MATTHEW 11:28-30

These are some of the most well-known words of Jesus, and here is how the RSV renders them:

“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.”

This is a semi-poetic saying which can be diagrammed as shown below in order to better bring out the parallel thoughts in it:

Come to me, all who labor

        A. and are heavy burdened

                B. and I will give you rest

                        C. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me

                                D. for I am gentle and lowly in heart

                B'. and you will find rest for your souls.

                        C'. For my yoke is easy

      A'. and my burden is light.

I don't know how many times I have heard this passage and simply dismissed it as some general words of comfort coming from Jesus. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I probably didn't really understand this teaching at all. I started having questions such as: How can any sort of yoke be easy (or light)? Who is teamed up (i.e. yoked together) with the recipient – Jesus? How can you rest with a yoke on your neck? How could this appeal to someone who doesn't feel the need to carry any sort of burden in the first place? What is the nature of Jesus' yoke? What specifically are we supposed to learn from Jesus? Where does the self-description of Jesus as “gentle and lowly in heart” fit into the thought of these verses? For help, I turned to my commentaries and learned the following.

The Yoke

Let me begin by quoting from some sources who seem to reflect the traditional understanding I was always taught in church:

Blomberg: “Jesus equates the Christian life with spiritual rest. In describing his provision of this rest, Jesus borrows imagery from the plowing of fields. Like the yoke that couples oxen together, discipleship does not exempt one from work but makes it manageable...Jesus' requirements are no less stringent than those of the Jewish teachers, but they can be accomplished more readily because of the strength Christ provides through the Holy Spirit.”

Deutsch: “The yoke of Jesus is easy and his burden light precisely because that yoke brings one into fellowship with the gentle and lowly one, with the result that the promised rest is already present.”

Dictionary of Biblical Imagery: “The more than fifty references to the yoke in the Bible speak of the wooden bar or frame used to join animals to enable them to pull a load. Two aspects of a yoke are important in these references: the yoke is an image of subjection, service or bondage...or an image of joining (just as two animals are joined together by means of a yoke).”

Vine: “a yoke, serving to couple two things together is used metaphorically...of submission to authority, Matt. 11:29,20, of Christ's yoke, not simply imparted by Him but shared with Him.” Douglas ascribes to that general understanding also.

Barbieri: “People's weariness comes from enduring their burdens, probably the burdens of sin and its consequences. Rather, they should come and yoke themselves with Jesus...By yoking, they become true disciples of Jesus and join Him in his proclamation of divine wisdom...To serve him is no burden..”

Note that all of the above comments assume that the imagery is based on the common double yoke. Therefore the individual must be yoked together with either Jesus or the Holy Spirit, who pulls along with us. But that is by no means the only way to understand this figure, as you can see below:

France alternatively explains: “The animal yoke, which harnesses two animals together to pull a plow or cart, is to be distinguished from the human yoke, which is worn by a single person to distribute the weight of a load across the shoulders. Each is an unwelcome restriction which is gladly thrown off when the work is done, but the purpose of the human yoke is to make it easier to carry or pull a load. If there is a burden to be borne, it is better with a yoke than without...it is more likely that it is the single human yoke which is in view. However appealing the idea of being 'in double harness with Jesus' may be, that is not the point.”

Conclusion

Personally, I think this second understanding is the correct one since there is absolutely no hint in the text that Jesus (or the Holy Spirit) is going to become equally yoked with a believer.

Burden

The following scholars opt to concentrate not on who is pulling the yoke with us, but on the nature of the burden we are carrying. Here the weight of opinion is overwhelmingly on the side of those who explain that the burden refers, not primarily to our weight of sin, but to the weight of the Old Testament law – the Torah. Just look at the similar language expressed elsewhere in Matthew's “Gospel:”

“They [the scribes and Pharisees] bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with their finger.” (Matthew 23:4)

Thus, Ellison takes issue with Barbieri's comment above: “While the evangelistic application to those under the weight of sin is not illegitimate, the call refers primarily to those who are not 'wise' enough to ease their way from under the burdens of life and of the law (cf. 23:4)...It was the true Sabbath-rest Jesus was offering, a desisting from their own work to do the work of God (Heb. 4:9f...). That this is the meaning is borne out by the next two incidents, which deal with the true use of the Sabbath.”

It may be overkill, but here are a number of additional comments expressing the same thought:

“Jesus invited those who had become exhausted by legalistic piety to take upon themselves his easy yoke.” (Beyreuther)

“In coming to Jesus, men thus come to one who upholds the law (Matt. 5:17f.), but also one whose interpretation of the law is not a bondage in any sense, whether recognized or unrecognized.” (Link and Brown)

“The yoke of Jesus as understood by Matthew was not one of fidelity to a code [of law] but of dedication to a Person who was God's representative among men.” (Maher)

“The rabbinic 'yoke' connects the Israelite to the Torah; Jesus' 'yoke' links the disciple to God's kingdom.” (Chilton)

“The yoke of the law, as the Rabbis called it..., was something that proved heavy and burdensome because of its impersonal and external nature (cf. 23:4)” (Nixon)

“By way of contrast, most Jews found the interpretations of the law imposed on them by their leaders increasingly burdensome (23:4; Acts 15:10, which uses the identical 'yoke' imagery).” (Blomberg)

Zygus ['yoke'] is “a term frequently associated with the Torah.” (J.K. Brown)

“Righteousness now consists of knowing and doing Jesus' teachings rather than the yoke of Torah.” (Burnett and Bennema)

“Jesus' own view of his ministry...is one which involves a light burden and an easy yoke, for the commitment demanded is that of personal allegiance to himself. An easy yoke and a light burden are offered in exchange for the arbitrary demands of Pharisaic legalism and the uncertainties of ever-proliferating case law.” (Albright and Mann)

Conclusion

Hendricksen provides the best summary for this subject: “The reference is to all those who are oppressed by the heavy load of rules and regulations placed upon their shoulders by scribes and Pharisees...man must earn his way into everlasting life, the result at best was painful uncertainty; more often something worse, namely, clutching fear, gnawing anxiety, rayless despair (cf. Rom. 8:15a). What he is really saying therefore, is that simple trust in him and obedience to his commands out of gratitude for the salvation already imparted by him is delightful. It brings peace and joy. The person who lives this kind of life is no longer a slave. He has become free. He serves the Lord spontaneously, eagerly, enthusiastically.”

Wisdom

The last subject to discuss in regard to this passage is that it reflects the wisdom literature produced in the time period between the OT and NT. But first it may be of help to explain some of the scholarly abbreviations found in some of these following remarks. Allusions are made to the Dead Sea scrolls attributed to the community at Qumran; the apocryphal books Ecclesiasticus, or the Wisdom of Jesus the Son of Sirach (abbreviated as Sir, Ben Sira or Ecclus); the Wisdom of Solomon (Wisdom); and the pseudepigraphal books written during the early Christian era: Psalms of Solomon (Pss Sol) and General Epistle of Barnabas (Bar).

Burnett and Bennema state, “The language certainly alludes to the yoke of the law, but because Wisdom and Torah had already been identified in some traditions (Sir 24:23; Bar 3:57-4:1), Wisdom could also invite any who would do so to take her yoke and experience her rest (e.g. Sir 51:26-27).”

Overman states that “the image of the yoke entails obedience and submission but also political allegiance, wisdom, and justice (2 Chr 10.4; Prov 11.1,16; Mic 6.11; Ezek 45.10). For the yoke as wise teaching, see Sir 51.23-27.” Bauckham similarly cites those verses in Sirach as being the basis of Jesus' words. The evidence for that belief can be judged for yourself by the comparison below:

Matthew              Sirach

11:25a – I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth. 

                            51:1,10 – I will give thanks to you...the Lord, the Father of my lord.

11:28 – Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 

                            51:23,27 – Draw near to me...I have labored little and found for myself much rest.

11:29a – Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. 

                            51:26,27 – Put your neck under the yoke and let your souls receive instruction.

11:29b – For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 

                            6:28 – For at last you will find the rest she gives.

But not everyone is convinced that direct borrowing is found here.

“Especially striking are parallels between Ben Sira and the sayings of Jesus preserved in Matthew and Luke. It seems certain that Jesus ben Joseph knew and valued some of the sayings of Jesus ben Sira, though one need not go so far as to posit literary dependence: Ben Sira's teaching permeated Judea sufficiently to become part of the common cultural heritage...” (deSilva)

“The echoes of Sir. 51.23-7 have often been noted...but the view of R. Otto...that we have here a straight quotation from Sir. 51...goes too far...the words of ben Sirach are adapted by Jesus for his own purpose, which is quite different. Ben Sirach invites men to study the law, saying: 'Put your necks under her [i.e. the Law's] yoke, and let your soul accept her burden'...In Jesus' saying, the contrast is between the yoke of the Kingdom (discipleship to Jesus) and the yoke of the religion of the Law.”

Lastly, France lists an impressive number of scholars who dispute the importance of the parallels with Sirach altogether. He personally feels that Jesus is purposely alluding to that book in order “to say something wholly new...which is in continuity but also more importantly in contrast with what Sirach said about Wisdom.”

But there are yet other possible sources for Jesus' saying, assuming that he needed to quote from anyone else as a source of authority other than himself:

Albright and Mann point to an additional parallel to 11:29b in Jeremiah 6:16 – “Stand by the roads, and look and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls.” In addition, they note that Pss Sol 7:9 refers to God's service as “God's yoke.”

Speaking of Jeremiah, France notes that whereas most of the references to 'yoke' in the OT are negative in tone, the later Pharisees treated the 'yoke of the Torah' as positive in nature. Three exceptions to the negative references in the Old Testament are, interestingly, found in Jeremiah 2:20; 5:5; and Lamentations 3:27. But to be fair, we should note that even in this last source there are two uses of 'yoke' in a highly negative way: Lam. 1:24 and 5:5.

Davies and Allison feel that we need go no further than Exodus 33:12-14 to find any direct influence on Jesus' words. In that OT text, Moses asks God to let him know who he should send with him, and God replies to him, concluding with the words, “I will give you rest.”

And Kampen points to the Dead Sea document called 'Ways of Righteousness,' which contains a call for the righteous man to “carry the yoke of wisdom...The 'yoke' points to the NT wisdom text, Matthew 11:29-30...The Qumran texts help us to understand how the writer of this Gospel could have made such a connection and how its Jewish readers could have understood it.”

Conclusion Whatever the original influences were, assuming there were any, the similarities shown above do point to Jesus Christ as not only the fulfillment of the Law and the Prophets, but also as the epitome of Wisdom as well.