The Easy Yoke

MATTHEW 11:28-30

28 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

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The way of the Master is a learned way, a life lived in an unhurried yoke. You might be wondering what on earth a yoke is. Well, as you can see from the picture, it’s an oxen’s collar which joins two of them together. Jesus is saying, ‘come to me and, like the older oxen guides the younger oxen how to plough a field straight and true, I will guide my church.’ He’ll also teach us the cadence to plough the field, not too slow and not too fast. It’s an easy yoke when Jesus is right there with you.

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Rest for the burdened. Jesus importantly says, “come to me,” not “come to church,” or “come to the commandments.” He says “come to me” in relationship. He is not going to burden us with a calling that is ill-fitting, he knows each one of us intimately. This idea of rest takes us straight to the imagery of the Good Shepherd of the Twenty-Third Psalm who leads His sheep to rest. The discipleship journey begins with an acknowledgement that this is not slavery, we are called to be human beings not just human doings.

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Importantly, Jesus says that we are to learn from him. This presupposes some sort of “with-God life” of growing in our understanding and also putting truth into practise. Christianity is so often dominated by learning more and more information and doctrine. Here, Jesus is telling his disciples that he will teach people how to do it, how to live a live worth living.

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We will sometimes refer to this important passage as introducing “the easy yoke.” Even though Jesus says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light, the fact that he has chosen an oxen’s yoke as his primary metaphor means he is clearly communicating the fact that there is work involved in this task of following him. Throughout this handbook, we will be reminded that grace is not opposed to effort, rather grace is opposed to earning.

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This is effort to be applied in this task of learning how to follow Jesus in the life of the easy yoke.