The Great Invitation (A Study of Matthew 11:28-30) Part 2

Friends: I consider it a great privilege to work on my blog every day. And for the next few posts I’ll be examining one of my favorite passages, Matthew 11:28-30. This is a text worthy of memorization (which I’m very bad at). I want to slowly go through these verses with you and see as much as we can, with the Holy Spirit’s help. Here’s that famous text once again:

In our first post we thought a bit about the context of this incredible invitation. At first glance, it seems to be disconnected from the rest of the chapter as a pericope (a selection). But there are some connections worthy of note (as we saw in our 1st post).

Some of you have a bit of New Testament Greek under your belt, so here’s the text in Koiné Greek:

As you can see, I like to color things! And I like to see the same word (or a variant) used several times. Just a few notes at this time (we’ll examine the individual words in subsequent posts):

1. The idea of “burden” shows up twice: In verse 28 it is translated as “burdened” (πεφορτισμένοι) and in verse 30 we read of the “burden” (φορτίον) which Jesus declares as “light.”

2. Jesus promises “rest” (ἀναπαύσω -a verb: “I will rest you”?) in verse 28 to all who come to Him. He promises “rest” (ἀνάπαυσιν – a noun) in verse 29.

3. Notice that coming to Jesus involves WORK. There is a yoke (ζυγόν) which the Jesus-follower is to take upon himself (verse 29) and that yoke (ζυγόν) is described by the Lord as “easy.”

Today’s Challenge: I believe God honors any effort to better understand His Word. And we are setting out on an honorable journey to truly respond to this great invitation. Excited?