Title: Yoke Together
Contents
People are very busy living in the world. Many people live their lives without even knowing the reason and purpose of such a busy life. We bear the burden we have made ourselves and suffer, but we cannot rest on our own. Sometimes I get a workaholic and feel like taking a break is bad. However, in fact, the fundamental reason for being so busy and unable to rest is often because of self-greed and self-will. I think that living a Christian life of faith is also trying to achieve something more. Believers are busier than non-believers. So, it seems that becoming a believer makes the burden of an already heavy life heavier. Believers go to church even on Sundays when non-believers can rest, and they commit sins if they do not keep the commandments. is even a conscious burden.
In today's text, Jesus invites those who labor and are heavy laden to rest. It's nice to hear. Gospel. But in a way it's kind of weird. Jesus said he would give him rest, and then he said, "Take my yoke upon you and learn." What is a yoke? Isn't that a stuffing device to make the beast do work? To be yoke means to do hard work, and to bear heavy burdens. So, it seems that the Lord imposes a heavy burden on us after enticing us by saying that He gives us rest with pleasant words. So, is the Lord's word that He gives you rest a lie? Moreover, the strange word here is "my yoke". That is, “the yoke of the Lord.” Why do we take the yoke of the Lord? Shouldn't the Lord bear the Lord's yoke?
It seems that we do a lot of useless things in life. Sometimes we work hard in the name of justice, in the name of goodness, in the name of the Lord, but sometimes the truth is irrelevant to the will of the Lord. We should seek the will of the Lord and strive to walk with the Lord. To do that, first, we must rest in the Lord and fellowship with the Lord. It is our own work and taking our own yoke off. The Genesis story says that man was created on the sixth day, and the seventh day was the Sabbath. That is, as soon as man was born, he met the Sabbath. The Sabbath was a day of communion with God, praising Him, and resting in Him. God worked and rested, but man rests in the Lord and then works. How often do we do things as we please and then complain that God always puts more burdens on us?
Now, as believers, we must learn to yoke with the Lord who is with us even though we cannot see him. But the Lord can also show people yoke together in a visible way. That is what can happen when we, the members of the Lord, bear the burdens of others as little Jesus for each other. It will rest our neighbours. And it will actually give ourselves a break. Because it happens only by taking off my own yoke and taking on the yoke of the Lord.