"Take my yoke upon you....." Mathew 11;29
The Yoke. The picture is of an oxen pulling a plough, beasts of burden under the harness; and as such it implies surrender.....Surrender by one and mastery by another. Take my yoke upon you...Jesus said.
And the yoking of the ox is not capricious, done merely at the whim of the owner. No, he sees a piece of land to be ploughed, a piece of work to be done: and for that purpose he says in effect to his beast, 'Take my yoke upon you'.
Jesus Christ has a definite purpose for your life, and the greatest tragedy that can befall you is that you should miss that purpose; and in order that it be accomplished fully, he asks you to put your life fully under his yoke, Will you do it?
Jesus seldom said the expected thing.
Here he is offering rest to burdened souls, and he links it up with this idea of surrender and sacrifice and the yoke. Evidently it is not bodily rest and ease to which he calls his people. No. It is something far more important, something more wonderful and necessary; rest unto your soul.
We know in a general way how true it is that rest does not come by doing nothing, having an easy and lazy time. Rest comes by doing something that is both useful and satisfying. There is rest in surrender, there is rest under the yoke, provided that in the in the surrender and under the yoke we have the satisfaction of knowing that we are fulfilling our true and highest function.
And we only know that under the yoke of Jesus Christ. There and there alone is rest for the soul...."take my yoke upon you....and you shall find rest for your souls" It means His complete Mastery. It means that we are at his disposal, as the ox is at the disposal of the owner; it means full, complete surrender, that he may possess us.
The Yoke. The picture is of an oxen pulling a plough, beasts of burden under the harness; and as such it implies surrender.....Surrender by one and mastery by another. Take my yoke upon you...Jesus said.
And the yoking of the ox is not capricious, done merely at the whim of the owner. No, he sees a piece of land to be ploughed, a piece of work to be done: and for that purpose he says in effect to his beast, 'Take my yoke upon you'.
Jesus Christ has a definite purpose for your life, and the greatest tragedy that can befall you is that you should miss that purpose; and in order that it be accomplished fully, he asks you to put your life fully under his yoke, Will you do it?
Jesus seldom said the expected thing.
Here he is offering rest to burdened souls, and he links it up with this idea of surrender and sacrifice and the yoke. Evidently it is not bodily rest and ease to which he calls his people. No. It is something far more important, something more wonderful and necessary; rest unto your soul.
We know in a general way how true it is that rest does not come by doing nothing, having an easy and lazy time. Rest comes by doing something that is both useful and satisfying. There is rest in surrender, there is rest under the yoke, provided that in the in the surrender and under the yoke we have the satisfaction of knowing that we are fulfilling our true and highest function.
And we only know that under the yoke of Jesus Christ. There and there alone is rest for the soul...."take my yoke upon you....and you shall find rest for your souls" It means His complete Mastery. It means that we are at his disposal, as the ox is at the disposal of the owner; it means full, complete surrender, that he may possess us.
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