Matthew 11vs28-30 - Put on my easy and well-fitting yoke

What a paradox.

You see, oxen were placed under a yoke in order to work.

It was placed on them by their master to govern them and guide them.

So the yoke was a sign of work, of mastery, of service, indeed even oppression.

"To find my rest," says Jesus, "you need to take up my yoke." So here is the paradox that is oft quoted, that His service is perfect freedom.

So it's going to involve a putting off and a putting on.

So if we're gonna take Jesus' yoke on us, first of all, we have to throw off all other yokes.

Now, we're all serving someone.

We're all wearing a yoke.

Everybody is.

Whose yoke are you wearing? We may be wearing many different yokes.

Maybe you're in bondage to the opinions of others.

There's a controlling relationship.

Maybe somebody spoke a word to you in the past that really has completely taken over your life, something they said about you.

Maybe you've been the victim of false Bible teaching.

Who is your master? You see, Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, 25, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." So first of all, He wants to remove the oppressive yoke from our shoulders.

Consider Isaiah 9:4, the child who was born, the son who is given, what will he do? Well, the verse reads, "For as in the day of Midian's defeat you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulder, the rod of their oppressor." So Jesus came to set them free from wearing the yo- the wrong yoke, that is, serving the wrong master, and then to place His yoke on them to become their Prince of Peace.

In the somewhat obscure prophecy of Nahum 1:13, the Lord uses the same symbol to declare to Judah their forthcoming deliverance from the tyrannical oppression of Assyria.

The verse reads, "Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away." Now, this doesn't just apply to the time when we become a Christian.

Paul appeals to the Galatians 5:1, "It is for freedom that Christ has set us free.

Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery." Now, if you've come to Jesus, you've cast off the yoke of self-governing your life.

You've put on His easy yoke.

But we can still be carrying burdens and lesser yokes.

I want to ask you to ask the Lord to show you if you are carrying any burden or wearing any yoke of oppression, and with His help, to cast it aside.

Bondage and burdens can come in many, many different forms, and we can ask the Lord to show us where these are in our lives as we walk in openness and in the light with Him.