It’s getting close to the time of year for the school bags to be dusted down, pulled out from the back of cupboards, dragged from dark corners where they lay dormant over the summer.

I can still remember the weight of the bag on my back going to and from school. Not only was it heavy but it also was a constant reminder of work and studying that needed to be done. 

Imagine if someone had said I’ll not only carry your bag but I’ll also deal with all the schoolwork! Wouldn’t that be great and every piece of work would be A+!!

Modern life and it’s demands….

I hope you managed to get a rest over this summer. A change from the norm, a change of scenery. Perhaps the summer months are traditionally your busiest and instead you’re looking forward to a rest with the school year beginning.

Getting a rest from the demands of the world isn’t easy. It’s not just the daily grind, care needs, financial worries, health concerns but there’s also modern living. Do you have enough likes? Have you done enough steps? Have you counted your calories? Is your Insta full of you having a great time? Do you “follow” the right people on Twitter? It would seem the rules for living have gotten harder.

The people in Jesus’ day had the same problem. The rules for living as God wanted were many and complex. The Pharisees were responsible for teaching the laws of God. Yet the Pharisees in their zeal for the law added extra requirements. These endless daily ceremonies and observances to keep were necessary day in and day out if you were to please God. An extra 600 traditions were added for the Sabbath alone! Instead of helping people the Pharisees laid heavy burdens on people’s backs and did nothing to help them. 

In the Gospel of Mathew, Jesus offers to lift this burden of endless rule keeping and instead offers his followers rest

“Come to me all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For my burden is easy and my yoke is light. You will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11 v 28),

Jesus’ invitation is to come to Him, a Person. He has fulfilled the requirements of the law. He has done what you can’t do. The heavy load of sin that you are carrying He paid for it on the Cross. 

This wonderful gift of salvation is on offer.

But what about the yoke? 

Traditionally a yoke was a circular wooden halter placed on the animals’ necks and harnessed to a plough. Usually a pair of oxen (cows) would be yoked together to plough a field. 

Both in step together. Always together, never going their separate ways. 

However a yoke also conveys the image of slavery, bondage or oppression. 

This is the image of a yoke we tend to fixate on. 

It seems to contradict Jesus' wonderful gift of rest and grace!

Jesus says his yoke is easy, His burden is light. Following Jesus and learning from Him is not oppressive. It brings freedom from trying to please God by our own efforts. However it’s never freedom to go off on your own way. 

Learning from Jesus is like being yoked onto Him, to walk step in step perhaps in the way the oxen ploughed the field. But this yoke is a delight. It’s easy. Yes there will be things to re-learn as you do life Jesus’s way. There will be responsibilities and opportunities to serve. There will be commands to obey. But you will find rest for your souls. 

He is present and that is the difference. 

Perhaps if someone had offered to take my schoolbag and complete all my studies so that I came out with a perfect record, wouldn’t it make sense that THAT is the person I’d most like to imitate. Wouldn’t I want to learn from Him? And surely I’d tell everyone what He’d done for me and that He can do it for you too. And wouldn’t we get together and talk about Him and live lives of freedom under the easy and light burden He places on us.

Difficulties? 

I can imagine I’d often try to pick up my school bag to help Jesus get me my A+ even though he said I already had it. There would be times when I’d look at others and wonder why their life seems easy compared to mine (not knowing what was really going on!). 

I imagine others would think it wasn’t real, that I’d been duped. And others who saw my “easy yoke and light burden” would instead think it was the most oppressive and intolerant system of rule keeping. 

I can also imagine there would be times when I’d think Jesus’ yoke wasn’t easy and His burden wasn’t light because I had taken my eyes off Him. And so back to Jesus I would go, learning again from Him how to follow, how to love Him, how to complete the good works he has prepared for me to do. 

And Once again I enjoy the rest for my soul that only He gives.