In the Yoke of Jesus: A Path to Soulful Renewal and Rest
Mar 06, 2024
Blog by Alan Fadling
As we continue to navigate so many changes that have come to so many of us in these last few years, I wonder how tired you feel inside. I’m not talking about the sort of tired that a nap would resolve or a good night’s sleep might address. I’m talking about a deeper tired—a weariness of soul.
I’ve found myself wrestling with a level of weariness that has often surprised me. My wife, Gem, and I have both had to be far more intentional in the present season about finding the deep rest our souls need from God. Let me share a little of what we’ve been learning together.
There are many ways I could talk about rest for leaders. Sometimes what we need most is physical rest. We need to give better attention to our sleep patterns.
Sometimes we need vocational rest. God offers us an invitation to a weekly Sabbath. (It’s actually a command.) While Sabbath isn’t a popular practice in our culture—sometimes even in churches and other ministry settings—it’s worth exploring the goodness of this rhythm.
Sometimes we need mental rest. We need to enjoy hobbies, engage in challenging physical activities, or be creative apart from our work. We need some vacation time to play and enjoy our life.
But I’d like to talk about rest for our souls. What is it? How do we find rest for the deep places of weariness we experience?
Our best guide for exploring this question is Jesus. When I talk about “soul rest,” I’m echoing a message that Jesus proclaimed. Remember these familiar words?
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)
Sometimes a passage of Scripture like this becomes so familiar that we assume we know exactly what it means. But there can be a difference between knowing about a passage and encountering and embracing the living truth of a passage. What do these words of Jesus look like in our lived experience? I find this an invigorating question to reflect on.
Jesus begins by saying “come to me.” This reminds me that rest for my soul is not so much an escape from something as it is being in the presence of Someone. It is in the presence of Jesus that I find rest. Jesus is a restful presence. Jesus isn’t anxious or easily angered or frantically driven. Jesus is powerfully at work in a restful way. He works restfully. I learn how to live this way from him.
And those to whom Jesus extends this invitation are the weary ones. Weariness can go so far that it becomes burnout. But it can come in many forms, from mild to extreme. Soul fatigue can make even the smallest task feel like climbing the tallest mountain. It drains the life from me.
Jesus also invites the burdened. We may find ourselves overwhelmed, feeling that we can’t possibly carry everything we’ve been given. We might find ourselves sighing without realizing we’re doing it. Our countenance may feel as heavy as our workload. If Jesus is going to give us rest from our burden, that means he will address our burden, either by helping us see we’re carrying too much or by offering his shoulders to carry it with us.
Jesus gives us rest for our weariness by being a river of living water within us by his Spirit. But then Jesus surprises us by saying that he gives rest to the weary and burdened by inviting them to take his yoke.
The word “yoke” doesn’t exactly sound like a strategy for soul rest. It sounds more like a way to do more work. A yoke is placed on the shoulders of two draft animals to pull a wagon or a plow. While a yoke certainly makes some work easier, it still involves work.
But the yoke we’re talking about here is a unique one. Jesus calls it “my yoke.” In Jesus’ day, rabbis would invite students to take on their yoke—their instruction, their training, their way of life. Jesus said that some Jewish leaders put a burden on their followers that was hard to carry, and they didn’t offer any help to their students in bearing it (Matthew 23:4).
This is not the way of Jesus. What Jesus commands us is not burdensome (1 John 5:3). What Jesus invites us to doesn’t weigh us down. His way lifts us up.
I envision Jesus inviting us to join him in his own yoke. He himself is carrying something. He is bearing something. He is working at something. And he invites us to join him there. In this way, a yoke is a way of staying close to Jesus. It is a way of working side by side with Jesus. It is a place of friendship, fellowship, and collaboration.
And Jesus works peacefully, not anxiously, with patience rather than harshness, and graciously instead of frantically. Jesus works restfully. And when I work alongside him, I find that I can do the same.
In the yoke of Jesus, we can learn from One who is gentle and humble in heart. Have you ever had teachers who were harsh and arrogant? They are rather hard to learn from. They are often more focused on their need to teach than they are on serving those who’ve come to learn from them.
But even in his teaching, Jesus comes not to be served but to serve. He is inviting us to join him in a life that is beyond our imagining. The yoke of becoming apprentices to Jesus leads us to good living and good work. Rather than weighing us down, it empowers us to do better work than we ever imagined possible.
I’ll share more reflections on Jesus’ invitation to rest in a couple of weeks.
For Reflection:
- How might staying close to Jesus in your work prove to be more restful for your soul? How does a sense of distance from Jesus contribute to the weariness and heaviness that so many feel?
