In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus says “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.”  This is really good news.  We all feel weary and burdened at times, sometimes severely, and we yearn for rest.  Jesus promises us rest for our souls, a peace within ourselves that can only come by being reconciled with God, forgiven, through our faith in Christ because of what He accomplished for us on the cross.  However, to get this “soul rest”, we must take on His yoke.  What does that mean?

A yoke can be many things, but in Jesus’ day, it would have been immediately recognized as the device used to join a pair of oxen consisting of a wooden cross piece and two bow-shaped pieces which the animal’s heads would pass through.  This device would submit the oxen to pull the burden that the owner of the yoke imposed on them.  With this in mind, a yoke was a symbol of submission and hardship for the Jews.  In the Old Testament, we read of the Lord freeing His people from the “yoke of the Egyptians” (Exodus 6:6-7) and the yoke of the Assyrians (Isaiah 14:25), likewise in 1 Kings 12:4, the people of Israel asked king Rehoboam to lighten the “heavy yoke” that his father Solomon imposed on the people through the forced labor he instituted.

Another heavy yoke that was familiar to the Jews was the yoke of the law.  This was the heavy requirements placed on the people by the Pharisees.  Instead of the yoke of the Pharisees with its heavy burden of hundreds of laws that were imposed on the people, Jesus was offering a yoke of grace that was easy and light.  We must not think that Jesus does not expect anything from His followers.  Actually, His demands are far more radical than those of the Pharisees, just read the Sermon on the Mount.  What makes Jesus’ yoke easy is not that the work itself is easy, it is not, but that following Him puts us in harmony with the Creator of the universe and we have all the power we could ever need to fulfill His demands because He provides it to us, as long as we do not fight against His yoke.

Jesus’ yoke is a symbol of our voluntary discipleship to Him as Lord and Savior in contrast to other yokes that people wish to force on us or that we mistakenly feel we must bear.  If we willingly submit ourselves to Him in humility and obedience, as He did to the Father for us on His way to the cross, we will be given the rest he promises us, in this life and the next.

Concerning the symbolism of the yoke, this is about as far as exegesis will take us, but we can biblically extend the illustration.  The most common extension pictures us as yoked together with Jesus.  In this regard, He is the dominate one of our pair and serves to teach us the way to go and shoulder the burden for us because of our weakness.  Another way of looking at these verses is a contrast of yokes.  We have noted that in the Old Testament, the Egyptians and Assyrians imposed yokes of slavery and hardship on Israel.  They were not yoked with the Jews, but were the ones imposing the yoke on them and forcing them to bear the burden it represented.  In contrast, Jesus offers us a yoke that is easy, also translated well-fitting, that He has fashioned for us.  If we voluntarily take on His yoke, we are given the rest He promises.  In this illustration, Jesus is the one who fashions the yoke, like a carpenter, and the one who provides it, like the farmer who owns the oxen.

Either illustration mentioned above is valid and each expresses Biblical truths, however we must not miss the point that following Jesus, accepting His yoke, is the only way to receive true peace and rest, both in this life and the next.  Any other yoke will chafe and frustrate us as we are compelled to pull burdens we are not meant to pull.

So, how’s your yoke fitting these days?

Steve Jernigan

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