Take My Yoke Upon You

 Wednesday, March 20, 2013

“Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, or I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, For My yoke is easy and My burden light”.  (Matt. 11:28-30).

 Hey Gang:  For those who do not know what a yoke is, Webster defines the word as “a wooden frame for harnessing together a pair of oxen.”  It also describes it as meaning “bondage or servitude, or something that binds.”  I suspect Jesus is referring to all three of these definitions when He said, “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”.  (Matt. 11:29-30).      

 While serving in Korea, yoked oxen was a very common, everyday sight; they were used to work the rice patties.  To watch them struggling with the yoke makes one wonder what Jesus really meant when He said, “My yoke is easy”. 

 I found a neat little ditty that added some clarity to what I believe Jesus was saying in a book titled 199 Reasons To Be Thankful. God’s yoke is easy. Why?  Because He is the one carrying the load.  When you’re going thru those times when the alligators are nipping at your heels, He longs for you to hand over the heavy stuff to Him. Our deepest concerns are but a piece of cake to Him.  His deepest desire is that we have the faith to hand our burdens, disappointments, our fears, our pains over to Him. 

 But - there is a prerequisite to Jesus becoming your burden bearer, you must enter into covenant relationship with Him, surrender your life and join yourself with Jesus, the “…author and perfecter of our faith.”  (Heb 12:2)

  Jesus is talking to a crowd who knew what it meant for one animal to be yoked with another to pull a burden. His message was clear – you do not have to carry your burdens alone, you could be “yoked” with Him. In essence, He was sharing one of the basic principles of the Kingdom of God - when we are King’s Kids we are never alone!!!

 Soooo, friend and neighbors, as you traverse through this day, STOP and THINK about priorities. Jesus promised, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness; and all these things [earthly needs] shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).  A single ox can pull a load, but when joined with another ox, the two can pull more than what each could pull separately.

 Blessings,

Gramps