Come to Me All Who Are Weary

The Invitation

Matthew 11:28–30 — "Come unto me, all [ye] that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light."

This three-verse invitation is unique to Matthew's Gospel. Luke's parallel passage (Luke 10:21–22) preserves the preceding thanksgiving to the Father, but not the invitation. It is one of the most-quoted passages in the Gospels and one of Jesus's most direct self-offers.

The Two Greek Verbs

"Labour" and "heavy laden" translate two different Greek verbs describing two different kinds of exhaustion:

• Kopiaō (κοπιάω, Strong's G2872) — "to labour to the point of weariness; to toil; to grow faint through exertion." The active picture: someone working, spending effort.
• Pephortismenoi (from phortizō, φορτίζω, G5412) — "heavy laden, loaded down, burdened." Passive perfect participle: someone who has had a burden placed on them. The picture is of a pack animal loaded beyond comfortable capacity.

The two verbs together cover both self-exertion (kopiōntes) and imposed burden (pephortismenoi). Neither is excluded from the invitation. Those who labor under their own strain and those burdened by external weight are both addressed.

The Promised Rest

Jesus uses two different Greek words for rest in successive verses:

• Anapausō (ἀναπαύω, G373) in verse 28 — "I will give you rest." The verb means "to cause to cease, to give relief." The noun form (anapausis) was used of the rest given to a field lying fallow — a restorative pause, not mere stoppage.
• Anapausin… tais psychais humōn (v. 29) — "rest unto your souls." Psychē (ψυχή, G5590) is the inner self, the animating life. The rest is not primarily physical relaxation; it reaches the part of a person from which weariness most originates.

The Greek anapausō parallels the Hebrew nuach (H5117) — the verb for God's "rest" on the seventh day (Genesis 2:2) and for the "rest" into which Israel was to enter in the Promised Land (Deuteronomy 12:9–10). Jesus is offering a rest with theological weight, not merely a break.

The Yoke

"Take my yoke upon you" — Greek arate ton zygon mou eph' humas. A yoke (zygos, ζυγός, G2218) is a wooden beam fitted across the necks of two oxen to plow or haul together. In biblical and rabbinic usage, "yoke" became a standard metaphor for:

• Submission to authority — "the yoke of slavery" (Leviticus 26:13, Galatians 5:1).
• A teaching or way of life — in rabbinic texts, the "yoke of the Torah" (ol ha-Torah) meant the disciplines of Jewish observance. A disciple who studied under a particular rabbi was said to "take on that rabbi's yoke."

Jesus's offer to "take my yoke" addresses would-be disciples in the rabbinic framework of his audience. The invitation is not to discard all commitments but to exchange one yoke for another. Contrast Acts 15:10, where Peter calls the requirement to keep all the ceremonial law "a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear."

"Meek and Lowly in Heart"

Jesus describes himself with two adjectives:

• Praus (πρᾷος, G4235) — "meek, gentle, humble." The word was used of a horse broken to the bridle — strength brought under control, not weakness. Same word as in the Beatitudes: "Blessed [are] the meek" (Matthew 5:5).
• Tapeinos tē kardia (ταπεινὸς τῇ καρδίᾳ) — "lowly in heart." Tapeinos (G5011) — "low, humble, of low degree." Used positively in the Magnificat (Luke 1:52: "exalted them of low degree").

This is the only place in the Gospels where Jesus directly names his own disposition. The adjectives describe why his yoke is bearable — the teacher under whom the disciple labors is himself meek and low-hearted, not harsh.

"Easy" and "Light"

Two final descriptors close the invitation:

• Chrēstos (χρηστός, G5543) — "easy, good, useful, kindly fitted." The adjective does not mean "without effort"; it means "suited, well-fitted." A yoke carefully shaped to the shoulders of the animal wearing it. The same word translates as "kindly" in Ephesians 4:32.
• Elaphros (ἐλαφρός, G1645) — "light in weight, not heavy." The word is used of "light affliction" in 2 Corinthians 4:17.

The yoke is not absent (Jesus does not say "come to me and be without a yoke"). The yoke is customized — fitted to the disciple. The burden is real but light.

The Old Testament Antecedent

The invitation echoes Jeremiah 6:16:

"Thus saith the LORD, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where [is] the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls."

The final phrase — "rest for your souls" — is verbatim identical in the Septuagint to Jesus's words in Matthew 11:29: anapausin tais psychais humōn. The grammatical match is precise enough that Jesus is almost certainly alluding to Jeremiah. The context in Jeremiah is a call to return to covenant faithfulness; Jesus adopts the phrase and applies it to himself as the "way" in which rest is found.