Wearing His Yoke
Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me (Matthew 11:29) How much do you know about yokes? Chances are not a lot, nor have you spent much time thinking about them unless you grew up on a farm or have an interest in old farm implements. My earliest recollection of yokes goes back over 70 years to a Sunday School classroom where, as a preschooler, I saw a picture of a primitive farmer plowing a rocky field with a team of yoked oxen. I can’t recall anything about the Bible story or the passage that went with it, but that picture made quite an impression on my young mind. I remember how I felt looking at those poor animals wearing a heavy wooden yoke. It seemed as though I could feel it around my own neck, weighing me down and restricting my oxygen intake. Many years later I realized the impact that picture had on me, and how it was tainting my reaction to passages that refer to wearing a yoke, like Matthew 11:29. I became painfully aware of a subconscious aver...