"Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. (29) 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 all of us, the road becomes weary and we can end up stressed out tired of endless chores, work and life in general. Jesus here, is saying that He has the answer, 'Come to Me - I will give you rest." He mentions taking His yoke upon ourselves. What actually does that mean? Well firstly, the yoke He mentions is submision to Himself. We can't keep, keeping on or something will break within us. We are only weak; Jesus is strong. Therefore, He tells us to come to Him and lay our burdens at His feet and He will help us to achieve them and also give us rest.
Secondly, Jesus was a carpenter in Nazareth before His ministry began. Legend has it that He made the best ox-yokes around. These were wooden frames that were made so skilfully that they fitted around the neck of the ox so that it could be controlled. This could also be done in pairs. It is said of Jesus that His yokes, 'fitted well'. Whether this is fact or myth we don't really know. However, it is quite possible that it was true because He had His workshop in Nazareth and was well known for His work. This actually is a great analogy for the yoke that Jesus wants to give us. He takes great care to supply us with the best and He would only want us to be fitted with the finest.
Jesus watches us on a daily basis and He sees the pressures that come our way. Really, this is the time when we need to take Him at His Word and say to Jesus, 'Lord, please help me with this.' There may be an unexpected bill, a demand or another issue that is causing us pain. In a way, Jesus would like us to say to Him, 'Lord, I have this bill. I haven't got an idea how I can pay it, but You do, so I'm leaving it to You to sort out for me. I'm not going to worry about it'. Now this may sound quite rude to speak with the King of kings in such a way. But check the scriptures out; He tells us not to worry about such things, but to seek Him and His righteousness and all these things shall be added to us. (Matthew 6:33). It's a burden and He asks us to take the burden to Him. He wants us to act in such a way and He wants us to be free of the pressures that life puts on us.
Life can bring us torment and anxiety at times and we need to adopt a way to avoid this stress. Jesus has the answer here. 'Come to Me'. Some of us may be wrestling with disappointment today but, Jesus will crush every disappointment and break every chain that the devil places on us - if we allow Him to. He is our burden-bearer, our fresh hope and He offers us a refreshing that no one else can. Just take a look in Psalm 23:2-3 and see how He helps us to lie down in green pastures and leads us beside the still waters. Picture a beautiful, warm sunny day doing this - relaxing. He wants to restore our soul - our mind, will and emotions, all of this stuff that crushes our brain and cause distress.
All of this is available to us as we obey Jesus' words, 'Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.'
Now I don't know about you but, that seems to be a great idea!
Copyriight 2020 Grahame Howard
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