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Santo Antônio de Jesus I’ve had the opportunity to coach the last several years. Each team I coach has a mix of players. Some of them are committed to learning the game well. Others are just there for the social aspect, while still others because their parents are forcing them to play. Those who are there for reasons other than being the best individual player and teammate they can be often lament, “Why can’t I get this right?” When prodded to take practice more seriously, or encouraged to do drills at home, they show little interest in the work it takes to excel in that particular sport. Those who want to be there will do everything they can both in and outside of practice to improve their game. They do the hard work to get better. It shows in games. They look like accomplished athletes when game time comes because they have worked hard to get there.
Similarly in our Christian walk, there is work that needs to be done to know the Lord and to be ready to serve him. I often hear people lament that they don’t understand God’s Word well enough to communicate to those who don’t know it. When I ask them to describe their daily habit of reading the Bible, I know the answer that I’m going to get: “I try, but I just don’t understand it. I start reading Genesis, but then it gets hard and I give up. I just can’t do it. It’s too difficult.” Others might tell me, “I read God’s Word but I only stick to the New Testament because it’s about Jesus and that’s all I really need to know about, right?”
When knowledge of the Word is needed for godly living, or for communicating it to unbelievers, there is no base of knowledge because there is no work ethic for learning to comprehend God’s Word. All of God’s Word is important. In order to understand who God is, what he has done for us, and what he expects us to do in obedience to him, we need to read all of His Word. The Holy Spirit will guide us in our understanding of God’s Word, but we still need to read it for him to do so.
An Example of How the Old Testament Informs the New
Let me give you an example as to why the Old Testament is important to understanding the New Testament. There are literally hundreds of examples just like this one, but we’ll let Jesus’ words in Matthew 11:28-30 stand as an example for the rest. In this passage Jesus is quoted as saying:
“28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.” (NET)
It’s easy to read over this verse and just accept it at face value. However doing so might lead us to the wrong conclusion that coming to Jesus just makes life better. Nothing else needs to be said. That’s not what Jesus is saying here. In fact, just one chapter earlier Jesus tells us that following him will cause us all kinds of problems and that people will hate us because of him. (Matthew 10:22) Knowing that all of Scripture points to Jesus, and actually being able to point to where it does is essential in really understanding what Jesus is claiming about himself. To do that we need to look to Jeremiah 31:18, which says:
“I have indeed heard the people of Israel say mournfully, ‘We were like a calf untrained to the yoke. You disciplined us, and we learned from it. Let us come back to you and we will do so, for you are the Lord our God.” (NET)
There is no doubt that Jesus had this passage from Jeremiah in mind when he was speaking of his easy yoke. There is a word picture happening both in Jeremiah and in Jesus’ words. When an ox is young and being trained for the plow, he is paired up with an older, very seasoned ox. Initially, the young ox wants to do everything other than help plow. The older ox has to do ALL the work of not only plowing but also restraining the young ox from wandering or even bucking off task. Eventually, the younger ox learns that working together makes things much easier. In Jeremiah, this picture is attached to the concept of sin and repentance. Coming back to the Lord to be trained in righteousness is the principle that Jeremiah is communicating.
Notice that in the process of doing so, to whom are God’s people being yoked? It is the “Lord our God” who is speaking. He is the one disciplining his people in the same way that a seasoned ox disciplines an unseasoned one. We can’t separate what is said in Jeremiah from what is said in Matthew. How does this influence how we read Matthew? Maybe you aren’t even convinced that these passages ought to be linked. Maybe it is just a coincidence that they both talk about a yoke of oxen. Consider what Jeremiah goes on to say just a few verses later:
Jeremiah 31:25-26
25 I will fully satisfy the needs of those who are weary and fully refresh the souls of those who are faint. 26 Then they will say, ‘Under these conditions I can enjoy sweet sleep when I wake up and look around.’” (NET)
Why does Jesus use the words, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest?” It’s because he’s claiming to be the fulfillment of Jeremiah 31 where the Lord God is the one speaking. Even more convincing that Jesus actually had this passage in mind are the verses that precede Matthew 11:28-30 where Jesus says:
“27 All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him.” (NET)
Jesus is the Lord Our God!
In other words, Jesus is claiming to be equal to the Father in substance and authority! Thus, he is able to claim the same thing that the Lord our God claims in Jeremiah 31. When we take Jesus’ yoke upon us to be disciplined by him, it is one and the same thing as taking on the yoke of discipline of the Lord our God! All of the sudden this passage goes from ho-hum to WHOA! Some people claim that Jesus never claims to be God. You can only say that about this passage if you don’t know your Old Testament.
How did I get to the point where I was able to make that connection between the Lord’s words in Jeremiah and Jesus’ words in Matthew? It wasn’t in seminary. I noticed it while reading the Bible in my daily quiet time within the last couple of years. Before that I had read through the Bible a number of times in the previous 5 years and it never jumped out at me. If I had become satisfied with my Bible knowledge and decided I didn’t need any more, I would have never made that connection. Every time I read through the Bible again, I make more connections just like this one. You can too, but it takes work. There are no shortcuts. You have to put in the time, but it is worth it!
One problem remains besides just a willingness to do the work. The Bible is hard to understand. How do we get past that? First, we must trust that the Holy Spirit will give us understanding of what we read. Even still, there is work to be done. Towards that end about 25 years ago a college professor gave me some advice that I didn’t fully comprehend or follow until about 7 years ago. He said, “Read God’s Word just to read it.” He went on to explain that far too often we make the study of God’s Word too complicated. We bring highlighters, sticky notes, journals, commentaries, and all the things expecting to completely dissect and understand everything about each sentence of the Bible. In the end we miss the forest for the trees or we quit when it doesn’t make sense. It sounds crazy, but if you sit down and commit to reading large portions of Scripture at a time as a daily habit, you will eventually begin to understand the story as a whole. I can promise you it won’t happen until you do. My prayer is that every person who reads this will develop a habit of reading all of God’s Word, and that His Spirit will help you understand it more and more with each passing year!
Discipleship Pastor, Matt Winquist
Matt and his wife, Kelly, have two children. He has been on staff since February 2018. Matt enjoys all things sports; especially playing them. He holds rank in several martial arts, including TKD, Karate, Jiu Jitsu, and Hapkido. If you visit his home or office he’ll be happy to show you his tropical fish!
