Can we take the yoke?
I don’t know about you, but there are many times when I’m facing a difficult situation, and I just want to throw up my hands and say, “Father, please show me what I am supposed to do!”
That’s when I ponder Christ Jesus’ gentle promise: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28–30 ).
I’ve often wondered: Yoked together with whom or what? Is it Jesus of Nazareth with whom I’m to be yoked? Well, Jesus hasn’t been around for millennia. So, if I’m to work side by side with him, I’m pretty much out of luck. But what if it’s an invitation to act in unison with the Christ, the spirit Jesus embodied and demonstrated? To act in accord with the “divine message from God to men, speaking to the human consciousness”? (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 332 ).
As I consider the symbolism of a yoke of oxen, many qualities come to thought. There’s obedience, unity, companionship, patience, consistency, closeness, oneness of thought, expansion of productivity, and successful work. There’s also communal supply. Since most of the work oxen do is agricultural, they help provide for one and all, through concentrated effort. Farmers know it often helps to yoke a mature ox with one that still is learning. The experienced one comforts and leads the younger, thus instructing the novice. Similarly, the timeless Christ, God’s message, when listened to, provides a smoother path for the spiritual seeker to take than trying to go off on one’s own.
The precise words Jesus uses in his promise are especially intriguing. How many oxen would feel proud about their large wooden beam, or think of it as “my yoke”? Yet, that’s how Christ Jesus phrased it. “Take my yoke upon you” is a command, so we find the Christ suddenly having a dual role—first, as our partner in the work, and second, as the one in charge. This might seem odd until we realize that God’s message speaking to human thought certainly companions with us, while directing our human footsteps and our spiritual progression.
Jesus’ next command is to “learn of me”—to learn of the Christ, which he exemplified so perfectly. By becoming more familiar with the way Jesus lived his life, we can use his example as a pattern for our own. We walk the way he did, which is how a team of oxen proceeds: one taking his leading from the other who has more experience.
Jesus lived in accord with God’s laws, doing good at every opportunity. He loved God supremely, and he loved his neighbor as himself. Being yoked to the Christ helps us become better workers. As we broaden our outlook, we enlarge our ability to be of service to others, helping them take up the yoke successfully, too. After all, if the Christ is universal and always at work, then not only are we to be yoked to the Christ, but so is everyone else. We’re all working together. That’s what church is all about: working together and doing it well.
By becoming more familiar with the way Jesus lived his life, we can use his example as a pattern for our own.
I used to read Jesus’ yoke analogy as the Christ offering to ease the load I was burdened by. Maybe you’ve made the same assumption. But Jesus specifically mentions that the burden is “light.” So, is there a load? And if so, what is it? Maybe it’s our own “baggage”—our troubles and failings—that weighs us down. Christ’s yoke shows us we don’t need to shoulder the burden ourselves anymore if we’re willing to walk in step with Jesus. And how does Jesus walk? He says he is “meek and lowly in heart.” Meek means to be of mild disposition, or gentle-spirited.
Thayer’s Greek-English Lexicon defines the word meek as describing those who rely entirely upon God for their defense from injustice, rather than on their own power and effort. Lowly primarily means to be close to the ground. Since the heart was once perceived as the center of both physical and spiritual life, we might conclude that Jesus was not proud, arrogant, or willful, but humble.
We also find the phrase “meek and lowly in heart” on page 41 of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany. William P. McKenzie, the outgoing President of The Mother Church in June 1906, is quoted as saying: “No one can change the law of Christian metaphysics, the law of right thinking, nor in any wise alter its effects. It is a forever fact that the meek and lowly in heart are blessed and comforted by divine Love. If the proud are lonely and uncomforted, it is because they have thoughts adverse to the law of love.”
To me, this point furthers the symbol of a yoke of oxen. The unalterable constancy of Christian metaphysics could be likened to the work to be performed, for which we are yoked together with the Christ. We are daily, dutifully, to plow our thought, overturning that which is hard or unproductive, allowing it to be trodden underfoot. Thus we discover that which is good, useful, fruitful, fragrant, and we expose it to the “sunlight of Truth” and “the reign of divine Life, Truth, and Love” (Science and Health, p. 162 ; Manual of The Mother Church, p. 41 ).
Just as a farmer would round up an escaped steer and continue to tend and feed and cherish it, so we cannot run for long from the inescapable care and affection of God. And His message to us helps us conform to our duties, just as the experienced ox aids the inexperienced.
The Apostle Paul, who initially went by the name Saul, is a good scriptural example of this. He was certain he understood what was required in life, and he felt he was justified in persecuting Christians. But he learned otherwise. He related the story of his conversion to Christianity to King Agrippa in Acts 26:1–23 . Here, he recalls hearing a voice at the time he was blinded, saying, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks” (verse 14). As Saul, he found his willful, incorrect approach to things being stopped quite effectively by the Christ. God had been speaking to him all along, but he wasn’t listening—until finally the message broke through, and he conformed his efforts to God’s intentions and Christ’s directions.
What do we get for being obedient and following God? The wages are “rest unto your souls”—the freedom to shoulder the yoke of Christ and leave our baggage, everything that is not of God, behind in the dust. Our fields, our lives, are thus nourished to yield greater increase.
We’re always loved and cherished and supplied by God, even if we’ve been trying to take the reins or be the boss. So I’m encouraged. Aren’t you? Let’s remind each other, when helpful, that Christ’s “yoke is easy” and the “burden is light.”
