Jesus and John the Baptist

Tom Shrader walks through Matthew 11, exploring John the Baptist's doubts from prison and Jesus' defense of John as the greatest born of women and the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. He addresses the danger of misplaced expectations in faith and the trap of perpetual spiritual dissatisfaction, using the example of the cities that witnessed miracles but refused to repent. The teaching closes with a pastoral call to weary, religiously exhausted people to accept Christ's invitation in Matthew 11:28-30, exchanging the burden of works-based religion for the easy yoke of genuine faith.

“It is okay to wonder. It is not okay to wander.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: A Study Of The Life Of Jesus Christ (2005)

Recorded: 2005 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 46 min

Themes: doubt, rest, religion, repentance, faith, expectations, spiritual exhaustion, miracles, struggling with doubt, spiritually exhausted, skeptic, first-time church visitor, religiously burned out, new believer, searching for truth, feeling unworthy

Scripture: Matthew 11:1-30, Matthew 4:23, Matthew 9:35, Matthew 12:9, Matthew 14:3-12, Matthew 10:5, John 18:19, Isaiah 61:1-2, Isaiah 35:5-6, Malachi 3:1

Theological Themes: soteriology, works-based religion, messianic prophecy, fulfillment of scripture, grace, saving faith, christology, sanctification

Full Transcript

Setting the Scene

Through our study of the life of Jesus, I have covered the whole chapter today, and there are some practical truths in it that I want to pull out. I want to talk especially to those of you who, if we sat and talked, might say you are not a Christian. We are going to take communion today, and when we do, we are very clear that communion was established by God for those of us in His family — those of us who are Christians. Not Christians in just some sense that we define, but how the Bible defines it. It may be that you are here and would say that is not me.

Maybe you are here for the very first time. You came with a friend or a family member, perhaps visiting for the holiday, and part of staying with these people is coming to church. Maybe you have been here three, four, five, six, or seven times and would say, not me. I really want you to listen closely today.

Maybe you are here saying you are pretty messed up — you have a lot of issues and a lot of problems. It may be that everybody knows it, or it may be that you look like you have it all together but inside you are saying things are not so great. You do not have it figured out. In fact, you have some questions. Perfect. I am glad you are here.

It may be that you would say you are religious. Let me tell you — God hates religion. We hate religion here. What is religion? Religion is anything other than biblical Christianity. It goes by all sorts of different names and titles, found in different forms around the world. You may call it spirituality, New Age, or give it some other label. It does not matter. And here is what is really going on: deep down inside, you are saying the religion is not working. You are working and working and working, and you are tired. You know that you have sinned, and you are trying to figure out how you can fix it — and you cannot. I am glad you are here. We are going to speak to that whole group today.

Jesus on Mission

Look at Matthew chapter 11, verse 1: *"When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve, he went on from there to teach and to preach in the cities."*

If you look back to chapter 10, verse 5, Matthew had just identified the Apostles. He said, here are the twelve, and then he names them — Simon called Peter, Andrew, James, John — you see the list there. Then in verse 5 he says, "These twelve Jesus sent out," and you see the instruction He gave them. So Jesus has sent out the twelve. They had been traveling with Him, working with Him, living alongside Him. Now they are gone. He sent them out.

Back in chapter 11, verse 1, they are gone — but Jesus is still preaching and teaching in the cities. I think it is important for us to take the time to really get our arms around what He is saying here. Jesus is on a mission. What is the mission? He is preaching and teaching. He is explaining and proclaiming the gospel, going from city to city.

Matthew talks about this pattern several times. I will give you three references if you want to look them up later: chapter 4, verse 23; chapter 9, verse 35; and chapter 12, verse 9. They all essentially say the same thing — that Jesus was going from city to city, proclaiming the truth, going into the synagogues, and teaching about who He is.

When He went into the synagogues, He would be received as a visiting rabbi. Visiting rabbis were often extended teaching privileges. They would take the scrolls, unroll them, read a passage of scripture, and explain it — much like what we do here. There is one incident where Jesus goes into a synagogue, reads a passage of scripture that speaks of the coming Messiah, and then says, "Today you have seen the fulfillment of that." So He is going from city to city, preaching in the streets wherever He is welcome — sometimes to small groups, sometimes at a dinner party with a few friends, sometimes to thousands and thousands.

In John chapter 18 — you do not need to turn there — Jesus has been arrested. He is going to be found not guilty but nonetheless treated as guilty and crucified. He is before the high priest in verse 19, and the high priest is questioning Him. Jesus says this: *"I have spoken openly to the world. I have always taught in the synagogues and in the temple, where all the Jews come together, and I have said nothing in secret."* So what Jesus is doing is going from town to town and simply telling people the truth.

John the Baptist in Prison

Look at what happens in verse 2: *"When John heard in prison about the deeds of Christ, he sent word by his disciples."*

Who is this John? John the Baptist — not John the Gospel writer, a different John. This is John the Baptist, and he is in prison. Here is why. There is a man in power, a governor named Herod — Herod Antipas is his full name. Herod had made a trip to Rome and while visiting his brother Philip, he noticed Philip's wife, Herodias. He was drawn to her, seduced her, went back home, divorced his own wife, and took Herodias as his new wife. John the Baptist confronted this directly. He said this is not right, this is not lawful. So Herod had him arrested.

We are going to look at that more in a moment. Herod intended to kill John, but Herod was such a coward — no backbone at all. He was afraid of what the people might think, because they regarded John as a prophet. So that is the backdrop. John is in prison, and he has heard about the deeds of Christ — the healings, the miracles, the teaching, all the remarkable things that were creating a stir.

John in Prison

The crowds — the events that drew thousands and thousands of people — that is what John heard about: the deeds of Christ. And so he sent word by his disciples. John is in prison. He is in an old fort, as we discover from Scripture — a dungeon, literally a hot dungeon, about five miles east and fifteen miles south of the northern part of the Dead Sea.

William Barclay writes this about John: "John was a child of the desert. All his life he lived in the wide open spaces with the clean wind on his face and the spacious vault of the sky for his roof. Now he is confined within four narrow walls of an underground dungeon." For a man like John, who had probably never lived in a house, this must have been agony. Remember John — living out in the desert, wearing a camel hair coat with a leather belt, his diet consisting of locusts and honey.

This is the way John had lived his whole life. He had roughly eighteen months of ministry, during which the people from all the surrounding towns were going out to see him. He was proclaiming and doing exactly what God had called him to do. He knew his mission — it had been declared before he was even born. He was the one who would go and prepare the way, make the path smooth. That is John. And now he is in prison, in awful circumstances.

John's Question to Jesus

He has some limited contact with his disciples, and so he summons them and gives them a mission. Look at what he says in verse 3: he sends them to Jesus to ask, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we look for another?" John is saying: go and ask Him whether He is who He says He is. Are you the Messiah? Are you the one we have been expecting? You are the one I said was coming after me. Remember when Jesus came to John and John saw Him and declared, "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." Now John is asking: did we get this wrong? Did we somehow get this confused?

John knew his Scripture, and the Old Testament — Isaiah 61 — said this about the Messiah: that when He came, He would bring good news to the afflicted, bind up the brokenhearted, proclaim liberty to the captives, freedom to the prisoners, proclaim the favorable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance. One author puts it this way: "It was all right to heal the sick and raise the dead and cast out demons and still storms and preach righteousness and announce the kingdom — but where is the judgment?" That is John's question. He is saying: I thought You were going to get all of this straightened out.

The Jewish people anticipated the Messiah, but in their minds He would be a political Messiah, or a military Messiah, or one who would bring financial prosperity and security. And so John, hearing about all the good deeds Jesus is doing, is asking: where is the judgment?

Was John Doubting?

I love this moment, because John is asking questions — and there is nothing wrong with asking questions. Now, some commentators — and I will name them because they are a powerhouse team: Augustine, Luther, Calvin, J.C. Ryle, the big names we talk about all the time — they say John was not really doubting. What he was doing, they argue, was sending his disciples because the disciples were doubting, and he wanted them to ask the question directly to Jesus so that Jesus would answer it and boost their belief.

I do not think that is right. That is not what the text says. You have to stretch to get there. Now, generally, when you have Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and Ryle on one side and me on the other, you might want to go with those guys — but in this case, I believe they are wrong. John has questions. We might call it doubt, though that may be too strong a term. He is perplexed. He is confused. I do not think he is denying for a single moment the revealed Word of God, or what was revealed to him at Jesus' baptism. He is simply saying: from where I am sitting right now, this does not make sense. I am sitting in this prison, and You are the Messiah, the one who is going to restore the kingdom — so why am I here? Why is this happening?

Pausing for You

Let us hit the pause button on John for a moment and talk about you. Have you ever thought like that? Have you ever had questions, ever wondered? Here is what we all say when we become Christians: we do not expect our path to be strewn with roses and for everything to go smoothly. We know there will be bumps in the road. We know there will be difficult times. But somewhere in the back of our minds, we are thinking it really will be smooth — and so when the difficult times do come, we start asking questions.

Maybe you are someone saying: God, look at what I have done. Look at what I have given up for You. I am out there standing firm, and look at what is going on in my life. Or maybe you are someone saying: I have done everything I can. I have been faithful. And then the job falls apart, or the relationship breaks, and you find yourself asking: God, didn't You say I could trust You? Have you never felt that way? There is nothing wrong with feeling that way or asking those questions.

And maybe you are someone who never feels that way because you have all the answers. We are a place — and I do not say this to brag — but we are a place that has a lot figured out. Not because we are so smart, but because we know the Word and we know the truth, and if we follow it, we are on solid ground. But I wonder how you would respond if someone came in carrying those questions. My fear is that some of us —

When You Have Questions, Go to the Right People

If we were approached with these kinds of questions, we might simply pull out our doctrinal gun and blast that person away. "What was that question? Here's the chapter, here's the verse." There's nothing wrong with going to Scripture, but let me tell you what that person needs when they ask those questions — they need you to love them. There's nothing wrong with saying, "Here's the truth." We're going to end up there. But how about if we put an extra five minutes into it first and say, "Hey, it sounds to me like you're really hurting. It sounds like you have legitimate questions. There have been times when I've wondered about different things too."

Maybe you say, "Let's study together," or "Let me hook you up with my discipleship leader, or someone else who can help you. I know the answer, but I'm not sure I can fully defend it with you right now." Maybe you use a tandem approach — you go with that person to someone who can help. All I'm saying is this: it is okay to wonder. It is not okay to wander. It is not okay to move away.

This is an important distinction when we look at John. John is not running away. He doesn't hide, he doesn't say he's going to study more, he doesn't try to escape. He can't — he's in prison. So John sends his disciples to run to Jesus for him. And that is where you go when you have questions.

If you're confused, or even in doubt, you don't need to run to Dr. Phil. You don't need to go to the bookstore and pick up the latest title. Here's the book — the greatest-selling book of all time — and here are the answers. You also need people to come alongside you. That is why the church is so important.

I don't know what you think about the church, or whether you fully understand why we need it, but we need each other. One of the magnificent things that is going to happen in twelve days is when we are at camp. There is going to be an extraordinary bonding experience — it happens every year. Some of you will be moved in a real way, and God is going to do something extraordinary in your life. But when you come home and you get away from these people and this setting and back into old habits, you are going to have problems again. So where do you go when you have doubts? You go to the people who have answers. It is right here.

Jesus Points John Back to Scripture

Notice that Jesus does not push John away. Look at what He says in verse 4: "Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them."

John had been thinking about Isaiah 61, which says that when the Messiah comes there will be judgment and vengeance. But Isaiah chapter 35, also speaking of the Messiah, says that when He comes the blind will have their eyes opened, the ears of the deaf will be unstopped, the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. Jesus is essentially saying, "Am I the Messiah? Absolutely. Go and point John to these things." John, as he looks at Scripture, should recognize that Jesus is who He says He is — the Messiah.

The Problem of Misplaced Expectations

Now, part of what I think was happening with John — and I believe he was genuinely questioning and wondering — is not simply for the benefit of his disciples. There could be a variety of reasons. For one, he is in prison, he is tired, and he is isolated from other believers. But it could also be misplaced expectations.

Have you ever had that experience? You think you are going to a party and it is going to be one thing, and you get there and it is something different entirely. Or you think you have a job figured out, and the boss told you to just do the job, and then one day he comes in and says, "This isn't working out." And you think, "But I thought you wanted me to do this. I thought it was going to be like that." I have discovered that at the core of so many disagreements — in relationships between employers and employees, friend to friend, spouse to spouse, child to parent, parent to child — what is most frequently driving the conflict is misplaced expectations.

Let me give you a true story. There was a girl and a guy who got married here at the church. Three months in, she calls, weeping and sobbing. "It's not going to work. This has no chance." I said, "Baby, it's been three months." She said, "It's just never going to work." So I told her we needed to get her some help, and she said she needed to talk right then. I told her I would come to the house.

They come over, I go to the door and let them in. She walks in just weeping and crying — she looks like she hasn't slept in two, three, four days. He walks in behind her, and I could read it on his face: he already knew this conversation was coming. I got them settled and asked her to tell me what was going on. I said, "What isn't going to work?" She said, "The marriage isn't going to work." I asked, "How come?" She said, "He's not what I thought he was." I asked, "What did you think?" She said, "I thought he was a godly man. He's not a godly man."

So I turned to him and I asked, "Are you a godly man?" He said, "I thought I was — until I married her three months ago. Now I'm not so sure." I could see he just didn't know what was happening. We came back to her and said, "Give me the problems. What exactly is the problem? He's not godly — walk me through it. Is he abusive to you?" No. "Is he mean to you?" No. "Does he love you?" She wasn't sure.

Then she said, "Here's what I thought. I thought we would do nothing but talk about God." She said, "He does okay. We pray together every morning, we pray together every night, we study the Bible together two, three, four times a week — but he's really not a godly guy." I'm thinking to myself, I have a thousand girls who would trade places with her sight unseen. Bring him in and we'll make the deal.

Misplaced Expectations

In premarital counseling, a critical mistake can happen when a couple uses the same words but means different things. We asked the woman what kind of man she wanted, and she said a godly man. We asked the man if he was godly, and he said yes. The problem was that we never asked what either of them meant by "godly." The result was misplaced expectations — she was thinking one thing, he was thinking another.

Years ago, our family took a vacation starting in San Diego. Susan and the girls went ahead while I finished some things, and I joined them later. We went to SeaWorld, drove up to Los Angeles, saw Phantom of the Opera at the Albertson, went to Knott's Berry Farm, visited a park in San Jose, and finished up at Sea Ranch for a couple of weeks. It was a full trip. On the drive home, I asked the girls how they thought the vacation was, and they said, "We really didn't do anything. This whole time, we didn't do anything. Nothing. Not really."

The next year, before we left, I told them to write down everything they wanted to do on the vacation. As we went through the trip, we checked things off the list. Near the end, when it was clear we weren't going to get to everything, I asked each of them to initial next to the items we were skipping — their acknowledgment that it was okay. When it was over and I asked how the vacation was, they said, "We had a great vacation. We did so much stuff." We had actually done about half of what we did the year before, but this time it was all defined. Expectations had been set and managed.

John's Expectations of Jesus

That story illustrates what was happening with John the Baptist. In a sense, John was saying, "I missed it here." He had declared Jesus the Messiah — he had said, "Behold the Lamb of God" — but now he was sitting in jail, and Jesus was not doing what John expected the Messiah to do. John thought Jesus was going to make everything right, and yet here John was, imprisoned. His expectations were out of alignment with reality.

Jesus' response to John was essentially: you need to get refocused. Isaiah 35 speaks of great works and miracles, and those were exactly what Jesus was performing. He was fulfilling the prophecy John already knew. And I believe John did ultimately get it.

The Rest of John's Story

To see how the story ends, turn from Matthew 11 to Matthew chapter 14. Verse 3 tells us: "For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because John had been saying, 'It is not lawful for you to have her.'" Herod wanted to put John to death but feared the people, because they considered John a prophet.

Verse 6 continues: "But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, 'Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter.'" Herod is a small, cowardly man throughout this account. He gave the oath rashly, and now he was afraid to back down in front of his guests. He didn't want to lose face before the people at his party.

Verse 10 tells us he sent and had John beheaded in prison. "The head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. His disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus." The text doesn't say this explicitly, but my sense is that when John's disciples came and told Jesus the manner of John's death, Jesus understood — and that was the complete close of that loop. I believe John had come to understand who Jesus truly was before the end.

Jesus Defends John

Now go back to chapter 11. After Jesus answers the questions from John's disciples, something significant happens: Jesus becomes John's defense attorney. Verse 7 says, "As they went away, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John." The disciples had come with their questions, Jesus dealt with them, and now He turns to address the crowd.

My sense is that the crowd, having heard John's question, was beginning to reconsider their view of him. They had thought John was something extraordinary, a spiritual giant — but now, hearing that he was questioning Jesus from prison, they may have been thinking he wasn't the great prophet they had believed him to be. So Jesus reminds them of what they actually experienced when they went out to hear John, because they had gone out by the hundreds and thousands into the desert to hear him teach.

Jesus asks them directly: "What did you go into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?" Was John someone who said one thing one day and something else the next, blowing back and forth with the wind? "Did you go out to see a man dressed in soft clothes? Behold, those who wear soft clothes are in the king's house." Was John dressed in fine robes trying to impress powerful people? No — John wore a camel hair coat with a leather belt and ate locusts and honey. The historians tell us that in Jesus' time, some scribes who wanted to impress the king would exchange their ordinary clothes for elaborate robes. Jesus is likely drawing a contrast with exactly that kind of behavior. John was not a hypocrite. He was not blowing in the wind, and he was not dressing for an audience.

John the Baptist: More Than a Prophet

"What did you go to see?" Jesus asks in verse 9. "A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. This is he of whom it is written, 'Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you.'" Jesus quotes, a little loosely, from Malachi chapter 3. When the crowds went out to see John, they didn't just hear a prophet — they saw prophecy fulfilled. John is a prophet to be sure, but he is the fulfillment of what the prophets talked about. The prophets said there is a messenger coming whose cry will be to make smooth the way of the Lord, to make the path straight. That is John. That is who he is.

Is John a lightweight? Look at verse 11: "Truly I say to you, among those born of women there has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist." That is a huge statement. Jesus is saying, look at all the other pages of Scripture — there is nobody in there greater than John. Not David, not Abraham, not Moses. Not Isaac, not Elijah, not Elisha. None of them are greater than John. The crowds were ready to throw John under the bus because he had some questions, but Jesus reminds them: you went out to see this man and you were not disappointed. You saw a prophet, and you saw prophecy fulfilled.

Verse 13 continues: "For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John," and if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come. "If he has ears to hear, let him hear." John is the one they told about.

A Generation That Is Never Satisfied

In verse 16, Jesus turns the table. He is done talking about John, and now He addresses the crowd directly. What kind of people are you? What kind of generation is this? Here is what Jesus says in the English Standard Version: "To what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to their playmates, 'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn.' For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'"

One of the modern paraphrases renders it this way: "How can I account for this generation? The people have been like spoiled, whining children. They want to skip rope and they say you are always too tired. We want to talk but you are too busy. John came fasting and they called him crazy. I came feasting and they called me a lush."

What Jesus is describing is a group of people who are never happy. They are never satisfied. Something is always wrong. Every silver lining has a cloud. There is always something to complain about. This kind of constant criticism wears people out, and it is hurtful and unproductive. This is not a conversation about discernment or rightly judging doctrine — it is about petty, constant whining and complaining. God gives someone a job and they whine about the kind of job it is. God blesses someone and they complain it is not enough.

This same spirit shows up in all kinds of places. The music is not right. The service is too loud. The lights are wrong. It is too casual. We put out bottled water as a way of serving people, and someone comes up demanding juice, then iced tea, then water, as though this were a Starbucks. This is a church. We are trying to help. If any of us recognize that spirit in ourselves — and it is a temptation for many of us — why not hold one another accountable to throw that petty attitude out and be done with it?

What the Accusations Against Jesus Reveal

It is worth pausing on the accusation the crowd leveled at Jesus: that He was a glutton, a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and sinners. We know He was not a glutton and we know He was not a drunkard, because He did not sin. But the accusation tells us something true about Jesus. Scripture says that little children came to Jesus. Watch who children run to — they do not run to just anybody. They run to people who are open and welcoming.

A Warning to Those Who Have Heard

Jesus began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent. He names two of them: Chorazin and Bethsaida. He said, "Woe to you, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon" — two hugely pagan, corrupt, wicked cities — "they would have repented long ago. But I tell you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you."

And then He turns to Capernaum: "Will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to Hades, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you." He is talking about judgment. Judgment is coming, and it will come in one of two ways: either you die and are then judged, or Jesus comes again.

These cities saw mighty works and did not respond. Those pagan towns had barely been visited by Jesus at all, and yet He said that if they had seen what these cities saw, they would have responded. The privilege of hearing makes the weight of rejecting all the heavier.

It is easy to ask what happens to those who have never heard. But let's give those people a rest for a moment and talk about you — you who have heard. Some of you have been hearing this for years and years. Students, you have had something many others never had growing up. Some people never had anyone crack open a Bible for them, never had anyone explain that they could be saved through a relationship with Christ. And yet you have heard it over and over again and perhaps never responded. You are like these two cities. The judgment will come one day, and it will be extraordinarily harsh on those who heard and did not repent.

The Invitation: Come to Me

Now here is the payoff, in verse 28. Here is what Jesus says: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest. My yoke is easy and my burden is light."

He says this to every person here. He says it to every person in every place on this planet — every person who has ever lived and ever will live. Come. It is an open invitation. Come, respond, repent. Come.

Who should come? All who labor. Some translations say "all who are weary" — and that word means you have worked yourself to the point of exhaustion. You are heavy laden. This weariness is an internal striving. In context, Jesus is really talking about trying to understand life — the meaning of it, the purpose of it, the direction of it, trying to work out that there is a God and how to make sense of it all. That is what religion does, by the way. It gets you nowhere but tired.

The picture of being heavy laden is burdens placed upon you — rules and regulations. The Jews understood this acutely, because the scribes and Pharisees put a law upon a law upon a law, and they had a rule for everything. Maybe that is you. If you could speak honestly right now, you would say you are tired. Tired of playing the game, tired of acting, sick of not being able to meet the expectations. You know you have a problem. You acknowledge you are a sinner. You are at the end of your rope, with nothing left.

The Best Place to Be

That is actually a great place to be. It is the best place to be. Because as long as you are saying, "I still can," God is going to say, go on and try. As long as you think you still have some strength, some possibility, that you might still pull this off — God says, knock yourself out. You are not going to get anywhere. But when you reach the point of saying, "I am done, I give up, I am whipped, there is nothing left" — that is when something can happen.

What do you need when you are exhausted? Rest. And there it is, right in verse 28: "I will give you rest." Verse 29 repeats it. A sense of peace. A sense of comfort.

The Yoke That Brings Freedom

The yoke does not mean much to us today. When we hear the word yoke, we think of an egg. A yoke was a wooden crosspiece used to tie animals together and strap them to a plow or a grain grinder. It demonstrated submission. That animal was being controlled by the person holding the yoke.

And here is what Jesus says: His yoke is easy. It is not hard. It sounds paradoxical, but that is exactly what He is saying. You submit to Him, you yield to Him, and you find freedom. It does not sound right, does it? He says it elsewhere too: if you want to save your life, you need to lose it. If you want to find rest, you yoke yourself. You bind yourself. You submit yourself.

Come to Him

He asks that you come. What does that mean? It means to acknowledge that I am a sinner separated from God by my sin, and that Jesus died so that we could have eternal life. When He died, He paid the price for the sin of all of those who would come, who would believe in Him. That belief, remember, is not just saying, "I believe it factually." It means more than that — it means staking your life on it. If I were to die and God were to say to me, "Why should I let you into heaven?" the answer is: because I trusted Jesus. I believe. I have faith in Him.

His yoke is easy. His burden is not heavy. It is not like religion — not like rules and regulations, do this and don't do this. It is light.

It Is Okay to Wonder

You have questions? You are in the company of the greatest man who ever lived up to the time of Jesus — and that is okay. There are times when life is hard. It just is. And there may be times in the midst of that when you are saying, "God, where are You?" That is okay. God can handle the questions. Come and ask Him.

Here is what He is going to say. He is going to take you right back to the Word: "Where am I? I am right here where I have always been. You called Me Lord. You called Me Master. I am in control." Things may not be going exactly like you want them to go, but they are going exactly like you need them to go, because this is what is best for you. God may not always give you what you want, but He will always give you what you need.

When those hard things come, there is never a good time. There is never a good time for the difficult things to arrive. You could say, "Well, next year would be better" — but then next year comes and you say, "One more year." If you are a follower of Christ and you have those questions, and periodically you are a little confused and you are really asking, "Where are You?" — He is saying, "I am right here where I have always been." This is really important: it is okay to wonder. It is not okay to wander. It is okay to wonder where He is. It is not okay to wander away.

An Invitation and an Encouragement

To those of you who would say, "I don't really know — this is new to me," I am pleading with you: talk to someone who brought you here. Talk to someone who will be around afterward. Call the people at the church — they would love to talk to you about what it means to come to Him. What we would love to have you take on is the easy yoke.

To those of us who are Christians — aren't these great words of encouragement? It is a big, dark, scary world out there, full of things I don't understand and can't figure out, and things happen that I don't like. But I don't have to figure it all out. God does. He is not promising that everything will be easy and smooth. He is saying that hard things are coming — they are going to happen to every one of you. You may be sailing along right now thinking you haven't had any problems. Let me tell you something: you are going to have them. I guarantee it. I don't know what form they will take or what the challenges will be, but they are coming.

And when they come, He may not even remove them — but He is going to climb in there with you. Our goal is not merely to survive. Our goal is to thrive in the middle of all of this. There is no way we can do it on our own — we will fall flat on our faces. But greater is He that is in you and me than he that is in the world. How wonderful is that?

Let's pray. Father, thank You for this truth. God, as we have this opportunity now...