The Rest Is Radical July 29, 2021 The Adult Bible Study Guide focuses on the central invitation of Jesus: come to me. Most of us know the promise of the lesson's memory text from Matthew 11:28—if one approaches the divine, rest from the labors of life will come. But the spiritual truth extends beyond catching some zzzzzzz. This radical concept, that rest is not compensation for work, but is instead essential disciple-like action for something greater, something shared, offers a political critique of contemporary notions of labor and reward. This yoke is different; it unites. Perhaps a few evangelical expositors have gone further and suggested that the hard questions of existence will also cease under the yoke of Christ. But that's a "false exegesis" as someone (Daryll Ward) once shouted at a Society of Adventist Philosophers meeting. The metaphor here is less than human. To follow this incarnation is to join with the beasts of burden. The irony of Christ leads not to the conclusion of human reality, but to its transfiguration. This is a new yoke, an ultimate concern.