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In Matthew 11:30, Jesus invites His followers to take on His yoke: “…for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This verse always troubled me. I wasn’t really interested in obeying Jesus’ request.
In the first place, I’m much more comfortable in pants, t-shirts, and tennis shoes. If a change of clothes was required, I’d much prefer the suit of armor described in Ephesians 6:11-17. That get-up, I could get into if I lost the appropriate amount of weight.
Secondly, yokes are meant for oxen. I don’t belong to that species. April has called me a pig, a dirty dog, a rat, but never an oxen.
Thirdly, putting a person into a yoke conjures up images of servitude. Who wants to be a servant? I’d rather have servants, instead of being a servant. Along with a few other things like a mansion. Maybe own a country. The usual stuff.
An ox in a yoke can only do what the oxdriver wants. Oxdriver wants to go right, the ox must go right. Oxdriver wants to hunt seashells, the ox must hunt seashells. The oxdriver never asks the ox for its opinion about anything.
However, Jesus uses the adjective ‘easy’ to describe His yoke. Doesn’t that qualify as an oxymoron? Isn’t it clever I was able to use the word ‘oxymoron’ in an essay about an ox?
The adjective ‘easy’ is the crux of the whole statement. Jesus reinforces that adjective in His next statement: “…my burden is light.” Another oxymoron! Name one light burden in your life. If you have a light burden, then it’s not a burden. It’s a bummer. Bummers are light. I miss a ten-foot putt. Bummer!
Yet Jesus speaks truth. Always has, always will. We have to find out why He would say something that sounds incongruous in our minds.
The answer doesn’t lie in what manner the ox obeys the oxdriver. If the ox complains the entire time, that doesn’t constitute an easy yoke. If the ox grits its bovine teeth and guts out its obedience to the oxdriver, that’s not an easy yoke. That’s not a light burden either.
The quality of the easy yoke is absolute, universal. Jesus says so. He adds no conditions to His two statements. He simply says they are. His yoke is easy before you even put it on. It’s easy after you put it on. How can that be?
Oxen respond to commands. To some people, it seems like God issues a thousand commands of ‘do this,’ and a thousand commands of ‘don’t do that.’ If that describes an easy yoke, wouldn’t we hate to see a difficult yoke?
It sounds daunting until we consider this truth: 99.99% of God’s commands deal with relationships—either our relationship with Him or with others. The other .01%? I haven’t uncovered that one command yet.
What causes the most despair and distress in any person’s life? It’s when a relationship is either destroyed or broken. Death is sad for us because it ends a relationship. Divorce causes intense distress for everyone involved. These examples of dismantled relationships show how a yoke can be anything but easy, burdens which are not light.
His commands are about how to live in relationships, how to build wonderfully solid relationships. When we don’t infuse those commands into our relationships with our spouses, children, neighbors, friends, and, most especially, our God, then we’re continually walking into heavy burdens and hard yokes. Our faces grow perpetual frowns. We totter anxiously on thin ice, waiting for the weight of a horrible relationship or a broken relationship to plunge us into a frigid lake of despair.
The better way is the easy yoke. Living in the easy yoke of wonderful relationships brings good qualities into our lives, like peace, goodness, self-control and joy. It healthfully resolves issues for us and brings light into the tunnel—to exactly where you are in the tunnel. No requirement exists, saying you have to wait until you’re at the end of the tunnel. Bring the light of Christ now. As He intends and desires for you. Remember, it’s His yoke. He simply wants you to live in the benefit of it.
Ironic, huh? That you would be strengthened by an easy yoke? One of my favorite attributes of our God is His mastery of irony. He’s an ironical God with an easy yoke. Listen to Him. Take on the easy yoke..
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Dan Ashton has served many churches in western Illinois as a lay speaker. He enjoys helping people grow strong, loving relationships in the light of God's Word. Reach Dan at: ashtond101536@gmail.com or www.the-yoke-is-easy.com.<.i>
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