Cheek to Cheek
“Take my yoke upon you, and I will give you rest.”
Take my yoke? Are you kidding me, Jesus? Whyyyy would I do that? Why would Jesus ask us to take His yoke? A yoke is heavy - it carries physical and emotional weight. To walk with a yoke is a burden… it’s a hardship. A yoke is the definition of inconvenient - a yoke reveals our selfishness and showcases our inability to live for another.
When you’re yoked to another, you do everything together. You’re practically cheek to cheek. And not always in a pleasant way. You’re hooked. Every moment is spent with the other - even bathroom breaks.
Jesus, knowing the physical and emotional challenges, calls us to be yoked to Him anyway.
He wants to be around for every moment. When we are yoked to Jesus, we’re forced (in the best way) to become more like Him. We begin to understand what He wants, what He desires. If we’re yoked, we go where He goes, and we learn from His heart for others. If we’re yoked, we learn to anticipate His needs and desires.
If we’re yoked, we learn to walk His way.
It’s a huge gift to be yoked to Jesus. It’s a huge surrender for Him - He lowers Himself to teach us. He makes Himself equally yoked to us to teach us how to be equally yoked with Him. Once again, He comes down to our level to meet us.
Equally yoked? What the heck does that actually mean?
It means teamwork. If you have two oxen pulling a plow or a moving a slab of concrete, they need to be close in both weight and height. But more than just their physicality, they must work together. They must move as one. When Jesus asks us to take on His yoke, He is inviting us to become more like Him as He became like us. He is asking to partner with us.
He is encouraging us to be on His team,
to follow His direction,
and to know His voice.
On your team of oxen, you may have the biggest, best two oxen in the land - but if they don’t pull together, they will fail. Jesus invites us into partnership so that we won’t fail. Jesus meets us in our humanity, in our little places so that we can pull together. He asks us to surrender our need to pull our plows on our own and to join Him, to allow Him to offer us His leadership. Without Jesus, the most important half of our yoke, we can’t make any progress. But when we allow Jesus to come close, practically cheek to cheek, we can move mountains. When we lock eyes with our Savior and pull from our love for Him, there is nothing that can stop us. His strength becomes enough, and the burden is no longer ours to carry. We have a partner; we have a friend; we have a leader to follow.
We have a VICTOR on our side.
When we let our yoke go and join His team, we can finally rest. When we put down our yoke and take up His, we are free to receive His leadership, His guidance, and His love. It’s not easy to be yoked to Him, but it is very good. And He promises us rest. We can rest that this isn’t our yoke to bear. Our responsibility under Jesus’ yoke is to follow His leadership - to pull when He asks us to and to be still when He asks. The only requirement of His yoke is obedience. And so, the burden of the yoke becomes lighter with Him. Sisters, drop off your yoke before Him and pick up His. Come under His leadership, and let Him lead you.
Father,
Show us the yokes that we are trying to carry alone, and help us to put them down. Help up to seek out Jesus’ yoke that we may work with Him and rest in Him. We can’t accomplish anything without You, and we don’t want to. We want to be connected to You - in every way, both literally and figuratively. Help us. Keep us on track. We don’t want to stray, and we don’t want to pull You off course, Lord. Teach us to rest in the joy of obedience to You.
We love You, and we give You all the glory.