Yoked
Text: Matt. 11:25-30
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Coming off the Fourth of July and our nation’s 250th celebration, one word has been emblazoned on our consciousness: independence. We celebrate a nation coming into existence that, from its start, has thrown off every burden and yoke, rejecting the strictures placed on it by the most powerful empire at the time. We think of ourselves as free and unencumbered, not beholden or bound by anything or anyone.
And yet, as providence would have it, today we hear Jesus saying something quite different. “Take my yoke upon you.” There’s tension created for us now. In this world, in the realms of nations and history, we celebrate independence and not being bound by anyone; yet Jesus here tells us not to throw off a burden, but to take His yoke upon us, to learn from Him, to bear His burden. “For my yoke is easy,” He says “and my burden is light.”
In order to understand what Jesus is talking about here, we must first look at this entire conversation He’s having with us. He begins it with a prayer to His heavenly Father: “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.” And now He draws us into the conversation: “All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him.” Jesus begins with His relationship with the Father, as the only begotten Son who uniquely knows the Father from eternity. This then defines who Jesus is at His heart when He says, “I am gentle and lowly in heart.” That’s not just a description of some personality traits Jesus has. It’s His entire relationship with God the Father. He is eternally the recipient of the Father’s love. He receives everything from Him, as Jesus says, “All things have been handed over to me by my Father.” He has the peace of knowing that everything He could ever need will be willingly and lovingly provided by His heavenly Father. That includes everything in this world, the things He needs day-to-day, and those larger wonders, like resurrection waiting for Him after His cross. This is what Jesus invites us to when He says, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” He is inviting you to the peaceful rest of being in that relationship of receiving everything from the Father. He is inviting you to share what He has with His Father, who has now become your Father as well.
This rest sounds wonderful, especially for the heavy laden, those under the weights and pressures we find ourselves beneath in this fallen world. But what are we to make of that yoke Jesus talks about? It’s still there, right in the midst of all Jesus’ discussion of resting and comfort. “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” What is this yoke?
Within Judaism at the time, particularly among the Pharisees, this language of yoke, when it came to the faithful, meant the following of all the rules and protocols of the Torah. The rabbis talked about “the yoke of heaven”, which meant obeying everything that was required in the Law of Sinai. For the Pharisees, this expanded into ways to justify yourself to God; that is, to prove to God that you were worthy of His favor and love, that you had earned the good things He gave you, that you were righteous and pure through your observance of the Torah. And this, as we know from Jesus’ words condemning the Pharisees for loading people up with heavy burdens and not lifting a finger to help them—and from our own personal experiences with trying to prove ourselves worthy and righteous enough—it’s a very heavy burden to bear.
So when Jesus invites us to take His yoke upon us because it is easy and His burden is light, He’s inviting us away from all those crushing attempts to prove our worth to our heavenly Father. He’s inviting us into that place of being God’s child and receiving everything out of grace, because God loves you and wants to give these gifts to you. This is certainly an easier yoke than self-justification and constantly being weighed down by our own failed attempts at perfect righteousness. We receive even Jesus’ own holiness as we set down that heavy burden of self-righteousness and take up His freely given grace, being put in that that place of gentleness and lowliness of heart, receiving all things from the Father, even as Jesus already has as the Son.
Of course, this does not mean that we’re loosed from anything and everything. We’re not set free to live lives completely unguided by what God knows is good for us in His Law. But this means that Jesus shares the yoke with us. This makes it easier than the yoke of trying to win God’s love, grace, and favor all on our own. Imagine it as an ox attached to a plow with a yoke. On its own, that ox will have a difficult time trying to plow an entire field. But when that ox is yoked to another—when you are yoked to Jesus by His yoke, His burden—He works alongside you. He works through you. He makes it possible to do those things that God says are good, that He desires. But it’s only when you’re bound to Jesus that it can happen.
We have a beautiful demonstration of this here in our own sanctuary. The stained-glass window over the altar has these words from Jesus today: “Come unto Me.” This is perfectly fitting to have these words here because this is where we see all of this the clearest: when we’re going to the altar to receive Jesus’ body and blood for our forgiveness, justification, and healing. It’s where we go to find rest in all the changes and chances of the world. When He comes to us in this way, He brings us into that relationship of receiving all of the heavenly Father’s gifts: eternal life, purification, being bonded to your Lord in the very fabric of your being. It’s where Jesus comes to you, where you meet Him, so that He can bear your burdens and give you rest. Come to Him here now, and learn from Him, be yoked to Him, for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. In the name of Jesus, who carries our burdens, Amen.
