Matthew 11:28-30 – Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and burden is light.
THEME OF THE DAY: WHOSE YOKE ARE WE WEARING? There are times, perhaps more than I want to admit, that I wish the Christian life would be easy and not so demanding. Let’s face it. There is a reason why we look around and find so few true Christians. The Christian life is hard. We cannot honesty read the New Testament and come away with a description of following Christ as easy, requiring little effort and not demanding the surrender of our entire bearing to His Lordship. Yet, equally so throughout the New Testament we find the Christian life defined as spiritual freedom, liberty, delight, full of joy, and providing true contentment to the soul. I can see where a person may say, “Okay, which one is it?” I can also see a person reading today’s scripture and saying, “Wait a minute. Jesus uses the ‘easy’ and ‘light’ when it comes to following Him. Which definition is right?” Well, the answer I would give to the inquisitive person who may appear to see a contradiction is the same answer I give to those struggling with God’s sovereign election in salvation and the personal responsibility to believe on Christ to be saved – both are taught. The Bible teaches the Christian life is hard, yet, easy. The way to harmonize the two is found in the illustration Jesus uses in today’s scripture and that of the yoke.
As we know and picture, a yoke is a harness or collar placed upon animals to guide them. Predominantly oxen or cattle, the yoked animal is under the authority and guidance of the farmer who directs the animal through the yoke. The animal does not have freedom to do what it wants or go where it wants. And this is the image Christ is giving us. From this literal truth, comes the spiritual application as to why the Christian life is both hard and easy. The hard part is what we may define in the negative and we will begin there.
The Christian life gets increasingly complex and hard if we are not wearing Christ’s yoke, and thus fall under His guidance in our lives. Too often, we attempt to wear two yokes in life; our will guiding us and Christ’s will guiding us. We want to share our lives, not surrender our lives to Christ. I need not go into the evidence supporting this battle. Look into our lives and see how often we exercise our desires and wills over Christ’s desires and wills. It shows up quite a lot in the way we handle our money and time. And if we try to wear the yoke of self-will, instead of Christ’s will, stand by for a very hard and difficult walk with Him. He will not allow us the joy of following Him if we are not wholly following Him. We simply cannot enjoy the Lord of all unless He is Lord of all. What yoke we put on each day will determine how our Christian life is lived; either in the freedom and joy of His will or the pain of chastisement as we attempt to live our will, or the foolish deception of attempting to live life with shared wills – Christ’s and ours. If we are finding the Christian life hard and joyless, maybe we need to find out whose yoke we are wearing. We might need to do ourselves a favor and that soon; surrender our selfish yoke which is not light and easy to Christ’s yoke which is light and easy. Now the “good stuff” or the positive.
The Christian life is lived increasingly with joy and freedom, or “spiritual ease” as we learn to put on, and keep on the yoke of Christ or surrender to His will exclusively. That does not mean the Christian life is “care-free without difficulties” or “easy.” No, the Christian life is hard because of sin, the devil, the world and flesh but there is a difference between this hardness and the hardness we bring upon ourselves by refusal to wear Christ’s yoke exclusively. The former is the reality of spiritual warfare. The latter is the reality of a rebellious heart. And why does the Christian life become easier when we wear Christ’s yoke? Look back up to the scripture of the day. In our surrender to Christ, we get His presence which means gentle, humble and restful fellowship in Him. There is communion, enjoyment, and pleasure in the Lord. This and this alone makes the Christian life easy so to speak. Why do martyrs rejoice at their times of execution? Christ’s presence. We may not be burned at a stake, but the principle applies. Wear Christ’s yoke and rest comes. Refuse it and hard times come. Let’s choose today, right now, to refuse to wear the hard yoke of self and replace it with the light and easy yoke of Christ.
PRAYER: “Lord, forgive me for too many times of fighting Your will instead of submitting to it.”
QUOTE: “We are guided in life by one yoke all the time; either the one belonging to Christ or our own.”