The yoke of freedom

This morning I'm reflecting on the sort of relationship God wants to have with us as his people, and how we often say we want that, but at the same time fail to give him control for one reason or another. Jesus gave an amazing offer to us when he said: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light,” ‭‭(Matthew‬ ‭11:28‭-‬30‬ ‭NIV‬‬).

First of all, does everyone even know what a yoke is? In Jesus time people would have understood this reference, but in case you don't know, "a yoke is a wooden crosspiece fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to a plow or cart. A yoke allows two animals to share a load and pull together." It can also imply the carrying of a burden depending on how it is used. One major problem many of us face is that we fail to realize that we are weary and burdened, therefore we fail to see how we are in need of a relationship with God and that what he offers us is far better than what the world does. If we look at Jesus' words closely here, he does not offer to completely remove the yoke we are attached to, rather, he offers to replace it with HIS yoke. This seems to imply we are all yoked to something. At first glance this could be easy to shrug off and say whatever, but if we really look, I wonder how many things we are in fact doing this with. I think that we often look to those things for purpose and identity, rather than to God our creator, and this leaves us controlled and in a sense enslaved by these things rather than being able to do them in true freedom. How many of us are yoked to our career or jobs, or our relationships, or our family, or addictions? The list goes on and on and on. We all have a natural void inside of us that we need to fill with something, and we look to those things we fill it with to give us a sense of purpose and meaning. I assure you, if you aren't yoked to Jesus, you are yoked to something else.

Jesus offers us true freedom, a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light. How do we take him up on this offer of freedom? It starts with us realizing that we are in fact weary from carrying the burdens of the world, and we need to remove the yoke we have taken on ourselves and allow Jesus to replace it with his. Jesus never said that it was an easy life to follow him, which is why we are told to take up our cross and follow him. Compared to the burdens of the world though, it is extremely light and easy, and we have a savior who comes alongside and is in fact yoked together with us and helps to carry that load.