Matthew 11: 28
The Yoke, Burden and Rest of Christ

I. THE TEXT

1. The text before us illustrates the appeal of the Lord's teaching in that it is often enigmatic.  This quality causes the listener to think about what he is saying and to search for a meaning and, hopefully, to discover it. 

2. "V.28" What does it mean to "come unto" him?  Jesus seemingly was standing and talking to an audience in his immediate presence.  They were already there in the spatial sense.  What does it mean to "come unto" him?  And what is the meaning of "rest" in this case?

3. And Jesus follows this with a couple of metaphors that must have equally challenged their ability at discernment.  "V.29" Why does he offer those who come a "yoke"?  Isn't that often a metaphor for something undesirable in the N.T.?  And then he goes on to make it even more enigmatic: "V. 30."

1. How odd and, on the surface, contradictory!  Here is a person depicted who is heavily laden -- burden down with an enormous load on his back, piled so high that  he  staggers under the load, and the Lord offers him rest -- but it turns out to be  not what he would think of as rest in such a  situation but, instead,  another load, another burden!  Instead of absence of difficulty, the Lord offers him a "yoke."

2.  A yoke was a device from that culture (and one that survived even into the 1900's in our own culture).  It was a device that went over the animal's head and rested on its shoulders.  In our recent century for example, the classic yoke was made out of a 6X10 with large, rounded notches that went over the neck of two oxen, standing side by side, and then a piece of bent wood shaped like a capital "U" would go under each animal's neck and up through two holes in the main part of the yoke.  This would hold the yoke firmly against the ox's shoulder.  In the third-world countries you often see pictures of boards, fastened together like a large picture frame that go over the animal's head and serve as a yoke.  A horse collar is a kind of yoke for a single animal.  Up in the hall and then again in the bathroom is a mule collar and a horse collar fitted with mirrors but pretty much ready to go on an animal the way they are.   These have rings to hitch various implements to them.  But the yoke the Lord had in mind was much more like an oxen yoke.

How strange that the Lord would offer rest to those who were burdened and then offer that rest in the form of a yoke.

3. But then there is a third thing -- something that defines the yoke:  "My yoke is easy and my burden is light."  How can a yoke be easy? -- How can a yoke be light?   Indeed, sometimes in the N.T. the "yoke" is used in a negative, condemnatory sense.  Paul warns his readers against being yoked together with unbelievers.  And on another occasion he condemned the Galatians because they were under the yoke of the ceremonial law of the O.T.  He was speaking of a Pharisaic use of the ceremonial law -- and one that was a great burden to all who accepted its yoke.

1. First of all, it is obvious in terms of the whole gospel- that the heavy-ladenness is not referring to mere physical exhaustion or over work or difficulty in life.  When one looks at the life of the Lord or of the Apostles, he is sure that this is if not the meaning of the passage.   They all lived lives of heroic difficulty.  Every one of them except John was said to have been martyred for their faith.

2. The heavy laddenness is defined by our correct understanding of the Christian life, contrasted with the old life before Christ.  Significantly, the Lord says "You shall find rest unto your SOULS."

3. The "rest" that the Lord speaks of is not leisure but useful and creative activity done willingly under the Lordship of Christ.  And, significantly, he says "You shall find rest for your souls."  It is not an easy life as most people count easiness.

4. And when the Lord says "take my yoke upon you," it is something quite different that saying "take my burden upon you," as if to say "your had one burden -- I will give you another one."  In the use of "yoke" the Lord does indeed say that there is a burden to be borne but, significantly, he uses the metaphor of a yoke which was a device for enabling the animal that wore it to bear an even greater load than it could if it were borne without the yoke.

1. Of course, we should take note of the Savior's invitation.  We are those who have come to him and we expect to find this rest for our souls, and do indeed find it.  And the way salvation works is that God is giving grace whenever anyone turns to the Lord but the invitation is open and universal.  It is as if there is an open door:  "Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden!"  And as we see people turn to Christ and seriously follow him, we are seeing this two-fold act by the individual and by God.

2. Another thing to be learned is the expectation we should have about the Christian life.  The thought that having Jesus as our Savior makes a life where there are no burdens flies in the face of the whole New Testament and the lives of God's choicest saints.  Look at Paul: On one occasion (II Corinthians 7: 5) he said: "When we came to Macedonia, our bodies had no rest but we were afflicted on every turn -- fighting within and fears without."  But yet, his whole theology was a theology of rest for the soul.

3. Yes, there is rest in the midst of the burdens and a yoke that enables us to bear burdens that we never would have been able to bear in our lives before Christ.  And since the yoke seems to have been primarily used to harness two animals together--it probably teaches us that Christ is our true yokefellow and he bears part of the burdens.  But of course, he does so in the person of his representative, the other Christian with whom we are in fellowship.  In that II Corinthians passage I quoted from Paul about fighting within and fears without Paul said: "But God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the coming of Titus (II Corinthians 7: 7)."   Titus came and by his presence and by the good news he brought from the Corinthians, comforted Paul with the comfort of Christ!  And this is part of the comfort of God that is depicted in the yoke.  On the other hand sometimes God does this by giving us a greater capacity for sorrow, for bearing burdens for perseverance in the midst of trouble and this too is represented in the yoke that Christ gives the believer.

4. And the ultimate end of bearing the yoke of Christ is our eternal inheritance.  Again, listen to Paul, a man who bore the yoke of Christ in an almost super-human fashion.  Listen to his words just before his martyrdom: 

I am already on the point of being sacrificed; the time of my departure has come.  I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith!  Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

I am convinced that part of the blessedness that the Lord's people will experience in heaven will be the eternal memory of what we were enabled to accomplish on earth during our Christian lives by the grace of God.  It will be the ultimate rest for our souls!

5. Finally, although the invitation was actually addressed to hearers who were unbelievers, it has a very practical application to believers.  We find it is true in a different sense: that we come to Christ for his help as we bear the burden that has been placed upon us and we find -- over and over gain -- rest for our souls.  We learn the value of the yoke as we are yoked together with each other to bear the burden of Christ in this fellowship that we call a church and give thanks and praise to the Savior that he has given us rest in the matter.  Paul says: "Bear you one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ."  We see this yoke-sharing every day and every week in the church here.

Let us all hear this wonderful word from our Savior:  "Vv. 28-30"

Footnate / Exhortation:

For years Mary Delleplane and her mother have participated in the Indianna State Fair where each year a man came with a team or two of oxen that he used for demonstration purposes.  One of the man's talks centered on the making of an oxen yoke.

He told his audience that they would custom fit a yoke for the team of oxen.  The notch for the beasts' neck is carefully carved out of the wood and is tried on the beasts many times to see that it fits perfectly.  The yoke is then carefully smoothed.  If it doesn't fit perfectly the animals would experience terribly painful rubbing and there would be raw places on the oxen's neck.

Mary observed that this is an illustration of the point that the Lord gives us his yoke to enable us to bear the burden and He custom-fits for us, knowing our individual gifts and capacities.  He knows how to make a yoke that's ideally suited to us.