What keeps you up at night? There may be various responses, but according to one survey, intrusive thoughts keep people up over half the time. These thoughts involve anxiety about tomorrow, frustrations with relationships, or just replaying the day’s events. However, for every person who is not in Christ, one thought that should keep them up is “Where will I spend eternity?”
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus addresses a message to everyone. “Come to me, all 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.” Jesus knows we all are burdened with a heavy load of sin that earns us condemnation. He knows the burden is impossible to overcome, no matter how hard we try. So, he offers a yoke that will give rest.
A yoke is used to harness beasts of burden to an implement for work. Jesus says his is easy and light. Rather than the yoke of sin which destroys your eternal life and keeps you from finding rest in the next, Jesus offers a yoke which results in rest.
It is submitting to the yoke that sounds daunting, especially after hearing Jesus say our “righteousness must exceed that of the Pharisees” (Matthew 5:20). But it is in our learning from Jesus, our becoming His disciples and following in His footsteps, that His perfect righteousness becomes ours. It is our faithful obedience to Him that is counted as righteousness for us. Jesus gives us an option for rest, an exchange of yokes. We can choose to be slaves of “sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Romans 6:16). Under His yoke we can rest easy.