CHRIST’S YOKE

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.

Matt. 11:28-30, NIV-UK

This declaration by Jesus is one of the most eloquent and appropriate figures of speech to be found in the Scriptures. The original yoke was a neck-harness fitted to beast or slave, and signified the subordination and heavy servitude of the animal or man that wore it.

But here, in our Lord’s contemporary application of the figure, He invites the heart weighed down by the dead weight of sin’s condemnation and, instead, to shoulder the benign restraint of the Master’s will. As Jesus had obligated Himself to do the will of God His own life being always subject to His Father so He exhorts His disciples then and now to follow the example.

For those Jews who heard Him then and believed in Him, and for countless numbers of Gentile believers since, yearning for freedom from the shackles of sin, this blessed servitude has guided them to contentment and the joy of new, regenerated life.

The yoke is our general acceptance of the Lord’s will; the burden is the details the Lord wills us to do, even unto suffering for His will.

In taking the yoke in the spirit of love we find its weight is indeed light; . . . Love lightens every burden, eases every task, gladdens every sorrow, sanctifies every pain and surrounds with a halo of bliss even the smallest tasks and the most commonplace things.

– P.S.L. Johnson, Daily Heavenly Manna and Devotional Service,

Feb. 17

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June 2017

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