Christ offers rest through service

In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus gives the most comforting invitation. He says, “Come to me, all 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.”

This isn’t rocket surgery. It’s pretty simple. It’s a straightforward announcement of good news that sits warmly in the center of our chests. But, there’s this thing about yokes. What’s a yoke and why would I want to take one “upon me?”

In that society, a yoke was a wooden harness that fit on the shoulders of a beast of burden. You could attach a load that you wanted the animal to pull, such as a plow.

With that in mind, what Jesus is offering is not a freedom from all burdens, but a switch. Put down the load that’s been crushing you and take up a new, lighter one, which is his.

That’s right as far as it goes, but there is rich symbolism to explore here.

In the New Testament, a yoke is routinely a reference to slavery. In fact, the two are equated in 1 Timothy 6:1, where slaves are those who are “under the yoke.”

In this sense, then, Jesus did not offer a sort of autonomous freedom where you no longer have any obligation to follow rules. Stop struggling apart from God and go “under the yoke” as his own servant, or bondslave (which was the Apostle Paul’s favorite term for himself).

In the Old Testament, the yoke has a surprising, political overtone. In chapters 27 and 28 of Jeremiah, the prophet is told to fashion a yoke for himself and wear it around as an object lesson, a visual prophecy. The yoke meant God was offering the rebellious nation a way to escape the judgment of God’s wrath.

Specifically, if they would submit themselves in allegiance to the coming king of Babylon, God would spare their lives. They might even be allowed to remain on their own land. However, they would be the geo-political subjects of an empire that was growing to encompass the whole known world.

Of course, this would seem quite unpatriotic. The patriotic thing to do would be to man the walls and fight to repel the pagan king. But, that was the path to destruction.

Jeremiah’s yoke was a call to submit to the rule of a new kingdom, headed up by God’s chosen servant, the Babylonian in this case. That was the only path to life.

You see where this is going. The yoke Jesus mentions is the same thing. Submit your allegiance to a new, expanding kingdom, the kingdom of heaven, headed up by God’s chosen one, the Messiah.

This kingdom is destined to displace all others (Dan 2:37-44; Ps 110:1; Isa 2:1-4; Rev 11:15). Taking the yoke of Jesus upon you will indeed bring rest to your soul, but it demands a change in your allegiance. It means speaking of “another king, even Jesus” (Acts 17:31) to a world that takes its politics a little too seriously.

Please take the Lord’s offer to heart.

Gordan Runyan is the pastor of Immanuel Baptist Church in Tucumcari. Contact him at:

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