MATTHEW 11:28 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The invitation that follows the claim of verse 27 — the one who exclusively knows and reveals the Father now invites everyone burdened by labor to come to him for rest. The all who labor and are heavy laden describes the condition of those under the impossible weight of the scribal interpretation of the Torah — the yoke that the Pharisees had elaborated into an unbearable burden. The rest promised is the rest of the one who offers a different yoke: the yoke of grace rather than the yoke of achievement.
Church Fathers on Matthew 11:28
By what He had said, He brought His disciples to have a desire towards Him, shewing them His unspeakable excellence; and now He invites them to Him, saying, 'Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden.'
Whence do we all thus labour, but that we are mortal men, bearing vessels of clay which cause us much difficulty. But if the vessels of flesh are straitened, the regions of love will be enlarged. To what end then does He say, 'Come unto me,' all ye that labour, but that ye should not labour?
He calls to Him those that were labouring under the hardships of the Law, and those who are burdened with the sins of this world.
Read all 18 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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