March 14

Who can imagine that wearing a yoke can possibly give rest! Although we don’t see a yoke very often in our modern world, if we venture into third world countries we will see them upon beasts of burden. They are heavy and they are placed around the necks of the laboring animals as they pull the plows over furrows in the fields. They are often yoked as teams to labor in tandem with another beast of burden.

They are wearying weights that allow the farmer to control the actions of his plow mule or his oxen. Through this control, the farmer accomplishes the tasks he has set about to achieve. In Matthew 11:29, Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me for I am gentle in heart and you will find rest for your souls.”

In this passage, He is acknowledging that all of us labor under some yoke—either the world’s or the devil’s or one that is self-imposed. The Lord has an alternative to any of these weighty yokes. The world places rigorous demands upon us and we are complicit in its imposition of its yoke upon us—we labor under the weight of a desire for success, power, acclaim—worthy but stressful goals. The evil one would yoke us with the crushing burden of sin.

Jesus alone places a light yoke upon us. Jesus alone would have us labor under His yoke of salvation, that includes His love, His peace, His hope, His wisdom, His blessings! When we are under His yoke, we have His Holy Spirit to guide us as we labor in His vineyard, and through the control it allows Him, we succeed in accomplishing the tasks Jesus has set before us to achieve in the behalf of His Kingdom.