Are You Weary, Languid, Sore Distress’d?

Which hymn do you prefer?

“Are you weak and heavy laden, cumbered with a load of care?  Precious Savior, still our refuge; take it to the Lord in prayer….in his arms he’ll take and shield thee; thou wilt find a solace there.”  (What A Friend We Have In Jesus, Joseph Scriven, 1855)

“Are you weary, are you languid, are you sore distress’d?  ‘Come to me,’ says One, ‘and, coming, be at rest….If I find him, if I follow, what his promise here?  ‘Many a sorrow, many a labor, many a tear.…If I hold closely to him, what has he at last?  ‘Sorrow vanquished, labor ended, Jordan passed.’…Finding, following, keeping, struggling, is he sure to bless?  ‘Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs answer yes.’”  (St. Stephen of Mar Saba wrote this hymn  1300 years ago, it was translated from the Greek to English by John M. Neale in 1862).

Both hymns are derived from Matthew 11:28-29. Elton Trueblood called this passage, “the Heart of the heart of the Gospel:” “Come unto Him,” as Handel puts it in the Messiah, “all ye that labour, come unto Him that are heavy laden, and He will give you rest.  Take His yoke upon you, and learn of Him, for He is meek and lowly of heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.”

The first hymn (What A Friend We Have In Jesus) ignores Matthew 11:29—and emphasizes verse 28, suggesting that the burden will be removed, taken away. It suggests that “rest” and “solace” is a given (the burden is lifted, health is restored, and one will be shielded from all struggle). This is precisely what Jesus did not say or offer.  The second hymn, on the other hand, picks up on Jesus’ offer of rest to the burdened by asking the “already burdened” to share His burden, to take on His yoke:  “If I find him, if I follow, what his promise here?  ‘Many a sorrow, many a labor, many a tear.’”  (By the way, this hymn was sung in the 1940 movie Our Town. It is seldom sung in churches these days).

“What is a Christian? A Christian is one who seeks, in spite of his or her failures (weakness, helplessness, burden and languidness) to carry Christ’s yoke with Him” (Trueblood). I don’t know all that it means to take on Christ’s yoke, but it at least means “to learn of Him” and to share in his toil, and finding a unique “rest” in the midst of it.