"Come unto Me" (Mt:28-30) is such a clear expression of God's heart for each of us. But he qualifies his call to us - "all ye that labor and are heavy laden". In context with the yoke he next mentions, we can conclude he's speaking of the bondage of sin, especially when we see that "yokes" are mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament, almost always as a form of severe bondage, slavery really - this is a graphic picture of the natural state of mankind - yoked to sin, unable to be "good" or clean in their hearts, on their own. "All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God". The glory of God is His holiness, His complete absence of sin, so when Jesus says "all ye that labor" he's referring to sin of which Paul says the wages of are death. We're all bound to sin until Jesus, and this is crucial - He doesn't just free us from our bondage to, our yoke to, sin, He gives us His yoke to wear - we go from being slaves to sin, to our sin nature, to his holiness.
Let's continue - "and I will give you rest". He mentions rest (from sinning) just before He says "take My yoke upon you", for, unlike sin, it's a delight to be yoked to Jesus, it's not wearisome, it's not a heavy burden, it's a joy to our souls - and He invites us to personally "learn of Me" - How glorious! He breaks the back of today's religious church system where we're taught to depend on men to learn of Jesus, we're taught to rely on and come to our pastor, or other Christians wiser than us to learn of Jesus, but here, He promises that when we come to Him, He will teach us, especially when we are yoked to Him. Like the apostles, we follow Him wherever He goes, learning to do what He does and say what our Father says. Jesus will use others to teach us but not at the expense of his personal relationship with us. Anyone He puts in our life to teach us should themselves be yoked to Jesus. Many individuals and churches want us to become yoked to them but it's Jesus himself we should be yoked too....and by so doing, we will be yoked with one another for we will be yoked to the Body of Christ, worldwide.
When He commands us to come to Him, to take His yoke and learn of Him, He gets to the heart of the matter, our hearts, by saying "for I am meek and lowly in heart". This is a key, a major key, for victory for our souls in this lifetime - humility - remaining teachable, admitting our weakness and our sins from a place of brokenness. This brings great joy to us for when we take His yoke upon us - He takes our yoke of sin upon Himself, on the Cross and shatters it, so that "ye shall find rest unto your souls". Have you ever heard the saying "no rest for the wicked?" Well, it's true - the wicked never have rest from their wickedness. Thank God under the yoke of Jesus, He gives us rest "for my yoke is easy, my burden is light."
Now as joyful as it is to take His yoke, as good and healthy it is for our souls, we still "kick against the pricks", we still struggle mightily against His yoke, we still wander back to old pastures full of harm for us. Our old nature does not die an easy death - it kicks and screams and does anything it can to keep us paying attention to it, with it's appetite for sin. It craves the pleasures of sin and refuses to submit to Jesus' yoke therefore it must "die daily" upon the Cross of Calvary - just as sins in the Old Testament had to be atoned for daily with sacrifices in the Temple. The temple we apply the blood (of Jesus) in now is our bodies, more specifically our hearts. If you will, our souls are the outer court while our spirits, our hearts, are the inner court, which contains the Holy of Holies, the most sacred place on earth (and in earth) where God the Father dwells. It is here - deep in our hearts, that we must daily apply the Blood of our sacrificial lamb to our sin nature - fully embracing His yoke as we begin each day, welcoming the "Sonlight" to shine in the midst of our inner darkness, each and every day.
This light, this revelation knowledge of the Son, when coming from our pastor, is coming from without us and can only shine on us for a few hours once or twice a week. God's desire is for His light to shine within us, so as nice as it is to hear revelation knowledge from our pastor or elder, we must mature and learn to receive it for ourselves, from ourselves - and we must remain yoked to Jesus - not our pastor or church or whoever is discipling us and if we become yoked to Christ, we must go where he leads us. He may lead us in a different path or direction than our pastor is taking us - this becomes a test of wills - God's will vs. the pastor's, and ultimately your will. Who's will will you submit to? Your pastor's or God's? Because so many are taught by their pastors that their pastor's will IS God's will, many choose to remain yoked to their church (where their pastor's will is done) rather than yoked to Christ. I'm speaking truth here, don't get offended. This test of wills will happen at some point to all who attend a denominational church or any church where man is in charge.
Micah 7:6 declares "A man's enemies are the men of his own house". Think of Joseph, think of David, whose brothers mocked him, think of Jesus, who repeated this scripture in Mt:10:36 - "And a man's foes shall be they of his own household". This is often certainly true in our natural families and houses but it is also true of our "spiritual houses", our churches. The place we meet with our spiritual family. Even your own father and mother can be wrong about you sometimes.
So, to summarize - accept His offer of His yoke - submit to it willingly, humbly and His will for you will be done from now on and you will go wherever HE leads you, stop when and where HE tells you to and you will never leave or forsake Him! Hallelujah! Amen. Selah.
