THE EASY YOKE

I once met an angry man on Vernor highway who told me, “I gave my life to Jesus Christ, but it ain't working for me. Nothing’s changed.”

Jesus speaks to us, promises us….

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.

Matthew 11:28-30

Now, this man I met on Vernor Highway, was basically saying, “I came to Jesus like he invited me, but I didn't find any rest for my soul.” And what he expressed is really what many, many, many professing Christians feel in their hearts.

“I'm trying to follow Jesus. How come my soul hasn't found any rest?”

When we have this rest for our souls, then we can function in the Kingdom of God.

We can love God.

We can believe Jesus.

We can love our neighbor.

We can wash on our brothers’ feet.

We can go out there and bring hope to the hopeless.

And we can keep doing this on and on and on without burning out…

When we lack that rest for our souls, we become like Christian skyrockets. We shoot up and put on a wonderful display of faith and love for a brief time… and then we burn out. Many churches are really warehouses for burnt out Christian skyrockets. We once had zeal and then it played itself out.

And now we come together and we try to help to conserve that little spark that might be left, we exhort each other, we encourage each other…but no fire comes.

And no fire will come, no lasting fire…. until we get rest for our souls.

When we get that rest for souls, which Jesus promises, then we can keep going, we burn with the fire that never goes out, we mount up on wings like the eagles, we run and are not weary, we walk and we don't faint.

Everything hinges in the Body of Christ and in the individual believer on finding that rest for our souls, which is promised….

…. that inner sabbath that fills us with the order and the peace of Heaven, even while we live down here in the middle of a war zone.

Notice that if we're going to have rest for our souls, there are some things we have to do.

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.

We always hear that word “Come.” But we don't always seem to hear that “take my yoke”….”learn”

And there are many, many, many professing Christians who endlessly come to Jesus all the time. They're coming over and over and over again, they come, but they never take the yoke, and they never learn.

“Here I am Lord, I'm back again. Praise the Lord. I come to you, I give you my all. I surrender all to you. It’s so wonderful to be up here on the mountain top with you Lord. I'm going to build a booth for you. I'm going to stay here forever. I'm going to sing to you.. ‘Just as I am, without one plea, But that Thy blood was shed for me, And that Thou bid'st me come to Thee, O Lamb of God, I come! I come.’”

But the minute Jesus says, “OK, come over here and get under this yoke with me and learn from me in the real world” , they're gone, they evaporate. And they're gone until the next moment of revival, and then the whole thing plays itself again.

What's needed if we're going to have rest for our souls…. is that we have to get under that yoke.

He says “Take my yoke upon you. Come on under this thing with me. Link yourself to me. You will not learn from a distance; you will only learn under the yoke with me.”

The Christian, who has no rest for the soul, is a Christian who is unyoked; Full of ideas, full of good intentions, full of marvelous plans, full of deep insight into other people's sins, full of scripture quotes, but in their own personal life they’re loose as a goose, distant from Jesus, no discipline in the things of God. That person will not have any rest for his or her soul.

Don't be afraid of the yoke.

It's easy.

It's light.

The weakest person can carry it.

And it is under this yoke, this easy yoke, that we find rest for our souls.

The Easy Yoke is to Carry Jesus’ Burden with Him

Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.”

Matthew 26:36-38

Jesus is asking these men to be with him, to stay awake with him, to support him with their hearts, to pray with him.

What an awesome privilege.

When Jesus chooses us to be his disciples, he doesn't choose us to be spectators…

He chooses us to carry the weight of the glory with him.

To carry the burden with him.

When he prays, he wants us to pray with him.

When he weeps over Jerusalem, or Detroit, or California, or Russia…. he wants us to weep with him.

When he has compassion on the multitude, he wants us to have compassion with him.

When he goes out there looking for that one lost sheep, he wants us to be there at his side.

“Do you love me?”” Lord, you know that I love you.” “Feed my sheep.”

“My sheep are my burden …. because I love them. I lay down my life for them. And if you love me, you're going to be with me carrying the burden.”

With me

And the amazing thing is that we find out when we pick up this burden with Jesus, which he gives us, our heavy hearts become light, and our restless souls find rest.

The easy yoke is to labor at Jesus side

We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.

John 9:4

Notice it doesn't say “I must work the works”… it is “we must work.” We together! And at the same time, we need to remember, that it's his yoke, not ours. It's not Jesus at my side, laboring at my side, while I do my thing. It's me at Jesus side … while he does his thing.

And we often like to picture Jesus walking at our side as a silent partner.

We decide what road to take.

We choose what door to open.

We run the program.

Jesus is out at our side to bless what we choose.

No! That is not a vision of the Lord. That's a delusion!

When we get under the yoke with Jesus we're walking at his side. Laboring at his side.

He chooses what door to open, and he can show us .

He decides what roads are taken, and he can make that clear.

He runs the program, and we fit in.

On your job you're standing at Jesus’ side, under his yoke, sharing his labor. You’ll never do better work and while working, life from God will flow forth from you.

In your home, you're standing at Jesus’ side, under his yoke, sharing his labor. You'll never be a better parent, spouse, son, daughter, friend and life from God will flow from you.

Being yoked to Jesus all the time can feel threatening. It's like we’ve become a Siamese twin, we can never get away from it, we’re stuck.

We're afraid of that. It’s our nature.

The reality is that …. outside from under that yoke….. away from that yoke, is actually where the heavy burdens are…. and actually where all the trouble is.

The only place where we have any freedom, any lightness of heart, any peace, any rest for our souls is… under the yoke.

My yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Standing at his side laboring with him is absolute rest.

The easy yoke is to learn Jesus’ poverty of spirit.

Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart

We are not by nature lowly in heart. There's not one of us who is naturally humble. We can walk through doors backwards, we can crawl around on our hands and knees, but basically we are proud, self-centered, hard, impatient. Our whole mindset is to make the world and the universe revolve around us. Each of us wants the world to revolve around us and to feed our hungry ego. But the whole world keeps going on its own way and just when we think we have found ourselves a little self-esteem., the world stomps right on it.

Now here comes Jesus, God the son, the Word by whom the worlds were made and he says, “Get rid of those useless burdens and come on over here and get under this yoke with me. Let me teach you how to be poor in spirit. Don't just come to me… but get under my yoke and learn from me and I will teach you. Learn my heart, learn my mind, learn my attitude, learn my way. And the basic lesson I'm going to teach you is how to be poor in spirit.”

….How to be open, empty, thirsty, yielded to the living God.

And you will learn that nowhere else but under my yoke.”

The easy yoke is to learn Jesus’ childlike faith

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle. I am meek. What does it mean to be meek?

A wimp? Gullible? Naïve? No!

To be meek, simply means to trust God like a little child.

And that's exactly what God the son did, He emptied himself of his glory and became a child in Mary's arms. When he grew to manhood his only link with the Eternal Father was childlike faith. The Holy Spirit came to him, filled him, empowered him, guided him, because he kept turning to the father with childlike faith.

It was childlike faith that brought him to the waters of his baptism.

It was childlike faith that drove him out into that terrible wilderness.

It was childlike faith that enabled the Spirit to heal the sick and open the eyes of the blind through him.

It was childlike faith that enabled him to submit to the Father's will and go to the cross and lay down his life for us, trusting that somehow the Father would bring him through this ordeal and raise him from the dead.

And you say, “Oh, If only I had such childlike faith. If only I could believe that way.” And he says, “Get under my yoke and I'll teach you. Stay under my yoke with me and you will soon have the faith of a child.

And your soul will find rest.

And your life will burn with the fire of heaven that will never go out.”

Many of us are looking forward to a time when we will have rest, when the rat race will be over, and the pressure will be off, and when the Lord will come to us, and he will say, “sit at my table. I’m going to serve you.” That time is coming.

But that rest, that we look forward to, that we seek, that we desire….. is already here.

The same joy, the same peace, the same rest of soul which will be ours at the banquet in the Kingdom …

Is waiting for us now.

Is waiting to be the atmosphere we breathe through the remaining days that we have on this earth.

Is waiting to fill us with the power we need to go out there and set the captives free.

The rest of soul that all of us so desperately need… is waiting for us right now under the yoke….

Where we carry Jesus’ burden with him.

Where we labor at his side.

Where we learn his poverty of spirit.

Where we learn his childlike faith.

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.

Richard E. Bieber June 1988

Transcribed and edited 2023 by Maranatha Mirror