There are three kinds of yokes: an egg yolk, the yoke of a shirt around the neck of the garment, and a yoke mentioned in our Gospel today, which is a wooden bar or frame of wood by which two oxen are joined at their necks for working together. Biblical and Jewish faith calls religious instruction a yoke.
Jesus’ yoke is easy and it’s burden light. When one is yoked to him, rest fellows. The yoke of the scribes and Pharisees is not comfortable; it has sharp edges that comes in contact with the skin, and it’s not easy to work or maneuver in; it’s a heavy burden that never leads to rest because they imposed a long list of laws, rules, traditions, and expectations with a legalistic mindset that no one could measure up to.
To illustrate, In the Arabian Nights, a gentleman out of sheer kindness took a feeble old man on his shoulders to give him a lift but once he was there the old man refused to dismount. He was the old man of the sea and he became a crushing weight on the shoulders of the one who tried to befriend him.1
Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me… For my yoke is easy, and my burden light…” He does the heavy lifting as we go about our daily tasks by the help of his grace.
However, easy and light does not mean a lax interpretation of the Torah, which is the law of God as revealed to Moses and recorded in the first five books of the Bible, which includes living "the yoke of the 10 commandments.
Jesus’ yoke is a "system of instruction, admonition, and discipline."2
Jesus has a much higher ethical standard than the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 5:20-48; 10:16-23) who only imposed heavy burdens that they were unwilling to lift, (Matthew 23:4). They proscribed external demands.
Jesus gives priority to the heart and relationships and to mercy rather than sacrifice. The quality of ease and lightness “relates to the conviction that all fulfillment in a moral sense is preceded and facilitated by a relationship with Jesus and the sense of being grasped by the love of one who is gentle and humble of heart (see Numbers 12:3 [stated of Moses]).
It is the love of Jesus, which is an extension of the Father’s love which makes Jesus’ difficult requirements easy and light and the rest in the Lord which the fulfillment of life in God (Hebrews 4:1-11). Its work, but the payoff is dramatic: "little” labor equals "much serenity” and even material benefit, made easy by the experience of God’s love.3
In order to be yoked, for domestic animals, pre-training is necessary to get used to the yoke. Ranchers tied a calf to a stake or tree with a long rope and let its mother nurse it, and then after weaning, gave it more rope so it could graze around. It thus became used to the herdsman. Then, the farmer put neither food nor drink in front of it, but kept offering it to the animal. If the animal accepted the food, it was becoming tame, and they could start breaking him to the yoke.4
Almost everything that you really want is just outside your comfort zone. Get comfortable being uncomfortable. Go get it.
If we find ourselves getting un-yoked to Jesus’ custom-fitted yoke for us, we’ll have to be figuratively tied up again to that tree until were docile to the Holy Spirit!
Even after being yoked for the first time, the new animal works both before and behind already trained, older pairs of oxen as mentors. Months pass before the animal learns to do every kind of work and understand the words that signal starting, stopping, and turning, and it finally becomes an ox.
Similarly, Jesus yoke is not labor-free. He may tell you to go here or go there, or to simply stop.
“The most pleasant and useful persons,” said philosopher and humorist Don Marquis, “are those who leave some of the problems of the universe for God to worry about.” (see endnote 6)
Jesus’ yoke is also for those who tend to overwork and don’t have enough margins at both ends of the day to pray with the heart.
E.g. Dr. George McCauslin was a very effective YMCA director. But some years ago, he was selected to serve at a particularly challenging YMCA in western Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh. And that western Pennsylvania YMCA was losing membership, had financial difficulties and a multitude of staff problems, so George McCauslin found himself working 85 hours a week. He found himself getting little sleep at night. He took little to no time off. And when he was not working, he was worrying and fretting about the problems at his job.
He went to a therapist who told him he was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. He realized that he had to learn somehow to let go and let God into his problems. He didn’t know quite how to do that.
So George McCauslin took an afternoon off, took a pad and paper, and took a long, unhurried walk in the western Pennsylvania woods. As he walked through the cool woods, he could eventually start to feel his tight body and his tight neck start to relax. He kept walking, and eventually sat down under a tree and just sighed and breathed deeply. For the first time in months he felt relaxed.
He got out his pad and paper, and he decided that although he would keep his job, he would release his mental “over-control” in trying to manage every detail. He wrote God a letter. He said, "Dear God, today I hereby resign as general manager of the universe. Love, George."
Then, with a twinkle in his eye, George McCauslin said, "And wonder of wonders, God accepted my resignation."5
Gordon MacDonald once noted that no man ever collapsed because of the burdens of the day; it is when the burdens of tomorrow are added to the cares of today that a person begins to sink.6
Sirach 51:26 says “Put your neck under her yoke, and let your souls receive instruction… I have labored little and found for myself much rest.”
It is the humbleness and meekness of Jesus that gives us rest, which is wisdom.
And Wisdom was always a "she" - Lady Wisdom. Jesus is saying, "I'm God's Son," and now he's as much as saying, "I'm also Lady Wisdom." 7
Take my custom-made yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.
Amen.
1. Carlton Coon, An Attractive Invitation, Sermon Central, Oct 12, 2001
2. John Derksen, The yoke of Christ: Martin Bucer and Christian discipline, The Mennonite Quarterly Review, 70 no 2 Apr 1996, p 252.
3. The Paulist Biblical Commentary
4. Breaking in the Stock and the Means of Transportation, internet
5. The Ministry Collaborative, Resigning as General Manager of the Universe
6. King Duncan, The Key to getting enough rest, Sermons.com
7. Charles W. Allen, Her yoke is easy, and her burden is light, Encounter, 65 no 2 Spr
2004, p 189-192
