Yoked to Jesus
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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.”
Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus’ urgency to reveal the secrets of the kingdom to those who believe was prefaced by a connection on a personal level with His true followers. His prayer to the Father for the “little children”—those humbly open to truth—is underlined with love for them: “Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure” (11:25-26).
And so He beckoned them, now us, to come close and leave their/our burdens on Him. He knows that His road will not always be an easy road to travel, but He will give us rest for our souls.
You see, the Pharisees had laid a heavy burden on the people with all the 613 Laws of the Torah. Jennifer Kennedy Dean writes of a rabbi’s yoke as his particular school of thought in interpreting the Torah.*
But the yoke Jesus talks about here is that of the first century farmer: “a wooden bar or frame by which two draft animals (such as oxen) are joined at the heads or necks for working together.”** Visualize Jesus asking His followers to get into one side of His yoke and He’ll be in the other, lightening the load. He will do the brunt of the pulling. And not only that, He’ll steer you in the way to go—His way.
Jesus had already told them He had not come “to abolish the Law or the Prophets…but to fulfill them” (Matthew 5:17). Later He would more specifically hang the Law and the Prophets on agape love, first of God and then of your neighbor (Matthew 22:37-40).
Now that’s a yoke to get into, the yoke of Love.
Pile your troubles on GOD’S shoulders—
he’ll carry your load, he’ll help you out.
He’ll never let good (righteous) people topple into ruin.
—Psalm 55:22, MSG
Nancy P
All Scripture quotations are from the NIV Translation 1973, 1978, 1984, unless otherwise noted.
*Jennifer Kennedy Dean: Secrets Jesus Shared, p.26
**Miriam Webster Dictionary online
