Matthew 11:28

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

John Calvin (1509-1564)

Come to me all that labour. He now kindly invites to himself those whom he acknowledges to be fit for becoming his disciples. Though he is ready to reveal the Father to all, yet the greater part are careless about coming to him, because they are not affected by a conviction of their necessities. Hypocrites give themselves no concern about Christ, because they are intoxicated with their own righteousness, and neither hunger nor thirst (Matth. v. 6) for his grace. Those who are devoted to the world set no value on a heavenly life. It would be in vain, therefore, for Christ to invite either of these classes, and therefore he turns to the wretched and afflicted. He speaks of them as labouring, or groaning under a burden, and does not mean generally those who are oppressed with grief and vexations, but those who are overwhelmed by their sins, who are filled with alarm at the wrath of God, and are ready to sink under so weighty a burden. There are various methods, indeed, by which God humbles his elect; but as the greater part of those who are loaded with afflictions still remain obstinate and rebellious, Christ means by persons labouring and burdened, those whose consciences are distressed by their exposure to eternal death, and who are inwardly so pressed down by their miseries that they faint; for this very fainting prepares them for receiving his grace. He tells us that the reason why most men despise his grace is, that they are not sensible of their poverty; but that there is no reason why their pride or folly should keep back afflicted souls that long for relief.

Let us therefore bid adieu to all who, entangled by the snares of Satan, either are persuaded that they possess a righteousness out of Christ, or imagine that they are happy in this world. Let our miseries drive us to seek Christ; and as he admits none to the enjoyment of his rest but those who sink under the burden, let us learn, that there is no venom more deadly than that slothfulness which is produced in us, either by earthly happiness, or by a false and deceitful opinion of our own righteousness and virtue. Let each of us labour earnestly to arouse himself, first, by vigorously shaking off the luxuries of the world; and, secondly, by laying aside every false confidence. Now though this preparation for coming to Christ makes them as dead men, yet it ought to be observed, that it is the gift of the Holy Spirit, because it is the commandment of repentance, to which no man aspires in his own strength. Christ did not intend to show what man can do of himself, but only to inform us what must be the feelings of those who come to him.

They who limit the burden and the labour to ceremonies of the Law, take a very narrow view of Christ’s meaning. I do acknowledge, that the Law was intolerably burdensome, and overwhelmed the souls of worshippers; but we must bear in mind what I have said, that Christ stretches out his hand to all the afflicted, and thus lays down a distinction between his disciples and those who despise the Gospel. But we must attend to the universality of the expression; for Christ included all, without exception, who labour and are burdened, that no man may shut the gate against himself by wicked doubts. And yet all such persons are few in number; for, among the innumerable multitude of those that perish, few are aware that they are perishing. The relief which he promises consists in the free pardon of sins, which alone gives us peace.

(From: “Commentary”)

But if they say that I accuse them falsely, let them actually bring forward and exhibit anyone who, by a doctrine of contrition of this sort, either is not driven to desperation or has not met God’s judgment with pretended rather than true sorrow. And we have said in some place that forgiveness of sins can never come to anyone without repentance, because only those afflicted and wounded by the awareness of sins can sincerely invoke God’s mercy. But we added at the same time that repentance is not the cause of forgiveness of sins. Moreover, we have done away with those torments of souls which they would have us perform as a duty. We have taught that the sinner does not dwell upon his own compunction or tears, but fixes both eyes upon the Lord’s mercy alone. We have merely reminded him that Christ called those who “labour and are heavy-laden” [Matt. 11:28], when he was sent to publish good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, to free the prisoners, to comfort the mourners [Isa. 61:1; Luke 4:18, conflated]. Hence are to be excluded both the Pharisees, who, sated with their own righteousness, do not recognize their poverty; and despisers, who, oblivious of God’s wrath, do not seek a remedy for their own evil. For such do not labor, are not heavy-laden, are not broken-hearted, nor prisoners or captives. But it makes a great difference whether you teach forgiveness of sins as deserved by just and full contrition, which the sinner can never perform; or whether you enjoin him to hunger and thirst after God’s mercy to show him–through the recognition of his misery, his vacillation, his weariness, and his captivity–where he ought to seek refreshment, rest, and freedom; in fine, to teach him in his humility to give glory to God.

(From: “Institutes of the Christian Religion”)

David Dickson (1583-1662)

From the former doctrine, Christ draws forth two exhortations: the first, unto faith in himself; the next, unto new obedience. DOCTRINE: [1.] The right use of the doctrine of election and reprobation (v 25), and of the riches which are in Christ, and of the mystery of the Father and of the Son, is this, to draw near to Christ, and to seek communion with him: for having spoken to those, he calls upon us, saying, Come unto me. [2.] All things being delivered unto Christ, he cannot be quiet, till he have needy souls made partakers of the riches which are in him. Therefore he calls unto us, saying, Come unto me. [3.] Such as have wearied themselves in seeking in themselves, or in any of the creatures, something to quiet their souls and cannot find rest, have warrant to come unto him, for he says, Come unto me, ye that labour. [4.] Although a soul find nothing whereby to commend itself to Christ, but a fruitless life and a loathsome burden of sin, nothing but that which yields restless unquietness, yet without exception of any person all such may come to Christ for relief; none of those who acknowledge their inability to help themselves are excluded. There is no bar to put back a soul from Christ which desires to come to him, which desires to believe in him and to have communion with him, for he says, Come unto me, all ye. [5.] Although there be no bar put to hinder any man from coming to Christ, yet none will come until they be sensible of a burden whereof they cannot be freed by any other means. Therefore he speaks expressly to such, saying, Come unto me, all ye that are weary and heavy laden, not excluding lukewarm Laodiceans, or any other, who desire to be made sensible of sin, who desire to repent, who desire to believe in God and to fear God. [6.] Seeing all things are delivered unto Christ, and all that have need are commanded to come to him, it is a miserable and damnable folly to seek anything belonging to righteousness and eternal life except in Christ Jesus only, for he tells us, All things are delivered unto me, and says, Come unto me. [7.] God can sanctify the love of our selves so far as to make it a motive and allurement to draw us to him: for such as are unquiet about the condition of their soul or are burdened with any trouble which they are not able to bear, have a promise of relief, if they shall come to him who can show them the true cause of their trouble and the right outgate [way of escape or deliverance] also, for, I will give you rest, says he. Now rest is opposed to labour and burdens and so imports full relief from all the sin and misery which can trouble any man.

(From: “A Brief Exposition of the Evangel of Jesus Christ According to Matthew”)

John Flavel (1627-1691)

If you inquire why Christ makes his invitations TO WEARY AND HEAVY-LADEN SOULS, and to no other, the answer is, briefly,

1. Because in so doing he follows the commission received from the Father: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because he hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” Isa. 61:1. You see here how Christ’s commission directs him: his Father sent him to poor broken-hearted sinners. “He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Matt. 9:13.

2. The order of the Spirit’s work in bringing men to Christ, shows us to whom the invitation and offers of grace in Christ are to be made; for none are convinced of righteousness, that is, of the complete and perfect righteousness in Christ for their justification, until first they are convinced of sin; and consequently no man comes to Christ by faith till convictions of sin have awakened and distressed him. John 16:8-10. This being the order of the Spirit’s operation, the same order must be observed in gospel offers and invitations.

3. It behooves Christ to provide for his own glory as well as for our safety; and not to expose one to secure the other, but to save us in the way which will bring him most honor and praise. And certainly such a way is this: first convincing and humbling the souls of men, and then bringing them to rest in himself.

Let those that never saw or felt the evil of sin be told of rest, peace, and pardon in Christ, and they will but despise it as of no value. “The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” Luke 5:31. Tell a man that thinks himself sound and whole to go to a physician, and he will but laugh at the suggestion; but if the same man feel an acute disease, and is made to groan under strong pain, if he come to know what sick days and restless nights are, and to apprehend his life to be in imminent danger, then messengers are sent one after another in post-haste to the physician; he begs him with tears to do what in him lies for his relief; he thankfully takes the bitterest medicine, and praises the care and skill of his physician with tears of joy. Thus the patient’s safety and the physician’s honor are both secured. So it is in this method of grace.

(From: “The Method of Grace”)

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952)

First, our salvation from the pleasure or love of sin may be recognized by sin’s becoming a burden to us. This is truly a spiritual experience. Many souls are loaded with worldly anxieties, who know nothing of what it means to be bowed down with a sense of guilt. But when God takes us in hand, the iniquities and transgressions of our past life are made to lie as an intolerable load upon the conscience. When we are given a sight of our selves as we appear before the eyes of the thrice holy God, we will exclaim with the psalmist, “For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me” (40:12). So far from sin being pleasant, it is now felt as a cruel incubus, a crushing weight, an unendurable load. The soul is “heavy laden” (Matt. 11:28) and bowed down. A sense of guilt oppresses and the conscience cannot bear the weight upon it. Nor is this experience restricted to our first conviction; it continues with more or less acuteness throughout the Christian’s life.

(From: “The Doctrine of Salvation”)

Matthew Poole (1624-1679)

Our Lord having before showed, 1. That all power was given to him; 2. That none could know the Father but by and in him; closeth his discourse with an invitation of persons to him. By the weary and heavy laden, in the text, some understand those that are laden with the sense of their sins, and the feeling the guilt of them. Others understand, with the burden of the law, which the apostles called a yoke, Acts xv. 10. Mr. Calvin thinks this too strait an interpretation. Others understand heavy laden with trials and afflictions. Christ will give rest to all those of his people that are in any ways weary and heavy laden, but in an order first to souls wearied and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, and their want of righteousness wherein to stand before God. Then to such to whom he hath given this rest, he promiseth also rest from their troubles and persecutions in the world, John xvi. 33. It is very likely he used this term, Come, with respect to that of Isaiah, chap. lv. 1. 2. That by coming is to be understood believing is plain from John vi. 44-46; Heb. xi. 6. The rest promised chiefly respecteth the soul, as appears from ver. 29. The promise may be understood both of that rest which believers have in this life, Rom. v. 2; xv. 13, and also of that rest which after this life remaineth to the people of God, Heb. iv. 9. Whatever the rest be, it must be of Christ’s giving and our seeking; nor is it to be obtained without labour and suffering, for it followeth, Take my yoke upon you.

(From: “A Commentary on the Holy Bible”)

Francis Turretin (1623-1687)

Although Christ came to save “that which was lost” (to apololos, Mt. 18:11) and saves none other than lost and miserable sinners, yet it is not necessary on this account that he should save all who are lost and sinners. Nay, he expressly testifies that he did not come to call those out of the lost who (ignorant of their own lost state) are swollen with a high opinion of their own righteousness, but those only who labor under the load of sins and feel their heaviness (Mt. 11:28). Hence he says that he indeed came to save “that which was lost” (to apololos) in order to mark the character and condition of those who will be saved, but not “all that which was lost” (pan to apololos) to designate their number.

(From: “Institutes of Elenctic Theology”)

Hence it is evident that the command to believe in Christ embraces many things before we come to the ultimate consolatory act by which we believe that he died for us, First, we are commanded to believe that all the Scripture reveals to us concerning our misery and inability to secure our own salvation. Hence arises a salutary despair of ourselves and an acknowledgement of the necessity of a remedy. Second, they who thus despair of themselves are commanded to believe that Christ, the Son of God, is the alone all-sufficient Savior given by God to men, in whom they can obtain perfect salvation and remission of sins who sincerely fly to him and led to repent seriously of their sins. Third, they who are thus contrite and penitent and despairing of themselves are commanded to fly and to come to Christ as the rock of salvation, to embrace his merit as all-sufficient, to incline and sweetly rest upon it, from it alone expecting remission of sin, righteousness and salvation. Fourth and finally they, who perceive that they do repent and rest upon Christ truly and solely, are then at length bound to believe that Christ died for them and that on account of his death their sins are remitted. From all this, it is quite plain that faith in Christ first presupposes a sense of misery and a desire of deliverance and that the command to believe does not respect all promiscuously, but all who feel their misery and desire deliverance from it, who hunger and thirst, who labor and are heavy laden, who are broken in spirit and contrite in heart (Mt. 11:28; Is. 61:1).

(From: “Institutes of Elenctic Theology”)

Salvation according to the intention of God is promised to none others than those having the prescribed condition: such as are weary and heavy laden (Mt. 11:28), thirsty (Is. 55:1), believing and penitent (Acts 2:38). Since this cannot be said of the reprobate, it cannot equally be said that they are called by God with the intention that they should be saved.

(From: “Institutes of Elenctic Theology”)