Jesus Offers Us a Double-Barreled Invitation

Each of us has times in our life when we get weighed down by personal problems, physical challenges, and troubling thoughts, and this leads to feeling overwhelmed, depressed, and often hopeless. When it becomes too much, some people search for their solace in a bottle, while others might start wondering if their life has enough value to continue living. Whether it’s during these moments of unbearable stress, or even if your burdens and troubles are less staggering but still aggravating, it is beneficial to contemplate Jesus’s double-barreled invitation to us, that we first heard when He spoke to the crowds:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

I call it a double-barreled invitation because our Lord first invites us to come to Him for rest, and then He invites us to receive His yoke. Regarding the former, Jesus isn’t simply saying come to Him and He will take away all your troubles. He is telling us that if we turn to Him and His Father, we are more likely going to rest not just our bodies, but our minds and souls.

We know that resting is so important that even God rested at the end of each day of creation as told in Genesis. We read in the Gospels how Jesus rested when He took time away from the crowds and His ministry to spend time with his Father, to enjoy a meal with his apostles, and even to take a nap on a boat during a storm at sea.

In today’s wild and fast-paced world, rest is critical to us so we can refocus on what really matters. Resting can be purely physical, such as putting our feet up and taking a nap, but it can also be a spiritual rest, where we ponder the wonders of our Lord, ruminate on how good He is to us, and hope for eternal life with Him.

Resting spiritually in God is when you put aside all the noises and distractions of the world and solely focus on Jesus and listen to God speaking to you through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not promising that resting in Him will deliver you from adversity and stress. His invitation to come to Him for rest means you should present your burdens to Him, have faith that your Lord works everything together for your good, and find comfort in knowing that with Him you can endure all things.

Some people find they can better focus if part of this restful time involves reading Scripture. There are many Bible verses which speak of God’s promises to provide rest when you seek Him and which might inspire you to jump out of the fast paced lane, slow your day down, and find rest in God’s presence.

One of these most popular Bible passages is Psalm 23, where David praises God for providing rest:

“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures he makes me lie down; to still waters he leads me; he restores my soul.”

Jesus’s twofold invitation continues after he first invites us to come to Him for rest, and then invites us to receive His yoke:

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.” 

Well known back in Jesus’s time, a yoke was a wooden harness hand-carved to fit the neck and shoulders of a pair of farm animals, most often oxen, so they would be bonded together to act in unison. Thus, the tasks of ploughing a field or pulling a cart would be more easily handled by the paired and joined oxen.

Furthermore, the definition back them of being yoked meant to be in submission to the person you are yoked to. If you are symbolically yoked with someone as if both of you are wearing a joined, wooden harness, then you were said to be bonded as if in servitude and need to submit yourself to what your paired partner said or to where he directed you.

Jesus is telling us not to carry our yoke but to carry His. By carrying Jesus’ yoke we are living our lives with Him and in Him. Just as our Savior came to serve, which culminated in Him giving His life for others, we should do the same. As we ponder Jesus placing His yoke upon our shoulders, we should conceptualize agreeing to work alongside Him, humbly serving others. Doing so will give meaning and purpose to our lives, which will have the added effect of helping us forget our burdens and finding renewed energy.

There is a comfort in being yoked to something or someone if that partner can share some of the load. There is even more peace of mind when this someone is the Light of the World. Learning from Jesus and joining in His mission results in our lives having more meaning and our troubles weighing less.

When you choose to be yoked with Christ, you will move together in the same direction and at the same pace, because being yoked, you can’t go in a different direction or go any faster than He goes. Your Lord sets the direction and sets the pace. The world is at a very frenzied pace and is heading in an immoral direction. If you don’t yoke yourself with Jesus, you’ll most likely be stressed out trying to keep up with society’s accelerated tempo and dangerous trajectory.

Why follow the pace and direction of the secular culture and godless people when God invites you to join His team? His team creates a partnership that can bring you more joy and less headaches, as well as teach you how to learn from His humility, share in His loving obedience to the Father, and pray with steadfast trust.

So, when we find ourselves in today’s hurried world being pushed onto the crowded, wide path toward destruction, the best way to assure we will not find ourselves immersed by the burdens and toils of life is to find the joy and meaningful purpose that comes from embracing the restful, helpful yoke of Jesus Christ.