“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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.” Matthew
11:28-29 (NIV)
A man is walking in the distance. The heat ripples between here and there. He stops and looks around as if he had heard something in the distance.
After wiping his brow, he adjusts his bag and starts walking again.
As evening approaches, he happens upon a cool, clear stream. He splashes water on his face and once again hears something – a voice whispering “Come to me.”
He turns and heads down stream. He makes his way slowly through the night.
The sun rises in the eastern sky and he is still walking.
As he comes to a copse of trees, he hears someone calling him. “Eli! Eli! I’ve been expecting you!”
The man almost stumbles over a rock as he recognizes his name. He looks up and sees a man rushing over to welcome him.
“What?” Eli says, confused. “Do I know you?”
The man directs Eli to a log laying under some shady trees. Eli puts down his bag and they both sit.
The man offers Eli cold water and bread.
“So... What’s in the bag?”
Eli just stares at the man.
“No. You don’t know me, but I know you. I’ve been watching you for a long time.
“What’s in the bag?”
Eli shuffles his feet and looks down. “Just some stuff I’ve been carrying around for a while.”
The man asks, “How long have you been carrying it?”
Eli pauses, looks in the distance and scratches his chin. “Oh... Most of my life, it feels like.”
After a minute or so, the man says, “Why don’t you show me what you’ve got.”
Eli sighs. “Sure. Why not?”
Eli opens his bag and hands the man a golfball-sized rock. The man looks at it and turns it over.
“So... What’s this?”
“Guilt. I knocked down a girl when I was in the 7th grade.
“I don’t know how many times I’ve taken it out of my bag and left it somewhere just to find that it’s in my bag again the next day.”
Eli reaches out to take the rock back.
“How about I keep this for you? You wouldn’t have to lug it around any more.”
“I’ve tried to give it away before, but it keeps coming back. And I don’t even know who you are.”
“You’ve been looking for a way to get rid of your guilt and shame for a long time. I am that Way.
“I’m Jesus.”
“Jesus,” whispered Eli. “I’ve heard of you, but I thought you were just a crutch for people that can’t handle life.”
“Well, you’re here talking to me. What does that mean about you?”
“I guess it means that I’m not as on top of things as I thought.”
“Nobody is. They just don’t want to admit it. Pride is a terrible thing.
“Let me show you something.
“Do you see all these rocks and stones? Everything in this creek bed? These have all been brought to me in the last two days.
“They all look similar, but they came from all over.”
Jesus picked a baseball-sized rock.
“This one came from a boy in Nigeria. He had stolen fruit from his neighbor’s tree.”
Jesus put down the rock and picked up a much larger stone.
“This is from a woman in China. She turned in some neighbors that were holding a house church meeting.
“They were all executed.”
Eli was aghast. “I understand you taking the rock from the boy...”
“He was guilty.”
“...But the woman!” exclaimed Eli.
“She was guilty and I took it from her.
“You see that cliff face over there? That was brought to me by a man that destroyed his own nation with a lie.
“No guilt is too big for me to take. No pain. No shame. I can take all of yours... if you’ll let me.
“Pour it all out. Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Eli poured out his bag exposing pea gravel, rocks and large stones. They went over each one and Eli named the guilt, the shame or the pain associated with each of them.
Peace finally came over Eli and his bag was empty. He heard Jesus calling to someone else:
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me – watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”
So where does that put us? Do we Jews get a better break than the others? Not really. Basically, all of us, whether insiders or outsiders, start out in identical conditions, which is to say that we all start out as sinners. Scripture leaves no
doubt about it:
There’s nobody living right, not even one,
nobody who knows the score, nobody alert for God.
They’ve all taken the wrong turn;
they’ve all wandered down blind alleys.
No one’s living right;
I can’t find a single one.
Their throats are gaping graves,
their tongues slick as mudslides.
Every word they speak is tinged with poison.
They open their mouths and pollute the air.
They race for the honor of sinner-of-the-year,
litter the land with heartbreak and ruin,
Don’t know the first thing about living with others.
They never give God the time of day.
This makes it clear, doesn’t it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others but to us to whom these Scriptures were addressed in the first place! And it’s clear enough, isn’t it, that we’re sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? Our involvement with God’s revelation doesn’t put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in everyone else’s sin. Romans 3:9-12
But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ. Romans 3:23-24
But now that you’ve found you don’t have to listen to sin tell you what to do, and have discovered the delight of listening to God telling you, what a surprise! A whole, healed, put-together life right now, with more and more of life on the way! Work hard for sin your whole life and your pension is death. But God’s gift is real life, eternal life, delivered by Jesus, our Master. Romans 6:22-23
Christ arrives right on time to make this happen. He didn’t, and doesn’t, wait for us to get ready. He presented himself for this sacrificial death when we were far too weak and rebellious to do anything to get ourselves ready. And even if we hadn’t been so weak, we wouldn’t have known what to do anyway. We can understand someone dying for a person worth dying for, and we can understand how someone good and noble could inspire us to selfless sacrifice. But God put his love on the line for us by offering his Son in sacrificial death while we were of no use whatever to him. Romans 5:6-8
The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it’s not so easy – every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story – no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?
The word that saves is right here,
as near as the tongue in your mouth,
as close as the heart in your chest.
It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God – “Jesus is my Master” – embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”
Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this – heart and soul – will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.” Romans 10:4-13
By entering through faith into what God has always wanted to do for us – set us right with him, make us fit for him – we have it all together with God because of our Master Jesus. And that’s not all: We throw open our doors to God and discover at the same moment that he has already thrown open his door to us. We find ourselves standing where we always hoped we might stand – out in the wide open spaces of God’s grace and glory, standing tall and shouting our praise. Romans 5:1-2
With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death. Romans 8:1-2
So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing himself to the worst by sending his own Son, is there anything else he wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us – who was raised to life for us! – is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture:
They kill us in cold blood because they hate you.
We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one.
None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing – nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable – absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us. Romans 8:38-39
If you believe Romans Road leads to the path of truth, you can respond by receiving God’s wonderful gift of salvation today. Here’s how to take your personal journey down Romans Road:
I would also add that you consider attending a Bible believing church. These are becoming fewer as days go by.
Above quotes from The Message.
Image: "Bag of Rocks" by revjett is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
