Take up my yoke

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Christ’s invitation in today’s Gospel is one of my favorite pieces of scripture – an offering of comfort in the face of all the trials and tribulations we might encounter in this world. In the face of all the pain and suffering we see, Christ calls us to place our trust in him, to let go of what’s bothering us, offer it up to him and he will give us rest.

Christ is calling us to make a trade – give up the thousand and one worldly cares we’re focused on each day – concerns about our health, our jobs, our families, our financial worries. Give all those burdens up to Christ, and take up his yoke instead.

Which of course calls into question just what THAT yoke might be. Christ’s yoke is very simple and light – sweep away all the complexity of our lives and go back to the basics we heard in Luke’s Gospel last Sunday – “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” “Love God, love neighbor.” It’s that simple – AND that hard.

But Christ isn’t asking us to take this on ourselves – a yoke is custom fit for TWO beasts of burden. Christ is asking us to put on HIS yoke, to join him and learn from him. “For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” Living the Gospel in our lives absolutely can be a challenge in today’s world – no doubt about it. But we can trust in the Gospel’s assurance that we will find the yoke easy and the burden light if only we trust in the Lord – because we’re sharing our yoke with Christ. And if Christ is working the yoke alongside us, we can be certain that Jesus will be pulling most of the load.