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There are so many things today that bombard our senses, demand our attention, and compete for our emotions. As we continue to exist in a world so bent on desensitising us, maybe your day feels more like a survival mission. 2023 years ago, Jesus brought us a solution to our burnout, heartbreak, and weary hearts. When we are at our worst, Jesus says, “Come to Me.”

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Although it took place in the 1930s, it remains one of the most mystifying missing person cases in FBI files. After spending an evening out with friends, a 45-year-old New York judge hailed a taxi and was never heard from again. The FBI immediately suspected a kidnapping by someone who held a judicial grudge against him. But that didn’t seem to pan out. They then suspected Mafia activity because he was an outspoken enemy of the Mafia. But again, that led nowhere. To this day, there is only one remaining clue. When his wife returned to their apartment that evening, there on the table was a check for a large sum of money made out to her and a note in her husband’s handwriting which simply said, “I am very, very tired. Love, Joe”.

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Were those words merely a comment made at the end of a particularly trying day? Or was his note saying, “I’m tired; I’m fatigued; I’m weary; I give up”? To this day, we can’t be sure. For lack of further evidence, it’s presently believed he rode off to an unknown destination where he took his own life because weariness had weighted his soul. I think all of us from time to time can relate to that kind of weariness — which comes from life itself. If you are of average weight and height, here is what you will go through in an average 24-hour period: Your heart will beat 103,689 times. Your blood will travel 168 million miles as your heart pumps approximately 4 ounces per beat. You will breathe 23,040 times, inhaling 438 cubic feet of air. Your stomach will take in 3.5 pounds of food and 2.9 quarts of liquid. You’ll lose 7/8ths of a pound of waste. You will speak between 4,800 and 7,000 words. You will move 750 muscles and exercise 7 million brain cells.

No wonder we’re tired! But there is a weariness much more draining than physical fatigue. It’s the kind of weariness you feel when you just don’t know if you can go on another day. It’s the weariness a father feels when his child is doing wrong, the weariness a friend feels who has been abandoned or misunderstood, and the weariness a wife feels whose husband has rejected her. It can take a toll on even the most seemingly successful individuals.

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“Come to me, all you who are weary…” (Matthew 11:28). How I appreciate that! The Lord of the universe invited anyone who is weary to come to Him. If I were the Lord, I don’t know if I would make that kind of invitation. Keep in mind that at this point in Matthew’s Gospel, Israel is rejecting His invitation to make Him King. Consequently, no longer is Jesus speaking to a nation corporately, saying, “Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

No, now He is speaking to individuals personally, saying, “Come to Me, any who are weary, any who are labouring”. Would you have called this group of people? I’m not sure I would. I think I would say, “Come unto me, all you who are happy — let’s celebrate life together! Let’s lift each other’s spirits!” Or maybe I would have said, “Come unto me, all you who are wealthy. Come and share your prosperity!” Or maybe, “Come unto me all you who are wise. Let’s dialogue and philosophise and interact intellectually.”

But the personal invitation Jesus extended to people individually as the nation rebelled against Him corporately was: “Anyone who is weary, come to Me. Those are My people — the weary ones.”

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Jesus didn’t say, “Run to Me”. So often in my weariness, I can’t run. I can only stumble or crawl before Him. But that’s okay – he just said “Come” any way we can.

He didn’t say, “Go to church”. He didn’t say, “Listen to a sermon”. Nor did He say, “Get some counselling” or “Read a book”. He said, “Come to Me”.

Come unto me, all ye that labour…

What causes us to be weary in our labour? I believe the answer is found in Exodus 5.

The people of Israel were in Egypt. 400 years previously, they left the Land of Promise due to famine and headed south to Egypt where there was plenty to eat. For a while, they enjoyed abundance and prosperity. But suddenly the situation changed when a new Pharaoh came on the scene, looked at the Jewish people, and said, “We’ve got to enslave these people”. So, for hundreds of years, the people of God were enslaved by the Egyptians, baking bricks in the blistering, burning sun for the construction of Pharaoh’s monuments. It has been documented that the Israelites baked enough bricks to build a wall ten feet high and five feet thick from New York to Los Angeles.

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‘You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks; let them go and gather their own straw. But require them to make the same number of bricks as before; don’t reduce the quota. They are lazy; that is why they are crying out, “Let us go and sacrifice to our God.” Make the work harder for the people so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies.’ (Exodus 5:7-9)

The Hebrew word translated “labour” in verse 9 has the same meaning as the Greek word translated “labour” Jesus used in Matthew 11. Do you sometimes feel like you’re stuck in Egypt, endlessly making bricks for Pharaoh under the blistering sun? Maybe you’ve said, “I’m going to Egypt. I’m going to labour to get ahead in my career,” or, “I’m going to work hard for this material thing”. And for a while, it seemed enjoyable. But then, just like Pharaoh, it turned against you, and the very thing you thought would be wonderful is now a taskmaster — cracking the whip and enslaving you.

“Come to Me,” the Lord says. “All you who are weary from labour, all you who have realised Pharaoh is a fake and Egypt is a rip off, come to Me.”

We have a tendency to think, “I’m going to be so happy when I accomplish this task, when I reach that goal, when I get this business or that toy.”

And we labour and labour until we finally say, “This isn’t working out the way I thought it could, the way the commercials promised it would. I’m miserable. I’m tired. I am weary.

Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden…

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In Isaiah 1:4-6, the Lord says to His people, Israel, “You’re beat up and bruised and hurting and desolate and destroyed because you have been laden, loaded with iniquity”. You see, Pharaoh makes us labour, but sin makes us heavy laden. Sin weighs us down.

David went through a season of sin on more than one occasion. During one such time, he wrote,

“Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. Because of your wrath there is no health in my body; there is no soundness in my bones because of my sin. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. My wounds fester and are loathsome because of my sinful folly. I am bowed down and brought very low; all day long I go about mourning. My back is filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart.” (Psalm 38:1-8)

Sin will make you tired. What does Jesus say? He says, “Whether you’ve been seduced and sucked in by Pharaoh’s mentality — working for the world and finding it to be nothing but bricks and weariness — or whether you’ve been heavy laden with iniquity, come unto Me.”

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When Jesus lived on this earth, He invited people to come to Him, and He still does today (John 6:35). But what do He and His Father in heaven have that we need?

Salvation.

Jesus is the only way to have forgiveness of sin and the promise of heaven. “Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:15).

Purpose.

We are to give all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength to following Jesus. “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Mark 8:34).

Comfort.

In trial or sorrow, the “God of all comfort . . . comforts us in all our tribulation” (2 Cor. 1:3-4).

Wisdom.

We need wisdom beyond our own for making decisions. “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, . . . and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

Strength.

When we’re weary, “the Lord will give strength to His people” (Ps. 29:11).

Abundant life.

The fullest life is found in a relationship with Jesus. “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

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Jesus said, “The one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out” (John 6:37). Come!

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Amen.