<p>11:28&nbsp;<em>Come to me all you that labour and are</em>- See on :27 &ldquo;whomsoever&rdquo;. The Lord may be urging the audience to come unto&nbsp;<em>Him</em>&nbsp;in the same way as they had come out to hear John preaching (:7-9). The invitation at the last day to &ldquo;Come&rdquo; into the Kingdom (Mt. 25:34 s.w.) is heard even now in the invitation to come after Him. The preceding verses share with us a beautiful insight into the mind and inner prayer of the Son to the Father. He meditated upon why apparently so few were responding, and went on to marvel at the Father&rsquo;s wisdom in revealing only to some, and to the immature &lsquo;little ones&rsquo; of His disciples. But arising out of that time of prayer and meditation, the Lord goes on to make a public appeal to whosoever will to come to Him. And this is the exact pattern which our public witness and appeal to others should follow.</p>
<p><em>Heavy laden</em>- The context is a lament that because people are wise, prudent and exalted in pride, they will not come to the Father and Son. But this way of life and thinking is in fact a hard way to live. Hence the Lord commends His own humility to those proud people. Whilst the arrogance and self-assurance of modern man seems an impossible barrier to the Gospel, we must be aware that actually they are struggling with it and are laden down with it. The word is only elsewhere used about the lawyers lading people with heavy burdens (Lk. 11:46)- not only of guilt, but also of pride in having kept irrelevant laws. David found his sins associated with Bathsheba &quot;as an heavy burden... too heavy for me... I am (thereby) bowed down greatly&quot; (Ps. 32:4,6). Surely our Lord was thinking back to David when he invited all of us: &quot;Come unto me, all you who labour and are heavy laden (with sins), and I will give you rest... for My... burden is light&quot; (Mt. 11:28-30).&nbsp;</p>
<p><em>And I will give you rest-&nbsp;</em>The Lord Jesus invites those who follow Him to accept the &ldquo;rest&rdquo; which He gives (Mt. 11:28). He uses a Greek word which is used in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, for the Sabbath rest. Jesus was offering a life of Sabbath, of rest from trust in our own works (cp. Heb. 4:3,10). We shouldn&rsquo;t, therefore, keep a Sabbath one day per week, but rather live our whole lives in the spirit of the Sabbath.&nbsp;</p>
<p>The Pharisees were the ones burdening the people (Mt. 23:4; Lk. 11:46), so this could be read as a fairly direct appeal to quit respecting the religious leaders of the day and follow the teaching of Jesus instead. Legalism and obedience to the Law is likened to an unbearable yoke (Acts 15:10; Gal. 5:1).&nbsp;</p>