One does not know whether tenderness or majesty is pre dominant in these wonderful words a Divine penetration into man's true condition, and a Divine pity, are expressed in them. Jesus looks with clear-sighted compassion into the inmost history of all hearts, and sees the toil and the sorrow which weigh on every soul. And no less remarkable is the Divine consciousness of power to succour and to help which speaks in them.
I. Consider the twofold designation here of the persons addressed. "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden." The one word expresses effort and toil, the other a burden and endurance. The one speaks of the active, the other of the passive side of human misery and evil. Toil is work which is distasteful in itself, or which is beyond our faculties. Such toil, some time or other, more or less, sooner or later, is the lot of every man. All work becomes labour, and all labour, some time or other, becomes toil. Toil is a curse; work is a blessing. But all our work darkens into toil; and the invitation, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour," reaches to the utmost verge of humanity, and includes every soul.
II. Look at the twofold invitation that is here. "Come unto Me" "Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me." In these words, which come so familiarly to most of our memories that they have almost ceased to present sharp meanings, there is not only the merciful summons to the initial act, but the description of the continual life of which that act is the introduction.
III. Look, lastly, at the twofold promise which is here. "I will giveyou rest" "Ye shall findrest." There is rest in coming to Christ; the rest of a quiet conscience, which gnaws no more; the rest of a conscious friendship and union with God, in whom alone is our soul's home, harbour, and repose; the rest of fears dispelled; the rest of forgiveness received into the heart. There is rest in faith. The very act of confidence is repose. There is a further rest in obedience, and emphatically and most blessedly there is a rest in Christlikeness.
A. Maclaren, Christian Commonwealth,April 1st, 1886.
References: Matthew 11:28; Matthew 11:29. A. B. Bruce, Expositor,1st series, vol. vi., p. 142; W. J. Knox-Little, Characteristics of the Christian Life,p. 223.