The yoke. Does anyone know what a yoke is? I’m talking about yoke spelled Y-O-K-E. I’m not talking about the yellow part of an egg, which is the best part by the way. Who knows what a yoke is? … That’s right, a yoke is a wooden beam that is used to spread the weight out to make it easier to carry a heavy load.
To illustrate how a yoke can be useful, imagine having two metal buckets with metal handles filled with water and trying to carry that weight for a long time. After a little while, the weight of those metal handles would start to hurt as they dug into your hands. To give your hands a break, maybe you would put them on your forearms but then that starts to hurt as they are digging into your arms cutting off your circulation. That’s when a yoke comes in handy.
A person could get a wooden beam or a yoke like this, put a bucket on each side, and spread the weight out to make it easier to carry the heavy load or burden. Does this look familiar to anyone (looking at the crucifix)? The thing about this yoke and that one is that a yoke was originally created with the participation of others in mind. The original yoke was a bigger wooden beam designed to be shared to spread the weight across two animals like oxen pulling the weight of a plow behind them. Instead of the weight of that heavy plow being all on one ox, the yoke allows this weight to be spread across two animals making it a lighter load for each of the animals to carry.
So, what does all this talk about yokes have to do with today’s Gospel reading? Well, when Matthew wrote his Gospel, he assumed that his readers had a familiarity with the Old Testament. For example, the readers at the time Matthew wrote his Gospel were familiar with the Torah and knew that the Torah was the first five books of what we know today as the Old Testament. Something else the readers at the time of St. Matthew would have been familiar with is that Jews’ understanding of the Torah was that it contained 613 commandments.
Can you imagine how it would weigh on your mind, having to remember 613 commandments at all times and to make sure you kept all these commandments? Sometimes, rabbis would refer to the heavy weight of a person keeping all 613 commandments as that person “accepting the yoke of the commandments.” Some of the Jewish leaders of the time would like to lord the 613 commandments over people, placing the weight of these laws on the people’s shoulders and making this weight as hard and heavy as possible by adding thousands of oral interpretations to them and dosing out heavy doses of blame and shame on their people for the slightest deviation from the letter of the law.
Contrast that approach with Jesus’ approach. Jesus tries to make it as easy as possible for us to remember and keep the commandments by telling us later in the Gospel of Matthew that the greatest commandment is this: “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Even though Jesus is lord, he does not lord it over his people. Jesus comes down with us. Jesus says he is meek and humble of heart. He comes down and gets under the yoke himself to help us shoulder the burden and carry the weight, to lighten the burden, so the two of us are a cohesive team.
So, what is this burden that we are being asked to carry with Jesus? First of all, I think it is important to address a common misperception many people have. Sometimes, people mistakenly think that those of us who call ourselves Christians are asked to carry this burden and those “other people” over there who do not call themselves Christians have no burdens to carry. Remember, Jesus died once … for all. Just as we heard in today’s Gospel reading that God the Father handed all things over to Jesus, Jesus gave his everything on the cross for every single person. So, instead of it being a situation where we Christians over here have a burden to carry and non-Christians over there have no burden to carry, the reality is that both Christians and non-Christians have a burden to carry. Therefore, the question for each person walking this earth is this: will we let Jesus shoulder the weight of this burden with us or are we determined to try to carry this burden all by ourselves as it cuts off the spiritual circulation of grace?
When Jesus refers to these things I mentioned earlier being revealed to the little ones or the childlike, childlike means to know that we need someone else to help us. A yoke was originally created to be joined to another. Let me give voice today to what I believe Jesus wants to say to each of us, “Let’s the two of us carry this together.” All that Jesus gives us, including his burdens, he wants to be ultimately used for the good of us. In the end, all the things Jesus received including burdens like the cross did not weigh him down. Remember, Jesus rose from the dead and he ascended to heaven.
With a yoke, two animals are connected to each other. Where the stronger one goes, the other goes. Where Jesus goes, we are meant to go as well. The load we are carrying is lighter when we know with certainty that in the end, all will be well. Jesus gives us the knowledge and the strength necessary to carry all things with him.
Jesus says to us, “come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.” Jesus said, “Come to me all … who? You. His invitation to us today, “Come to me.” You come to me. Don’t wait until you’ve got your act cleaned up. Don’t wait until you’ve got your life all figured out and are perfect. Come to me now while you are broken, angry, lonely, empty, depressed, and overwhelmed. Come to me as you are and I will love you as you are and I will give you give you rest.
When we receive Jesus in the Eucharist, he rests within us. We find rest in his presence. We find rest with him, and we become the body of Christ. Being a part of the body means we must do our part. With the Eucharist, we don’t just receive Jesus, we live Jesus and find rest with and in him. Just like an egg, when it comes to experiencing life with Jesus, it requires getting inside to experience the best part, the yoke.