Matthew 11:18-30 “Come to me all 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 at heart, and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
The verse above is a pretty popular verse. I have heard it in churches growing up, in podcasts, and at youth groups. It is one you memorize, so that you remember to turn to God to fill you up, especially when you are weary. It is one I have memorized for that purpose. The part of the verse that isn’t typically talked about in sermons though, is the “take my yoke upon you” statement. We want the rest from God. We want Him to help us when we are hurting, but are we WILLING to take His yoke upon us?
Are we willing to be tied to God, go where He goes, do what He does?
When the verse talks about a yoke, it is talking about the device used to tie two oxen together – typically when pulling a cart. The two oxen are hooked together, but it is two certain oxen that are paired up. Even when counting the oxen, they are counted in “yokes”. If the two of them are not of equal size the device that yoked them together ends up hurting the other oxen. One of the oxen will have a false since of freedom because it won’t feel the weight of the cart, and it will try to go a different way and end up bruising the oxen who is carrying most of the weight. Although, if the two oxen are properly yoked, they can equally distribute the weight of the cart between them – and they can pull the cart without it hurting them. They can act as equals, work together, and go where they need to go with ease.
2 Corinthians 6:14 “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers.”
The bible emphasized that you needed to be “equally yoked”. During the time period of the bible, people understood this statement. I feel like today, people aren’t giving it the attention or focus it was meant to have.
If you are not equally yoked you will do damage to one another. Some versions of the bible make it appear that we just need to be yoked with another believer by saying “do not be yoked together with unbelievers” and a lot of sermons link this to marriage, and they emphasize to choose another Christian or your marriage will be difficult. They believe the same thing, so therefore we are equally yoked right? Wrong. Choosing your life partner is far more important than just making sure they have the title of a “Christian”. What I am coming to find, and what God is continually showing me is that there is so much more that goes into that parable.
What it means to be equally yoked with someone is that you have the same amount of strength as the other, you are the same size, you are to be going the same direction, have the same sense of purpose. All of these things tie into being “equally yoked”. And yes we are not animals, and it is a little more difficult pairing us up – and we can’t necessarily do it by “size”, but the people reading the parable understood just HOW important equally yoked oxen were. They understood how to pair the oxen up, what they had to look for, and that the animals would work harder and get hurt less if they were paired correctly.
With Christ we don’t have all of these things. We aren’t the same size as Him spiritually – but He is willing for us to take His yoke upon us to LEARN from Him. If we pay attention to Him, we can grow into His strength, and go the same direction as Him. While we are learning, if we aren’t paying attention to Him and putting our focus on Him – we will hurt Him. The Lord knows that He is stronger, and He is signing up to continually get bruised by us as we pull to go other directions. Especially as we try and plan our own plans.
As Christians we are called to follow Christ, why then are we fighting so much to do our own things and plan our own way? If we just LET God plan our life, it would be so much easier for both Him and for us.
The verse says “for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light”. God is not saying, follow me and your life will be easy. He isn’t saying that once we let go of control we won’t have any more problems – but He knows that He is stronger than us. He knows that most the weight will fall onto His shoulders if we yoke ourselves to Him. He knows that He will end up being bruised, but He is willing. He wants to give us rest. He wants us, weary and burdened, to come to Him so that He can carry the weight. He wants to be there for us when we get hurt, to comfort us.
He also wants us to let Him lead though. He wants us to learn from Him so that He can give us a rest that is lasting, not just temporary.
Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”
If God wants us to yoke ourselves to Him, and His plans for us are prosperous – why fight that? Why not let Him carry some of the weight? I encourage you to look through the plans you have for your life, what are you placing yourself at the center of? As a Christian is He not called to be at the center of our lives? Yoke yourself to Him, for his yoke is easy and His burden is life. He knows the plans for your life.
