Segment 2 of the Narrative Part of Book III (the paragraph 11:25-30 - Revelation) has three themes:
1. Disciples are children
2. Disciples are chosen
3. Disciples are 'chummed' (a dreadful alliteration, I know - see below).
That disciples are children occupied us in the last chapter.
v. 27: "No-one knows the Father except the Son, and any to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him."
It is not enough to say that we must decide for Christ; He must decide for us. We cannot become a Christian just as and when we please; we can only become a Christian when and as it pleases Christ to call us. It offends our proud spirit of independence to be told that. But the truth is that until we let that proud spirit go we cannot be a Christian. I refuse, as the Scriptures steadfastly refuse, to explain away the offence of what Jesus says here. We must simply face it. Argue it as we please, it is the truth. Jesus, the apostles and God Himself all said so. "It denies me my freedom," we say? But any other way denies God His freedom - and His freedom comes before ours. When we do bow to it, we find that we are called, we are chosen! It is a mystery. But bow we must, or we shall never find. That is why Jesus said the truth is revealed only to babes, not to the 'wise and knowing.' He was not condemning the intellect, only pride in it. He was not saying that stupidity admits us to the Kingdom, but humility. Jesus was marrying faith, not to ignorance, but to simplicity. Wise as Solomon we may be, but if we lack the innocence and trustfulness of a childlike heart we shut ourselves out of the Kingdom.
"Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls."
In the Greek, emphasis falls on the 'my' - my yoke. Jesus was clearly drawing a contrast between His yoke and some other yoke. Without a doubt, it was the 'yoke of the Law,' as His people at that time knew it.
a. The Yoke of the Law
At 12 years of age, Jewish boys were 'put under the yoke of the Law,' as the Jewish phrase put it. The way it was done Jesus Himself described in Matt. 23:4. "They bind heavy burdens, grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders." Every little thing in life was meticulously regulated by some law or commandment, so there was no room left for spontaneity or gaiety. Even some Rabbis themselves admitted this. One of them told a story to show just how burdensome and unrelenting the demands of the Law could be.
There was a poor widow who had two daughters, and a field. When she began to plough, a neighbour lent her an ass, and another offered her an ox, but Moses (i.e. the Law) said, "You must not plough with an ox and an ass together." When she began to sow seed in the one field she had, Moses said, "You must not sow your field with mixed seed." So although she needed both, she could not sow barley and wheat. When she began to reap and make stooks of corn, Moses said, "You must not gather the gleanings, nor any sheaf you forget to bring in, nor any corner of your field." She began to thresh, and Moses said, "Give to Aaron (i.e. the High Priest) the heave-offering and the first and the second tithes." She accepted the ordinance and gave them all. But to do it, she had to sell her field. With the proceeds of the sale she bought two sheep to clothe herself from their fleece and to have profit from their young. But when they bore their lambs, Aaron came and said, "The first-born you shall give to me." So she accepted the decision and gave them to him. When she sheared her two sheep, Aaron came and said to her, "To me you must give the first-fruit of your fleece." It was too much. She thought, "I cannot give him that much and live. I will slaughter the sheep and live off their meat." Then Aaron came and said, "To me you must give the shoulder and two cheeks and the maw." Then she said, "Even when I have killed them, I am not safe from you! Then I shall 'devote" them (i.e. give them wholly to the Lord)." Then Aaron said, "In that case they belong entirely to me." And he took them, leaving her weeping with her two daughters and having nothing. (Quoted in W. Barclay's Commentary)
In the Law alone, there is no mercy. As Jesus said in Matt. 23:4 (to go on with the quotation), "They bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not lift a finger to help." The yoke of the law was a Jewish idiom for submission. They spoke of the 'yoke of the law,' the 'yoke of the commandments,' the 'yoke of the kingdom.' It was a pathway that left you weary and jaded. But ... "My burden," Jesus said, "is light! My yoke is easy."
b. The yoke of Christ
Now Jesus was a carpenter; and the making of yokes was part of a carpenter's trade. He must have made a good many in His time.
1. Made to Measure
A good carpenter took pride in any yoke he made. He made it to fit so it did not chafe the neck of the animal on which it was used. The buyer would bring his animal to the carpenter's shop and have it measured there; he would bring it back a time or two for further fittings, the way we have fittings with a tailor. The yoke was tailor-made to fit the beast. 'Easy' meant 'well-fitting.' Carpenters in Palestine used to advertise, as we do , by means of signs hung up over their shop-fronts. One of the standard slogans carpenters used would read:
MY YOKES ARE EASY
Just such a sign, perhaps, had hung over Joseph's shop-front in Nazareth. (Was Jesus here indulging a subtle bit of advertising!?)
"My yoke is easy; my burden is light" means "The partnership I offer you is not one that will chafe, rub you red-raw and leave you bleeding. It will fit, it will fit well, and it will fit you. The task I give you to share with me will be 'made to measure.'"
2. The "Training Yoke"
A particular kind of yoke was sometimes needed called a 'training yoke' to pair a young untrained animal with an older experienced one. It was so fashioned that the older, trained animal carried the greater part of the load. The 'senior partner' led under the guiding hand of the ploughman: all the young ox had to do was to "pull his weight." If, in youthful bovine pride, the smaller animal 'pulled away,' there would be trouble. The furrow would have to be ploughed again, of course; but in the process of it all, the yoke would chafe the shoulders, not of the young animal only, but (and this is what is interesting) of both animals. The younger animal's rebelliousness had to be tamed; it had to become "meek and lowly," yielding to the 'senior partner'. So the yoke was made to sit easy on him when he cooperated, but chafe when he did not. But the senior partner, too, had to be "meek and lowly." It had to be patient and forgiving of the younger animal's spirit, and bear with it - not goaded into a frenzy - until the younger had learned the benefits of willing cooperation. So the yoke was made in such a way as to encourage him, too, to keep the junior partner in line. If he lost his cool with the junior partner, the yoke would rub him red raw too.
That lies behind what Jesus said, "I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest to your souls. My burden is light." Jesus was not saying, as the scribes, Pharisees and lawyers said, "I'll yoke you to the Law." He was saying, "I'll yoke you to ME. I'll take the strain. I'll train you up. My yoke is easy and my burden is light."
There was a rabbi who used to say, "My burden is my song." It was his way of saying what the psalmist had said, "Thy Law is my delight." But the Christian too may say it: "My burden is my song." The burden Christ lays on us is not one to weigh us down and make us drag our feet; rather it is the kind of burden sails are to a ship, or wings to a bird. He will bear us along in the yoke with Him. That is why He said, "Come unto me, all you who are exhausted! With Me, you will be, not burdened, but borne."
To sum up:
1. The task Christ has for you is 'made to measure'
2. The task Christ has for you is 'a shared task'
3. The task Christ has for you is one in which He will 'take the strain'
1. Made to measure
The demands Jesus makes upon us are not, like the Law's demands, made without regard to our nature and our strength. He is sensitive and flexible in ways no Law can ever be; not so as to breach the requirements of righteousness, of course, but so as to have regard for each of us as we are.
The yokes He made were true,
Because the man who dreamed was too
a craftsman. The burdens that the oxen drew
were light.
At night
He lay upon his bed and knew
no beast of his stood chafing in a stall
made restless by a needless gall.
2. A shared task
It is interesting to place three related Scriptures side by side at this point:
Gal. 6:2 - "Bear one another's burdens"
Gal. 6:5 - "Every man shall carry his own burden"
Psalm 5:2 - "Cast your burden upon the Lord and He shall sustain you."
Every man does have to shoulder his own pack. As Jeremiah said, "This is my burden and I must bear it." (11:19) Courage there must be.
But sharing too; it lightens the load. I was living in England when the scandal broke that involved the Minister for Defence at the time, Mr Profumo, who got mixed up in scandalous goings-on with prostitutes Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies. He lied brazenly and tried energetically to cover it all up, but in vain. He was obliged to resign from public office in disgrace. As always, of course, the burden of shame fell heaviest on those close to him, in particular his wife - a well-known actress, Valerie Hobson. Her name suffered too, professionally. If ever a woman had grounds to walk out on her man, she did. But she stuck by him. She openly identified herself with him in his shame, shared the ostracism which society (often hypocritically) imposed on him, and let her own career go. She was an extraordinary woman. And together, they made good. Mr Profumo found a new and satisfying, even a redeeming rôle, in charitable work, and she plunged into it with him, up to her eyebrows. By the time I left to return to Australia, they had, together, restored both their names in the eyes of society.
A burden shared is a burden halved. Christ will halve our burdens, whether they be burdens of guilt or of shame, of anxiety or of toil.
3. A lightened task
I have used the word 'chummed' - paired. Clumsy I know; but the point is He shares the load with us. He supports us. "My grace is sufficient for you, my strength is made perfect in weakness," He would later say to Paul. (II Cor. 12:9) It is the same thing. In the familiar poem 'Footprints in the Sand,' a man dreamed of his life as though it were a walk he had taken along a seashore with the Lord, leaving their footprints in the sand. But at those points where the burden of life had weighed heaviest on him, he noticed with dismay that there was only one set of footprints. "Lord, you left me - then - to walk alone?" "No, son, that was when I carried you."
"Hearken to me, you who have been borne by me from your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am He, and to grey hairs I will carry you. I have made and I will bear; I will carry and I will save." (Isa. 46:3-4)
This material is copyright; it may not be quoted, published or reproduced without the author's permission, nor preached without acknowledgment!