A Vessel Unto Honour

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30

Let’s look deeply into this and discover just what Jesus is talking about here. First He calls all of us who are laboring and are weighed down. The two questions that arise are, what are we laboring with? And what exactly is weighing us down?-

The answers can be found in Galatians 5:19-21; they are the very works of the flesh: Self seeking immoral behaviors in which we strive to get what we want to serve ourselves, sometimes at the expense of others. And the very burden of a guilty conscience as a result of our sinful living.

Then He promises us rest. Hebrews 3:18+19, “And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” Hebrews 4:1, “Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.”  This indicates that through our belief in him we enter into his rest. So, to simply believe is to enter into the rest he promises us in taking His yoke. Which of course leads us to the next question…

What is His yoke?

The yoke is the call to pick up our cross and follow. Luke 9:23, “And he said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, and let him take up his cross every day, and let him follow me.”

So we enter in through our belief, and take up the cross, which is symbolic of God’s love for man. It is extremely important to notice how he describes himself in this verse. First of all he is meek…

Meek: quiet, and gentle, easily imposed upon, submissive.  And secondly, lowly in heart… humble, gentle and submissive. Compared to the burden of a guilty conscience this kind of loving spirit is capable of forgiveness. 1 Peter 4:8, “And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover THE multitude of sins.”

Therefore we can find rest in helping him carry his burden, which is the love of God for mankind.

So the yoke that’s easy can be found in Galatians 5:22-25, The fruit of the Spirit in our lives compels us to walk in like manner as our Redeemer did. And the burden that’s light is the very cross we carry as we turn the other cheek, walk the extra mile, feed the hungry, etc…