What is it about this life that it always tends toward being so tiring and under such subjection to forces inside of us and outside of us? Constant disruption, distress, disappointments, demands, and domination permeate the fabric of living this life with the ultimate end of it all resulting in the very most demoralizing D-word: death.
While this is all true of life now, it was also true nearly 2000 years ago for the people living in towns scattered around and near the north shore of the Sea of Galilee when Someone showed up to invite them into an altogether different kind of life. Imagine these people under the domination of Rome, a local despotic Herod, and a religious system that was lifeless and corrupt but was forced on them by the religious “experts” as their way to a god they had created as the ultimate taskmaster. And all of this was on top of the grinding pressure of just trying to survive together with what was mentioned in the last paragraph.
So what could this Someone possibly say and demonstrate in the face of those pressures then, and by extension to all of us now, that would change those realities?
Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
While Jesus doesn’t say that He will totally eliminate those dominators/ subjectors- both internal and external as well as physical death- He does offer a way that transcends all of those things including death. He offered a different kingdom to enter into where He is king-not a tyrant like they were used to but instead, One who is gentle and humble of heart. This king instead would rule benevolently and would show them the way to live in person. Instead of robbing them of everything, including their sense of worth, this One constantly gives everything necessary to life including the ultimate sense of worth He gives to each, particularly and personally. This sense of value and worth is that which goes beyond what they could ever have just in themselves. And, instead of asking them to give everything, He instead shortly thereafter literally gave everything to them by becoming a Sacrifice that enabled them and everyone else to enter His kingdom for all of eternity.
And how does He describe this kingdom opportunity that they would have if they so chose? He used a common illustration from that time of a wooden yoke that would couple two subjected animals for the purpose of using their combined strength to accomplish large tasks. Except that, in this case, He was offering to be in the yoke Himself and invite us to freely enter into the other side of it to do all of life now together with Him. Emmanuel, God With Us, saying to them and all others who would respond, come to Me, the One who understands all that you are going through. There I will teach you all about how to live triumphantly in the cessation of the toil and hopelessness of life that happens without Me and then, literally be the power and provision in that yoke with you to actually accomplish all of it together. This incredible invitation was the Great Reversing of what came upon the first man and woman when they foolishly told Him they didn’t need Him with the result of the hardness of living we’ve been addressing (Gen. 3.15-19 which also included His plan from the start in v. 15 for the Great Reversal).
What an incredible, undeserved invitation from the God Who is Love and Truth, Jesus the Messiah, Who literally wants to now be active together with you in every aspect of your life.
Will you accept that invitation to go to this new place with Him whether you have been a believer still living under your own power or someone who has never put their trust in the hope for the hopelessness of reality without Him?
The Everlasting is waiting in the easy yoke He beckons us to while the never-lasting is the inevitable outcome of all that is done without Him.
Take some time and ponder, what could life really be like if I was yoked together (fully connected) at all times with the One Who made the the entire universe and all that is in it?
WOW and Shalom!