Yoked With The Master

Matthew 11:25 At that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. 26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. 27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. 28 Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Yoked with the Master. Remember the thought. Most of us have probably seen a farmer work a field with horses or oxen. A yoke of mules, horses, or oxen is not singular.  A yoke is plural. It means two. There are holes for two necks. A large load is pulled or carried when it takes a team to do it. Work with one horse and it will get done. It will take longer; the animal may give out. When you have a team, it’s a lot easier on each animal and the farmer.

Life is easier when we trust Jesus to bear our load. Jesus likened it to something very familiar with the people in that day. We have tractors now but then they all understood about plowing and the teamwork it took. They got the job done when two worked together. I’ve heard you can’t trust a donkey; he’s contrary and stubborn.  How are we? Do we want to handle it? Plow our way? Go on our own direction? Think we’re strong enough on our own? We need Jesus every moment. In him we have life and victory. It’s not us pulling the plow for Jesus but being yoked up with him in his yoke. Take your collar off and enter into the yoke with Jesus Christ as Lord. Some are afraid of losing independence, but the more yoked we are the freer we are. He’s the one pulling the load.  In verse 28 he said Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

How does he give us rest? Verse 29 says 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. “Take me yoke.” Jesus is willing to enter the yoke of our life. He didn’t save us and send us to the field of life to plow through ourselves. A farmer doesn’t stand on the sidelines while his animals are in the field. We belong to Jesus. It’s tough to plow our field. Jesus is not there to cane us but he has a yoke and he’ll pull the load. Yes. We have a burden to bear. Jesus is in his place. If we’ll get in ours, we’ll find rest for our soul.
Why is that? He’s doing the hard part. Everyone yoked into lordship with Jesus Christ finds it easier because Jesus does the hard part. He said For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.  He bears the heaviness if we yoke with him. Don’t get haughty. God has hidden it from the wise and prudent and revealed it to the babes.  The smaller we are, the more we’ll fit right into the yoke. Be humble. Yield. Trust him as a babe, a true child of God. Only then can we know the experience of an easy yoke and a burden that’s light. It’s this way because he bears the heavy part. Through his stripes we are healed. The best we’ll ever experience is with Jesus Christ. Even if life is hard, our load compared with his is light. Our yoke compared to his is easy.  In our weakness Jesus is strong. It only comes through him. Then we can lie down in green pastures. We just need to remember that we can’t even walk without him holding our hand. Be yoked to the Master.