testament word [φορτίζω; photizo]. This word is often used in Scripture to refer to those who work hard to please God and get salvation. Jesus invites anyone who is exhausted from trying to please God and earn their salvation, to simply come to Him. By the time of Jesus the religious leaders had made obeying the Law so burdensome, with so many rules, regulations and rituals that no one could fulfill it.
The person who is desperate to please God on their own will discover they cannot. Yet, there is a desperation we all need and that is, desperate for the Lord and His authentic salvation. John the Baptizer’s sermons were mainly a call to repentance (See Matt. 3:2) as well as Jesus’ ministry (See Matt. 4:170. People had been worn out living under the burden of sin and its consequences. Solomon wrote this in Proverbs 13:15, “The ways of the treacherous are hard” (NASB). So, why is Jesus’ yoke easier? Because when we are yoked with Him, He carries nearly all of the burden for us.
In one Jewish writing titled Sarach, it says this: “Draw near to me, you who are uneducated, and lodge in the house of instruction.… Acquire wisdom for yourselves without money. Put your neck under [wisdom’s] yoke, and let your souls receive instruction” (Source: Sirach, 51:23-26). The point of this quote from Sirach is to say that any Jew who put themselves under the wisdom from the Law would find peace and joy. But, the opposite actually occurred. Not because there was something wrong with the Law, but because of how the religious leaders had distorted itl So, Jesus was drawing a distinction between the wisdom of the Law and how burdensome it was and His wisdom, which was light.
In promise cessation from this kind of labor, Jesus was quoting from Jer, 6:16. By coming to Christ, His disciples and us would be able to cut out all the burdensome traditions of religion and instead be blessed in the truth of Him. I’ll conclude with the words of pastor and author Chuck Swindoll:
“How could a yoke that fit a pair of oxen for the arduous labor of hauling a load or plowing a field be “easy” and “light”? But in contrast to the works righteousness of the Pharisees, in which a person’s relationship with God and with the covenant community of Israel supposedly depended entirely on his or her own efforts, Christ’s yoke offered something revolutionary: grace! The finished work of Christ on the cross and His miraculous resurrection and ascension would mean no more debt to sin and guilt, no more threat of eternal damnation, no more fretting over whether one has done enough to please God. The restoration of our vertical relationship with God is an accomplished fact because of salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And our horizontal relationships with others are also transformed through the unifying bond of the Spirit and the ongoing grace of His enabling power. Not for a moment are we left alone to bear the burden on our own. In fact, Christ accomplishes everything, and we are simply attached to Him and His awesome strength” (Source: Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s Living Insights New Testament Bible Commentary, “Matthew 1:15,” Vol. 1A, p. 228).
Assignment: When have you felt overwhelmed, or burdened, even to the point of spiritual exhaustion with the yoke of religion? Come to Jesus. You do not have to earn His love, so do not try. You do not have to earn your salvation, so do not try. You do not have to carry your burdens alone, so do not try. What spiritually is a burden you carry alone? Throw off that yoke and put on the yoke of Christ and let Him help you carry it.
Scripture To Meditate On: 1 John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I have burdens that I am exhausted from carrying. I have tried, manipulated and exhausted myself from them. Please let me yoke up with You so that I find rest for my soul and do not sin. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly