Lightly Burdened

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, 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. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

- Matthew 11:28-30

To me, an easy burden and light yoke only make sense in the context of an intimate relationship with Jesus. He can promise that the burden will be light because He is willing to walk with us under the yoke. Jesus experienced the human life, with joy and sadness, love and loss, triumph and grief. And He shouldered the price of our sin: pain, shame, and separation from the love of the Father.

The thought of being yoked alone to a carriage, driven by God, is quite a hopeless thing. I see a winding road stretched out ahead of me, with potholes that could easily break the wheels and mire that could quickly engulf them. Even at my best, strongest, and most rested, I feel no hope of pulling that carriage well.

But I feel very differently about being yoked alongside Jesus. Of being part of His team.

From my childhood reading of Little House On The Prairie, I remember that teams of animals were used to pull plowing equipment, wagons, or other heavy loads. Each team had a lead horse or ox, whose job it was to pull hardest and listen most closely to the driver. The secondary animals simply assisted with the pulling.

Here in Matthew 11:28-30, it seems that Jesus is inviting us to that kind of assistantship. The beauty of an assistantship with Jesus is that we don’t have to figure out which direction to pull or worry about how to avoid the obstacles in the path. Our only job is to stay close to His side, pulling in the same direction.

At this point, it’s probably wisest to avoid the temptation to look back at the burden looming impossibly large behind us. But someday, we will have the satisfaction of seeing the load we helped to pull and the distance it was moved. It will be a beautiful thing to see the way that our service entwined with the service of the others who also chose to be easily yoked and lightly burdened.

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