Come unto me. In those words, the Lord Jesus Christ invites us into a relationship with himself; a relationship which is the most important one that we can ever make in our human life.
The great fourth-century saint, Augustine of Hippo, tells in his Confessions
of how he came into that relationship. The story is well known. Of how he
wrestled for years with insatiable lusts and a life of debauchery. The day came,
when he was walking in his garden in a state if inner distress and turmoil.
Suddenly he heard what sounded like a child's voice calling out: Tolle, lege!;
'take up and read'. He went to his friend Alypius who was busy writing away with
a copy of the Bible open before him. Augustine picked it up and read where it
lay open: Rather put on the Lord Jesus Christ and take no
thought about how to gratify the sinful nature. Augustine wrote:
I neither wished nor needed to read any further.
At
that moment Augustine entered into a living relationship with Jesus, and he was
later to write perhaps his best-known, most-quoted sentence.
Thou has made us for thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in
Thee.
The world today is full of distressed, distracted people. We see the signs of
stress all around us. We see it in life-threatening illnesses: high
blood-pressure, heart attacks, strokes. We see it in mental illness; in the vast
volume of tranquillizers and anti-depressants prescribed by GPs. We see it in
people whose only leisure pursuit is in front of the box, as they try to assuage
their stressful, distressed state. We see it in broken families, over-full
jails, in juvenile crime, violence on the streets and drug taking. We see it in
all shapes of addictive behaviour.
And we see it all not just
in 'secular society': we see it in the churches. For countless religion becomes
just another treadmill. For many an obsessive religious performance is but a way
to find peace. They see Jesus Christ as the Prince of Peace and they try to
gate-crash into his company. But no-one can 'gate-crash' his company! He came as
Saviour, but if we try to force our way in on our own terms then He stands
before us as Judge. We must take Jesus on his own terms. And his terms are as
Augustine has discovered to take no thought about how to gratify there sinful
nature. Let's listen again to that kind and gentle invitation in Matthew Chapter
11 that we heard earlier on:
Come to
me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.
The heart of this message is the relationship with Jesus Christ; a
relationship in which there can be no conscious entertaining of sinful desires,
thoughts and wishes, but a relationship in which there is abundant and free
forgiveness for past sin. And a relationship which we can't forge ourselves but
just accept on Jesus' terms- in fact a relationship which should put an end to
all religious or moral striving; a relationship which puts an end to all
striving. Jesus spoke his words to people who were told that the only way to
please God was a scrupulous fulfilment of the minutiae of the law, as
interpreted by the religious leaders. Come to me...and I will give you rest.
John Masefield in his poem The Everlasting Mercy writes this:
I did not
think; I did not strive,
The deep peace burned my 'me' alive
The
fast-barred gate was broken in;
I knew I was done with sin.
And in that
relationship comes peace, an end of striving and the release of stress; the
relief of distress. In that relationship comes healing. That relationship is
salvation and salvation and health are the same root-word. Indeed the two are so
closely interwoven that salvation may lead to healing (certainly the most
fundamental healing- of the spirit); healing may lead to salvation, or the the
restoration of a sin-ruptured relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.
We tend to think of healing in a more instant and visible form. And God can and does heal in that way; when and why are in his sovereign power and grace. But healing is also and nearly always an on-going process. When we come to our time of ministry, there will be those whom God will graciously bring healing to. Just to whom and how is, I repeat, his sovereign will. We can no more gate-crash his healing, or demand it as 'of right' than we can that relationship. But, in the same way, there are those things which are sine qua non; essential things we cannot dispense with.. And what better than turn to those words of Jesus himself!
Come to me. It's no use going anywhere else; to anyone else. There are abounding today many spurious 'faith healers'- who may even pass off as the real thing. One thinks of the notorious case of the 'healer' used by Glenn Hoddle for the England '98 World Cup team. She was so deceptive that Glenn's autobiography even got accepted into the Christian book-trade for several weeks until it came to light that the lady was a charlatan 'spiritual healer'. Such healers can never bring that true salvation-restoration of a living relationship with Jesus Christ: they are spiritual 'gate-crashers'
Come to me all who are weary and heavy-burdened, and I will give you rest. Jesus alone can bring healing to the stressed, distressed person. True healing can never be found in a bottle of pills (though they may allay the symptoms), never in front of the Tv, never in winning the lottery. Nor will we find peace in religious book-keeping. It's sad how many who have found the truth of 'justification by faith' then go on striving for their own perfection. Only Jesus can give us that 'rest', that peace with his Father. So long we strive for our own perfection, our own acceptance, so long we deny his work as our sin-bearer.
Come to me...take my yoke upon you and learn from me. We have to sit at
Jesus' feet. We have to be his disciple, and a disciple was one who learned from
another. We learn not just facts, nor primarily facts, but a way of living. We
have to learn Augustine's lesson. For we cannot expect God to bless us while we
harbour selfish, worldly, sinful thoughts and desires in our hearts. LET THEM
GO! Or it's a case of trying of having your cake and eating it.
As we
do that we find a surprise! I've heard it that if you go to the city gate of
Jerusalem even today, you'll find the 'burden-bearer'; the one who takes the
yoke. He's there to haul extremely heavy loads. He has a harness around his
forehead and pulls the load along, head bowed. This way he can pull a 3-ton
truck. But he has to keep his head down. If he looks up, the whip-lash will
break his neck. Jesus is our burden-bearer: he ask us to share the yoke in the
sense of keeping our head down; yoked together with him, but he pulls the load.
We may think primarily of the load of sin. But any burden. Cast your anxiety on
Jesus, cast your stress on him. Humble yourself! To obstinately insist on
carrying our own burdens as a symbol of our own strength is wrong. It's really
pride.
Come to me. Jesus wants us in a relationship with him; maybe he wants to restore a broken relationship tonight. He wants to heal too; heal the distressed, and maybe renew the relationship in so doing. And HE CAN HEAL. I want to end by reading to you a modern-day healing told by Nicky Gumball in his book Questions of Life.
(Ajay Gohill) was born in Kenya and came to England in 1971. He
had been brought up as
a Hindu and worked in his family
business in Neasden as a newsagent. At the age of
21 he
contracted erythrodermic psoriasis, a chronic skin-disease. His weight dropped
from
11 1/2 to 7 1/2 stone. He was treated all over the world -
in the United States, Germany,
Israel, Switzerland, and all
over England, including Harley Street. He said he spent 80% of
his earnings in trying to find a cure. He took strong drugs which affected his
liver. Event-
ually, he had to give up his job. The disease was
all over his body from head to toe. He
was so horrible to look
at he could not go swimming, or even wear a T-shirt. He lost all
his friends. His wife and his son left him. He wanted to die.
On 20th August 1987 he was
in a wheel-chair in the Elizabeth
Ward of St Thomas' Hospital. He spent over seven weeks
in
hospital receiving various kinds of treatment. On 14th October he was in bed and
wanted
to die. He cried out, 'God, if you are watching, let me
die - I'm sorry if I've done something
wrong' He said that as
he prayed he 'felt a presence'. He looked in his locker and pulled
out a Good News Bible. He opened it at random and read Psalm 38
O Lord, don't punish me
in your anger! You have wounded me with your arrows; you
have struck me down. Because of
your anger I am in great pain; my whole body is
diseased because of my sins. I am
drowning in the flood of my sins; they are a burden
too heavy to bear. Because I have
been foolish, my sores stink and rot. I am bowed
down, I am crushed; I mourn all day
long. I am burning with fever; I am near to death.
I am worn out and utterly crushed;
my heart is troubled and I groan with pain. O Lord,
you know what I long for; you hear
all my groans. My heart is pounding, my strength
is gone, and my eyes have lost all their
brightness. My friends and neighbours will not
come near me, because of my sores; even
my family keeps away from me....Do not
abandon me, O Lord, do not stay away, my
God! Help me now, O Lord my Saviour!
Each and every verse seemed
relevant to him. He prayed for God to heal him, and
fell into a
deep sleep. When he awoke next morning everything looked new. He went into
the bathroom and relaxed in a bath. As he looked in the
bathwater, he saw his skin had
lifted off and was floating on
the water. He called the nurses in and told them God was
healing him. All his skin was new, like a baby's. He had been totally healed.
Since then
he has been reunited with his son. He says that the
inner healing which has taken place
in his life is even greater
than the physical healing. He says, 'Every day I live for Jesus. I
am his servant today.
Now, I would be foolish to suggest God is going to heal so dramatically
tonight; though let's not say he might not choose to do so. But heal he does and
will. The greatest healing is that relationship with Jesus. Do you not have that
relationship? Is it fractured?
Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from
me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and I will give you rest for your
souls.
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