Truth can make a person joyful. Truth can make a person inconsolable. Get where I’m going? Happy truths exist, like me hitting an ace on the disc golf course. Sad truths exist, like losing a loved one to cancer.
Truth has an uncanny ability to toy with every emotion known to humankind. Truths barrage us, creating a life best symbolized by a roller coaster ride with orangutans sitting beside us smacking us with overripe bananas.
Yet, Jesus speaks this promise: “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest…For my yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28 &30.
We’re tempted to spew a snarky comment: “There’s nothing easy about constantly riding on a roller coaster and screaming while some fool orangutan keeps belting me with his banana. It’s exhausting.”
But Jesus’ primary focus wasn’t this life. His primary focus was the next life. Verse 29 of Matthew 11 shows us this: “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.”
Focus on how He describes Himself: ‘gentle and humble in heart.’ Jesus is not at all like the man-created gods of the world who demand submission and obedience. That scenario resembles a person standing over you, yelling in your ear while you’re on a gut-wringing roller coaster ride. Then just for fun, he unleashes an orangutan into your lap. Truth: Jesus is the only God who describes Himself as “gentle and humble in heart.”
It’s almost like He’s saying He doesn’t have all the answers. But, of course, He does. So He invites us to learn from Him. He possesses the Truth.
What is the most magnanimous Truth of all time? The Truth that supersedes all other Truth? It’s that we all possess eternal existence after this life. 100% of everyone who has lived in this physical life, beginning with Adam and Eve, has gone on to an eternal existence. Even atheists.
Jesus makes that point in verse 29: “…and you will find rest for your souls.” His use of the word ‘souls’ points to the eternal existence of every person. He’s not saying only those people who believe in Him have souls. He’s saying everyone, despite personal belief, has souls.
The vast majority of the world population believe He’s speaking Truth. Sociologists have calculated the percentage of atheists in the world at 7%. In the United States, about 9% of the population are atheists. Over 90% of the world’s population believes in some kind of afterlife.
According to Scripture, God put this intuition about eternal life in all our hearts: “He has also set eternity in their heart…” (Ecclesiastes 3:11)
Have you ever wondered why Lynn Anderson’s country song, Rose Garden, was never considered a gospel song? That song could have been one of Jesus’ theme songs while He walked the earth. Matter-of-factly, He says to the Disciples: “In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33) Cue Lynn Anderson’s lyric: “I beg your pardon. I never promised you a rose garden.”
Yet, in His last hours with the Disciples, Jesus spends a lot of time not only telling them what was about to happen, but also encouraging them. He mentions ‘joy’ three different times in those hours. My favorite is when He says, “These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:11)
He also says this to them, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)
It’s a colossal connection—truth and life (specifically pointing to our spiritual life rather than our physical life). And it is embodied in one person—Jesus, God who became man. He brings this magnificent truth: He holds our eternal existence in His hands.
All we have to do is accept His invitation to come to Him. If we do, we will discover joy in His rest. We will discover how His yoke is easy and His burdens are light even in the midst of our roller coaster lives. Even with an orangutan slapping an over-ripe banana upside our heads.