Christian Art | Daily Bible Verses For Advent | King James Audio Bible KJV
Matthew 11: 28-30 | Daily Bible Verses For Advent | Week 2, Wednesday | King James Audio Bible KJV
28 ¶ Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
We face difficulties in our lives. The crowds who listen to Jesus must have felt cruelly burdened, labouring and seeming to find no true reward. They must have sensed injustice and longed for their Messiah to set them free.
In a spiritual sense, they must have felt weighed down also with the many regulations prescribed by the Pharisees, while all the many religious observances seemed to bring no true spiritual reward, no peace to their souls, no oneness with the will of God.
Christ is come to bring rest to the people, to grant them peace. It is in the Gospels that we find peace, justice, truth – Christ as our comforter, our friend, our spiritual food. If we come to Christ, we find our burdens lightened.
‘Any other burden oppresses and crushes you, but Christ’s actually takes weight off you. Any other burden weighs down, but Christ’s gives you wings. If you take a bird’s wings away, you might seem to be taking weight off it, but the more weight you take off, the more you tie it to the earth. There it is on the ground, and you wanted to relieve it of a weight; give it back the weight of its wings and you will see how it flies.’ St Augustine
Concluding Prayer | Love Revealed By Jesus Christ
At your bidding, Lord,
we are preparing the way for Christ, your Son.
May we not grow faint on our journey
as we wait for his healing presence.
We make our prayer through our Lord.
King James Audio Bible | Endnotes
Jesus of Nazareth lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father. Philippians 2:5-8: ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.’
Nazareth was a small Jewish village in the region of Galilee during the time of Jesus. It was located on the trade route between Egypt and Syria, which brought a mix of cultures and beliefs to the area. However, Nazareth was not an important city – it was hardly a town and was often looked down upon by the residents of Jerusalem and other larger cities.
At the time of Jesus, the population of Nazareth was likely less than 500 people, mostly poor and working class. Many residents were likely involved in agriculture, fishing, or artisanal trades such as blacksmithing and pottery. The synagogue in Nazareth was likely a small building where the local community gathered for worship and religious instruction.
Jesus grew up in a place of utter obscurity. They did not use Roman coinage in Nazareth. They were not on the map. That was where it was chosen that God should be born – almost nowhere.
A Significance Of Jesus Of Nazareth
The place was so obscure that people have argued that Jesus Of Nazareth must be a corruption of Jesus a Nazarene. But that’s the point. If you had to choose a place for God the Son to be incarnate. This is nowhere. Therefore it is perfect – it can be everywhere. Jesus reveals himself in the regions of Galilee. The Gospels vary as to Jesus’ visit/s to Jerusalem. It is an extraordinary journey in the Gospels between the regions of Galilee and Jerusalem.
Jesus offers the parable of the wicked tenants as part of a larger discourse in which he responds, in the Temple, to the challenge of the scribes and the elders of the people concerning his authority. The parable leads the entrenched Jewish authorities to see the truth for themselves and yet still to reject the truth about themselves. Though their lives could have been enlightened by the parable, they refuse conversion and rather seek to arrest Jesus. They have the option to choose good; they choose evil [ … ]
In today’s Bible reading, we see clearly that many of those to whom Mark addresses his Gospel would not be familiar with Jewish customs. Mark, therefore, explains that the Jews wash as a ritual of purification prior to eating. This was initially a prescription for how priests should wash before offering sacrifice – see Exodus 30: 17ff – and was extended by tradition to all Jews before every meal. It may be helpful for us to remember that this was not a matter of hygiene; rather ritual purification was a symbol of the moral purity a person should have when approaching God. We may also consider our own practice of washing our hands and saying grace before meals, such that our participating in a meal becomes an act of thanksgiving to God, the meal a sacred space [ … ]
Jesus, as the Son of God, perfectly embodied the essence of this commandment. He lived in complete submission and obedience to his heavenly Father, never allowing anything or anyone to come before God’s will and purpose for his life. Jesus declared, ‘I and the Father are one’ (John 10:30, KJV), emphasizing Jesus’ unity with God and unwavering devotion to Him [ … ]
