First Mennonite Church
October 26, 2025
At Last, Something “Easy!”
Matthew 11:28-30
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 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. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
This is another well-known passage in Matthew. It is one in which Jesus makes a cordial invitation and gives a comforting reassurance to anyone who is willing to accept his call.
As Jesus went by ministering to the crowds, he was often moved with compassion toward the multitudes that followed him. They were hungry, not only of bread, but in their spirits. They were desperate, hopeless, and deep in misery due to the oppressive Roman occupation and taxation that weighed upon them. They were tired and weary by the demands the religious system imposed upon them, through its leaders and authorities. These, as Jesus describes them, “Tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4). Therefore, even when these people put their best effort to fulfill their religious duties, they ended up in disappointment and greater sense of failure. Their religious practices, instead of giving them joy and freedom, they only served to remind them of their weaknesses and ineptitudes. The religious leaders had turned the service and worship of God into a list of legalistic and dry rules, void of joy and the possibility of accomplishing them.
Therefore, at this point in Jesus’ ministry, he called out, “Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Rest of the soul, rest from the constant struggle to please God through human effort, rest from the burden of guilt for not being able to please God, is only found when we come to the Lord. And that is what Jesus was offering his audience. He made an open invitation and offered them rest and recovery.
Interestingly, Jesus did not offer to remove the burdens and exhaustion of those who would come to him and then send them free. NO! He offers them a yoke to carry.
He commands those who come to him to take upon themselves his yoke. As you know, a yoke is a wooden frame that joins two animals to work together. The yoke rests on the necks of both animals and is attached to a plow or cart for the two animals to pull together. So, the metaphor Jesus is using is that whatever he demands, however difficult it might be, or for however long the task would go, he will participate in the process of carrying the burden or doing the job. Contrary to his audience’s leaders who only tied heavy and cumbersome religious rules for others to carry, yet they wouldn’t dare touching it with a finger, here Jesus offers and commits to help carry out what he requires from his followers, together.
For anyone who believes serving the Lord is beyond his or her ability to do, I tell you, you are right if you want to do it through your own strength. But that is not what Jesus is asking you to do. He offers to carry one end of the yoke while you carry the other end. You will not carry out the demands of the Lord by yourself. He will help you. He will walk alongside you, just as the two oxen plow a whole field together, Jesus promises to help us do what he demands.
It is possible to serve the Lord. But there are two basic conditions: First, we need to come to him so he can remove our burdens. These, are first and foremost, our sins and our self-reliance to please God. The second condition is that we must remain yoked with him. We must remain committed to walk alongside the Lord, bound by the yoke he asks us to carry with him. In the process of walking side by side with the Lord, we will develop a close relationship with him.
“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.”
Walking together with the Lord will make us learn from him. We will only follow his lead. When he moves, we move. Where he goes, we go. We will be able to love in the way he loved. We will be able to forgive in the very same way he forgave. His priorities will shape ours. Doing his will, will become our goal. We will discover that what he demands are not dry rules to obey but the imitation of a loving and humble Lord who helps us to do the will of God. And this will give our souls the rest we need.
“For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” This is a rather surprising statement from Jesus. Just last week, we heard Jesus describe the challenges, dangers, and risks involved in following him. And here he tells his audience that his yoke is easy and his burden light. How could that be. Every time God had called someone to do his work, those he called recoiled at it because they knew it would be the most difficult task they had ever engage in. When Yahweh called Moses, he sought to excuse himself based on his speech impediment. When God called Isaiah, he let God know he was too sinful to do God’s holy work. When God called Jeremiah, he readily told God he was too young to have interactions with kings.
The yoke as a metaphor for discipleship suggests that the labor expected from us is difficult and challenging, but a yoke also suggests that the work will take two in order to be carried out. The Lord offers to help us carry the yoke.
Dwight Pentecost, tells the story of visiting an old farming community. And while being driven around he noticed a farmer plowing with a team of oxen. However, one of the animals was towering ox, while the other was a small young bullock. That was unusual because animals most be equal in size to be yoked together. So, Dwight asked his driver to stop for him to take a closer look. He was shown then that the way the yoke was attached to plow had, in fact, the big ox do most of the pulling and that the small animal was only being broken and was still learning to carry a yoke.
This passage came to Dwight’s mind. Jesus is the one who calls us to walk alongside him. He gives us the strength to carry on. He is the one who, through grace, patience, and unconditional love helps us to be able to walk the journey of discipleship he expects from us.
Today, as we come around the Lord’s Table to celebrate his sacrifice for us, let us allow the Lord to take away the burdens we have been carrying around and for too long. Today as we prepare to come to be fed by the Lord, let us allow him to give us relief from our weariness. There are so many things going on in the world which might have made us tired and exhausted at their non-stop beating at our minds and souls. So, let us hear, once again, the Lord’s invitation: “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.” Amen!
PASTOR ROMERO