My Burden is Easy; My Yoke is light. (Matt 11:25)
Verse 25-26 The religious leaders of that day were all about duty and rules, religious regulation. In a word legalism.
- They used knowledge as a way of lording it over the people. Suppressing them.
- So, Jesus thanks the father that he has not revealed himself to these folks.
- Then Jesus says that the Father is revealing these things to little children.
- This really speaks of simple faith, not trying in our own strength to figure everything out.
Verse 27 Jesus tells us the only way to know the Father is through Jesus, the son.
- We don’t have to go searching for some profound or secret way to God, it’s Jesus.
- The wise and learned of the day would often try and create a path to God that led through them.
- But Jesus says the path is simple and it is only through me.
Verse 28 Both of these words weary and burdened have an ongoing sense to them in the Greek, continually in this state. Continually weary and continually burdened.
- Both of these words, “weary” and “burdened” really have in mind physical work but Jesus is making a spiritual point.
So what is Jesus getting at here?
- People were hungry for God they were looking for a way to connect with God.
- The religious leaders of the day were getting in the way by burdening people with requirements that were not from God.
- In Matt 23:4 Jesus speaking of the Pharisees and scribes says, “They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.”
- These regulations and manmade laws had the equivalency of being burdened as with an actual physical load.
- Again, Jesus is speaking against the religious leaders of the day. Thet were burdening the people with unnecessary religious laws. And this was leading to physical weariness. Because they couldn’t get to God.
I see Four potential sources for this in our day:
- The church, what rules have been placed on you in your life’s experience by the church?
- Family: What expectations have been placed on you from your family?
- The devil: You aren’t good enough, you don’t measure, you can’t be forgiven.
- Personal: The result of all of these lead to our own personal rules. I didn’t do this; I didn’t do that. I can’t…
- Continuing in verse 28 I will give you rest….
- The way this is structured in the Greek this refers to both rest now in this life and future rest in heaven.
- The word rest can be both a noun and a verb, but here it is used as a verb.
- He is giving you the action of rest.
Verse 29-30 The beginning of this verse almost seems to stand in complete contrast to the statement about finding rest.
- A yoke is typically thought of as a sign of not just work, but heavy work.
- Jesus’ is contrasting the yoke of the Pharisees to His.
- The Pharisees Yoke is one of rules and laws not required by God.
- Jesus’ yoke is one of mercy and grace.
- But there is also a sense of willingness here.
- Animals don’t take upon themselves a yoke.
- But what Jesus says here is, “take my yoke.”
- The Greek verb translated here as Take, can also mean to “pick up.”
- This again has the sense of something we choose to do on our own.
- A beast of burden cannot pick up their own yoke.
- Jesus doesn’t have in mind something that is done to us or forced upon us.
- Jesus’ next point after take my yoke is, “learn from me.”
- When you would put two animals in a yoke together they had to be very equally matched.
- They need to pull together as a team and pull at the same rate of speed and force.
- When a farmer needed to train a new animal he would pair it with his best old veteran animal.
- The new animal would learn to pull from that veteran experienced animal.
- But the other part of the picture here is that Jesus is teaching you in the midst of life.
- When an older animal trains a new animal, they do it by actually pulling a plow together.
- In the craziness of life, Jesus is right there trying to show you something.
- Jesus is pulling with is in the same yoke and burden.
- We just need to tune into how Jesus is pulling in the yoke
- If we are weary and overburdened, then we are doing too much of the pulling and we need to hold back a bit and let Jesus pull at the same level.
- …and you will find rest for your souls. Catch this: Here the word rest is a noun. It’s become ours!