COMMENTARY
When I think of YOKE I think of many uses some positive some negative. First I will add a couple of pictures of actual yokes so we are all the same page.
PICTURE OF MAN PLOWING HIS FIELD
First yoke as a negative. Sometimes it is used as a metaphor for slavery or oppression. Some authoritarian figure has subjected the people to iron clad rule. It may also refer to the yoke of sin that a sinner is bound to his sinful addictions and is enslaved to sin. On the positive side a yoke is useful in plowing a field by having the oxen work together as a team to follow the instructions of the farmer. In our Scripture reading today, Jesus is asking us to yoke ourselves to him because it is easier to reach our goal of everlasting life with him than to go off on some other path of our choosing.
Yoke is defined in dictionaries as a bar fitted on the neck of oxen for the purpose of binding to them the traces by which they might draw the plough, It was a curved piece of wood “bar.” which signifies a pair, two oxen yoked or coupled together. In a literal sense, the word ‘Yoke’ means a bar of wood, so constructed as to unite two animals (usually oxen), enabling them to work in the fields, drawing loads, pulling instruments used for farming.
MATTHEW 11:25-30 MY YOKE IS EASY AND MY BURDEN LIGHT
“I give praise to you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike. Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will.
All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.”
REFLECTION:
Jesus reminds us again that he has revealed his teachings to the child like not the so called sophisticated who are skeptical but the believer and trusting humble looking for something. someone to believe in. believe in Jesus…He is the Way the Truth and the Life…The Father has handed all over to the Son….whoever sees or hears Jesus sees and hears the Father…
Come to me all you who labor and are burdened and find rest…take the yoke I will give you… Jesus often uses imagery from his culture to make his point… Jesus suggests we bond with him as partners for life…secure and safe on our journey…his yoke is light…he will guide gently, for He is meek and humble of heart…
listen to me, my child, my yoke is easy and my burden light…learn of me for I am meek and humble of heart…if you do you will know the Father, the Father of us all….
SILENT PRAYER
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers.
For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common?
Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?
2 Corinthians 6:14
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Stand firm, and do not let yourselves be burdened again
by the yoke of slavery (to sin.)”
Galations 5:1: