Take the yoke I give you

 This was originally produced as a Reflection for Sunday 5th July 2020

How restful is your life at present? Do you manage to get some rest? For some people these questions mean rest in the sense of getting sleep.

Others want a different kind of rest. In ordinary times they seek relief from a busy schedule. The rat race gets to them. Relief from family tensions is the goal of many today. There is too much nagging between parents and children, between parent and parent, and between one child and another.

It is in this light that the words of Jesus here in this text sound so inviting. He says,

  ²⁸ If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take the yoke^[f] I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me." Matthew 11: 28 – 29 CEV

Very often we feel "yoked" - burdened, exploited, loaded down. So what is the promise that Christ holds out here? What is the yoke of Christ?

We need to remember  that Jesus says his yoke is "easy," but a yoke is still a yoke. This, then, is no invitation to sail through life. There's no promise in Christianity that we will ever be completely and finally relieved of all burdens and challenges on this earth. The yoke of Christ doesn't ever mean no yoke at all. Christ’s yoke is not a promise of sweetness and light, so we don't have to lift a finger again. The yoke is still a yoke. The load is still a load.

The word "yoke" is an agricultural term, of course. It refers to a wooden frame for joining two oxen or cows together in their task of pulling a load. Jesus is now offering us this piece of subservience. He wants to fit us with a yoke of his own making. What kind of a yoke, then, is Jesus offering us?

The yoke of Christ is easy and light when compared to other yokes. It’s still a burden but a lighter burden when compared to other burdens.

We have the challenge of dealing with our own sins, with our human failures, with our bad relationships with other people. Jesus is saying that there is an easier yoke or a more difficult one as we deal with these matters. He asks us to choose the easy yoke he offers.

Let's illustrate this. A ten-year-old boy and his friends love to play cricket. The boy's father has warned him many times to keep away from the houses so as not to break a window. The boys ignore the warning and our ten-year-old friend sends a “Six” right through a window.

Now the boy has to deal with his "sin". He has a choice of burdens to bear. He could choose the route of concealment. That’s what his friends tell him to do. It will be an easier way out. But in doing that, the boy soon realizes that he has a yoke to bear anyway. By following this choice, his father becomes an object of fear, and fear is a burden. An innocent look from his father across the dinner table becomes a suspicious glance in the boy's eyes. Every time the phone rings, the young lad wonders whether someone is calling to report the deed and the culprits. Life becomes uneasy. A heavy yoke is being borne.

On the other hand, the boy may choose an easier yoke to bear. He could choose to go to his father immediately. Yes, there is the burden of self-humiliation to bear. He must painfully hear his father say, "I told you that would happen!" As every young person hates to realize, he must suffer the pain of admitting that in some ways his parents are more intelligent and better informed about life than he is. He may even have to bear the burden of ultimately working at summer jobs to pay for the window.

But this yoke is still easier than the route of concealment. For there is also the distinct possibility of hearing his father's word of forgiveness, of knowing that this deed has not really separated him from his father's love and grace.

This is the kind of easy yoke Christ offers us in view of our sins and human failures. Many are bearing the yoke of guilt, of concealment, of sin that nags, of sin not ever really confessed or faced.

On occasion people have unburdened themselves to me of some of the yoke they’ve been carrying with them for years. Inevitably once they’ve “confessed” they feel better for doing so. Their burden is lighter. This is no accidental feeling. They have taken on the easier yoke of Christ. Still a yoke, yes. Still some pain. Still some humiliation. But an easier yoke.

Christ Jesus, the Son of God, who suffered for our sins and died for us on the cross, now lovingly invites us to choose a lighter load.

The yoke of Christ is easy and light when compared to the alternatives. And it is a well-fitting yoke too. That is, well-fitting and therefore easy in comparison to a bad-fitting yoke. William Barclay tells about the legend in the Holy Land concerning Jesus the Carpenter. The legend says that Jesus helped his father, Joseph, make yokes for oxen in their carpenter shop at Nazareth. So successful was their workmanship, so well-fitting were their yokes, that a sign above the shop door read, "My yokes fit well." That's what Jesus is saying to us today, "My yokes fit well!"

Jesus is an expert on life and on how to live. He knows the way we were meant to live, the way God always dreamed we should live on his earth. Look at the witness of Christ's life in the Bible. Christ knows how to love, to forgive, to heal. Christ knows how to die, and to rise again. He knows life! He wants to give all of that to you and me.

We think we know life and how to live. But so often we make even the simplest and most beautiful things of life a burden. We often end up with a yoke that doesn't fit very well. It rubs at the neck. The nerves become sensitive, the skin grows raw. And all the time an easier way is waiting for us. A gracious Lord is offering us a lighter load.

²⁸ If you are tired from carrying heavy burdens, come to me and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take the yoke^[f] I give you. Put it on your shoulders and learn from me."