Jesus’ Yoke - The Missing Point

On Sunday we looked at the passage in Matthew 11:25-30. I don’t want to fall into the usual trap of repeating my talk – if you missed the talk and want to hear it you can download it from here.

Anyway, this passage can often be a textbook example of us interpreting the Bible with a self-centred approach. The NIV heads it with the title, “Rest For The Weary” and I’ve always centred on this, a nice promise of rest after a hard day’s work. A kind of spiritual lavender-bath-soak.

The more pressing impact of the passage is this revelation of who can follow Jesus and how we do it… (to be read in a Lion-o voice: “Must… resist… temptation… to repeat… talk…")

I didn’t cover the whole passage on Sunday and promised I’d make a final point on my blog, so here it is… It revolves around the last two verses:

“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.”

I always skip over this idea of Jesus’ yoke. I guess I’ve never really thought of it and anyway, it’s not very conducive to my spiritual lavender-bath-soak.

But what does it mean if we’re going to cast of a yoke of religious expectation, of having to perform to the standard of the best of the best of the best, and in exchange take on Jesus’ yoke. Can’t I just lay back and relax in my lavender bath?

This is how I understand it: When we start to follow Jesus our life changes and we find ourselves challenged in areas we were previously impervious to. Jesus’ yoke is to take on his heart, his concerns, his actions. We’re doing something wrong if our growing experience of Jesus doesn’t produce in us action to help others. As James said (and almost got chucked out of the Bible for) “faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

There’s another verse we like to interpret for our own benefit. Psalm 37:4 says “Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.”

What a nice verse. I’ve always desired to be rich and famous! Wonderful, God will give it to me! What a great God!

But not so fast. God giving us the desires of our heart... does this mean he will give us the things we’ve always desired, even before we knew him? Or does it mean that as we get to know us he will take our self-centred desires away and replace them with his desires. Whether or not they will be fulfilled (this side of glory) is perhaps a different question.

This has been my experience. As I’ve spent these last 15 or so years following God, the things I desire to see happen, the prayers I pray, the effort I spend, the money I give has changed. Things I couldn’t have cared less about start to have an impact on my heart. I feel compassion for things that at one time would have left me unmoved.

This doesn’t always help me relax with my lavender-bath-soak. In fact sometimes I feel extremely frustrated (although somehow at these times I feel closer to God).

Taking Jesus’ yoke is a challenge. It’s part of our call to become a church that can truly call itself the Body of Christ – being his hands, his feet and his heart to a broken world.

“Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:39