Opinion column

You will find rest for your souls

Rev Matthew Price encourages us to take heart and allow Jesus to take our tiredness on His shoulders.

Have the last few months left you feeling weary?  Weary of all the restrictions and changes we have had to endure; tired of looking at screens; fed up with not seeing our friends and our families; weary of being stuck in our houses?
 
Even as the lockdown begins to ease, we might still feel weary.  As we look to the future, we wonder when normality will ever return.  Especially as we hear news of local spikes of infection and further lockdowns. We are weary.
 
Perhaps you need to hear Jesus’ words of comfort and hope:  “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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).
 
To our weariness Jesus offers rest.  And it is more than is brought by a good night’s sleep; he offers rest for our souls.  A deep and transformative rest.
 
How is this achieved?  Jesus says, by coming to him we find this rest.  By coming to him and telling him how we feel; how tired and weighed down we are.  As we do so he promises that we will find rest and our burdens lightened.
 
He invites us to take his yoke upon us.  A yoke was a piece of farm machinery which ensured that two oxen ploughing a field would go in the same direction.  So, as we take Jesus’ yoke upon us, we let him walk beside us and lead us in his direction.  And, as we do, we are reminded that we are not alone and we are shown how to put one foot in front of the other in this trying time.

 
This article has also been published in the Great Yarmouth Mercury and on Network Yarmouth.
 
The photo above is courtesy of  Varun Verma on Unsplash.com

 
Matthew Price is Vicar of St Mary Magdalene Church in Gorleston.