The light yoke

Matthew 11:25–30

Have you ever joined a conversation half way through and found it difficult to grasp the topic? We’ve all done it. It’s a church lunch. You sit down next to Joe, who is talking with Fred. You hear Fred say, “And that’s why they all died!” Who died? What happened! Then Joe says, “The same thing happened to my father?” Did Joe drown his father? If you’d been there at the start you’d have known that they are talking about watering their orchids. Same thing when we look at passages in the Bible, we often need to know what came before.

Let me tell you of three things that are of interest. Things you may not have thought about this morning.

There is no such thing as cold, or dark, or silence. These three things do not exist.

To make something cold you need to remove the heat. You don’t add cold, because there is no such thing as cold. Cold is the word we use for the absence of heat.

There is no such things as darkness. There is only the absence of light. You can have a torch that shines a light on things, but not one that shines darkness.

Do you like to sit in the quiet, or enjoy the silence after a period of noisy activity. You just have to shut out the noise, not turn on the silence.

And there is a fourth thing that is perhaps interesting. There is no such thing as death. What we call death is an absence of life. The force, the energy, is life. Without this energy there is only death. That is why we say God is life. Genesis says: “the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” and John says: “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.”

Separation from God is death. We are dead apart from him. Only by having a relationship with Jesus can we be alive. Only by being close to God do we have light and warmth and noise.

Separation from God plunges us into the cold and darkness of hell, where the only sound is the wailing of our regret.

Today we are looking at the passage in Matthew’s Gospel just after Jesus has explained to his disciples about the towns of Chorazin and Bethsaida. They failed to repent and are headed for hell, the most miserable place of death in the darkness far from God. And further Jesus says: “Capernaum, will you be lifted to the heavens? No, you will go down to Hades. For if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.”

Now we learn how to avoid that destiny. Jesus tells us today how to experience life. I think it’s worth paying attention to what he says.

Let’s turn to verse 25, where it begins with: “At that time Jesus said”

That’s our link with what has just been said about the fate of Capernaum, Chorazin and Bethsaida. They are on the way down to Hades.

Jesus starts off with: “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.”

These truths are hidden from the learned, the theologians, the educated, the sophisticate and cultured people of the world. The clever people with the big brains, the intelligent, rich and powerful people, cannot understand these things. They don’t know how to avoid Hades.

You may remember that in Chapter Seven of his Gospel Matthew tells us about the narrow gate. Jesus taught there: “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Jesus doesn’t say it’s hard to enter. He says it’s hard to find. Presumably for the same reason the people of those towns did not repent. Aren’t we all blinded by so many things in life. Not just greed, but prejudice and pride of the heart. Arrogance and self-centredness. For starters.

The wise and the learned cannot see the narrow gate. They cannot find the way of salvation or understand the need to repent. Wisdom and learning will not save you from the place of darkness and despair in this life nor in the next. The way is hidden from such people.

I suppose all of you know this already since you have found the narrow gate and entered in.

The ones who know the narrow way are the ones who know God. The people who know Jesus are the people who can see the gate. It’s not by our effort, but by grace and our simple humility, for we didn’t learn these things. We didn’t uncover the truth by our intellect. The way was revealed to us by Jesus, verse 27 says.

We are the little children to whom these things have been revealed. We don’t trust in our own understanding. We trust in Jesus and he gives us understanding. If you don’t understand, then you need to trust Jesus.

Perhaps you know what Anselm of Canterbury wrote in 1077.

“I do not seek to understand in order that I may believe, but rather, I believe in order that I may understand.”

Finally we look at these most famous verses.

‘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.’

Jesus is calling everyone to come to him. All are invited. But only the humble will find the door.

Jesus wants to put a yoke on you. That may seem strange at first glimpse, so we need to explore this idea. Wasn’t the idea to become unburdened?

Let’s remind ourselves what a yoke is.

Jesus is referring to a set of rules. Laws that must be obeyed. Duties that have to be fulfilled.

We all have them, and they make us tired. They are heavy and burdensome. Are you feeling burdened right now. Are you longing for relief from the burdens of life.

The people of Israel had to obey all of the commandments of the Old Testament, plus the thousands of interpretations added to them by their religious teachers. They were crushed by this yoke of heavy religious prescriptions.

But everyone has a yoke. Most people have several. The yoke that Jesus puts upon us is a yoke of learning from him.

Do you carry the yoke of the world? There are many worldly yokes. The yoke of fashion. The yoke of good manners. The yoke of social status. The yoke of influence. The yoke of having a neat lawn. The yoke of recycling. The yoke of looking good when you are out and about. The yoke of making a nice home when you have guests. The yoke of keeping up with the Jones’s. And so on. There are people who change yokes several times a day. All of these are burdens that blind you to the narrow gate and keep you from knowing Jesus.

Jesus says to lay down these many yokes. There is only one yoke, the yoke of Jesus. There is only one rule to obey, the rule of Jesus. And as Jesus says, it’s not hard. It’s not complex.

You will find it gives you energy, rather than making you feel tired.

Jesus calls us to learn from him. Follow his example. Learn how to be like Jesus, who is ‘gentle and humble in heart.’ This is the yoke he offers.

Lay down all of the other demands on your life from work. From adverts. From social pressures. From the church. Set them all aside and come to Jesus so that he can teach you to be gentle and humble. You don’t need to be gentle and humble first. That is not the yoke. It’s why the yoke is so easy. You need only to come to Jesus. So come to him and let him teach you a new way. Come to Jesus and let him make you into a new person.

Any time that you turn around and pick up any of those old burdens you are hindering the work of Jesus to set you free. Set down every yoke. Examine yourself for yokes that have yet to be laid down. Repent of your yokes and come to him who is gentle and humble.

All he has for you is love that will give you rest and bring you peace. It’s a special rest, not the kind you get from sleeping. Jesus gives rest for your soul. He does this because, he says right here in this Scripture, because he has chosen to do it.

It’s not because you have discovered enlightenment. You’ve only laid down your worldly burden after Jesus has called you to him.

We live in response to Jesus. In obedience to him we learn and are rested.

We don’t need to labour to please God. We have a God who takes away that kind of labour and gives rest to our souls. He lifts off our guilt and washes away our sins. There is no heavy spiritual burden to carry in order to come to God. Just come, and lay down all of those yokes that you’ve picked up and had laid upon you over the years. There’s only one yoke, and that’s the light yoke that Jesus holds out.

As it is written in 1 John 5, the commands of Jesus are light when we love Jesus. When we love him we learn from him, and our desire is to be like him. We cannot help but automatically obey his easy command to love God and to love one another.

How do we love God and one another? How can you learn what this means. Pick up the learning yoke of Jesus, and he will give you the understanding.

Jesus says; “Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”

Learn from me. Jesus is the source of understanding. He is the one who teaches how to love. He invites you. Come to him now and learn from him.

What did John say?

John said: “Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

You are invited by Jesus to lay down all your heavy burdens. All you need to do is believe that Jesus is asking you to come to him. It’s not hard. A child could do it. In fact, Jesus says that if we are like little children then we will understand.

So please be childlike today and trust Jesus with your entire life. Put down that precious heavy yoke. Let go of that man-made yoke of duties and manners and expectations. Empty your hands and take up the plain wooden yoke of Jesus.

Let it sit lightly on your shoulders, and find his rest for your soul.

Amen 아멘