Taking on the Yoke of Jesus
Take a moment to remember who God is and who I am. There you go, lifting my load again. No longer am I held by the weight of this world. Come up under the Yoke of Jesus; His yoke is easy, his burden is so light.
Jeremiah 17: 7-8
“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
Matthew 11: 28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Jeremiah 17: 7-8 is a verse I have been coming back to multiple times since October. For me it has been an encouraging reminder of how important it is to send out my roots to living water. This living water will supply my needs even when I feel trapped in a season of dryness and hardship. I have come back to this time and time again because I know that being here these seasons will come frequently, but I have hope that during these seasons I will still remain nourished and fruitful in Christ. I have hit a point of culture shock or stress, some homesickness, and an overall feeling of being worn out. This time was expected to come and now it’s here. However, as I evaluate what I am feeling out of this I know I am NOT discouraged, lost, abandoned, and hopeless. My roots are drinking from the water of Christ and he is supplying my needs. I wrote in my journal one day that I feel Christ pulling me up this mountain and I am gladly accepting the needed help.
In this season of feeling worn out I have found hope and comfort from the song “Take a Moment” and from Matthew 11:28-30. I researched briefly what the purpose of a yoke was. Basically animals are yoked together in order to pull a load. The yoke acts as a means to not only allow the load to be pulled, but to also disperse the weight between the two animals so they don’t have to pull the full burden. In life there are burdens and tasks that we must pull and carry through life. Jesus wants to give me rest. He offers us his Yoke to use in order to pull the burden. Jesus is giving us an opportunity to be yoked to him. To be yoked is to be joined, coupled, or united. Jesus is uniting with us to carry the load. Only with his yoke the load and burden is much lighter. Jesus wants to come along side and unite with me to give me rest. How cool is that? In this season of uncomfortableness I am finding my strength and rest for my soul by taking Jesus’ yoke and seeking to learn from Him.
As I sat in this theme of taking on Jesus’ yoke I came to a new understanding of what it also means once I talked to a mentor of mine. He brought some good ol’ church history to my attention and explained that students were expected to take on their rabbi’s yoke that they were studying under. To take on someone’s yoke was to take on their full way of teaching and thinking. Only the best students were the ones to take on the rabbi’s yoke because it was such a prestigious position. Yet Jesus offers everyone to take on his yoke. Jesus wants me to take on his way of thinking, his teaching, the way he acts, and the way he sees things. This seems like a daunting task, YET he tells us his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
When I heard this I couldn’t get it out of my head. What would it look like to take on Jesus’ yoke? As I processed this, the idea of a relationship kept coming to my mind. We serve a relational God who cares for us and wants to know us just as He wants us to know Him. I started to evaluate what some of my friendships and relationships look like and I realized something that so many of my really close relationships have in common. After spending a lot of time together people start to adopt certain characteristics of their friends either in speech, hand motions, ideas, phrases, humor, actions, and so forth. It really is amazing how people can quickly adopt qualities from each other. What would it look like then to have such a deep relationship with Jesus that I adopt his qualities and everything about him (aka his Yoke) because I am truly spending deep time with Him and developing this kind of friendship?