Coupling

Coupling

Then he said: “Everything has been put in my hands by my Father, and nobody knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son—and the man to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and over-burdened, and I will give you rest! Put on my yoke and learn from me. For I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  (Matthew 11:27-30)

Jimmy and his son, Davey, were playing in the ocean down in Mexico while his wife, daughters, parents, and a cousin sat on the beach. Suddenly, a rogue wave swept Davey out to sea. Jimmy immediately started to do whatever he could to help Davey get back to shore, but soon he, too, was swept away by the tide. He knew that within minutes, both he and Davey would drown. He screamed for help, but his family couldn't hear him. Now Jimmy's a strong guy – an Olympic decathlete – but he was utterly powerless to prevent the tragedy now looming only minutes, or maybe even seconds, away.

Meanwhile, his cousin, who understood something about the ocean, saw what was happening and walked out into the water where he knew there was a sandbar. He had learned that if you try and fight a riptide, you’ll die trying. So, he walked to the sandbar, stood as close as he could get to Jimmy and Davey, and then lifted up his hand and said, "You come to me. You come to me." They did – and they survived.

Frankly, this passage from Matthew has always baffled me. It’s one of those verses that sounds really nice and, for a while, I get a lot of comfort from it. But then, when things get pushed too far, I realize I have no idea what it means and, worse yet, that it doesn’t even seem to be true – at least as far as I can see. Because if we say that Jesus’ yoke is living in obedience to God as Jesus did, then we’re way up the proverbial creek without a paddle. I mean anyone who has actually devoted themselves to following God’s instruction figures out in pretty short order that God is forever asking people to do things which are hard, if not impossible.

Abraham, leave your home and your family. I’ll tell you where you’re going later, but just go now. (Genesis 12:1)

David, take a small rock and go kill that giant. (1 Samuel 17:40)

Hosea, marry that woman who’s going to cheat on you and redeem her with your love. Oh, yeah, and make sure everyone knows about your humiliation so they can see a model of my love for them. (Hosea 1:2-10)

Jesus, give up your glory to live among the fallen and then let yourself be tortured and killed. (John 17:1-5)

Paul, you just keep on preaching until they kill you. And when you’re whipped bloody and imprisoned, be sure to count it all glory. (Romans 8:18)

God’s ways are many things, but easy and light? Uh, not so much. So what’s Jesus talking about?

Well, recall that Matthew, a Jewish tax collector (writing to a thoroughly Jewish audience), tells us throughout his gospel that Jesus spoke frequently about Jewish law and tradition. So, Jesus’ comment about his yoke being easy was, in one sense, a capstone to his Religion 101 class found earlier in the Sermon on the Mount. (Matt. 5:1 – 7:29) But from a broader perspective, this same discourse was really his commentary on the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament), and the whole of Jewish law.

For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus emphasized the need for forgiveness, reconciliation, and charity since his teaching was actually an expansion of God’s command in Deuteronomy 6:4-5 to “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength,” referred to as the shema. But Jesus goes on to state that not only are we called to love God unequivocally, but to love our neighbor as well, whether friend or enemy, since they’re made in God’s image, too. (Matt. 5:38-48)

So, when Jesus uses the yoke analogy, he’s commenting on Jewish law and tradition which uses the term “yoke” at least 40 times in the Old Testament. For instance, according to Jewish tradition, to be in a right relationship with God was to accept the yoke of heaven. But the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah also tell us that to be burdened with sin is to live under the heavy yoke of slavery. In other words, for first-century Jews, the yoke of the law was actually a double-entendre: in its best sense, it was an acceptance of the shema. But in its negative context, it was the obligation to scrupulously obey all of the minor details of the Levitic and Deutoronomic Law, as interpreted by the Scribes – some 620 Talmudic commands in all!

It’s no wonder, then, that Jesus openly railed against the Pharisees and their interpretation of the law as recorded by Matthew in Chapter 23:2-4: The teachers of the law and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat. So you must obey them and do everything they tell you. But do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. They tie up heavy loads and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them. However, to suggest, on the other hand, that Jesus is simply arguing that his approach to the faith is easier than the Pharisee’s approach to the law is an over-simplification.

Again, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus interpreted the Law. But he actually went a bit further than that: Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have come not to abolish them but to fulfill them. (Matthew 5:17) So, in our passage, Jesus is asserting two messianic claims: first, only the Son can reveal the Father (Vs. 27), and second, that his yoke is easy. (Vs. 30) In other words, Jesus is explicitly interpolating himself as the “yoke” – the way, the path, or the avenue to the Father.

But then Jesus takes the yoke analogy one step further. Since God is known through the Law (Romans 2:17-18), when Jesus says his yoke is easy he’s actually saying, “I am the Law, but the law that I impose is not a heavy burden” because although “… the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Christ Jesus.” (John 1:17) In other words, the yoke is not the law. The yoke is his grace and the truth of his divinity.

OK, but then you begin to wonder if you’re crazy thinking that it could be that simple. And it doesn’t help when people come up to you with those sad, puppy-dog eyes asking in tones usually reserved for the infirmed, “How are you doing?” “Fine,” you reply with a smile. “No, really. It must be so hard. It’s OK not to hide behind a strong face all the time.” “Um, well I have my moments, but really, I’m doing well. I’m just trusting God, I guess.” “Sure. Well, if you ever need to talk ….” And then they pat you on the hand, say “God bless,” and walk away. And that’s a best case scenario.

So you begin to wonder. “I thought I was OK. Actually, I’m pretty happy. But maybe I’m just kidding myself. Maybe I’m subjecting myself to some weird form of self-induced brainwashing when really I should be majorly depressed and planning a trip to the doctor for some happy pills. What if it’s not really God and I’m just CRAZY? Ahhhhhhh!” Well, that’s what you say to yourself if you’re me.

The fact of the matter is that we struggle with the yoke because it’s easy and light. We’re like oxen who’ve been trained up under too much weight – always having to lean into it, tug and pull and huff and puff at the exertion of carrying this heavy yoke. And then Jesus comes along and gives us His. But it just feels wrong. “Trust? Really? Grace? Are you kidding me? That’s too easy and too light. It can’t be right.” So we go back to our old, heavy yokes. They’re painful, but hey, at least they feel like they fit.

And then all of us who’ve taken back our yokes (if we ever actually took them off in the first place) sit up at night and worry just like everyone else. And we live just like everyone else, because God can’t really think I’d be able to go there or do that – He knows what an unreasonable burden that would be. That’s for saints and missionaries, not for everyday Christians like me who’re just trying to stay out of trouble.

So here’s one last thought. Jesus says that he is going to take away one burden in exchange for another. Okay, but how does that help? I mean, a yoke’s a yoke, right? Well, the word “yoke” is an interesting one. It can mean several things, like we’ve discussed. It can mean “oppression,” or it can mean “being under the authority of something or someone.” But a yoke is also something that joins together, like two animals together to plow the field.

If you go to the actual Greek, the word “yoke”’ is ζυγός (pronounced “dzyoo'-gos”) which means a coupling (figuratively), or servitude (as to a law or obligation). It derives from the root word ζεύγνυμι (pronounced “sood-zyoog'-noo-mee”), meaning to join, which appears in Matthew 19:6 and Mark 10:9 where Jesus says, … what God has joined together, let no man put asunder. Sound familiar? Yeah, we hear that all the time at weddings. It was the common verb for “marriage” in ancient Greek.

So, read Matthew 11:30 again – that to be yoked with Christ is to be united with Him in the same way in which a husband and a wife would be united to each other; where a husband and a wife live better for the Lord together, than either would do alone. In other words, taking on the yoke of Jesus means to be united with Him – joined to Him for one purpose. And in that sense, the yoke of Jesus is our union with him.

Now that’s easy … and light.

Grace,

Randy