Title: Path of True Rest
Contents
"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is always a good word to hear and comforting words. Why? It is because of the word 'rest', rest, and rest, because we are all living with the heavy burden of life. Each person carries different burdens, but they all bear the same burden. Some people seem to have no burden and life seems to be smooth, but other people's rice cakes seem bigger. Who is free from trouble, and who does not carry the heavy yoke of life?
So we all want to rest. I want rest. Who would love to work? Working is ultimately about relaxing and having fun. But the paradox of life is that the more we struggle to find rest, the more we suffer. We constantly strive to make money for those without money, for those who have money to earn more, or to gain more power, to acquire more knowledge, and to enjoy more wealth. It is said that we work to live and not live to work, but in reality, it is our way of life that it is difficult to avoid living to work. You work to death, and at the end of your life you get an undesirable break, and you say goodbye to it with regret. As long as we live, rest is like a wind that cannot be caught. Until the day when death is forcibly expelled from life.
But in today's Word, Jesus promises such a rest and invites us there. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. The first thing we should note here is that Jesus does not promise to completely remove the yoke of life from us. He is not saying that he will do it without a yoke, but that he will take an easy yoke. No, he says he will teach you how to bear a heavy yoke easily. We are gathered here today not to take away our burdens, burdens, and yokes, but to learn from Christ how to bear easily. I'm trying to learn the secret to lightening no matter how heavy the load.
The problem is the content of the burden we carry. In other words, what you carry is what matters. What burden do we carry? In other words, what kind of 'my yoke' Jesus is talking about is easy, and what is his burden that is light? This is the question we need to consider today.
We're not here just to rest for a while, so we're not going to leave here tomorrow and struggle again with heavy burdens. If that's the purpose, you'd be much better off sleeping at home. What better way to rest than sleep? It is a temporary solution like a temporary escape or painkiller, but not a fundamental solution. The retreat is easy to get away with temporarily. It ends with a one-time event and is held as an annual event. Of course it's better than not doing it. It is well worth it just to take a break from your busy life and stop working. However, Jesus does not call us for this temporary rest or temporary healing, but for a permanent solution, to solve the fundamental problems of life. He invites us to a way of resting from work, a way of rest that transcends the distinction between a prayer center and a market, a way of rest that can be enjoyed anytime, anywhere, and a way of eternal peace that no one can take away from us. We invite you to teach us how to live an easy life without avoiding all the problems and burdens that come to us.
The secret is 'meekness and humility of heart'. He promises that this is the secret to obtaining the rest of the soul. Meekness is the opposite of competing, standing, and trying to dominate. It is a generous heart that gives, grants, and yields. It is a mind that is thrown away. Humility is also lowly and lowly, and it is the attitude of a servant to serve. It is an attitude of self-discipline.
Indeed, the fatigue and suffering of life come from a competitive spirit, a desire to overcome others, and a desire to occupy a high position. But the man with an empty heart is burdened with a heavy burden, and the burden does not trouble him; he does many things, but the work does not toil him. Why? Because it's not about exalting and glorifying yourself.
It's because I emptied my mind and didn't do it out of a competitive spirit. Because even if you suffer, it is suffering that comes out of love. It's because it's a life that comes from love just like the hardships and sacrifices of mothers. Because it is a priceless sacrifice for others, life is meaningless no matter how hard it is, and even if the yoke is heavy, it is a life that has no desire to cast it off.
Christ is the one who showed this attitude of life. He is a person who was born in such a low place and lived and went to a lower place. He did not live a life that pursued money, fame, or power, but he lived a life of completely emptying himself before God and living for his neighbor. He did not compete with anyone for anything, but took the narrow road, the low life, and walked the way of the cross, proclaiming that there is real life. And he testifies that right here lies the true rest of life.
In a way, this seems more difficult than the easy way. Because there is nothing as difficult as abandoning oneself. At first glance, Jesus' words of invitation may sound like words of comfort to us, but when we think about it, we know that it is not a comfort, but another burden, another psychological burden. Are we really ready to give up and lower ourselves like this? Living like that would surely be an easy and light yoke, but do I really want to do that? Do you have the courage to do that?
However, it is the unanimous testimony of not only Jesus but also all the saints that there is no way to lighten the burden of life without forsaking oneself and without a meek and humble heart. It's not that life itself is difficult, it's that you yourself are difficult, that you live by constantly causing problems with your own useless greed rather than giving problems to others. No matter how much you change the world, there is no real happiness until you change yourself. And the consistent testimony of the saints is that it is more difficult to overcome oneself than to conquer the world. Spirituality of meekness and humility is by no means an easy road. In this sense, the spirituality of self-denial is not an escape spirituality. And at least the spirituality of Jesus is not a spirituality of escape. This difficult spirituality of gentleness and humility, and the spirituality of self-denial, are difficulties and burdens that we must bear. This is the cross we must bear. And the testimony of Jesus is that there can be no spirituality without constant struggle with oneself, religion without conflict with the world, affirmation without negation, and resurrection without the cross.
It is often said that religion gives comfort to the heart. It's true. But the problem is that there is real comfort and fake comfort. The fact is that there are real drugs and there are fake drugs, the latter being like opium. The ills of the Korean church today are right here. It is said that if you just believe in Jesus, everything will be solved at once. It is said that all the burdens of life disappear. Rather than lighten the burden, they often use the air tactics to say that the burden can be completely eliminated through faith in ups and downs. And the moment I come to church and worship, I really forget all the pain of the world and fall into the illusion that the burden has disappeared. Put it down in front. He thinks that what he did wrong is the cross, and even though he is greedy, he does not repent of greed. He lays down his selfish desires and the injustice of not being able to fulfill his greed as the burden of life before Jesus and weeps and appeals.
For there is rest in meekness and humility. It is because the more you empty yourself, the more peace and rest you will find, and the more you try to fill yourself, the more your anguish and pain will increase. In addition, this path of meekness and humility, the way of the cross, is a burden that our Lord Jesus Christ carried, so naturally we who follow him must also bear it. As the lyrics of the hymns say, ?쏻ill my Lord not bear the crucifixion that my Lord bore???and ?쏝ecause the Lord was humiliated, I will also be humiliated?? Because there is. Just as we are not people of Christ if we do not have the Spirit of Christ in us, we are not Christians if we do not live our lives to share in the sufferings of the Lord. Furthermore, we need to remember that not only do we share in Christ's sufferings, but Christ also participates in our sufferings. There is comfort that Christ is with us in the scene of our suffering and that He gives infinite comfort to us through the solidarity of suffering in the suffering we have experienced and makes our suffering light (Hymns 367 and 510).
Today we are gathered here to put aside our worldly work for a moment, to look back on our lives, and to see once again where true peace and rest lies in life. We have come together to taste and confirm the depth and strength of the true path of peace that Jesus Christ gives us, not the peace that the world gives us. I came to learn the way the Lord took, the way of meekness and humility, which He still calls us to go there, the spirituality of self-emptying of the cross and self-denial.