Yoked

Jesus said to the crowds: "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my 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." (Matthew 11:28-30)

I’m not so sure Matthew got this right.  Did Jesus really say to the crowds: “my yoke is easy, and my burden light?”  He might have said: “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”  But does that yoke and learning give us rest?  I don’t think so.  Jesus challenges us and forces us to transform by addressing our prejudices and overcoming our biases in the search for truth.  Too many of us don’t want the truth because that reveals our hypocrisy.  

The truth sets us free, but many of us prefer the prison of ignorance and intolerance.  Putting on Jesus’s yoke would be like handcuffing ourselves to the one person who demands soul-searching and honesty.  That’s a heavy and burdensome yoke many of us refuse to wear.

Learning from Jesus means listening to his words and then imitating his actions, such as loving our neighbors and following him even to his cross.  His cross was his yoke.  Are we prepared to be yoked to a cross like his?  Perhaps one type of yoke is his demand that we forgive those who have trespassed against us.  That’s the yoke that makes our and their burdens light.

Deacon David Pierce