Read Matthew 11:25-30 

“²⁸Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

If you’ve ever tried to “measure up” to someone else’s expectations for you, then you’ll know how tiring it is! This weariness characterised how many people in Jesus’ day were experiencing their relationship with God. Jesus pinpointed the root cause of these beliefs in the hypocrisy of the religious leaders of the day. These leaders were falsely teaching that following their rules could lead to favour from God. Rather, these rules led not to God’s rest, but wearied and burdened souls.

Even today, if the average person were asked, “What kind of person goes to Heaven?”, they are most likely to respond, “A good one”. This expectation sounds straightforward, but it usually leads to one of two outcomes, either hiding from God or striving for God!

We may hide due to an old addiction that resurfaces, a surprise ending to a relationship or some moment of passion when our resolve to act “good” doesn’t match up with the requirements that God, the government or ourselves expect. Amidst failure, “hiders” tend to walk away from church, prayer and sometimes even faith itself.

If you’ve ever played “hide’n’seek” with a two-year-old, you may have seen them stand in a corner facing the wall with their hands over their eyes, “hiding”! Whenever we try to “hide” from God, the reality is he knows exactly where we are, and what we’ve done, and is probably having a little chuckle at our efforts. The good news is that Jesus, God’s son, came to find “hiders” and heal their hearts.

Others amongst us, full of good intentions, find ourselves striving to meet our expectations of being “good enough”. We hope that unlike those around us, we will find a way to “make the cut”. If you’ve ever run this race to be “good enough”, you know that as close as you think you get, you never quite “arrive”.

Jesus calls us away from both hiding and striving to rest. I imagine this state is like the child above who “hides” in a corner. However, rather than “hiding in plain sight”, we are to be “resting in plain sight” – eyes wide open, facing out, ready to be ‘found’ in our state of perfect rest.

It’s to both the striving and the hiding amongst us that Jesus, the Son of God and saviour of the world, gives His invitation. “Come, lay down your burdens and learn from me how to rest. I’m the one you’ve been looking for. There’s no need to hide your sin from me since I’ve come to heal you. There’s no need to earn my favour since I don’t reward the morally superior. You can stop aiming to be good for me and allow me to be good towards you. Come and learn from me how to rest.”