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Secret of the
Easy Yoke
Matthew 11:28-30
A young
mother was struggling with her 3 children all under the age of 5 one day
when the phone rang and a voice on the other end of the phone said,
“Honey, its Mom. I called because I know that you’re busy with the kids,
and I want to give you some help. I’m going to stop by to clean the
house, take care of the baby, and prepare dinner for when the boys get
home from school. I want you to get ready to go to my beautician, I paid
her already, she is going to give you ‘the works,’ your appointment is
at 1:00. And give George a call at the office and tell him that you will
meet him at Olive Garden for dinner, it’s on me..."
At that point, the young mother interrupted and said, "George, who is
George?"
“Your husband.”
She said, "My husband’s name is James.”
“Oh. Is this 365-2321?”
“No this is 365-2322.”
The caller said, “Oh, I’m so sorry. I’ve got the wrong number.”
After a pause, the young mother said, “Does this mean that you’re not
coming over?”
Do you ever feel as though you could use a phone call like that? Do you
ever find yourself wishing someone would just come along and take care
things for you so that you can have a little rest?
That’s what Jesus offers in this passage this morning found in Matthew
11:28-20.
I. I Will Give You Rest
It’s one of the most beautiful promises in the entire Bible. It was a
promise made to the Israelites as they headed toward the land of Canaan
– it was a land of rest. And it’s the promise made to those of us who
are Christians as we look forward to heaven.
The Hebrew writer says, “There remains therefore a rest for the people
of God.” Hebrews 4:9.
In Revelation 14:13, one of the blessings that is given in that book is
this: “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on…. that they
may rest from their labors.”
One of the things that I’m looking forward to when I get to heaven is
being able to rest. I’m not talking about sitting down in a Lazy-Boy
recliner with my feet propped up and a remote control to a big screen
television in my hand. That’s not heaven. I just know that heaven will
be a place where we won’t experience the feeling of being so tired, so
worn out. Sometimes when people ask me how I am, I just want to say,
“I’m tired.” Heaven is going to be place of rest.
But I don’t believe Jesus is talking about heaven here in Matthew 11. I
think he’s offering rest for our souls here and now. Someone to help
carry our burden.
In Galatians 6:2, Paul says to “Bear one another’s burdens” and we can
do that for one another. There have been some times in my life when I’ve
gone through some things that I just don’t think I could have handled if
I didn’t have brothers and sisters in Christ to be there for me. But
what we do for one another in a small way, Christ does for us to a much
greater measure.
Whatever burden you are carrying right now, Christ says he’ll be there
for you. Whether it’s problems in your marriage, or maybe your children
are in trouble at school or with the law. Maybe it’s burdens of
loneliness, burdens of taking care of sick relatives, burdens of
disappointment, of rejection, of addictions. Maybe the burden of not
knowing which way to turn next.
The reality is that life can be very difficult. But these are the very
kinds of burdens that Jesus wants us to bring to him, so that he can
share the load and give us strength to cope. Jesus is always on the
lookout for hurting people. People who are bold enough to admit – Lord,
I need some help. I can’t carry these problems alone.
And Jesus says, "I will give you rest.”
Notice that he didn’t say, “I might give you rest,” or “I’ll probably
give you rest,” He said, "I will give you rest.”
David said with assurance in Psalm 55, “Cast your burden on the LORD,
and He shall sustain you.”
II. My Burden is Light
Then in verse 30, Jesus adds these words: “For my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.”
Did you hear that? The yoke of Christianity is easy, and the burden is
light. That sounds nice, but does anybody actually believe it?
The popular concept is that Christianity is a heavy burden of
responsibilities and obligations that only serves to weigh you down. You
have to do this, and you can’t do that! And I think to some extent we
would tend to agree with that assessment. It’s not easy to be a
Christian. Sometimes it’s downright difficult. But Jesus says the yoke
is “easy,” and the burden is “light.”
In 1 John 5:3, John wrote something similar. He said, “For this is the
love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not
burdensome.”
Now all of this would be easy to understand if it hadn’t been for the
language Jesus used. He said, “Take my yoke upon you…For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light.”
Now, chances are you’ve never used a yoke, but you know what one is. A
yoke was this huge wooden bar that was placed across the neck and
shoulders of an animal. It was part of the harness used to pull a cart
or a plow, and how the animal’s master kept it under control and guided
it in useful work. I picture this huge wooden bar and then Jesus says,
“Take my yoke upon you” and I don’t picture anything being light or
easy.
The yoke symbolizes submission it symbolizes obedience. It is a picture
of the weight of responsibility. So how can it be said that the yoke is
easy and the burden is light?
This burden of our Lord's yoke is like if I came to you and said,
lifting up the hood of your new car, ‘Why do you carry this big chunk of
iron around with you? Look at all the weight it adds to your automobile!
Wouldn’t it be easier to push if you did not have this heavy motor here
in the front?’ You would look at me like I was an idiot. You would say
Jeremy it’s that weight that makes the difference between pushing and
riding. If I did not have that I would have to push, but the motor makes
it move.’”
When we think about it, we realize that God’s law doesn’t make life more
difficult for us. It makes life better, and ultimately all that God
tells us to do is for our own good. Think of an area of sin in your life
that you wish wasn’t sin. Would the world really be a better place if
God just said, “Okay, that’s no longer sin, everybody can go ahead and
do it.”?
Let’s suppose in the days of Moses you were on a committee to take the
last 6 of the 10 commandments and whittle them down to 5 to reduce the
amount of sin in the world. Which one of those commandments would make
our lives better by getting rid of it?
Would you get rid of “Honor your father and mother”? Do not kill? Do not
commit adultery? Do not steal? Do not lie? Do not covet and be greedy
for other people’s possessions? Let’s be honest – which one of them
would you get rid of in your attempt to make life better. The truth,
none of God’s commandments make life more difficult for us because every
single one of them is for our ultimate good.
Now, the traditions and man-made commandments can be a burden. But the
commandments of God are no more a burden than wings are to a bird, fins
are to a fish, or a motor is to a car.
So I think that’s part of it. But I also think there are at least two
other things that are involved that will help us to understand the
secret of the easy yoke.
1. The greater our love for God, the lighter the burden
Let’s go back to I John 5:3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep
His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.”
I think there is a direct association between our love for God and the
fact that his commandments are not a burden to us. And I would suggest
that the greater our love is, the less of a burden is involved.
When Trista was in the last days of her pregnancy there was some things
that she couldn’t do for herself. So that meant that there were a lot of
things that I had to do for her. And I’ll be honest. If I had to do it
for anyone else, I would describe it as a tremendously heavy burden. But
I just don’t view it that way with her. I never have and I never will.
If anything, I regard it as a privilege to be able to be of help to her.
What’s the difference? I can only describe it as love. Because of the
love I have for her, nothing I do is a burden. Rather it’s a joy.
I think that’s what John had in mind when he wrote those words. Keeping
God’s commandments is not a burden because of the love we have for him.
And the greater our love for God is, the less we will view the yoke of
submission as a burden.
But I think there’s something else involved here.
2. The greater our commitment, the lighter the burden
In I Kings 18: 17-21 we find a problem that still plagues us in our
Christian lives today.
And it came about, when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him, "Is this
you, you troubler of Israel?" And he said, "I have not troubled Israel,
but you and your father's house have, because you have forsaken the
commandments of the LORD, and you have followed the Baals. "Now then
send and gather to me all Israel at Mount Carmel, together with 450
prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of the Asherah, who eat at Jezebel's
table." So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel, and brought
the prophets together at Mount Carmel. And Elijah came near to all the
people and said, "How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If
the LORD is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him." But the people
did not answer him a word.”
Now this may seem like a strange passage for our topic today, because
chances are we don’t have any Baal worshipers in the audience this
morning. But the problem with Israel is still a problem today. They were
worshipping God -- Jehovah, Yahweh -- and Baal side by side. Sometimes
we get the impression that the Israelites abandoned God, but they
didn’t. At least that wasn’t their usual practice. Rather, they
worshipped him side by side with false gods.
Now, why in the world would they do that?
Well, when the Israelites came into the land of Canaan, they came into a
land filled with all sorts of worship of false gods. They had always
been loyal to God, but what did they really know about him?
Well, they knew he was pretty good at providing for them in the
wilderness, and he was pretty good at leading them to victory in
battles, but that was about it. And so they had to wonder, can he make
the crops grow? And they didn’t know the answer to that question because
he’d never had to do it before. But what god were the Canaanites
worshipping? They were worshipping Baal, the fertility god. So the
Israelites started worshipping Baal to make their crops grow, but they
kept worshipping God because you never know when you might get in a
battle and need his assistance.
The Israelites were hedging their bets. They would worship Yahweh one
day and Baal the next. They tried to keep them both happy. So Elijah
says, “How long are you going to keep trying to have it both ways? Quit
being divided. Make a choice. It’s either the Lord or it’s Baal, but it
can’t be both!”
And that’s exactly what our problem is today. It’s not that we’ve ever
abandoned God. The problem is, we’re divided. There are pieces of our
lives that we have trouble bringing under God’s control.
Think for a moment about the most spiritual person you know, someone
that you really admire for their spirituality. Now, what is it about
them that you admire?
No doubt, it is that what they believe regarding God has influenced
every aspect of their lives. It affects the way they act in the church
building, it affects the way they act in the workplace, it affects the
way they act around their family, and it even affects the way they play
games. It affects what they do, and it affects what they say. And that’s
what spirituality is – it’s having all of our life under God’s control.
We have too much sin in our lives to enjoy our Christianity, and too
much Christianity in our lives to enjoy our sin, so we just end up
feeling guilty all the time. We need to stop being so divided
spiritually as the Israelites were in the days of Elijah.
So now the statement about the easy yoke is even more confusing than it
was before. If Christianity involves so much commitment, then how can it
be described as a yoke that is easy and a burden that is light?
Let me share with you the secret of the easy yoke. If you have to think
about whether or not you’re doing the right thing, then Christianity is
a tough battle to fight. It is only when the right thing to do becomes
the natural thing to do that the yoke is easy.
Let me give you an example: I freely confess that I may well be the
worst golfer in the world. I’ve had a few a few people argue with me
about that, but after they’ve played a round with me, they stop arguing.
My problem with golf is that I have to think about everything. Hold the
club just right, hold the elbow right, don’t hit my head on the
backswing, keep my eyes on the ball, keep my head down and the knees
bent. And watch out for the tree, or the sand, or the water. You can’t
hit a golf ball and think about all that! But do you know what a
professional golfer thinks about when he’s got a tough shot to make and
thousands of dollars is on the line? They always say the same thing –
trust your swing. They trust themselves to do what they have done
hundreds and thousands and maybe even millions of times before. What you
see when you watch them on TV is that one swing. What you don’t see is
the lifetime of preparation that brought that golfer to that moment.
When we have to constantly be thinking, “I’ve got to be careful not to
do this”, or “I’ve got to be careful not to say that”, then living the
Christian life can seem like a burden. It’s difficult. But when you’ve
practiced it to the point where you don’t have to think about it, where
the right thing to do is the natural thing, then it’s easy. It’s not a
burden at all. The yoke is easy and the burden is light.
Isn’t that what Paul was saying, “For me to live is Christ”. “I have
been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives
in me…”. Isn’t that what those verses are saying, that it is possible to
adopt a kind of life where our initial reaction is the right reaction,
where we will be living, breathing, walking examples of the living Lord.
Is that within our reach? Yes. But how do you get to that point, where
the natural reaction is the right reaction?
Let me make it clear that nothing you can do is going to give you
instant results. There is no three-step program to a life of
spirituality. There’s no twelve-step program. Rather, it is a lifetime
commitment. A lifetime of disciplining yourself and bringing your whole
life under God’s control.
Nothing you can do is going to give you instant results. You’re not
going to come away after one sermon or even two or three sermons and
have your life changed. It’s a lifetime commitment; a commitment of
prayer, and study, and meditation. And if you’ll put yourself in a
position of developing spirituality over the course of a lifetime, then
when that moment of truth comes, when you stand up to bat in the bottom
of the ninth, and a tough decision gets thrown your way, then you’ll be
ready.
This morning Jesus extends to each of us an invitation: "Come to me, all
you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my
yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is
light."
If your love for God is strong enough, then the burden will be light.
And when the natural thing to do becomes the right thing to do, then the
yoke becomes easy. The question is, are you living your life in such a
way right now so as to lead toward that kind of spirituality?
Conclusion:
Today we can take you before the throne of God. We can lift you up in
prayer and ask that God will give you the strength to live solely for
Him. Do you need prayers this morning for strength to feel the easy yoke
of the Lord? If so will you come as we stand and sing.
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