Come Unto Me and Rest
In today’s session there is an opportunity to find rest. In our busy lives, we often feel overwhelmed, overcommitted, and overexposed. In these circumstances, there is only one place where we can find rest, and that is in Jesus. Today we’ll share what makes us weary, and look to Jesus as the only one who can lift the fatigue and lighten our load. We’ll reflect on his invitation to set aside the yokes of this world and come to him for rest.
Welcome
In today’s session we’ll think about what it means to rest and how we can sometimes be reluctant to rest when needed. Children are particularly skilled at resisting the rest that they need and will go to any length to convince you that they are not tired.
Watch the following clip – either an extract or the whole thing – and discuss with the group the strangest place they have accidentally fallen asleep. Why were they so tired in that situation? Ask them to think of a time when they were absolutely shattered but had to stay awake. What did it feel like?
Many of the young people will be attending summer youth camps around this time, so should hopefully have lots of examples of trying to stay awake when they needed to be asleep.
Watch: 30 Funniest Places Kids Fell Asleep – Too Tired to Function (3:08)
Give the group a slip of paper and a pen. Ask them to write their own definition of the word ‘rest’. Share the definitions together. What are the common themes or keywords?
Display the following dictionary definition to the group and discuss its different meanings as both a verb and a noun.
Definition: Rest
verb
- cease work or movement in order to relax, sleep or recover strength.
‘he needed to rest after feverish activity’
- be placed or supported so as to stay in a specified position.
‘her elbow was resting on the arm of the sofa’
noun
- an instance or period of resting.
‘you look as though you need a rest’
- An interval of silence of a specified duration.
As you look at all the definitions of the word, how difficult/easy do you find it to rest? Explain your answer.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
- What is your favourite way to rest and recharge? Why do you like it so much?
WORD
- What, if anything, are you tired of?
Leader’s notes: Encourage the young people to think of current or recent situations that make them feel weary. These could be personal, like experiencing a long period of revision for exams, or they could be linked to wider issues of injustice or conflict in the world.
- How do you experience tiredness or weariness? What does it look like or feel like for you?
Some well-known verses in Scripture encourage us to come to Jesus when we feel this way. They are found in Matthew 11:28-30.
Give the group the ‘Come to Me’ handout showing the many different translations of these verses.
For now, we will focus on the New International Version of the verse.
Read the verse together as a group.
28 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’ (Matthew 11:28-30)
In verse 28 we read:
28 ‘Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’
- Where do you usually turn for help when you feel weary and tired?
- When we feel weary and tired, where does Jesus invite us to come to?
- In what ways can we come to Jesus and rest in him?
In verse 29 we read:
29 ‘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.’
- What do you think Jesus means when he says: ‘Take my yoke upon you’? Do any of the other translations help your understanding of this phrase? If so, in what way?
A yoke was a wooden crosspiece that enabled two animals to pull a cart or a plough together. It was an image that would have been very familiar to those listening to Jesus. Jesus used the idea of a yoke to show how the people were connected to the Mosaic Law. The problem was that the religious leaders had added so many additional rules and regulations that the people felt weighed down by them all. They were weary, or, as The Message paraphrase puts it, ‘burned out on religion’.
- In what ways can we feel ‘burned out on religion’?
- What does Jesus encourage us to do in verse 29? How can we achieve it?
- What do we learn about the character of Jesus in this verse? How does it contrast with the character of many of the religious leaders of the day?
- What blessing will we receive if we focus on learning from Jesus and following him?
- Do you believe what this Scripture says about Jesus as the source of true rest? If so, have you experienced it? Share your experience.
In verse 30 we read:
30 ‘For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.’
- What do you think Jesus meant when he said these words?
- In what ways is following Jesus easy/challenging? As you reflect on your answers together, how does it change your understanding of this verse?
In Jesus, there is a way to find rest which involves laying down the ‘should’ and ‘have to’ placed on us by ourselves or others. Many of these expectations do not come from God and leave us striving to try harder, be better and live up to a standard that can never be reached. Jesus asks us to come to him, rest, and lay down the yoke of the expectation of others.
But he doesn’t leave us there … blissfully dozing!
Read the VOICE version of Matthew 11:28-30.
28 ‘Come to Me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Put My yoke upon your shoulders – it might appear heavy at first, but it is perfectly fitted to your curves. Learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble of heart. When you are yoked to Me, your weary souls will find rest. 30 For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.’
- What must we do for our ‘weary souls’ to ‘find rest’?
We are not free to live as we please, but neither are we weighed down by restrictive religious laws. We are called to a life of rest in Jesus. We worry about what’s next, or whether we’ll pass our exams, or get a job, or get into the university we want or … the list goes on and on. That anxiety is real and can bring us to a place of striving to do better and be better. Jesus calls us to a different life. We can take off the burden of all those expectations and focus on following Jesus, the true source of rest.
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
If the group would like to discover more about the meaning behind the phrase ‘Take my yoke upon you’, then you could watch and discuss the following clip together.
Watch: What does it mean when Jesus says, ‘My yoke is easy and my burden is light’ (Matthew 11:30)? (4:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LW7YwlpeOzw
WITNESS
In today’s session you have had the opportunity to take a moment to stop and think about how we can find rest in Jesus. Our lives are so busy that it can be difficult to rest. Swept along with everyone else’s expectations and the next hurdle to jump, we can be in danger of constantly striving rather than thriving.
Watch the clip together as it expands on the meaning of Matthew 11:28-30 and then discuss the question together.
Jesus Is Calling You to Him – Matthew 11:28-30 (stop clip at 3:00)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLxb33jGrMY
Discuss:
- In what ways do you feel …
Overwhelmed – thinking too much
Overcommitted – doing too much
Overexposed – seeing too much
- Do you think we were created to operate this way? Explain your thoughts.
- How do we get caught up in a life where we feel overwhelmed, overcommitted, and overexposed? How does this kind of life leave us with less?
- How is the word ‘rest’ connected to the idea of restoration?
- How can you give Jesus space in your life to restore your soul? What would that look like?
- Do you want to find rest in Jesus, or are you happy seeking rest elsewhere? This may be a challenging question for the group to answer, but its aim is to encourage them to think carefully about whether they are simply giving you the answer they think you want to hear. If seeking rest in Jesus isn’t prioritised, then other distractions and voices will take priority. Today’s Scripture verse makes it clear that any alternative to following Jesus leads to a life that is heavy and burdened.
- What practical thing could you do, or action could you take, to come to Jesus and rest?
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
- What is your response to the following quote?
‘God, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless till they find their rest in you.’ – Augustine of Hippo
WORSHIP
We all experience weariness and tiredness in different ways.
We may be tired of a challenging situation.
We may be tired of a frustrating relationship filled with conflict.
We may be tired of feeling uncertain about the future.
We may be tired of trying to discern the next steps God wants us to take.
We may be tired of so many things, but these simple verses from Matthew 11 invite us to rest.
Invite the group to reflect on the different translations of Matthew 11:28-30. Encourage them to spend time praying through the different words and phrases and to bring any situation or circumstance that make them weary to Jesus. Give each member of the group some paper and a pencil and, as the music plays, encourage them to bring their worries and concerns to Jesus. Give them the opportunity to lay down the yoke they are carrying unnecessarily and instead to place the yoke of Jesus upon themselves. When the music has finished, there may be those in the group willing to share their prayers. If not, spend time praying for each other and the circumstances that have been shared throughout the session.
Options for music:
‘Come Unto Me’ – Take 6
‘Come Unto Me (Pax)’ – Evelina Gard – Topic
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY
To bring the time of sharing to a close, encourage the group to share the translation of Matthew 11:28-30 which resonates with them the most. It doesn’t matter if the same Scripture is shared more than once.
