Read: Matthew 11:25-30
For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (v. 30 NIV)
I have never lived on a farm. My mother’s cousins did, and I often visited it growing up, but it was an Iowa dairy farm, so they only had milk cows and used John Deere tractors in their fields. In the old days, though, a yoke connected two oxen so they could walk in tandem pulling a plow and dig as straight furrows as possible.
Jesus, however, is not talking about yoking two of his disciples together but yoking a disciple to himself. What an astonishing concept! Jesus and each one of us walking in tandem, with the same goals, making straight paths for God’s kingdom. Talk about a seemingly unequal yoke! What’s more, Jesus calls it easy. How is that possible? He also wants us to accept his burden, but what was normally a heavy backpack he calls light. Aren’t these oxymorons, like “the little big man” or “jumbo shrimp”?
The grace and demand of the gospel have sometimes been summarized as follows: “salvation is absolutely free, but it will cost you your life.” In Matthew 11:30 the sequence is reversed. Jesus makes great demands of his followers so that they are a yoke and a burden. But with the help of the Spirit of Jesus, who indwells all true believers forever, they can be easy and light. With the greater demand comes a greater empowerment.
As you pray, ask God to make your burdens light as you remain yoked to Christ.
Craig L. Blomberg is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus of New Testament at Denver Seminary. He has written or edited more than 30 books, including a recently revised and expanded commentary on Matthew. He teaches regularly in churches, including his home church of Centennial Covenant in Littleton, CO. He and his wife Fran have two daughters and three grandchildren.
