Jesus Gives True Rest - Bible Reflections - What is Christ's Easy Yoke?

By Tony Joe:

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 11:28-30:

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

Jesus Gives True Rest - Bible Reflections:

What is Christ's Easy Yoke?

Chapter 11 of the Gospel According to St. Matthew marks a unique turning point in Christ's ministry.

In Chapter 10, we see St. Matthew describing mainly about Jesus sending His 12 disciples on their first mission to preach the Gospel in various towns and villages.

What was the Gospel or Good News that they were preaching? Primarily, the message was "the Kingdom of God is coming soon."

Jesus also gave them powers to heal and drive away demons, so that it was made clear to all that His Gospel was one of compassion, and also to ensure that His disciples' words were backed by signs from God.

Suddenly, Christ's fame is spreading virally, as unlike earlier, now there are 12 additional voices speaking on His behalf!

This viral message also reaches John the Baptist who has been imprisoned by King Herod.

But instead of feeling happy at the success of whom he introduced to the world, John becomes doubtful about Jesus.

Therefore, from prison itself, John sends his disciples to inquire with Jesus whether He is indeed the Messiah, or whether they should await the coming of another one.

Chapter 11 of St. Matthew opens with this sad incident.

In order to understand today's Gospel verse, we need to first contemplate on why John developed this unfortunate doubt.

His doubt was simply because he didn't expect a gentle Messiah at all. John was fully aware of his community's sinful ways, and how could God ever send a kind Messiah to this people?

What he heard about Jesus was therefore more than shocking to John. A Messiah who interacts with sinners freely, who dines with them at their homes, heals them, and forgives them on the first sign of repentance!

John's was a perfect man, as perfect as a perfect man could be, but he had just a single shortcoming - he didn't expect God and His Messiah to be merciful to sinners at all!

Jesus was especially upset at the fact that John had even overlooked His miracles and healing - that were solely based on this mercy to sinners - and He conveys His disappointment to John through his disciples, as a reply to the Baptist's doubt.

From there, Chapter 11 travels to a connected theme of Jesus damning those cities like Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, where He did the maximum miracles and healing, yet failed to make them repent.

Note the importance Christ attaches to repentance.

Then comes the section titled 'Jesus Gives True Rest', which includes today's Gospel verse.

The section begins with His gratitude to God for making these secrets hidden before the wise and the learned, and revealing them to only the childlike. He follows it up with a mention of His special relationship with the Heavenly Father, and how the Father has given Him all powers.

Immediately following that is today's Bible verse 28-30, where Christ mentions how His yoke is easy and His burden is light for some people.

Who are these people, "who labor and are heavy laden"?

People who labor are obviously people who work hard. And rarely do we find people who work hard doing it for themselves alone.

They do it for their families, and if they are really spiritual, they do it for the community, for the worthy causes, and especially for the needy. In short, they are sincere in their work.

And people who are "heavy laden" are all those who are aware of their sins, either on their own, or because the self-righteous world has already branded them as sinful.

And this is a heady combination - being sincere and having awareness of their sins - says Jesus. God is deeply interested in such people.   

Now. why is Christ's yoke and its burden, easy and light? Simply because it just asks for repentance. Nothing else.

And compared to what, is it easy and light? Compared to what John and his disciples were teaching, and compared to what the wise and the learned like the Pharisees and scribes were teaching.

Note how Jesus also reveals to them that this lightness and easiness is a direct attribute of how He is - "...for I am gentle and lowly in heart..."

He is not a disciplinarian like John or a stickler-of-rules like how most Pharisees and scribes were; rather Christ is humble and gentle with all people.

Jesus will indeed prove that in the very next incident, described in Chapter 12, by healing a man on Sabbath, something that was considered sacrilegious by the elders of His community. 

This compassionate nature of the Kingdom of God is what makes the Messiah, the Son of God, to take up the intense torture and suffering of the Passion and the Crucifixion, for the atonement of our sins.

And because of His Cross, see what He promises us if we take up His easy and light yoke of repentance - "...you will find rest for your souls."

He has done all the hard work out of compassion, and for peace and solace for ever, we just have to respond with repentance.

Now, a pertinent question many might ask is whether the spiritual peace that He provides will translate to material peace or freedom from financial worries or health worries for us.

Yes, it will, but a little more than this yoke of repentance is needed for that.

We also need to follow His teachings about wealth, its accumulation, its sharing, our health, our longevity, and the management of most such material things on which Jesus has taught wonderfully simple and practical lessons.

That is what Christ's light burden or the true Christian life is all about.  If we follow the easy yoke of repentance and the light burden of a truly Christian life, He is promising us true rest, encompassing material and spiritual peace.