Feb 7, 2017 | 6:24 AM
" Come to me, all 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." – Matthew
11:28-30
I know I titled this article in
question form, but I am not going to spend any time speculating over the
truthfulness of Matthew 11:28-30. Our infallible Lord uttered these words with
unquestionable clarity. His yoke is easy. His burden is light. End of story.
However, I think it is fairly
accurate to say that the majority of us do not always feel like this is true. There are
days, weeks, or even prolonged seasons in which Jesus' yoke seems unbearably
hard and his burden feels crushingly heavy. The reasons for this disconnect
between Christ's words and our personal experience is definitely worth
pondering.
We should first examine the
context and meaning of Jesus' words. He was speaking to Jews under the Mosaic
Law who were heavily burdened both by their inability to obey the Law and by
their corrupt religious leadership. He was inviting them to enter into his New
Covenant rest — not a kind of rest that is void of submission and obedience, but
a kind of rest in which he supplies the power to submit and
obey.
You and I may not be first
century Jews living under the weight of the Mosaic Law, but, through this text,
Jesus extends a similar invitation to us. He calls us to come out from under the
crushing load of sin and embrace faith-driven, love-saturated,
divinely-empowered obedience.
When we take Christ's yoke upon
us, he begins leading us away from the destructive ills of sin and toward
expanded joy and deepened peace in God. And the burden we bear on this journey
is light, because our Lord himself bears the weight of the load. He produces in
us the ability to will and work for God's good pleasure (Philippians 2:13).
To be sure, we do carry some
weight in this process. We are charged with the daily task of abiding in Christ
so that he can perform his sanctifying work within us. And with temptations and
weaknesses within and around us all the time, this can be extremely
difficult.
Yet, even in light of this
difficulty, Jesus still describes his yoke as easy and his burden as light. Why?
Because the supernatural strength, joy, and peace he lavishes upon the one who
is yoked to him far outweigh the difficulties of repentance.
So, back to our problem: why does
a life of obedience to God sometimes feel utterly contrary to how Jesus
describes it? Why does it sometimes feel so excruciating and wearisome?
I'm sure there are a myriad of
reasons. However, the one I most commonly see in my Western side of the world is
a lack of tenacity. I think many of us groan and complain about how hard it is
to follow Jesus because our culture has groomed us to be puny people.
The burden we bear really is light, but it only takes
a smidgen of discomfort to bring our comfort-loving souls to their knees.
We have brothers and sisters all
over the globe who are suffering in ways our soft American minds cannot fathom,
yet they possess far more spiritual stability than we. Though these persecuted
believers continuously walk through truly fiery trials, in joyful gratitude they
say, "His yoke is easy, and his burden is light." Some of us — myself included —
simply need to "lift [our] drooping hands and strengthen [our] weak knees"
(Hebrews 12:12) and realize we can withstand more discomfort and suffering than
we might think.
Read
more at
http://www.christianpost.com/news/is-jesus-yoke-really-easy-is-his-burden-actually-light-173890/#IEzr82x03Jth5qF1.99 
