Ver. 28-30. Our Lord having before showed;
1. That all power was given to him;
2. That none could know the Father but by and in him; closes his discourse with an invitation of persons to him. By the weary and heavy laden, in the text, some understand those that are laden with the sense of their sins, and the feeling the guilt of them. Others understand, with the burden of the law, which the apostles called a yoke, Acts 15:10. Mr. Calvin thinks this too strait an interpretation. Others understand heavy laden with trials and afflictions. Christ will give rest to all those of his people that are any ways weary and heavy laden, but in an order first to souls wearied and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, and their want of a righteousness wherein to stand before God. Then to such to whom he hath given this rest, he promises also rest from their troubles and persecutions in the world, 1 Thessalonians 16:33. It is very like he used this term, Come, with respect to that of Isaiah, Isaiah 55:1,2. That by coming is to be understood believing is plain from 1 Thessalonians 6:44-46 Hebrews 11:6. The rest promised chiefly respecteth the soul, as appears from Matthew 11:29. The promise may be understood both of that rest which believers have in this life, Romans 5:2, Romans 15:13, and also of that rest which after this life remaineth to the people of God, Hebrews 4:9. Whatever the rest be, it must be of Christ's giving and our seeking; nor is it to be obtained without labour and suffering, for it followeth, Take my yoke upon you. The members of Christ are not without a yoke, a law and rule by which they are obliged to walk; and though the service of God be a perfect freedom, yet to flesh and blood it is a yoke, grating upon our sensitive appetite, and restraining our natural motions and inclinations. For I am meek and lowly. Humility and meekness are in themselves yokes, as they are contrary to our pride, and aptness to swell in a high opinion of ourselves; and to our wrath and danger, which sometimes boils to a great height, without any due fuel: and as in themselves they are a great part of Christ's yoke, so they fit and dispose us to take Christ's further yoke upon us, and may be here considered as means directed for the better performance of the precept, Take my yoke upon you. Our Lord also by this precept lets us know there can be no true faith without obedience to the commands of Christ. Though true faith and obedience be two things, yet they are inseparable; Show me thy faith (saith James) by thy works; and the rest of the text is not promised to either of them severally, but to both jointly. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Our Saviour had before \Matthew 7:13,14\ told us that the way to heaven is a strait way, how doth he now tell us his yoke is easy and his burden light? Answer:
1. Nothing makes it hard or burdensome but our corruption, which floweth from the depravation of human nature.
2. It is much easier than the yoke and burden of the law.
3. Though it be hard to beginners, yet it is easy when we have once accustomed ourselves to it.
4. It is easy, considering that we do it not in our own strength, but by assistance from God, Jeremiah 31:33 Ezekiel 36:25,26 Joh 15:3, we are delivered even from the moral law, considered as a covenant, and as merely commanding us, and affording no help and assistance.
5. It is also easy; as we are by the love of God constrained to our duty, so we are freed from the rigour of the law. It is easy and light, as it is a course of life highly consonant to our reason, once delivered from a bondage to our passions. Finally, it is much more easy and light than the service of our lusts is. There is no greater slavery than a subjection to our lusts, that if a drunkard saith "Come," we must come, if an harlot saith "Go," we must go. Or than our service to the world, &c. To say nothing of the exceeding easiness of it, from the prospect of the great reward proposed and promised to those who keep the commandments of Christ, the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Corinthians 4:17; as Jacob's hard service of fourteen years seemed to him but a few days.