“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, 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.” (Matthew 11:28-30)It is curious that Jesus promises rest then offers a yoke. Jesus says that His yoke is “easy”. The Greek word used here for “easy” can just as easily be translated “kind”. The yoke of Jesus is kind and His burden is light. The Gospel does call for a certain level of responsibility and obedience in our walk with the Lord, but the demands of the Gospel are not onerous but they are actually kind and beneficial to those who choose them. The Good News that Jesus proclaimed was not the piling on of additional rules and regulations, but it was an offer of a freedom that comes from the Grace that is found in the kindness of the yoke of the Lord. This stood in stark contrast to the yoke of the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus remarked of them, “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.” (Matthew 23:4) The kindness of our Lord is found in His yoke and His burden.
My yoke is easy. Imagine a man in a canoe, without a paddle, and floating down river towards some waterfalls. Imagine also, four people offering help to the imperiled boater. The first person simply turns away and ignores his plight. The second person stands on the river bank and shouts directions to the boater. The third person tosses the boater a pair of ores and hopes for the best. But the forth person swims out the boat with some paddles and helps the endangered boater bring the boat to shore. It’s one thing to hope the best for someone; it’s another thing to get in the boat with them and to help them with their problems. Jesus refers to “His” yoke. This is because a yoke is worn by two animals, not one. When we put on Jesus’ yoke, we realize that He is in the yoke with us. Jesus came, not to load us down with a heavy load of rules and regulations, but to help us and to give us His grace and power to live holy lifes. “For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age.” (Titus 2:11-12) Jesus invites us into the yoke with Him. In the same way, we too can express our kindness towards other people by helping them, teaching them, and walking with them as they learn to grow in their relationship with God.
My burden is light. One of the greatest burdens we lay on other people is the burden of our expectations. We often place unreal expectations on others and hold them up to a standard that we ourselves are not even able to keep. We expect others to be like us. We expect others to measure up to our standards. We expect others to meet our needs. The problem is that, often, our expectations of others differ from God’s expectations for them. We can end up trying to force others to become someone that God has not made them to be. Perhaps, the greatest act of kindness we can show someone is to free them from our expectations; to set them free to be and become whom God has made them to be. The key to releasing others from our expectations is to start seeing them as God sees them. “Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.” (2 Corinthians 5:16 NKJV) When we learn to see others as Christ does, we will begin to realize that God’s plans for them are far superior to our own.
In our effort to grow in kindness, we should take a lesson from our Lord. We should let our yoke be kind and our burden light.
David Robison
Good series, David!
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