Where Are You GOING?! He said, 'Come'
Jesus said all things had been handed over to him by the father, yours and mine. Amazing, isnt it? This is the one who came down from heaven and we found in a manger. He was in the world, that grubby little town called Bethlehem, and the world (people like you and me) didnt even know it. It (we) ignored him. "The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us . . . full of grace and truth." It gives you goose bumps, doesnt it?
Well, it should. That little fellow in the manger had actually made the world, and it had become his. And he lives in us, brethren! He dwells in you. You dont have to go very far to talk to him and say, "Whats going on, Lord? Whats happening to your world? We all have the jitters?"
Well, this morning I was trying to look into my heart, where He is, and my thoughts heard Him say, "Come."
Hes said that before; havent you heard Him?
"Come." If youre laboring and all worn down until your nerves are jumping around and screaming, He says, "Come. Im not laboring, worn out, and trembling. Im not shaking about bombs, about anthrax, or a slow government. The airs fine."
"Come unto me." That "unto" communicates the way it is "right up into my arms, right into my bosom, right into my heart." Some of the old-fashioned language speaks meaning and tenderness that contemporary words often miss (I can hear my kids growling).
For Christmas of 1968, my wife, a new Christian like me, was looking all over Boston for a good Bible commentary for her ignorant slave. She called friends in several parts of the country and, oddly, they recommended one as the best. But it was an old one, and I was still a new kind of guy, a writer, hip ("cool" hadnt arrived yet), clever, a smart aleck (but already too "good" to use todays much hipper and gender-neutral smart-a--). I wasnt sure I wanted something old and stodgy.
I was wrong. Its the best in the world, written by three guys named Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown. About "Come unto me" ( ), listen to what those stodgy, old guys said:
"Incomparable, ravishing sounds these if ever such were heard in this weary, groaning world!"
Oh, yes. If only they were heard. So few seem to hear, and the people are so weary...so weary.
The commentators go on:
"What goodness, what sweetness is there in the very style of the invitation Hither to me; and in the words all ye that toil and are burdened, the universal wretchedness of man is depicted, on both its sides the active and passive forms of it. Take my yoke upon you the yoke of submission to Jesus and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. As Christs willingness to empty Himself to the uttermost of His Fathers requirements was the spring of ineffable repose to His own Spirit, so in the same track does He invite all to follow Him with the assurance of the same experience."
What do we get out of this finally? "That rest which the soul experiences when once safe under Christs wing makes all yokes easy, all burdens light."
It all works out when you respond simply to the simple "Come."
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and
my fortress,
my God, in whom I trust.
Surely he will save you from the fowlers snare
and from the deadly pestilence . . .
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow
that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness,
nor the plague that destroys at midday . . .
For he will command his angels concerning
you
to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against
against a stone . . .
"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I
will rescue him;
I will protect him, for he acknowledges
my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer
him;
I will be with him in trouble . . .
(Psalm 91, NIV)
