Take My Yoke

 Read Matthew 11:25-29

I have looked forward to this message since we began this Words of Jesus series 4 months ago. In many ways but different words we arrive where we began.

We love the first part of this pericope. 

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

That’s some cool beans right there. How many times are we overwhelmed by our circumstances, at least in our hearts and minds? We need rest, respite, relief, and probably some words that don’t begin with the letter R.

We want the rest of the Lord. We want rest like we can find nowhere else. We know that God grants us peace that goes beyond understanding. He grants us peace not as the world knows peace but as only God knows it. We want and need and long for rest that goes beyond what we can get in this world.

We need more than the world can give.

Jesus went up mountains to get his relief from the world.  We go to Jesus.

We love that, but that’s not the part of this pericope that we are focusing upon at the moment. We continue reading to the end of this scripture set.

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.

And so we come to a word that we don’t use much anymore—yoke.

If I tell you something funny, it’s sometimes called a joke.

If I push my finger into your belly, it might be called a poke.

The white part of the egg is called the albumen. Got ya!

But we are not talking about the yolk but the yoke and we don’t do a lot of yoking these days.  When we did, the yoke was often a wooden crossbar that connected two animals used for pulling something—a wagon, a plow, or a stump that needed to be removed from a field.

A yoke is a cross beam from which bells are hung—at least back in the days when bells needed to be substantial enough to alert a community.

Animals were yoked together. Paul talked about being unequally yoked—bound together with a pagan.  That creates problems just as yoking a huge animal and a small one together might create problems if you wanted your furrow to be straight.

This is western Oklahoma so I probably don’t need to explain furrow. If you don’t know, you can google it or ask a farmer. It’s a plowed row.

There is another form of being yoked. It is being yoked to your rabbi and his teaching of the Torah.

Priests came from the tribe of Levi—the Levitical order. They did the work in the temple, including the sacrifices, incense, and I’m guessing that the junior priest was also in charge of the cleanup. There was surely a lot of blood and some guts on sacrifice day.

Rabbis were teachers.  What did they teach?

They taught how to apply the Torah in the lives of God’s people. It was surely a respected profession or calling. It required work. It required commitment. A heart for God would surely come in handy as well.

To understand the rabbi and his yoke, you need to understand elementary education in Israel.  Great! If Tom sees 2 or 3 teachers gathered together after the service, he always scolds them and says, you better not be talking school on your day of rest.

But Tom gets to talk about elementary education. Yes, we are talking 2000 to 3000 years ago, but elementary education nonetheless.

Everyone went to school. The curriculum was not approved by the superintendent or a committee. It was approved by God.

Education back in the day didn’t involve multiplication and division as much as it did knowing God’s word. Every kid learned the Torah. Every kid knew the first 5 books of the Bible. These young men knew what it said and had much of it memorized.

Sorry girls, but it was a different time.

Some had a natural inclination to learn what God had to say to them. A rabbi might come across such a child and challenge him to follow me and I will teach you the ways of God so you can teach them to others.

If they accepted the call, they were said to have taken on the yoke of the rabbi. They were bonded to him by his teaching and application of God’s word.

What about the other kids?

At some point, those not chosen to take on the yoke of a rabbi were told to go learn to do what your father does: Stonemason, carpenter, a worker in the fields, rocket scientist, or fisherman.

So, what was expected from the student—or disciple—of the rabbi?  Learn from him.

Learn from him!

The disciple was to learn from his master. Just to tie up this part a little more succinctly, rabbi means my master.

The word rabbi was pronominal.  That is, it is a noun meant to be used as a pronoun.

Teacher was a good form of address. My master offered a hint of a deeper relationship.  This was my rabbi. I am yoked to him because I am seeking God and his ways and desire to learn from the one that he sent me.

It was a very special relationship, one in which the rabbi would teach his disciples how to put God’s words into practice.

OK, thanks for that tidbit on history and education. Can we go to lunch early today?

We could, but you will be fed better her if you can hang in there for the charge or challenge.

What about us?

Jesus was teaching. He was speaking to those who followed him or were considering it. He was speaking to some who might one day profess Jesus is Lord!

We say that Jesus is our Savior. Amen and Hallelujah.

We say—or at least we are working towards—saying that Jesus is Lord.  That’s a tough one but we have committed to get there.

·       The Bible tells us that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

·       He is Messiah.

·       He is our intercessor at the right hand of the Father.

·       He is the best hotel manager ever. Our room is already ready for us.

·       He is the light of the world and the bread of life.

·       He is the Gate and the Good Shepherd.

·       He is the resurrection and the life.

·       He is the Son of God.

·       He is Lord!

Are we ready to call him my Teacher and my Master? Are we ready to take on his yoke and learn about his Father’s ways from him?

Are we ready to take on the yoke of our Master and learn from him?

Hear the verse again.

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.

In taking the yoke of Jesus upon us, we not only learn from the Lord, we receive rest for our souls. We are granted rest beyond what we can get in a good night’s sleep or the best nap ever.

We can rest to the core of our very being.

If we really want peace, rest, the assurance that in Christ we are made whole and complete and completely healed of what is killing us, we need to learn from our Master.

Do we want to have this sort of rest and relief and reprieve from what ails us? Do we?

You kids won’t know the band Badfinger but they had a song that went If you want it, here it is. Come and get it.

Jesus wasn’t quite so glib but he was that simple in his offer.  He was telling those gathered and us, your peace is here for the taking.

The answer to receiving real peace lies in learning from our Master and putting his words into practice.

But that comes with the risk of persecution and being ostracized and not fitting in with the world. Yes, it does and all those things are signs that we are seeking the Lord, not the world and seeking the rest that only he can give.

We are seeking rest that goes to our very souls.

The rest that we can get in the world is great if you can get it, but we need rest that engulfs us and protects us and assures us that we can make it. That can only come from the Lord.

Hear the verse once again.

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.

God is love and in his love, we may find genuine rest. Let us take his yoke and learn from him and rest from the world.

Let us take his yoke, learn from him, and put his words into practice and know what it is to really rest.

Can we do this?

Jesus said:  My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Amen.