“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.” (Matthew 11:28-30 NIV)
Everyone wears a yoke. We all have a system for carrying the weight of this world and the burdens of life.
When Jesus came challenging his hearers to come and take on his yoke. They were already struggling under their own systems of carrying the load of life. They already had a yoke. Jesus was asking them to exchange yokes — theirs for his.
The context of this story is surprising. As Matthew records it, Jesus isn’t offering his yoke in some calm, friendly setting. No, he is shouting over a din of competing voices, all of them hawking their own “yokes” to managing life.
The yoke offered by the Jewish leaders was the yoke of Torah, the yoke of God’s law. And as if this wasn’t weighty enough, they had added their own oral Torah, the Talmud and the Mishnah. God’s law alone was a yoke too heavy for mankind to bear. But they had made it even more legalistic and unbearable. The yoke they offered was the life focused on not sinning. Theirs was a yoke against sin. They offered a religious yoke.
Jesus had words of woe for those who rejected his graceful yoke for the yoke of religion. He said if the ancient cities of Tyre and Sidon (known for their idolatry, prostitution and pride) had witnessed his miracles they would have “repented in sackcloth and ashes.” He said if the city of Sodom (known for its homosexual offenders and sensual wickedness) had seen his miracles they would not have been destroyed but would have “remained until this day.” The cities of Israel had seen these miracles of Christ, they had heard of his new yoke of grace, yet they had not repented. They clung to the old yoke.
We still have those who are focused on stopping sin. They offer a yoke of law. This is why so many non-Christians know us more for what we’re against that what we for. They certainly don’t think that we are “for” them.
The legalists of Jesus’ day accused him of being “for” sinners. They called him a “friend of sinners.”
This didn’t deter Jesus. He came for those who knew their need. Jesus called people to himself. He said, “Come, take, and learn of me.”
The yoke of Christ is Christ. When we lift up Jesus, he will “draw all men to himself.”