The Yoke of Jesus

It think we miss a lot of the bible without meaning to. Some things are so easy to read right over and miss the point because we have the wrong frame of reference. In many ways it is not our fault that we can’t see what is right in front of us. We just don’t understand the examples that Jesus used to make everything so clear. Today I want to try to clear up something that I think most of us miss and have little fun doing it.

My passage today is from

Matthew 11:28–30 NASB95

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

It’s a passage we all know and have heard and it is a passage that we use a lot to give comfort to others and ourselves, but I am afraid we use it without really understanding it. So I want to dig into this passage and get all the meaning out of it.

The basic idea is easy for us to get a hold of. Jesus is calling everyone who is tired and weary, everyone who is bearing heavy burdens and offering them rest in him. I think we all get that part and at one time or another we all want that part. This life can stack up a lot of heavy burdens, things that are hard to bear. It even seems like they come in groups. Some of the things that happen to us, the burdens we bear, I think maybe we could handle them, or at least make a good try at handling them ourselves if they came one at a time.

You get sick and it turns out to be something serious. You don’t tell your friends because you don’t want to burden them with your problems and you think maybe you can handle it. But then because you are sick you go to the doctor, or the surgeon and you start piling up medical bills, and they pile up quickly. Of course you are sick and going to the doctor so you are missing work, at the very time your expenses are growing your income is shrinking because of the time off work. If that weren’t enough it seems like that’s when the car breaks down or the AC goes out and you are too sick to fix it yourself and too broke to hire someone else to do it. We all know what it is like to bear a heavy burden in life. We all struggle at times to bear up under our struggles and rest sounds great. So we love this passage.

All of that is great, but here is where I think we miss something, maybe the best thing. We don’t mean to miss it, we just don’t understand. Jesus says

Matthew 11:29 NASB95

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

To really understand this passage we need to go back to ancient farming 101. What exactly is a yoke.

Show a picture

A yoke is a device for pairing up two oxen to plow or pull a cart or some other kind of load. In fact a pair of oxen are often called a yoke of oxen, especially if they pull well together. The Yoke is placed over the neck of the oxen. It is basically a heavy beam that fits over the Oxen’s neck and is secured in some way and then a load is attached to the center of the yoke and the oxen pull the load. Most yokes are curved to fit the neck and use a springy wood that is inserted through holes in the yoke to go under the oxen’s neck and help hold it in place although some primitive yokes are just a beam on the neck and a smaller beam under the neck tied together with rope or leather or even cloth. The important think is that it ties them together and together they pull the load.

Most yokes are between 5 and 6 feet long.

Pull out 4x4 beam. have volunteer come up and stand under one end of beam and drape arms over it like he is yoked in.

Now imagine attaching a load right here in the center and asking (volunteer) to pull that load. It doesn’t work does it? But what if we do this.

Get under other end of beam as if yoked in and pretend to pull together.

Now I am a big guy, for most of you if I was pulling in tandem with you, carrying your load, bearing your burden, it would probably seem to get a lot lighter. That is part of what Jesus meant when he said take my yoke upon you. He would help bear your burdens. Jesus would help pull your load. Wouldn’t that be great.

Remove beam and let volunteer go.

But wait, there is more...... that’s my best late night infomercial imitation.

Another thing you may not know about oxen is that they control these huge beasts with just a thin stick. So how do they get them to learn what to do and how to pull and how to work with a yoke. Well, they yoke a young ox to an experienced ox and let one ox train the other one. The old ox who knows the ropes teaches the young ox by example. They are literally tied together so that wherever the old ox goes the young ox goes and whatever the old ox does the young ox does. he learns by being tied to and directly led by the other ox. And after he spends some time learning and getting into the habits that the old ox teaches him he is ready to pull with a less experience ox. He knows what to do because he has done it. He knows how to pull and when to pull and how to handle a load because the master has walked right beside him and taught him by working with him and pulling with him day after day and load after load. He learns by doing and by doing everything the teacher does with the teacher right there beside him all the way.

Jesus says to us, learn from me for I am gentle and humble of heart.

Jesus is not saying that if you come to me I will make all of your problems go away and I will wave my magic wand and make everything better. What he is saying is that if you come to Jesus and let yourself be yoked together with him, he will pull beside you. If I can make your load lighter by pulling at it with you how much lighter can Jesus make your load by adding his strength. Jesus if offering you a spot next to him, to be tied to him so tightly that every step he takes you take and every turn he makes you make too. Jesus is offering to take to under his yoke so that you will pull with him and work with him and walk with him every day and every load. Every burden you will both bear together, every problem you will deal with together, every step you take you will take to Jesus because you are yoked to him with a strong yoke.

Jesus is not offering you a life without problems, a job without work, or a yoke without a cart to pull. What he is offering is that whatever job comes along, however hard it may be to pull, no matter what the size of the load is Jesus will be right there beside you pulling way more than his share, helping you bear your burdens and pull your load. Helping you get through it all step, by step, by step. He will be right beside you, tied to you, walking with you no matter what. The yoke of Jesus is not light because there is no load in the cart, but because the king of kings and lord of lords is pulling the load with you, making it lighter and easier to bear, showing you the way. Teaching you every step of the way.

When you have learned enough, and when you have pulled enough loads and born enough burdens Jesus will let you pull a little harder on the chains, he will let you bear a little more of the weight and your muscles will grow strong and you will grow in confidence and ability. Soon you will be pulling more weight than you ever thought possible, and it will still feel light. By walking with the master, learning from the master, working with the master you will learn how to truly bear burdens. By learning form Jesus himself, yoked in tandem with him, seeing every day how it should be done and learning every day what to do. By learning from the master you will grow wise and strong. Soon you will be helping others with their burdens like Jesu helps you with yours, and still the burden will be light.

When you have learned to do your part, when you have walked with Jesus enough and pulled with Jesus enough he still will not leave you, but you will begin to Yoke with others, to bear their burdens and to pull their loads like it was nothing to you. When they are amazed and filled with wonder at your strength and your willingness and ask you how did you get to be this way. You can smile, and think of all the long miles and all the long years of pulling loads and bearing burdens beside Jesus himself. You can remember all you have learned and all the things you have done in your life that you never imagined that you could do. You can know that Jesus is always there, right beside you, and that with that help and that knowledge nothing is impossible for you as long as you remain in lockstep with Jesus, through every trial and through every load, every heavy burden will move and every one of them feel light. You can say, I am yoked to my saviour and he has taught me how to pull. He pulls with me and helps me. He loves me and gives himself up for me. My soul is at rest.

I can take you to him. He would love to be yoked together with you, to help you with your burdens, to teach you how to pull and how to bear them, he wants to be yoked up with you too. He wants to teach you and walk with you and lead you and give you rest. All you have to do is take up his yoke and follow him. He will do the rest. As he pulls beside you the weight will no longer seem to crush you, it will seem light and easy. As he teaches you how to live the burdens you bear will seem lighter and lighter. As you walk with him every day and follow where he leads you will become stronger and stronger until all your burdens seem light and your soul truly rests. Stop trying to carry all of that weight by yourself, stop trying to pull the load without help. Take his yoke upon you and he will give you rest.