Advent Day Nineteen

Matthew 11:29-30

“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.” 

To be yoked together is to share the burden or the work being performed.  Jesus is saying of Himself that He is willing to share the work of living as we were intended.  He came to bring forgiveness for sin, the burden men often carry without any help from anyone else.  

A big part of the burdensome task of living is that man is prone to create laws and rules.  The system of works to live right can become so complicated that there seems to be no relief in sight.  Men can not possibly keep up with all the rules, regulations, and expectations.  Thus, they become weighed down by all the burden that results.

Got Questions Ministry (www.gotquestions.org) expresses it this way. The saying “my yoke is easy and my burden is light” is part of a larger passage (Matthew 11:28–30), in which Jesus tells all who are weary and burdened to come to Him for rest. He isn’t speaking here of physical burdens. Rather, it was the heavy burden of the system of works that the Pharisees laid on the backs of the people that Jesus was offering to relieve. Later on in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus will rebuke the Pharisees for laying heavy burdens on the shoulders of the people (Matthew 23:4).

The “yoke of the Pharisees” is the burdensome yoke of self-righteousness and legalistic law-keeping. It has been said by biblical scholars that the Pharisees had added over 600 regulations regarding what qualified as “working” on the Sabbath. That is a heavy burden!...

Jesus was saying that any kind of law-keeping is burdensome and amounts to a “heavy yoke” of oppression because no amount of law-keeping can bridge the gap between our sinfulness and God’s holiness…

The good news is that Jesus came to earth with the promise that all who come to Him will find rest from the heavy burden of trying to earn our way into heaven and rest from the oppressive yoke of self-righteousness and legalism. Jesus encourages those who are “heavy laden” to take His yoke upon them, and in so doing they will find rest for their souls. The yoke of Jesus is light and easy to carry because it is the yoke of repentance and faith followed by a singular commitment to follow Him. As the apostle John says, “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome”. (I John 5:3)

An oft-forgotten aspect of the yoke concept is that being yoked by yourself does not accomplish the task of transformative living.  For a yoke to work, there must be at least two people or animals sharing the yoke.  The birth of Christ offers every man a companion for carrying the tasks at hand.  Jesus came to be yoked with you in achieving the life He has set out for you.  When you are yoked with Jesus, you do good works in faith.  Your motivation changes and the direction of your work focuses on that which Christ, walking beside you, directs for your specific life.

The birth of Christ offered men an opportunity to walk:

Ephesians 4:1 

“... in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”

The baby Jesus became the Christ who has picked up His side of the yoke, the burden, and is walking right along with us-right at our side!