"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me..."
Jesus is not saying that he has a yoke that he wants to place on you and then he will be the farmer driving the plow.
In the ancient middle east, the farmer would use a double yoke to train a younger ox by pairing it with an older, more experienced ox. Thus, the younger one would learn
from the older one by being yoked together with it.
Jesus is inviting us to become paired with him. The same kind of yoke that he took on is the one we must bear.
"If anyone wants to follow me [as my disciple], he must deny his [self-determined life], and take up his cross daily and follow me" (Luke 9: 23).
In other words, Jesus is the model of the life lived in humble submission to the Father. Therefore, let us be yoked together with him, "the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross..." (Heb. 12: 2).
Eugene Peterson, in The Message, renders it this way, "Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace" (Matt. 11: 29).
Rather than the burdensome and wearying life of religious duty, Jesus wants to lead us into a restful relationship of service walking with him. As we put our shoulder to the plow, we don't find him whipping us from behind, but pulling with us and teaching us the "unforced rhythms of grace."
Are you yoked to Jesus?
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