About the only yoke I have anything to do with is that yellow part in my eggs over easy. Ok so it seems to be that the yoke is bad for you because it is high in cholesterol and the food Nazis want to tell us that everything we eat is bad for us…in fact, even lettuce is fattening… but I digress.
In Matthew 11 Jesus says these words…
“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.”
As always, the context of any passage needs to be understood so we can better understand where in the discussion Jesus said these kind and comforting words. Actually, He says them after ripping the Jews a new one. His cousin, John the Baptist, has been beheaded and Jesus is a little angry.
He says that these people are saying these things about Jesus…
“Behold, a gluttonous man and a heavy drinker,
a friend of tax collectors and sinners!”
And despite all the miracles Jesus did to show them that He is the Messiah He is fed up and has had enough. So, He names certain cities where He had performed miracles and pronounces judgment on them. He says Chorazin and Bethsaida are worse than Tyre and Sidon where evil pagans lived in constant sin. And Capernaum will be judged more severely than Sodom and cast down into hell.
So, these kind and comforting words He says to the people are in stark contrast to the words of condemnation He spoke to the crowds. And He says these words to us as well. I remember the days when because of my secret sexual sins, I felt I was being crushed by my hypocrisy. I was weary because I was trapped between a sin that I could not defeat. It was a battle I could not win…but one I could not afford to lose.
The yoke I was wearing was the yoke of fear and shame. I so wished I had the courage to confess my addiction to porn before I was led deeper into sexual contact with other women. I wish I had the courage, to tell the truth, and placed myself at the feet of Jesus allowing Him to do whatever He knew needed to be done…instead of me trying to manipulate the destruction I knew was coming. And I know you feel some or all of that as well.
Jesus calls all of us to come to Him…especially when we are weary and trying to carry a burden that will be impossible for us to bear. Jesus calls all of us who are weary of our sexual secret sins to come to Him…and He will give us rest. He will remove the massive weight of our yoke of porn which grows heavier as the years have passed by.
He invites us to come to Him and He will give us rest. He will remove this yoke of sexual addiction and replace it with His yoke. His yoke fits us just right. It is not too heavy nor too light and He knows when we need rest and will give it to us.
Why do we expect that all God has for us is punishment due to the sexual sins in which we have become entangled? That punishment…our punishment was poured out on Jesus as He hung being slaughtered on the cross. And He…Jesus…the good shepherd has overcome the power of sin and death for us.
He tells us that He is gentle and humble in heart and what He has for us is rest for our souls. Doesn’t that sound incredible??? Rest for our souls. We will still have a yoke, but it will be His yoke. His yoke is comfortable…it is easy…and His burden is light.
What is uncomfortable is when we allow the pressures of this world and the battles we must fight to weigh us down. We have allowed the load we are pulling to be too much. We bite off more than we can chew because we want more…more than we need and more than our share. And to get more…to have more stuff in our cart creates greater weight than we are designed to bear.
So, to help ourselves we pull as hard as we can for as long as we can and begin to turn to escapes and medications that are highly addictive. Alcohol intake increases until we need a drink to feel normal. Caffeine and nicotine give us a little jolt that wears off quickly. Food becomes not only our friend but a force driving us to eat far more than we need.
And sex…porn and sex…so easily available because it is now omnipresent, free, and so quickly gives us a fix. It is an escape and we can carry with us all the porn in the world in our pocket. All we need is to duck into the bathroom, get a quick fix, and come out with no one being the wiser. But slowly and almost unperceivably the load becomes heavier and the yoke more uncomfortable.
You will find rest for your soul. Doesn’t that sound great??? It reminds me of what David wrote in Psalm 23…
“The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for his name’s sake.”
Whose yoke will you wear today? Who will shepherd your life and direct your steps down paths of righteousness? I hope it is Jesus whose burden is light, and He will give you rest.