daily java

Daily Java:  

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. (Matthew 11:28)

The problem with church sometimes is that when you come, you find out all the stuff you are supposed to do. by the time the church loads you down with all of the “commands” of God, you almost cannot turn around without sinning.

But that is a problem. Jesus never came to tell us stuff to do. He never came to give us more commands from God. He never came to add to our burden.

Anytime we expect people to do what we think God wants them to do, we add to their burden, not ease it.

In the Old Testament, God had a lot of commands. It was a law that was designed to show God’s people that they could not keep a law, no matter how hard they tried. It was a law that pointed to something better: Jesus.

In the new system, God writes his law on our hearts, not on paper or rock or other people’s motives or anything else.  In fact, Jesus said, in Matthew 22, that the new law of God was one of love. In other words, it was a law that changed your heart, not dictated your behavior.

I remember when I was younger and I read the injunction of Jesus in Matthew 5:28. He said, anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

What that meant to me at the time was not only was the law of God not to commit adultery, but it meant that if I even thought about it, I was dead. Thoughtcrime, as George Orwell put it, had been introduced into the kingdom. The new law of God was even worse than the old one.

You could get by without committing adultery under the old law, but you could think about it. In the new law, you were dead if you even thought about it.

There was no way anyone could keep such a law.

But that is not what Jesus was saying. He was saying that just because you don’t actually do something doesn’t mean you are fine if your heart was so full of lust and anger and all. It is not the commission or lack of commission of sins, it is the heart that matters.

That is why King David in the Old Testament was called a man after God’s own heart. He did wrong and Israel suffered because of it. But he was repentant. Even though he had sinned, his heart was that of a worshiper of God.

In other words, God forgives if your heart is right, even if you do something stupid. But he cannot forgive if your heart is full of hatred and anger and lust. It isn’t because he doesn’t want to. It is that he cannot reach through all that stuff to get to your heart.

When the new covenant came along, God sent Jesus. He came to give us rest. It is rest in the knowledge of the love of God and the knowledge that his grace will cover our inadequacies. It is the real rest of knowing God and his love.

God loves us even when we fail. And that is true rest.