THE YOKE IS NOT THE PLOUGH

Matthew 11:28-29 "Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

This is a beautiful passage, well known and loved. When we feel tired and stressed, it's a favourite 'go-to' passage.

However, I am embarrassed to admit that up until recently, I had missed something.  

My understanding of the yoke was the particular call or responsibilities I am called to do. For instance, it may be to preach the gospel, lead people, raise my family etc.  

However, the yoke is not the plough.

What I mean by that is that the yoke is there to enable any number of different things to take place. The yoke may be hitched to a plough to break up the ground, connected to a seeder to plant the seed, or attached to a carriage or cart to take things or people somewhere. Depending on the task, the farmer may have one yoke that could be hitched to any item.

I believe the yoke that Jesus is speaking of, His yoke, is an attitude of the heart. And what is that attitude? He said, 'because I am humble and gentle at heart.' The attitude is one of humility and gentleness. This yoke makes a heavy load easy, whereas pride or drivenness makes the load hard, whether the load is heavy or light.

So whether we are called to do one thing or another, whatever it is, the yoke is how we do it, not what we do.  

This means that when our task is downgraded, upgraded or taken off for a while, we are at rest because we have nothing to prove. We are yoked together with Jesus in an attitude of humility and gentleness, not ambition and drivenness.  

How do we do that? By daily aligning ourselves with this attitude or re-aligning it whenever we feel the stress level rise!

So when we wear the yoke of Jesus, nothing is above us, and nothing is below us - we are free!