Sunday Readings: Zechariah 9.9-10; Romans 8.9,11-13; Matthew 11.25-30
“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).
In Sunday’s gospel Jesus speaks as Wisdom’s prophet. Proverbs personifies Wisdom as a woman who is with God from the beginning— helping put the heavens in place and marking out the limits of the sea. Lady Wisdom is God’s delight. She represents our human capacity to know, learn, and understand—to find God in all that is.
Like Wisdom, Torah makes life sweet and harmonious. For Jews, Torah holds the way to find and worship God and do what is right. Torah is the name for the first five books of the Bible, which contains the commandments. Torah is the yoke that puts human relationships in right order.
Like Wisdom and Torah, Jesus lightens, refreshes, and restores our spirits. The rest that Wisdom, Torah, and Jesus offer has its origins in Sabbath, the seventh day on which God rests and enjoys all that has come to be in the six days of creation. Sabbath rest is a pause to appreciate God’s gracious goodness in all that is.
Rest acknowledges our need for restorative sleep and rejuvenating experiences. Rest is willingness to relax in the mystery of God as a swimmer floats in the buoyancy of water. Rest is stopping to let indescribable beauty soak in.
Rest frees imagination to sight heaven’s edge on the horizon. Rest is existing in right relationship with all that is, acknowledging ourselves and all that is as gift, welcoming and blessing even the least among us.
Where do you find rest? How do you keep sabbath as a right relationship to God? As a right relationship to all God’s creatures?