From Richard Neitzel Holzapfel and Gaye Strathearn:
ONE SCHOLAR OBSERVES THAT MATHEW 11:25-30 RECORDS “perhaps the most important verses in the Synoptic Gospels.”1 More specifically, Elder James E. Talmage described verses 28-30 as “one of the grandest outpourings of spiritual emotion known to man.”2
If these statements are true then why is Matthew the only author to include this invitation: “Come unto me, all ye who labor 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”? (Matthew 11:28-30). Why was this teaching so important to Matthew? After Luke includes the three verses that precede them, in which Jesus speaks about knowing the Father (Luke 10:28-30); both Mark and Luke include the story that follows about plucking grain on the Sabbath (Mark 2:28-30; Luke 6:1-5)
Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that Matthew’s gospel was written to a Jewish audience and therefore emphasizes discipleship through works-righteousness—the things we must do to gain salvation. Matthew uses the Greek word for righteousness, dikaiosynē, seven times in his Gospel—five of them in the Sermon on the Mount; in contrast, Mark does not use the term at all, Luke uses it just once, and John uses it only twice (Matthew 3:15; 5:6, 10, 20; 6;1,33;21:32,Luke 1:75; John 16:8, 10).
It is therefore significant that in a Gospel where works-righteousness is so prominent, Matthew also includes an important counterbalance for those who feel the weight of such responsibility. The counterbalance expressed in Matthew 11:28-30 is just as important for modern readers as it was to Matthew’s original audience in the first century. In fact, the importance of the counterbalance is reflected in the poetic form of the passage. Chiasmus, as Latter-day Saint scholar John Welch explains, “consists of arranging a series of words or ideas in one order and then repeating this in reverse order.” One of the important features of chiasmus is that “the main idea of the passage is placed in the turning point where the second half begins, which emphasizes it.” 3 Matthew 11:28-30 can thus be formatted in the following way, with the ideas of laboring and being heavy laden paralleling the easy yoke and the lightened burden, and the two promises of rest paralleling each other.
a: Come unto me, all year that labour and are heavy laden, b: and I will give you rest. c: Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly of heart; b. And ye shall find rest unto your souls. a. For my yoke is easy, and my burden in light.4
At the turning point of this chiasmus is the invitation to take Jesus’ yoke and learn about and from him. His yoke is not that of a tyrant for he is meek and lowly of heart. He does not ask us to take his yoke so he can add additional burdens on us. Rather he asks to take his yoke because he loves us, because he wants to help us, because he wants us not to just endure mortality but to enter into the fullness of God’s glory, both here and in the eternities.
To more fully appreciate the meaning of this text, we must examine it within the broader context of Matthew’s Gospel and the more immediate context of the passages that surround it. As it stands in his Gospel, its immediate context is an important link between his discussion of knowing the Father and the Son (Matthew 11:25-27) and Jesus’ proclamation that he is the Lord of the Sabbath (12:1-9). ~~Richard Neitzel Holzapfei, Gaye Strathern, He Will Give You Rest, (Salt Lake City:Deseret Book, 2010), p.15-17
Note from KDM. . . . As mentioned previously, ‘Chiasmus’ is an ancient form of Hebrew writing used in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. . . . many times, in verse, chapters and multiple chapters. It was totally unknown (lost through the centuries) at the time that the Prophet Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. Dr. John Welch, when a 19 year old missionary in Germany, discovered Chiasmus. Having studied previous to his mission under Dr. Hugh Nibley, (a universally known and published scholar of ancient texts). . . . found this form of Hebrew writing in his regular scripture study. Totally lost for many centuries, it is often found in the Bible and also prevalent in the Book of Mormon, in verse, chapters and multiple chapters throughout. . . . another evidence that the Book of Mormon is a gift, for our modern day, true and from God.
