Jesus said:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened,
and I will give you rest.
The ones Jesus called were the ones for whom the scribes and the Pharisees had previously tied up heavy burdens that were hard to bear (see Matthew 23:4). This did not have the result of producing rest, but rather frustration. No matter how precisely people tried to follow the way of the Pharisees they would always discover that another level of effort was awaiting them. They never finally arrived. It gave the impression of a sleight of hand game were the goal was constantly shifting and finally unattainable. The Pharisees pointed to the Torah as the goal, but in practice only offered it as mediated through their own limited human wisdom. This did not prove to be enough.
Come to me
What the people sought in the traditions of the Pharisees and other approaches to the Torah was something that could ultimately be found only in Jesus himself. It was not attainable through the mediation of human wisdom. It was a bridge that could be constructed from here to heaven. It was only in response to the coming of Jesus that the desires of the human heart could be fulfilled, and that women and men could find true rest.
I will give you rest.
But what is this rest of which Jesus spoke? The Pharisees critique of Jesus often made it seem that it was a permissiveness for moral laxity, a lessening of the demands of the law so that one might deaden the demands of conscience. But looking at the Sermon on the Mount we can see that, if anything, Jesus asked more of his followers than others. What then, was this rest? Or how could he promise rest at a greater level of effort that was impossible even at a lesser one?
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me,
for I am meek and humble of heart;
It was not just any yoke that Jesus offered. It was different from alternatives in which teachers told their followers what was required and left them alone to pursue it. Rather, this was his own yoke that Jesus invited his disciples to share with him. This meant that, even if progress was not always instantaneous or effortless, it was guaranteed, since the primary power moving the disciple forward was always Jesus himself. He, not the disciple, was the one who would bring the good work to completion (see Philippians 1:6). He was the one who worked within his followers to will and to work (see Philippians 2:13). The fact that growth toward and goal was possible meant to one could increase in her experience of rest the more she willing chose to share the yoke of Jesus. Her own efforts in the past may have led to frustration. But this yoke that she shared with Jesus proved time and again to lead away from human frustration toward a sharing in the life of the Trinity, which satisfied the human heart so entirely as to alone be truly worthy of the term rest.
for I am meek and humble of heart;
The yoke of Jesus allowed his followers to access the rest he himself possessed through his relationship with the Father. This was why meekness and humility were the crucial defining attributes. Not that his yoke led to what would necessarily be externally evident as an easy life. But it led to a good life, grounded in something greater than oneself, ordered toward the end for which we were made. It was the path to the eternal rest of beatitude in heaven. But since the path was one of living by faith it really did bring the rest of heaven even to the here and now.
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