Most of us have a fairly good awareness of this passage. We’ve heard it, we’ve read it, and many of us can quote it. The broad context of this passage is Jesus’s warnings to His disciples that things are not always going to be easy. Because He is trying to get them ready for reality, He reminds them that His yoke (way of life, teaching) is easy.
And really, it is easy. If we choose to live like Jesus, though it may be counter-cultural, then life really is pretty simple. Love people, treat them the way you would like to be treated, and live in peace with God.
However, there are a few things that I think we tend to zip past rather than slow down and hear:
Jesus tells us to “come to Him.” Selfishly, we want Jesus to come to us. But He calls us to act, to approach Him.
He tells us to “take His yoke.” It’s not a passive, inactive thing. Instead we are challenged to live out what He teaches.
And so we take His load, not ours. I can build a to-do list longer than my arm and overload my life better than the best of them. (Hey, I’m the guy who overloaded a dump truck to the point that the suspension snapped.) But it is the Lord who says in Psalm 121, “He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep” (v. 4). The Lord’s load is one that allows rest. We won’t have to overload our own suspension.