The Yoke is Easy

The Yoke is Easy

3/31/15

The phrase that introduces this letter is one of the more popular verses within the unlimited truths of the Bible.  It represents everything that Jesus stood for when concerning the Kingdom of God and it also accurately describes His mission as to why He was sent to God’s people.  This simple phrase also explains to us exactly what types of battles are ongoing for our lives and how important it is for us to understand this unseen turmoil.  Jesus’ life on earth was no game and it was no picnic yet for some reason the Church has turned it into one.  The Church cannot afford to project a half truths about Jesus, and in order to fully complete this presentation of the Kingdom, its principles must be known through this extraordinary phrase that Jesus used.

Most of us know that the phrase that I am referring to is from Matthew 11:30.  All of us look to this passage and phrase as one of truth and one that gives us hope, and rightly so.  This passage is one of the more powerful statements that Christ made while He was on the earth and we need to ensure that we understand its complete meaning.  Does everyone know that this statement actually makes the statement that Jesus is of a divine bloodline and human at the same time?  For a person to make this kind of statement they either are truly nuts or they must be created from another source other than the human bloodline.  Then the question that is raised is if we believe that Jesus is a divine being or is He in fact insane.  See, no human person can guarantee anything except one, death.  Even our own country’s Constitution states ‘the pursuit of happiness” it does not guarantee it.  The only thing that human can guarantee is death, for not one of us shall escape this finality.

One of the more difficult truths about Jesus is that He is fully God and fully human.  It is hard for our minds to fathom this type of concept sine all we know is how to be human.  With Jesus being in this form it defines the relationship between God and man and how close mankind was to God during their tenure in the Garden of Eden.  And it is through this beginning that we must understand of how much damage we did when we chose to break away from this unity.  Jesus lived a pure and holy life while He was on this earth and it was not His mission to marry, or to “preserve” His bloodline nor was there any part of Him that desired to be political.  His mission on this planet was to provide humanity the only way that we can have a restored relationship with God and in order for Him to achieve this fact He had to live the life of a sacrifice.  It is through this act of life that brings into play the reason as to why His yoke is easy and His burden is light, for He was in total freedom from the world’s oppression.

When placing oneself into this position they must have specific knowledge of their surroundings and know exactly what is occurring within their surroundings as well as to the specific reason that they are present.  They must know that their presence is different and set apart from all others in order to set an example for everyone to choose their place with this person.  We have witnessed many humans try and make some sort of similar claim as this before and have failed miserably.  Anytime a human / human existence tries to make such a high standing claim they seem to fall under the pressures of the world.  Their intentions may have been excellent, but their humanly and flawed follow through is doomed to succumb under the world’s weight.  It is through this pressure of the world (its yoke) that Jesus uses to inform us that things are different in Him and it is ok to be separated from the world through Him.

Jesus’ claim concerning His yoke is another bold move coming from a human being.  However, Jesus’ creation and birth into this world is quite different from you and I in that His father is a divine one and not of human blood, which means that Jesus stands far above any other created being that has walked on this planet.  And it is through this holy and divine status that allows Him to make this claim about His yoke being easy.  I wish everyone would believe in this miracle of creation and it is the mission of the Church to proclaim this truth to as many people around the world as possible.  The Church has had mixed reviews concerning her history and follow through concerning her mission and now with more groups watering down Jesus’ life and meaning for being on this earth, it seems like the present and future reviews may be worse than ever.  That is why the Church needs to stop and realize her position in Christ and take a hard look at what His true meaning is and what He actually represents to her and to the world.

A yoke is an instrument that ties things together and allows the things that are tied together to move in a single direction.  My one and only time to have looked at a yoke was very memorable to me.  Being a young squirt I thought that I was the strongest young man alive and the owner of that yoke asked me and another boy to carry it over to the corral I boldly said that I could do it alone.  After he finished laughing at me he pointed to where the yoke was at and said good luck.  I went over to the yoke and realized, without picking it up, that it was very large and would be heavy since there were metal rings and frame around the wood.  Did I ever feel stupid, and when I turned around to ask for help the owner was still grinning about the situation.

It took two of us to carry that thing from point A to point B which was about 40 yards and it was solid wood with old heavy, solid metal in bedded into the wood as well.  The two of us carried the yoke on our shoulders and carefully and slowly made our way to the corral.  I remember the solid weight that it placed on my shoulder as we were moving it to its temporary resting place.  The owner brought two cows to the corral while we were fumbling around with the yoke.  As we reached the corral, we dropped the yoke on the ground and then shut the gate after the cows arrived.  It did not take too long for the owner to get the cows in place which by then I was in learning mode and stood there watching.

The owner then picked up the yoke by himself and placed it on the necks around the cows.  The cows did not move much but one could tell that they knew that their conditions had changed with the looks in their eyes and their body movements.  It did not take him long to hook them up to the yoke and soon it was time for them to go to work in the “small garden” as the man put it.  I remember that all it took was just a tug on the reins and the cows began to move simultaneously and steadily together in the direction to which the owner wanted them.  I felt kind of stupid at that moment because I had proven myself to be inadequate about how the yoke worked, how heavy it was and the true meaning of what the yoke did to the animals that it was placed around.  The owner of the farm did not scold me or belittle me at all but he did take the opportunity to teach me a few things about the yoke and its designed function. 

It was the owner of the yoke that knew what he was doing when it came to having someone, or in this case more than one person, carry the yoke to another spot.  He evidently had watched our previous movements while we were doing the other chores that day and had drawn a pretty accurate conclusion of how many of the three of us it would take to carry the thing. Being the citified boy that I was I had no clue about my abilities on a farm so of course my pride rebuffed him; with that two of us carried the load across the path.  Which as I look back at that time and remember how heavy that thing was it kind of baffles me as to why Jesus said this about His yoke, but as my memory continues I remember the owner of the farm just easily picking it up and placing it where it needed to go.

In short I did not trust the owner to guide me correctly when it came to the yoke.  I thought that my strength alone could handle the situation and that I could prove him wrong.  It did not take me long to realize that I was the one who did not know what he was talking about and that the owner of the yoke did.  How many times have we stated the exact same thing about God when it comes to His ways and the ways of our Savior?  I know that I have doubted countless times throughout my life and have even cast doubts into other people’s walks at times in my past.  If we are honest with ourselves we must contend that we all have played out to be terrible examples of Christ at times in our lives, but it is through those times that Christ’s yoke and the meaning of His yoke comes into light.  And if we do not understand its full Kingdom meaning, we will totally miss what Jesus was referring to when He used this phrase.

If Jesus represented the world it would be easier, on human terms, to understand what He was meaning.  But Jesus does not represent the world He only represents the way of restoration between God and mankind.  Even though Jesus was human He was also divine and it is here that His yoke is defined.  God understood what it meant to be bound up by the world and what sin did to our lives, does to our lives and how it spiritually separates to us from God.  We were created to walk and talk freely with God without any divisions and since our fall we have not been at this level.  God had to establish a plan of restoration in order for us to understand our need for Him.  In Old Testament Scriptures this process was through the blood sacrifice of animals and in the New Testament Jesus became the perfect sacrifice for everyone who chooses to accept Him.  This sacrifice of purity and divinity represents His yoke and it binds us to God through Christ, and totally separates us from the world through His blood.

The yoke that Jesus was referring to was Him and what was in store for His life and what His creation, life, death and resurrection means for our eternal existence.  Jesus can claim to have a yoke that is easy, unlike that physical yoke that the owner placed upon the cows for Jesus’ yoke represents a unity with Him separate from the world.  The world cannot offer anything else but death and that is a heavy price to have placed on anyone’s life.  But Jesus offers eternal life and a true freedom from death that takes all of the weight of the world (sin) away from us and moves us in one direction towards the Father.

When the cows were placed in the yoke they had no option but to go where the person driving the team wanted them to go.  Of course they could fight and resist if they wanted, but nothing would get done and eventually they would hurt themselves.  They had no choice but to do what the owner wanted, so their lives were in his hands totally.  To some this seems so cruel and is a punishment for being a cow but if we stop and think about things for a moment we can see how it also fits into our lives as well. The Egyptians, Greeks and Romans proudly displayed heir deities every day of their lives and some of these cultures even did their best to try and say that they themselves were deities, representing both the gods and man through their human features; all were proven incorrect thus defining their worldly yokes instead.

The world also has a yoke and it is automatically placed around our necks as soon as we are conceived.  The question that we must ask ourselves is this: do we actually know that the world presents this type of yoke?  If we do not recognize this then we have not been told about God and His love for us or we have totally and willingly blinded ourselves from this truth.  In this frame of mind one would not really understand the difference between Jesus’ yoke and the yoke of the world and thus would deem both as equal.  It is the job or our enemy to make sure that we do not understand the true meaning of Jesus’ yoke and what it gives us.  It is also our enemy’s job for us not to accept Jesus’ yoke for when we do it unites God and mankind once again so that we can forward God’s Kingdom through the blood of Christ.

Another question to ask ourselves: why would Jesus deem His yoke to be easy?  Others have placed this claim into existence and why would He claim to be someone different and have “better” answers than all of the rest?  It is here where the modern day Church is beginning to gray a bit and it is filtering within her walls and it will prove to be a huge stumbling block for the Church.  It is at this point when we must recognize the Bible as the true and authentic Word of God or do we not recognize this and say that it is serious words to live by but not mandatory.  If you do not place the Bible as the authentic Word of God then you justify that Jesus was just a common man who did good yet was unjustly murdered for nothing.  It would also place the words in this passage into the same category as Confucius, Buddha, Mohammad, and any other person that tried to establish her or himself above the human / human conception level; therefore, placing Jesus as a liar and a thief of person’s time, all the while teaching others how to change their world.  It also can be placed into the category of not understanding the true meaning of the phrase and at the same time not knowing who Jesus is.

If one recognizes the Bible as the authentic and true Word of God, then they must consider every object within the context of those words as truth and that there is both a spiritual and physical meaning to everything that is represented.  God has created us both in spirit and in the flesh so that means everything that we know has a spiritual aspect as well.  It is common knowledge that while Jesus was on the earth He was in physical form.  Jesus also used terminology, parables and other types of examples to explain things to the people around Him.  Jesus understood that the world revolves around the flesh and that His Father revolves through the Spirit and by using these types of known terms and phrases the people had a better chance of comprehending that there was a far more important aspect of life than the physical.

If one places this knowledge into place with the Spirit, then they will have a concept of why Jesus used this phrase and had the complete authority to do so.  He knew that His mission on earth was not to be just a physical one that it had just as much a spiritual aspect as well.  The phrase itself deems Him as divine and spiritual because Jesus uses the word “my” in the phrase. “My” is a very specific word and it is of singular and possessive content.  Through the authenticity of God’s Word this sheds a great deal of light on Jesus and further proves that He is the only way to God and that He is the only way to have restoration with God.  All other ways taught by mankind are false and will cause a great deal of disappointment to those who follow them. Jesus is the only way to free ourselves from this world and its death yoke that burdens us.  Jesus’ yoke is of divine nature and pure and refreshing, one to savor in peace and tranquility all coming from the origins of life, God.

It is such a relief to know that God has everything under His eyes and that if we dive deep into His Word He will give us the knowledge and the insight that every human is looking for.  The only thing we need to give up is our selfishness and allow God to take over once again.  Church, we have long been overdue for this type of action within our hearts.  Our focus has been on the world and not on God and if we do not change we shall not be recognizable to God but only to the world.  It is through God’s Son that He provides us with the connection between the spirit and the physical and it is through the example of the yoke that Jesus declares His divinity and way to the Father.  Thank the Lord that there is only One way for restoration.  Jesus paid it all for us and even though I let Him down many times, I am so thankful that He loves me enough to continue His restoration process within my life.  I cannot believe that Jesus would have ever made this concept known to mankind unless He had a passion that is a fire and that He wishes nothing but complete purity from His Bride.

DLB