I am unsure at this point in my life if I even believe in the concept of God as he is described in the Bible. I have spent many years seeking a truth to believe in, yet have come up empty handed and even more confused. I wish that I was one of those people who declares “God said it, I believe it, end of story.” I’m not.

I know many good Christian friends who are reluctant to say that they don’t have all of the answers. When questioned, they simply say that their faith is enough and stop questioning.

I hope you don’t mind if I subscribe to your blog.

While I appreciate the gentle spirit with which The Message paraphrase puts this verse, I recently did a study on Matthew 11 and can honestly say that this totally misses the point. I hope this doesn’t come off too preachy (especially coming from a stranger who just happened to find your blog!), but here’s what you miss from a better translation (in this case ESV, but many would do):

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Thoughts:

1 – We must come to Him. Who? Those who are laboring under the law, but especially those who are heavy laden under the law… i.e., are aware of their sin as a burden, their guilt under the law.

2 – He gives us rest. See Hebrews 4 for more on rest; the amorphous “unforced rhythms of grace” sounds like great coffee-house poetry, but doesn’t really mean a whole lot.

3 – It’s not just a matter of “watching how He does it,” it’s a matter of “taking [His] yoke upon us.” That is, coming to Him as our Ruler, submitting ourselves to His lordship. He still has a yoke for us – that is, we belong to Him – but it is much better than the old yoke of the law.

4 – The yoke that we are to be under, as servants of Christ, is chreustos – not only easy, but gracious… even sweet or pleasant… refreshing.

I could go on, but I’ve already taken enough of your time. I just want to encourage you to use other translations alongside paraphrases like The Message so that you don’t miss what God’s actually said.