The Easy Yoke
Matt11:28-30

Did you know that the computing power of the average new computer doubles every two years? It’s true. That fact is called Moore’s Law, named after one of the founders of Intel. You’d think that, with all that extra computing power, our lives would be getting easier and we would be able to slow down. But the reality is that our lives seem to be getting faster and faster and we seem to have less and less time than we had before. With cell phones, and text messaging and email and internet, we’re constantly at everybody’s beck and call, whether it’s work or family. Can you believe that in the 1980’s they were predicting that by this time everybody would be working 24 hour weeks and that our biggest problem would be trying to figure out what to do with all our extra leisure time?

For most people, the opposite is true. Life just gets faster and faster and there are more and more expectations put on us. One result is that, more and more, we have to be on guard against over extending ourselves. I love what I do and God has also gifted me with the ability to do a lot of things. Still, from time to time, I find myself complaining (usually to Marilyn) about being tired or worn out.

Jesus speaks to that kind of situation in Matt11:28.

"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."

How often in recent months have you said "I could do with a break"? Here in this passage Jesus promises rest. Actually a better translation of the word here is probably "relief," rather than "rest". When I think of "rest" I get images of sitting down by a pool with a cold drink and a good book and just kicking back with nothing to do. That isn't what Jesus is promising here. He is promising relief to those who are burdened and heavy laden. It is not that we sit down and don't get up again but that the burdens are eased so we can keep on going.

[When I was younger I used to do some backpacking in the hills in Scotland. Sometimes I would walk all day with a heavy pack and then at the end of the day take off the pack and for a few minutes I'd feel really light on my feet. When you carry a pack all day your muscles adjust to the extra weight, then when it's gone you feel like you could leap ten feet in the air. That’s good, because you still have to make camp and cook a meal and everything else!]

So when Jesus speaks here of rest or relief he is talking about relieving the burden so we’re not overwhelmed and fall. Instead, he wants us to be able to keep on going in the direction he has for us. So if you don't ever feel yourself overburdened or tired then you can read your Bible or something but if that is ever your experience then perhaps we can learn something together from this passage.

According to Jesus there are three steps to finding relief from burdens and weariness. They are found in his three commands in this passage: Come to me; Take my yoke; Learn from me.

Jesus says…

Come to me

It may seem obvious but I'll say it anyway. We can't expect Jesus to help us unless we first come to him with the problem. He issues an invitation "Come to me…" and waits for our response. This is at the core of the gospel. It’s an invitation to come to Jesus.

So often we forget, or at least I forget, to take things to him. I try and fix it this way and that way, I ask advice from this person and that person but what I really need to do is go to him and hear his direction.

And his direction is..

Take my yoke upon you

That’s yoke spelled YOKE not YOLK. Jesus isn’t talking about how you like your eggs. If you’ve ever seen pictures of people ploughing a field or pulling a cart using animals like cows or oxen you’ll know that the plough is connected to a wooden beam that goes across the shoulders of the animals. That beam is called a yoke and it is how the oxen carry the weight.

In Jesus’ day people spoke of being “under the yoke of the law.” So when Jesus’ original listeners heard this command they probably interpreted it as an invitation to take off the yoke of the Pharisees, with its burdens of regulations, and take up Jesus' yoke in its place.

Jesus doesn't do away with the idea of a yoke. When we follow Jesus there are still expectations. He doesn’t say “do whatever you like.” He offers a different yoke.

So what’s the difference between his yoke and theirs?

Primarily, Jesus’ yoke is one of relationship where the Pharisees' yoke was an external one regulations. That was never the intention of the Old Testament law. It was given to believers as instruction for them on how they should live in the light of God’s love for them. Unfortunately, the Pharisees lost sight of that and they were trying to get brownie points with God by keeping the law. As a result it had become a heavy burden.

Jesus summed up the nature of his yoke when he said, "If you love me you will keep my commandments" (Jn14:15). The focus of the call to take up his yoke is not rules but relationship, not content but closeness.

His yoke, not my own or someone else's

So the question we have to ask ourselves is, “Whose yoke am I carrying?” Another way of saying that is, "Why do I do what I do?" Am I being driven by an external yoke of rules and expectations that I’ve taken upon myself, or that has been placed upon me by others? Or, when I look at my life do I find that I am being faithful to an internal yoke, a call to follow Jesus and be obedient to what he is calling me to do.

We can put yokes on ourselves.

Some of us put yokes on ourselves. - One of my problems is that I can feel guilty if I’m not working at something. If I have some spare time I’ll tend to find something to fill it. I find it really difficult to just rest.

[Continuing on for PhD or MA at Mac? - no]

[have to check with the deacons before I start anything new, so I can discern if it is appropriate]

Some of us find it really easy to keep piling things on ourselves. We take yokes on ourselves instead of the one Jesus gives.

We can have yokes put on us by others.

Others can put yokes on us too. For some of us it’s family. For others it’s friends, or people in need. Whatever it is, it’s easy for us to be guilted into doing something just because someone else expects it of us. We’ve allowed them to put their yoke on us and we’re carrying their burden, not Jesus’.

Jesus calls us to take up his yoke. The funny thing is that sometimes we end up doing exactly the same things as we did before, but, because we’re doing it for him, his promise is that we will find relief even as we do it.

[Serving Afghan refugees – people who did it out of compassion for the refugees often got burned out – especially when people weren’t thankful, or worse, took advantage of you. Those who lasted a long time knew that their reward wasn’t a “thank you” from a refugee but a “well done” from Jesus. Both groups were doing the same thing, but for different reasons. ]

That is how it is when we take on Jesus' yoke. What I'm doing becomes secondary to who I'm doing it for.

So the first step to relief is to take up Jesus' yoke.

One yoke, not many (what is Christ's call to you?)

Along with that goes the need to put down all the other yokes. He calls us to carry one yoke, His. Not many. It’s not much use taking up Jesus’ yoke, the thing he calls us to do, if we’re still carrying all the other ones as well.

This is where we need to learn to say "no", to set boundaries in our lives that allow us to graciously but firmly say, “I’m sorry, but I can’t take that task on.” Sometimes that will mean that peoples’ feelings will be hurt, especially if you have always been the one they’ve turned to. But Jesus promises us rest if we take on his yoke and do what he calls us to do.

What Jesus tells us here is that the important thing is obedience to him. It is his yoke we are to carry, not the one that is put on us by our circumstances or our friends or our family, or even the church. Of course we need to work with all those groups and people to come to an understanding of how God's call on our lives can also serve the task at hand.

[When I was in charge of recruitment and personnel for the aid agency Marilyn and I worked with in Pakistan I must have referred half the applicants on to other agencies. I remember I had someone referred to me for a secretarial position. But after hearing of her background and what she believed was her life call I encouraged her in a different direction that would make it easier for her to fulfil God's call on her life. She’s now running an English as a Second Language programme in Kabul.]

The issue is obedience to God. (1 Sam 15:22, Saul's sacrifice.)

If God tells you to do one thing and you decide to do another, that’s sin. If God calls you to some kind of “full time” ministry and you decide to stay working where you are, that’s sin. But if he calls you to be in the workplace and you decide to “be spiritual” and become a pastor, that’s sin too. That means that we need to give space to each other to carry the yoke that Jesus has given each one of us, to fulfil the calling he has put one our own lives, and not assume that "one size fits all".

Learn from me

Jesus says we are to come to him, take his yoke upon us, and learn from him.

[When we lived in Pakistan it was quite normal to see a donkey pulling a cart and alongside it another, younger donkey tied on. The little donkey wasn’t actually pulling anything, it was getting used to the idea of having this thing following it wherever it went. It was learning from the older donkey.]

That is a picture of what we are called to do, to learn from Jesus and be conformed to Jesus' way of doing things.

But think for a moment of what Jesus is saying here. He is saying that if we are willing to learn from him he will come alongside us, come into our situation, experience our path, and teach us how to walk in it. He knows what it is to walk this earth as a human being. He’s done it. Jesus is not just our saviour and teacher. He’s our model too. These bracelets that some wear with the letters WWJD "What Would Jesus Do?" have a solid rooting right here in this passage.

Jesus says, "Take my yoke and learn from me", put aside the external pressures of performance and do whatever you do for him, in obedience to him; and learn to do things his way.

But what is his way of doing things?

I am gentle and humble in heart

He doesn't leave us to figure out what it means to learn from him, he spells it out for us, "for I am gentle and humble in heart". That means two things: one, that he will deal with us gently and humbly and; two, that he wants to see gentleness and humility worked into our lives as we walk with him.

This is what Paul is doing in 2Cor10:1 when he pleads with the Corinthians by the "meekness and gentleness of Christ". He had authority over the Corinthians as an apostle but he didn’t use that authority, he pleaded with them by the "meekness and gentleness of Christ.”

My yoke is easy and my burden is light

Jesus promises us rest (relief from pressure and anxiety) if we take up his yoke and learn from him. It won't be all plain sailing, we can see that from the experience of the early church, as well as Jesus' own experience. But he does say that his yoke is easy. What does that mean?

[When we were in Pakistan we had most of our clothes made for us. That’s normal. Ready made clothes are expensive so you go to the bazaar, buy material, then take it to a tailor. One time, Marilyn took some material to the tailor to be made up into shalwar kemise. She would normally give him the measurements and then he would make the allowances for the clothes to fit properly. This time he didn't. He made it exactly to the measurements that she gave him. The result was that although the clothes fitted, they were far too tight. It was impossible to move in them.

The allowance you make between a person's body measurements and the measurements you use to make the clothes is called "ease allowance". (Marilyn used to make clothes.) Without that ease allowance the clothes won’t fit properly. They’ll be restrictive and uncomfortable.]

When Jesus says his yoke is easy, he means it fits. It is not too tight nor too loose. The word here means "fit for use, able to be used, good, pleasant" which corresponds to the way Jesus describes himself. The word for "gentle" comes from a root meaning "fitting" or "considerate".

Jesus knows us well enough to know what fits us. A tailor may take measurements of our body but Jesus has the measure of our heart and soul. He knows what kind of calling is too tight and restrictive. He knows what kind of service is too large, dangling around us, tripping us up and making us fall. If we follow his call he will lead us into roles which fit us.

Of course, they may not always fit us when we first get them. Like children we are all growing and as parents know, you sometimes have to buy clothes that are too big so your kids will grow into them. But if we are following Jesus and learning to do things his way we can be sure that if he leads us into something that is too big for us right now, we will grow into it.

How do we know what Jesus is calling us to?

prayer

what energizes you?

what do others see in you?

more prayer

Conclusion

Jesus promises us rest, if we …

Come to him. That is the first step to seeing any problem solved

Take up the yoke he gives us. Learning to say no to things others may want us to do or to our own desires and preferences

Taking on the things he has for us

And learn from him. He knows us and he knows what is best for us, we can trust him to do the best for us and we can do our best when we serve in the same way he does, gently and humbly.