Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls

 

 At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."

 

- Matthew 11:25-30 

 

On Friday, we read that the disciples of John the Baptist came to Christ, asking Him if He is the Coming One (the Christ), or if they should look for another, as John the Baptist is now imprisoned by King Herod. Jesus responded by speaking to the people in defense of John the Baptist, and speaking up to those who criticize both He and John (see Saturday's reading).  Yesterday we read that Jesus continued, "But to what shall I liken this generation?  It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying:  'We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; We mourned to you, and you did not lament.'  For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, 'He has a demon.'  The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, 'Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'  But wisdom is justified by all her children."  Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:  "Woe to you Chorazin!  Woe to you, Bethsaida!  For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.  But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you.  And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.  But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."

 

 At that time Jesus answered and said, "I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes.  Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight.  All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.  Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light."  For modern urban readers unfamiliar with this term, a yoke is a wooden crosspiece, attached to a pair of animals and the plow or cart they would pull.  My study Bible comments here that Jesus' yoke is submission to the Kingdom of God.  A yoke could be seen as a sign of hardship, burdens, and responsibilities (1 Kings 12:1-11, Jeremiah 27:1-11, Sirach 40:1).  But in Christ, the yoke is easy, as the power of God works in each person.  Moreover, the reward is infinitely greater than any effort a human being puts forth.  The word Jesus for gentle is literally "meek," as in Matthew 5:5.

My study Bible reminds us, in connection with today's passage and Christ's declaration that He is "gentle and lowly in heart," of Matthew 5:5 (from the Sermon on the Mount).  To remind us, that verse reads, "Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth."  My study Bible says that meekness is an attitude of being content with both honor and dishonor.  It is an imitation of Christ, as He indicates here when He says, "Learn from Me, for I am gentle [meek] and lowly in heart."  The meek, my study Bible continues, are God-controlled and have mastery over their passions, especially anger.  It notes that meekness is not passive weakness, but strength directed and under control.  The earth that the meek will inherit is not power or possession in this world, but the new earth, which is everlasting (Revelation 21:1).  In such a case, Christ's "meekness" or gentleness would seem to indicate an acceptance of the realities of this world.  That is, we do not see Him challenging the powers of this world with military might or force, nor with manipulation or coercion, but instead with truth and through living in obedience to God.  Christ teaches us to take up His Cross in this sense, that His yoke is the spiritual life He would teach us, the life of the Kingdom even as we live in this world.  Christ's burden, then, for us, is not a worldly sense of obedience or slavery to an overlord, but rather one that teaches us what it is to do spiritual battle, such as St. Paul speaks of in Ephesians 6:12.  When we take on the yoke of Christ, then, we're given a different kind of life to lead, in which the challenge is learning not to hide from truth, but to embrace it, and to meet the evil things we observe in the world through obedience to Him, which means the weapons of virtue and the choice to follow Him and be like Him.  St. Paul calls this "the whole armor of God" (Ephesians 6:11-20).  In His own gentleness and meekness, Christ meets us where we are, teaching us with love and care and grace, that gentleness touching our own hearts so that we know Him in this way.  We, too, learn the kind of courage He has, through His meekness and gentleness with us, and to meet the world with faith in something more than what we see only with our physical eyes, but also with hope in something greater and transcendent, and nonetheless real and at work within us and among us.  John the Baptist is in prison, and Jesus goes toward the Cross, already facing rejection although He has just sent out the Twelve on their first apostolic mission.  In this "meekness" we also learn persistence and endurance in following His word, being true to something much greater than the "worldly" can offer us.  We learn love and courage, and reliance upon God, and we learn the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who does not flinch from what the world does, but meets it instead with the power of God and God's enduring truth for us.