In this section of Matthew, Jesus is speaking as a teacher - as he so often does, in Matthew. But they resonate a bit differently here today in the context of Matthew’s Gospel where, if we look at them more closely, they reveal to us what kind of comfort Jesus had in mind. In their Eucharistic context, the words of Jesus, “Come unto me all ye that travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you,” were - and still are - comforting and strengthening indeed. Now we could affirm and acknowledge the peace of Christ coming into our personal and corporate life - and, refreshed by this, we turned to the Eucharistic offering of ourselves, our souls, and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy and living sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. We heard the authoritative assurance of pardon to all those who humbly repented and firmly intended to amend our lives-that great declaration of forgiveness intended to raise us up from the dust and ashes of penitence and set us on our feet in joyful liberation and thanksgiving.Īnd then came the Comfortable Words, to strengthen us and give us courage: “Come unto me …” They were the compass setting, re-orienting us once again towards this gracious God of our hope, the maker and sustainer of our renewed reconciliation and peace, the faithful source of never-ending love in our hearts and lives, the author of that new life in Christ which had been given us in Baptism and was still ours by God’s merciful forgiveness. Then, as now, we had confessed our manifold sins and wickedness, unburdening ourselves of our grief and guilt by acknowledging our disobedience and our failures of love towards God, our neighbors, and ourselves. We had brought to God all the concerns for “the whole state of Christ’s church and the world” in intercession and petition. We had responded to God’s Word by asserting our faith in God’s unbreakable covenant with us, in the words of the Nicene Creed.
We had heard the Word of God proclaimed in the lectionary readings of Scripture, just as we do now and we had heard the preacher’s sermon. Those of us who are old enough, and have been Anglican communicants long enough, remember that there was something quite wonderful about hearing those Comfortable Words at that particular point in the liturgy.
“Come to me all who are weary and carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Or, in a slightly older form of the English language: “Come unto me all ye who travail and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you.” These words were spoken to us by the Celebrant, right after the Confession and Absolution, and - along with a few other well chosen sentences of Scripture - they were part of what were popularly called, in the tradition of the old Prayer Book, ” The Comfortable Words,” and were introduced by the celebrating priest with the invitation, “Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith to all that truly turn to him…” A version of this is still provided in the Rite One Holy Eucharist of today’s Book of Common Prayer.
There was once a time when any of us going to a service of Holy Communion in an Episcopal Church might hear some of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel.
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