Human Yoke

How do we take up this easy yoke? Oftentimes, we imagine the yoke used in farming, where it is shared between two animals to ease the load. We might imagine we are paired with Jesus, and he helps us bear the weight of our burdens. This is true and a lovely image, but we might also consider that “Jesus was referring to a human yoke, a piece of wood ‘worn by a single person to distribute the weight of a load across the shoulders’” (Rodney Reeves, Matthew, The Story of God Commentary [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017], 232). The burden of life, of sin, of wisdom thus is light when we consider it in view of Jesus carrying it all for us, both by his work on the cross and by the gift of the Spirit to sustain us. When we unburden our hearts, we find respite as we connect with him through the slowed, quiet, or fun places of our lives, the places in which we aren’t striving but can simply be. Where are those spaces in your life?