Matthew11:28-30 NLT
[28] “Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. [29] Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. [30] For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”

For us who live in the age of mechanisation, the idea of ploughing with oxen in a yoke is unfamiliar except, of course, to those who function in simpler cultures.

How does a young ox learn to accept a yoke? He is paired with an older, more experienced ox who patiently teaches him by example how to plough in harmony with his partner in the yoke.

If the young ox resists the discipline of the yoke, he will find that the yoke has chafed him and caused raw spots that hurt as he pulls the plough. Only when he learns to keep in step with his mentor will he find the yoke easy and comfortable. The ploughman does not adjust the yoke to suit the ox. The ox must surrender to the shape of the yoke.

After much patience, trial and error, the young ox eventually learns to buckle down to authority and to pull the plough in step with his partner. Once the yoke has done its work, the young ox is refashioned into a seasoned ox who knows and understands what the ploughman expects of him.

What a marvellous picture of our journey through life yoked to our great mentor, Jesus, the “OLD OX” in the yoke.

Jesus has fashioned a yoke for His followers that is both easy and light, a way of life God intended for us from the beginning. Obedience to His yoke, though contrary to the world’s ways, and difficult to do at times, brings peace of mind, heart, and conscience.

He gave His twelve apostles the authority, through the Holy Spirit, to understand and teach His yoke to all who come after them. God’s prophetic revelation of the nature and work of His Messiah in the Old Testament Scriptures, formed the foundation of those who wrote the New Testament. The apostles perfectly matched Jesus with the Old Testament blueprint. They recognised that He fitted the image and yoke of the one about whom God foretold.

It was specifically His yoke, His character and ways, that matched the God of the Old Testament, and that alerted the apostles to Jesus’ true identity. It was the Father’s love, vividly replicated in Jesus’ love for all people, that revealed the true nature of God, and set Jesus apart from all other people.

How best can we describe Jesus’ yoke? How can we know the nature of that yoke? We gaze at Him. Everything He said and did is a revelation of His yoke, best described in two words, mercy and grace.

The Hebrew word, “chesed”, untranslatable by one word in English, sums up Jesus’ yoke perfectly. The meaning of our English word, “love”, has been so corrupted by sin that it falls far short of its true meaning. However…

“Chesed” is God’s love, in all its dimensions, for His people in a covenant relationship, and expressed in His mercy and grace. Mercy rescued us from a well-deserved eternity in hell and grace provides everything we need to live godly lives in an ungodly world. Jesus lived this yoke in His dealings with all people and He requires that all who would follow Him, do the same.

Jesus intends for us to wear His yoke by believing who He is, submitting to His absolute authority, and treating others as He treats us. Through us, our words and actions, He replaces the yokes of bondage to which people are subject by what they believe, and how they behave, with His yoke of freedom….from every thought and action that produce guilt, fear, and shame.

Belief systems and their practices take many forms. Religious yokes tie their devotees to legalistic bondage by observing rules and rituals of do’s and don’ts in order to please their god or gods. Denominational yokes impose the restrictions of specific interpretations of Scripture on their followers. Then there are cultural yokes, political yokes, and even family tradition yokes which all result in bondage of some kind or another. People are born into or forced under these restrictions that eventually shape conscience and character.

Jesus swept all these false yokes aside by offering a way of life that frees us from the inward bondage these yokes, or failure to observe the requirements of these yokes, incurs.

I think that the yokes humans have invented are many ways to deal with sin, or what we consider to be “sin” in the eyes of whatever authority under which we fall. So, we must observe all the provisions and restrictions of our particular yoke to have inward peace. However, it doesn’t work that way. Whatever we do in the form of behaviour can never change our hearts.

Jesus insisted that sin – everything we are, say, and do contrary to God – comes from the heart and affects our behaviour, not the other way around. Before we can enjoy the inward peace (rest) His yoke provides, we must first embrace His teaching, i.e., exchange whatever we believe for the truth.

John 8:31-32 NLT
[31] “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. [32] And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Now, that’s a revolutionary statement if it is true! Jesus declared that, if we ditch every other yoke, and believe and live by His teaching, we will enjoy an inward rest no other yoke promises or provides. No guilt, shame, or fear!

Is this true? Ask the millions, down the generations, who have believed and done what Jesus instructed. There is no other “freedom” better than the freedom Jesus offers to those who believe in Him. This freedom includes freedom from worry and anxiety, freedom from the fear of punishment, of the future, and even of death, and the freedom from the tyranny of conscience when we invade other people’s lives with our intrusions.

The reality is that those who choose to wear Jesus’ yoke without altering it in any way, enjoy a life of inward rest despite the chaos of outward circumstances. This yoke includes absolute confidence in the unconditional love of a perfect Father, and a life of unselfish service to others out of love for Jesus. He set the standard by His earthly life and we watch and follow Him through the influence of His Spirit in us.

The New Testament fleshes out His yoke so that we have every provision for living under His authority and enjoying the rest He promised.

It’s up to us to receive by faith and live by grace under the yoke that frees us from all other yokes.

Galatians 5:1 NIV
[1] “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”