The yearlong focus will encourage students, faculty and staff to lay down life’s burdens and embrace Christ’s gift of rest.
Few invitations are more gracious than the one our Lord extends in Matthew’s Gospel: “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28, ESV).
The labor of which Jesus speaks is not hard manual work, but rather the burden of carrying our sins and striving after righteousness according to a standard we can never quite meet.
Indeed, every one of us is weary and heavy laden because, no matter how hard we work, when it comes to making ourselves righteous, we can never be good enough for God.
That endless toil of chasing after our own righteousness is what the false, sinful and natural religion of humanity is in a nutshell: striving to be good enough so that we can earn and deserve God’s favor. It makes for a very hard life, for such a false god is unforgiving and unmerciful.
The rest only Christ can give
In the words of Jesus, however, we find a different teaching: the true religion of God. “Come to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
The way of Jesus is unlike any other religion in the world. In Jesus’ religion, God tells you to lay down your burdens of self-justification.
He tells you to rest.
Jesus tells you that He will take your heavy burden. He will take the hard labor. He will take your hard yoke and make it easy. He will take your heavy burden and make it light.
Jesus could only say that because He is the Son of God who became flesh to save us from our sins.
Apart from Him, no one can know the love of God the Father. While there is nothing we can do to please God, everything Jesus did pleased His Father. While we cannot endure the punishment our sin demands, Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross completely satisfied God’s justice for us. He rose from the dead three days later, just as He promised.
Jesus is the One who takes our yoke upon Himself and gives us the easy yoke of forgiveness in its place. He is the One who took away our heavy burden of sin and replaced it with His righteousness. He has taken away the labor and burden of false belief and replaced them with the gift of rest that comes from faith in Christ alone.
So, dear friends, rest in Christ. By His Word, by Baptism and Absolution, by His body and blood, receive rest from the burden of trying to bargain your way out from under the heavy load of guilt and shame that the devil, the world, and your own sinful flesh try to trick you into bearing.
Christ has taken your load. He replaces it with His yoke—His righteousness—which is easy and light.
By Rev. Jonathon Bakker, Campus Pastor
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Concordia University Wisconsin is a Lutheran higher education community committed to helping students develop in mind, body and spirit for service to Christ in the Church and the world. To learn more about campus ministry opportunities, click on the link below.