It was Jesus who said: Take my yoke on you. Learn of me for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
In Isaiah 10:27, we read that “the anointing breaks the yoke”. This scripture has been misused, so I will just stick to the principle. Wherever the bible refers to a yoke, it speaks of a casting off of restraints, things that hold us down.
The restraint that Jesus applies to us is a restraint or yolk of learning, thus He says “learn of me”. Clearly God is not at odds with Himself in anointing us to break the restraint He imposes on us. Nor would it be correct to interpret the yoke as coming from Jesus, even though He said, “take my yoke on you”. Rather He is referring to a yoke that was also on Him throughout His long seasons of preparation for ministry.
The concept relates to growth and maturity, a process that parallels the growth cycle of children, who are subject to a yoke of learning until they mature into adults. When we were young, the yoke subjected us to the instructions of parents and other adults in our culture. It was not a heavy burden and Jesus confirms that saying, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. It involved real learning and growth, combined with fair doses of frustration, to equip us for life.
However, Jesus refers to spiritual life and the burden of discipleship. It is frustrating because we understand so little of God’s heart and keep on running into His unmovable, unyielding ways. We bash around as we compensate and over-compensate in our desire to understand and outgrow spiritual childhood.
Jesus never offers to relieve us of the yoke of learning. It is not His to impose or remove. In many ways He is also limited, for our times and seasons are appointed by the Father alone (Acts 1:7). Thus Jesus does not have a special right to intervene on our behalf and have the yoke removed.
However, we know that He prays for us, thus petitioning the Father on our behalf for grace and mercy. He also invites us to come to the throne of mercy (Hebrews 4) to obtain just that: Mercy and grace to help in our times of need.
Romans 8, is a reference often used to describe the Holy Spirit even though the entire context of Romans (or Romans 1 to 8 at least) is about Jesus and His indwelling life (Romans 8: 9-10). Paul defines that the mark of sonship. In Romans 8: 26-27, we read about the Lord interceding on our behalf with groanings that cannot be uttered, because He really does know the heart of God and what is at work in our fragile hearts.
Jesus is the sustaining life within us, the well from which we may drink and never thirst again, the rock that follows us through the wilderness and the good shepherd of the sheep. His life in us is a powerful and real interpretation of what He said when suggesting that He would share our yoke of learning.
In Isaiah 10:27, we read that “the anointing breaks the yoke”. This scripture has been misused, so I will just stick to the principle. Wherever the bible refers to a yoke, it speaks of a casting off of restraints, things that hold us down.
The restraint that Jesus applies to us is a restraint or yolk of learning, thus He says “learn of me”. Clearly God is not at odds with Himself in anointing us to break the restraint He imposes on us. Nor would it be correct to interpret the yoke as coming from Jesus, even though He said, “take my yoke on you”. Rather He is referring to a yoke that was also on Him throughout His long seasons of preparation for ministry.
The concept relates to growth and maturity, a process that parallels the growth cycle of children, who are subject to a yoke of learning until they mature into adults. When we were young, the yoke subjected us to the instructions of parents and other adults in our culture. It was not a heavy burden and Jesus confirms that saying, “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light”. It involved real learning and growth, combined with fair doses of frustration, to equip us for life.
However, Jesus refers to spiritual life and the burden of discipleship. It is frustrating because we understand so little of God’s heart and keep on running into His unmovable, unyielding ways. We bash around as we compensate and over-compensate in our desire to understand and outgrow spiritual childhood.
Jesus never offers to relieve us of the yoke of learning. It is not His to impose or remove. In many ways He is also limited, for our times and seasons are appointed by the Father alone (Acts 1:7). Thus Jesus does not have a special right to intervene on our behalf and have the yoke removed.
However, we know that He prays for us, thus petitioning the Father on our behalf for grace and mercy. He also invites us to come to the throne of mercy (Hebrews 4) to obtain just that: Mercy and grace to help in our times of need.
Romans 8, is a reference often used to describe the Holy Spirit even though the entire context of Romans (or Romans 1 to 8 at least) is about Jesus and His indwelling life (Romans 8: 9-10). Paul defines that the mark of sonship. In Romans 8: 26-27, we read about the Lord interceding on our behalf with groanings that cannot be uttered, because He really does know the heart of God and what is at work in our fragile hearts.
Jesus is the sustaining life within us, the well from which we may drink and never thirst again, the rock that follows us through the wilderness and the good shepherd of the sheep. His life in us is a powerful and real interpretation of what He said when suggesting that He would share our yoke of learning.
The implication is that He makes our burden His burden. He does not cast it off but shares it. He walks with us to lead us to maturity and the ultimate approval of His Father: the only significant man who can validate our maturity.
In essence He walks next to us and says, “I cannot take away your burden of learning, for you must go through deep experiences in order to grow up and reach maturity. There is no short cut, no easy way. You must go through it, but I love you so much that I will share your burden, pray for you and sustain you through my indwelling Spirit”.
The Father is aloof of the process: how else could He validate us except by remaining neutral and objective. But, as God said to Joshua, “the way you go you have not been before, so follow the ark (a picture of Jesus)”.
When the process does reach its climax, the anointing or life within us will strain against the yoke until it breaks to assert our claims to sonship. That is a real process and must become the quest of every believer. The seed of God is Jesus, who is sown into our mortal frames and then germinates until it breaks through its restraining shell to become a tree of righteousness, the planting of the Lord.
Fortunately God has covenanted in Hebrews 9 to write His principles in our hearts so we can expect to grow in understanding, but it is useful to confirm that your present struggles are not mindless and goalless. God has allowed us to struggle out of our cocoons so that we can learn to fly and thereby surmount the restraints of life to be free-spirited sons of the Most High God.
So take His yoke willingly – and learn of Him.
© Peter Eleazar at http://www.bethelstone.com/
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