Is Jesus' Yoke Really Easy?

GodWords Newsletter #98

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Yoked oxen in Wisconsin

In last week’s newsletter, I mentioned these two seemingly contradictory things:

1. Faith is a burden… it’s a weight to bear, and

2. Jesus said that His burden is LIGHT.

So which is it? Can it be both?

We know that #2 comes right from Matthew 11…

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
- Jesus

but, in spite of it being right there in the Bible, a lot of people - myself included - have asked whether it’s really true. It’s a good question, and someone asked it last week. I’ll call him Timothy, since that’s his name. Thanks for asking, Timothy!

Let’s take a look at what Jesus said.

The word YOKE is used around 60 times in the Bible. As you probably know, a yoke is a kind of harness, usually made of wood, that connects two animals together... typically two oxen, for plowing a field. The yoke connected them so they could do more work together than their combined work could do alone.

Typically, you would yoke together an older, larger, more experienced ox with a younger ox for training. The older ox did most of the work... and the young ox would learn to pull the plow just by walking along with the older. Over time, the young ox would grow stronger and more capable. Eventually, it would be able to train another ox.

In the Bible, a yoke could be a good thing or a bad thing. For farming, a yoke joining an ox with another ox was a wonderful thing... but joining the wrong things together was a catastrophe. In Exodus, God told the Israelites that He would bring them out "from under the yoke of the Egyptians." In Leviticus, He reminded them that He "broke the bars” of their yoke. In Numbers, God's anger burned against Israel because they yoked themselves to the false god Ba'al. Israel had been yoked to God in a positive sense, as His people chosen to bless the world. God said this in Jeremiah 20:

Long ago you broke off your yoke
and tore off your bonds;
you said, ‘I will not serve you!’
Indeed, on every high hill
and under every spreading tree
you lay down as a prostitute.

The word yoke was used to describe a burden, like forced labor or taxes. Rehoboam said that his father Solomon laid on the people "a heavy yoke," and that he would make it "even heavier."

All of this is context for Jesus' statement about His yoke being easy. The question is "easy, compared to what?" After all, plowing a field isn’t easy. Slavery isn’t easy. Heavy taxation isn’t easy. The answer: Jesus’ yoke is easy when compared with the yoke put on the people by the religious leaders of Israel. In Matthew 15, Jesus called the Pharisees hypocrites, saying that Isaiah had prophesied about them: "their teachings are merely human rules." Check out Mark 7:9-13:

And he continued, “You have a fine way of setting aside the commands of God in order to observe your own traditions! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother,’ and, ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is Corban (that is, devoted to God)— then you no longer let them do anything for their father or mother. Thus you nullify the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And you do many things like that.”

The Pharisees heaped one requirement on another, creating a "heavy burden" by yoking the Israelites in a kind of slavery, or servitude, to human traditions. This is what Peter meant in Acts 15, when asked whether Gentile Christians should be required to observe the law of Moses:

Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear?

Jesus said that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. In context, He was saying that being yoked to Him would be like being a young ox, learning alongside Him while He does most of the work. He was saying that His burden - what He required - would be easy, and it is: to love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself.

Taking His yoke means being joined to Him in shared purpose, with His strength compensating for our weakness. Following Jesus isn't easy - plowing a field never is - but it is simple. We follow along as He leads us, and we do things the way He does them.

Some people suggest that Jesus' yoke and burden are no big deal… that Jesus meant being a Christian equals an easy life. That undermines the whole point of His use of these metaphors. There IS a yoke, and it's a joy to be yoked to Jesus as we work for God. There IS a burden, but it's not the kind of burden we can't carry. As the Holy Spirit transforms us from the inside out, we become more like Jesus... and we grow more able to love as He loves, forgive as He forgives, and to be gracious as He is gracious. Being yoked to Jesus helps us be more like Jesus.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 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 love you all.
❤️

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Afflictions work for good, as they conform us to Christ. His life was a series of sufferings—”a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” Isaiah 53:3. He wept, and bled! Was His head crowned with thorns—and do we think to be crowned with roses? It is good to be like Christ—though it be by sufferings!
– Thomas Watson

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Hills and Valleys: Tauren Wells

Lyrics and links at Awesome Christian Music.

On the mountains, I will bow my life
To the one who set me there
In the valley, I will lift my eyes
To the one who sees me there

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