I will give you rest

Binhi sang Pagtuo

July 13, 2009

Dear Centralians and Friends,

Greetings from the campus!

Our reflection from this week comes from Matthew 11:28-30.

Everyone gets tired. Everyone is not exempted and all of us are looking forward to rest. We oftentimes pray, “Lord, I am tired.”

The context of our passage is about the burdens that the Jews are suffering. It is observed that the Jewish religion was a thing of burdens. They have endless rules. One writer has written that a Jew lived his life in a forest of regulations which dictated every action of his life. He must forever listen to a voice which said, “Thou shalt not.”

In this situation, Jesus offers us an invitation, ““Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavily laden and I will give you rest.”

We need in this age of busyness wherein the theme of every person is: work…work…work. We seemed to always want to be busy. We feel that there is always shortage of time. In CPU, we call people who are always in meetings to have a disease called “meeting-gytis.”

This invitation is liberating. The Greek word for “rest” is anapausin. It literally means “an intermission, or a vacation.” Jesus is saying to us, “I will give a break from the day-to-day struggles of life. I’ll give you a second wind.”

This invitation frees us and gives us rest from the structures that blocks us from being what God wants us to be. But this invitation needs a response.

In one of my classes, we discussed the silent years of Jesus, ages between 12-30. One of the theories suggested that Jesus was a carpenter who made the best ox-yokes in all of Galilee and all over the country people would go there and buy the yokes. In Jewish culture, one follows his father’s business.

It has been suggested that the title of Jesus’ carpenter’s shop was: “My yoke fits well.” This means that if we accept this invitation God will send us tasks that are made to fit us. Whatever God sends us is made to fit our needs and out abilities exactly.

The invitation to take the yoke of Jesus upon us is an invitation not to quit. It is an invitation to work, not our load, but God’s load. It is about trading our purposes and goals for God’s purpose and goals for our lives.

St. Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee, O Lord.”

May God bless us all!

Sincerely,

Pastor Francis Neil G. Jalando-on
Assistant Chaplain



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