for those who are weary
“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” - Matthew 11:28-30
Weary is a word I’ve heard from a lot of people in 2025. The news cycle is exhausting, the possible number of causes to engage with is overwhelming, and the collective distress and grief from all we have been surviving since 2020 is weighing heavy. I, for one, have felt overwhelmed and lonely. (It likely doesn’t help that my family has been fighting a cold for weeks on end.)
Many of us come from backgrounds where verses would get thrown as blankets over us to mask the struggle of times like these.
“Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.” (1 Peter 5:7),
“Those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength” (Isaiah 40:31),
“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1)
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.” (Philippians 4:13)
Verses like the ones above (and more) can become code for, “Pray away the hard parts. Faith looks like always being okay.” And/or, “Don’t worry or change or fix anything. Just let God take care of it.”
One of the verses that can be added to this list is the one that began this post. Too many people in pain have been given the refrain, “Jesus’ burden is light! Just trust in him!”
I have had the opportunity to look at Matthew 11:28-30 in Scripture Circles on multiple occasions, and each time have been struck by how rich and complex the context actually is. This conversation comes on the heels of Jesus talking to John the Baptist’s disciples, who are sent because he’s in prison and doubting Jesus' identity as the Messiah. John is going to die in prison, and Jesus doesn’t save him or offer to make it all better. Which means this verse cannot be about our lives being easy if we just follow Jesus.
It’s also telling to notice the “rest” comes through taking a yoke- which means it involves work. What kind of rest involves work? How would you define soul rest
If you were a farmer in the ancient world, and had an ox that was getting old, you would try to get a new ox before the old ox died. Why? So the new ox could get trained by the old one. If you just put a new ox in your field on its own, it would have no idea where the edges were or how to pull the plow. It would get overwhelmed. So, you would yoke the new ox to the old ox, until the new ox learned what to do.
It would benefit humans for us to realize that we are the new ox in this scenario, not the old one. There are always things we need to learn. And when we try to figure it all out on our own, we become weary or get stuck in a ditch or start plowing the wrong field.
What rest might we find if we yoke to Jesus and learn from how he lived his life?
As I type this, I feel the risk of this feeling like a masking blanket, too. (I’m resisting the urge to dig my WWJD bracelet out from my drawer.) But what if there is something tangibly helpful inside this old trite? After all, Jesus was part of an oppressed people group during the Roman empire. He certainly faced overwhelming circumstances. What did he do?
Some things that come to mind that I need to remember:
Jesus took naps, ate meals with his friends, and wept when sad things happened. He hung around with whoever wanted to be at his table, which usually included people who had been “othered” by society. Jesus talked about mercy and justice and forgiveness. He spoke truth to power and was kind to the outcasts. Jesus focused on loving his neighbor as he loved himself.
I still don’t love how simple Matthew 11 makes things sound. But I do know I have a lot to learn from Jesus’ yoke. And maybe, just maybe, that could help with some of this weariness.
💛 Stephanie