Easing the burden

When the yoke of life gets to be too much, listen to the words of Jesus

There is a chance that Jesus’ words are not for you. Of course, there is a chance that they are.

For us to know, we need to know what Jesus means when he speaks of taking his yoke, learning from him and finding an easy yoke and a light burden in him.

But first, what is a yoke? I shouldn’t take it for granted that we all know what a yoke is. City boys like myself may have to Google it. For those in the dark, a yoke is a wooden harness placed over two animals and attached to a plow. Given the agricultural setting of much of the scriptures, it’s not hard to see why yokes were a common metaphor.

The rabbis in Jesus’ day frequently would speak of the Law of God as a yoke, and it was a good replacement for the bad yoke of the world. When Jesus says that his yoke is easy, he is comparing it to the yoke of the rabbis. Their yoke is only rooted in God’s law. Of course, Jesus did not believe God’s (His) law was bad. Rather, because he can offer in himself the fulfillment of the law, his yoke is easy and his burden light. It may be hard for us to imagine this, but there were many people in Jesus’ day who were upset at how difficult it was to live in perfect obedience to the law of God. There were, not unlike Martin Luther some 1,500 years later, people who struggled mightily to please God. But they still didn’t find obedience easy. Some of them were surely in despair at how much they struggled against God’s law. It is to those people that Jesus says, “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” That is the context that Jesus uses to speak of yokes. He is easing the hearts and minds of those who are concerned that they are under a hard yoke and they can find no relief.

Such people seem to be more and more rare. We do not live in an age marked by men diligently searching the scriptures or worried about God’s judgment. We live in an age of permissiveness. “If it feels good do it.” “Be true to yourself.” “Follow your dreams.” These are the mantras of our day.

For those who are caught up in the zeitgeist of the present age, who are happy to do what feels good, Jesus’ words are not for them. Jesus is addressing those burdened by the demands of God’s law. He is offering relief to the person who knows just how hard it is to fulfill God’s law and yet finds that he cannot do it.

This predicament and relief is perfectly summed up in Romans 7. There, Paul writes: “I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.”

On its face, he is in a hopeless situation. But he concludes this thought by writing, “Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” Paul is precisely the kind of person who appreciates the light burden of Jesus ... because Paul actually sought the things of God.

I began by saying that there was a chance that Jesus’ words are not for you. Now, you see why. If you are one who does seek after God, and does want to know his law and be obedient to it then Jesus’ words are for you. But if you do not seek the things and the ways of God, then these words are not for you. If you’re interested, hear now an invitation to come to Christ. Leave behind the things and ways of the world, for ultimately they will all disappoint you.

And then, like all who come before God, you will soon find a holy God, worthy of adoration and praise. It is precisely at that moment, when you wonder if you are good enough, when you stand in awe before this holy God, when the enormity of who this God is hits you in the gut, that you need to recall these words of Jesus: “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.”

It’s easy because all of the demands of the God’s law were placed, like a yoke, onto the shoulders of Jesus. And throughout his entire life, he was perfectly obedient to the law. He lived without sin; he died perfectly; and then he was raised from the dead. It is because of his own work on the cross that the yoke of Jesus is easy, for God’s holy law has been fulfilled. My hope is that that word is indeed for you.

Rev. Evan McClanahan serves the First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Houston; felchouston.org.