Reflection on Matthew 11:25-30

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Sunday, July, 2020

In today’s Gospel (Matthew 11:25-30), Jesus invites us to receive his revelation of God and the joy it brings: “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” His call, “Come to me” has the same meaning as “Come after me.” It is an invitation to discipleship, to being with Jesus, to sharing his life. And the reward for coming to him is REST! Now, the rest that Jesus promises us should not be mistaken to mean “laying on the couch, watching TV, eating potato chips and enjoying a drink after a day of labor.” The “rest” here has the same theological meaning with “Shalom,” (Peace)— which is Jesus’ first utterance to his disciples when he appeared to them after his resurrection. Rest or peace is God’s original intention for the human race. It means well-being in every aspect of life. It is wellbeing in your spiritual life, wellbeing in your emotional life, wellbeing in your social life, wellbeing in your relationships, wellbeing in every facet of life. 

This invitation is for those who are exhausted with the search for the truth, with the search for God. There is a growing number of people in our society today who deny the reality and the existence of God. They proudly argue that there is no God. Some of them claim that they sought for God but did not find him. Some say that they prayed to God and he did not answer. Yet, others said they wanted to see him but he did not show up. But Jesus tells us today that the endless and weary search for God ends in himself. To have an encounter with Jesus is to have an encounter with God. In the Gospel of John 14:9, the Lord says that “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” God gives himself to the pure of heart, and he asks nothing from us but our attention. Searching for God in a scientific laboratory is a wild goose chase. Trying to picture God in our minds is a wild goose chase. But by giving attention to Jesus Christ, we can find God. 

What are your burdens? What troubles you the most? What is it that keeps you awake at night? Even as we are in church right now, what is it that makes you absent minded? Your body is here but your mind is elsewhere. What are those things that burden you? Is your ego so elevated and so puffed up? Are you trapped in habitual sin and it seems you don’t know how to break the chain and the cycle of falling into sin and falling deeper into sin? Learn to spend time with Jesus. He has a heart that is indescribably sacred, patient, merciful and compassionate. He will welcome you and also listen to you. His “Yoke is easy, and burden light.”