A distinguished painter was conducting a class for aspiring artists. He was speaking on the subject of artistic composition. He emphasized that it was wrong, for example, to portray a woodland, a forest, or a wilderness, without painting into it a path out of the trees. When a true artist draws any kind of picture, say a landscape, he always pictures an “out”. Otherwise the tangle of trees and the trackless spaces depress and dismay the onlooker.
Sometimes life seems that way. The trials or struggles that we find ourselves wrapped up in seem to overwhelm us and are too much for us to bear. Yet, Jesus, in the last few verses of Matthew eleven, gives us this hope, this door of opening to our trials that lets the glimmer of the light of Christ come through and show us the way “out”. He said, “Come unto Me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, because 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.”
The “yoke” that Jesus was talking about was a sort of harness linked about an ox’s neck, and often two oxen were so yoked together in order that they might plow up the hard ground together, opening the soil and making it easy to plant seeds. Its make up was a bar going across the top of the oxen’s necks with a double loop of rope or even a loop made out of wood that brings the two loops together in the middle. Think of the letter “w” and you will get the idea. Ropes were tied at each end that then came together in the hands of the plowman so that he could direct the oxen in the direction that he needed them to go. What Jesus is saying here is for you and me to be “yoked” together with Him. In this way, Jesus and ourselves are tied together so that we might trust our souls and our concerns to Him so that He might carry both ourselves and our loads, making our loads easier to bear. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast your cares upon Him, for He cares for you.”
