Take My Yoke

“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.” – Matthew 11:28-30

“Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly, 

Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision, 

   where I live in the depths but see Thee in the heights; 

   hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold Thy glory.” 

– Puritan prayer

If you’re tired, most people would say, stop working. Go to Tahoe, or a spa; get some self-care. Not that there’s anything wrong with those things. But no one would say, go get under a yoke and plow a field.

Jesus says the way to find rest is not to stop working, but to take his yoke. What does this mean? It involves recognizing there can be what Keller calls “the work under the work,” the need to prove and save ourselves, to achieve worth and identity, through our work. This kind of striving never ceases, in play or labor. There is a letting go of this that comes when we come to Jesus. To take a yoke, we change our posture: head bent, not looking too high. We become meek and lowly as Jesus is. There is a yielding there that is learned and received, a yielding that is rest. 

There is then a walking in step. Nearly all yokes are made for two animals, typically oxen, for the purpose of alignment, to guide them in the same direction. I wonder if Jesus is the other one bearing the yoke with us, as he refers to it as his yoke? We walk in step with him, there is a rhythm: pause when he does, bear the load forward when he does. He bears the load with us, which makes it easier, easier to know he knows exactly what we feel. He loves us, and we see every day as a chance to live out in our labor, and in our Sabbath rests, our love for him. This is the easy yoke, the light burden, the received rest.