What Are You Yoked To??

 

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”  Matthew 11:28-30

 

Yesterday, we prayerfully pondered, what are we carrying that we need to set down?  Often, I carry the thought that I need to be all things to all people (even though my defense attorney correctly points out that this is impossible!  I still think, but maybe I should still try, just in case).  I can carry people's words that feel like a thousand paper cuts to my soul.  I carry responsibility and accountability around because I think someone must do this!  I carry around the idea that it is all up to me, even though God’s presence in my life reminds me that I am not in charge or control of the world.  I hope you will consider what you are carrying as we reach the midpoint of the second month of 2026.  This is never a one-and-done activity, but a daily practice of paying attention to the backpacks we all lug around with us and that people add stuff into, often without asking permission first.

 

Jesus says that he will give us a “yoke”.  This is one of those wonderful images in scripture.  A yoke was a tactile, tangible tool ~ a wooden beam that sometimes connected oxen or other animals to work together when pulling a load.  Pause.  Notice that a yoke is NOT a tool for you to go solo through life.  Theologically, Jesus is saying, there is no such thing as an individual Christian.  A yoke connects you to God, people who long to lend a hand, and the fact that we are not alone.  A yoke can also be something that binds, confines, and burdens us.  Oxen didn’t get to vote whether or not they wanted to wear a yoke.  In this meaning, a yoke wasn’t only something that helped, but also hindered.  Sometimes people plop their problems into our lap and expect us to fix it, after all, aren’t Christians supposed to be known by their love?  Paul in Galatians 5 talked about a yoke of slavery.  We can become enslaved to political ideology, religious beliefs, our own biases, addictions to substances, shopping, or technology. 

 

One final meaning of a yoke was a religious teaching.  In this case, a rabbi or pastor would give you an understanding, and to follow/live this understanding meant you took upon yourself the rabbi’s yoke.  Still to this day, some pastors' teachings are heavy.  You must color inside their lines, affirm that set of dogma they espouse, do whatever the elders say or risk being exiled from the island of that church.  Jesus describes his yoke as a release from what is weighing us down.  Church isn’t the place for more messages about not being enough, but about being beloved.  Church isn’t the place for more “thou shall nots”, but could be a space of releasing our resistance and reluctance.   And because the church is made up of people (remember we started the year with 1 Corinthians 13, the church that was fighting about everything!), we will always need to be honest about the fact that we make mistakes and mess up.  We don’t have to carry our brokenness and boneheadedness alone.  Jesus invites us to bring that to him.

 

What has the church taught you that felt heavy?

When has the church offered you the chance to set down that which was breaking your back to keep lugging around?

Is there some understanding, belief, doctrine, dogma that is hurting you that God might be calling you to set aside this Lent ~ knowing that you can always pick it up again later if needed.

 

May these questions cause you to consider ways you can enter Lent this year open to Jesus’ care and love for you.  Amen.