Thought for the Day - I will give you rest

Georges Rouault - Christ Carrying his Cross

A Thought for the Day given during a service of Holy Communion (BCP) at St Giles-in-the-Fields on Wednesday 11th December 2024 based on readings from Isaiah 40.25-end and Matthew 11.28-end.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

While it is possible - and rather tempting at this time of year - to draw comfort from those words after a particularly trying shopping expedition on Oxford Street, looking at the text that precedes today’s passage suggests that the burdens Jesus is talking about are not related to what we might consider the stresses of modern living - but strains of a much greater scale. The sins we have committed and those we bear on behalf of mankind.

It is for this reason that this passage provides the first of what we call the Comfortable Words that are read after the Absolution in this service of Holy Communion. A distinctly Anglican creation - albeit with Germanic reformation roots - these words and their place in the liturgy are intended to remind us that it is God who relieves us of the burden of our transgressions - and not the priest who pronounces absolution.

Known as the “comfortable” words not because they are intended to make us feel warm and cosy inside but from the Latin phrase “com fortis” which means "with strength" - they confirm the infallibility of the one from whom that forgiveness flows and upon which we may depend.

Today’s reading from Isaiah reinforces the cosmic dimension of that strength. Reminding us that God, the creator of the world, is beyond weariness.

Scientists now know that even the apparently solid things we see all around us are in a state of movement at a molecular level. The physical reality of this world is contingent. In a constant state of flux.

Isaiah’s prophecy reminds us that it is the innate desire of the whole of creation to move away from the sinful and contingent nature of this reality and towards a state of absolute and eternal rest - that is God himself.

Our weariness is caused when we seek to counter this natural desire - and do our best to ignore or reject his invitation.

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”


Image : Georges Rouault - Christ Carrying his Cross