9/21 In Rhythm with Jesus
SCRIPTURE: Matthew 11:25-30 “Come unto me”
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:
1 Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum were villages close to Nazareth where Jesus grew up and the places where he performed the most miracles. What do you make of Jesus’ pronouncing a “woe” to them? Why would Jesus be that intense?
2 Jesus says that the Father has revealed “these things to infants” (see 1 Cor. 1:18 - 2:2 for a similar teaching from St. Paul). What is it that the religious leaders don’t get that little children do? In light of that context, how should we understand Jesus’ invitation to “come” to him?
3 A “yoke” is a wooden frame joining two animals, usually oxen, for pulling loads. How does Jesus describe his “yoke”? How can we come to Jesus and learn from him? (See 1 John 5:2-4 for another description of the yoke of Jesus.)
4 How does Jesus describe himself in this passage? How is that the same or different from common conceptions of who Jesus is? Does that differ from your instinctual or kneejerk response about who Jesus is? (See Philippians 2:6-8 for another description of Jesus’ character.) If someone who doesn’t know Jesus asked you about Jesus, how would you describe His gentle and lowly character?
5 What burdens are you carrying right now (or from the Sunday message, what destructive rhythms are you stuck in)? How is Jesus inviting you to find rest for your weariness?
6 Eugene Peterson describes the yoke of Jesus as the “unforced rhythms of grace”. What rhythms of grace is Jesus inviting you into this fall? How might you learn to experience his presence, peace, and healing in rhythm with him?
PRAYER PRACTICE:
1 Turn Matthew 11:28-30 into a prayer asking Jesus for his rest and healing.
Jesus, I want to come to you, I’m weary and burdened, please give me your rest. I want to take your yoke on me and I want to learn from you. I know and trust and have experienced that you are gentle and humble in heart: please help me find rest for my soul in you. Give me your easy yoke and light burden. Amen.
COMMENTARY:
“Jesus alarmed them when he used every possible means to reclaim them to repentance.” John Chrysostom, The Gospel of Matthew Homilies 37.4
“He doesn’t warn those who need conversion; he warns those who think they already have it. These people have Jesus’ presence and power right in front of them but it doesn’t change them. They don’t repent. They don’t obey him or even take him seriously.” — The Gospel of Matthew: God with Us by Matt Woodley, IVP, 2011; pg 130.
“Babes see because sacred truths are revealed to them, and not otherwise. They are weak and inexperienced. They are simple and unsophisticated. They can cling, and trust, and cry, and love; and to such the Lord opens up the treasures of wisdom. Lord, let me be one among them! The truths of the heavenly kingdom are hid, by a judicial act of God, from men who, in their own esteem, are “the wise and prudent.” They cannot see, because they trust their own dim light, and will not accept the light of God” — Spurgeon’s Popular Exposition of Matthew, Charles Spurgeon, 1983, pg. 82.
“The cumulative testimony of the four gospels is that when Jesus Christ sees the fallenness of the world all about him, his deepest impulse, his most natural instinct, is to move toward that sin and suffering, not away from it.” Gentle and Lowly, by Dane Ortlund, pg 30.
