Take My Yoke Upon You

The Sunday Gospel [July 3, 2011]

Matthew 11:25-30

25 At that time Jesus said in reply, "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. 26 Yes, Father, such has been your gracious will. 27 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. 28 "Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for your selves. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden light."

Reflection

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” ~ Jesus in v. 29a, 30

The yoke generally denotes servitude, bondage, or oppressive burden. In Hebrew tradition, the image was used to indicate the law and its demands, suggesting that man has to submit himself totally in obedience to Yahweh, just as a slave was bound totally to his work.

Jesus takes up this image, strips it of its oppressive element, and gives it a new meaning. He invites the weary and burdened, “Take my yoke upon your shoulders.”

While the Jewish teachers spoke of the yoke of the law, the yoke of the commandments, the yoke of the kingdom, and yoke of Yahweh, Jesus presents only his yoke. To take the yoke of Jesus is not to carry a sack of laws and prescriptions; rather, it is to adhere to his person, to follow him in love. The many demands of religion and morality are brought together in a single, all embracing demand – the yoke of love.

Jesus calls it “my yoke” because he carries it first, unlike false teachers who lay heavy burdens on people’s shoulders but do not lift a single finger to help them (Mt. 23:4).

But what is this yoke of Jesus? The only yoke that Jesus bears and presents is his Father’s will. “My food is to do the work of the one who sent me … “Not my will but yours be done.” Thus, a person’s relationship with God is to be ruled no longer by cold duty and fear of judgment. Instead, it is to be founded on spontaneous love of, and childlike confidence in, God as Father.

Following Jesus in doing the Father’s will is radical and demanding. So how can Jesus say that his yoke is easy and his burden is light?

Jesus does not abolish the law. Instead, he brings it back to its center. Complicated laws, involving minute prescriptions, give way to the simple, though no less demanding commandment of love. Moreover, Jesus gives primacy not to law but to grace, to the joy that the good news of the kingdom brings. He does not ask for less, but his demand is different. One first receives the good news, then as a joyous response he keeps the law, in the manner of the man who finds a pearl of great price and sells everything he has to buy the pearl (Mt. 13:46).

Finally the yoke of Jesus is not one that he places on us but one he shares with us. He assures us that we do not carry it alone; he walks with us and is with us always, till the end of time (Mt.28:30).

Credits: Fr. Gil A. Alinsangan, SSP, From the Mountaintop

Source: The Reflection is from Bro. Abel Navarro (you can visit his blog at http://myblogabelnavarro-abel.blogspot.com/).