Take My Yoke Upon You

The Very Rev. Dennis J.J. Schmidt

7 July 2002
Proper 9 Year A, 7th Sunday after Pentecost

Zechariah 9:9-12
Psalm 145:8-14
Romans 7:21-8:6
Matthew 11:25-30

“Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”

“Take my yoke upon you--” Maybe you would agree with me, that sometimes God seems to be both the problem and the solution. He says, “Take my yoke upon you--,” but I don’t want to be yoked and burdened. I am tied down enough and have enough burdens, more than I need. Paradoxically, Jesus tells us that if we carry his yoke our burdens will get lighter.

A yoke is used to evenly distribute the load between two oxen, and thus make the burden lighter and the power of the animals more efficient. If it is well made it fits with comfort and doesn’t chaff the neck. Nineteenth century hymns and paintings often romantically pictured Jesus the master carpenter making perfect yokes. It is a beautiful picture, but still even under the best of circumstances a yoke is a burden.

No one can escape being harnessed to burdens; and we expend remarkable energy avoiding the harness. In time, avoidance becomes a burden. It is not just that trouble, failure and sin harness us, but so do success, joy and the very things we love. Show me love that has no burden and that does not harness you, and all that you have demonstrated is a false love. In one of our prayers in the prayer book we pray for a happy issue out of all our afflictions. We seek something wonderful or at least happy to be born out of our troubles, but this requires that we take on Jesus’ yoke and learn from him. Whenever Jesus confronted people in their troubles, he offered them the paradoxical dilemma of a relationship with God that at first adds a burden; a burden that leads to a solution. Faith is a burden; there is no denying it. It requires that you do certain things, change, and become responsible for more.

Responsibility, there is the burden. One of the truths about faith that we do not often address is that it requires that we become responsible for our own functioning in life and that we become responsible for how we relate to others and relate to God. We often act toward Jesus as if Jesus exists to relieve us of life’s circumstances, to relieve us of any pain we may have to face to grow or to heal. One of the messages about the yoke of Jesus is that he does not offer us relief from responsibilities, but instead offers us a better way to carry them.

The problem is that we keep thinking in terms of wearing the yoke alone. We are weary of pulling the load by ourselves. It would be better if those hymns and paintings portrayed the picture the way that Jesus described it: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” The picture is that Jesus is yoked with you. He is like the well trained oxen who does not pull you too fast nor does he pull the load in a jerking way. You pull the burden with someone who is experienced. He teaches you the gentle nonanxious and restful way to do the chore. Do you remember the cover of the old Twenty Mule Team Borax boxes? There it is, Jesus at the front with you and the church, us, yoked up behind to make the burden light and easy. Being yoked with others; here is the dilemma. We are not sure we want to be yoked to others. We are not sure that we want to be yoked to the persons sitting close to us. What we may miss is that God wants us yoked because together we can make our burdens lighter. Jesus teaches us to become yoked to the community of humble servanthood. With Jesus yoked next to you, you learn that there is a new configuration to all of our responsibilities. Burdens are not to be avoided, and by God’s grace, they not meant to be pulled alone. Our lives are connected. We are called to share the yoke in mutual servanthood. We are called to be yoked to Jesus, not only so that he can share our burdens, but also so that we can share his burden, which is that he loves us all. Amen.