Reflection
The LORD lifts up all who are falling
-Psalm 145:14
and raises up all who are bowed down.
…For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.
-Matthew 11:30
Today’s Gospel is another instance where the original audience understood the greater context in hearing this message than we do today. Most of us, I imagine, think of the yoke offered as an individual burden we are to carry, even though Jesus assures us that His yoke is easy, and His burden light. And yet, honestly, who really wants more burdens, even if they come from Jesus? Don’t most of us find ourselves praying to Jesus for fewer burdens to carry in our daily lives?
But the original audience would have known that the Greek word for yoke implies a joining together or balancing of a load. They would be familiar with the practice of yoking together a stronger, more experienced ox with one that was weaker and still learning to pull. They would have firsthand knowledge of the fact that the strength of two oxen pulling together was threefold, not just double of one of them pulling by itself. They would hear the words behind Jesus’s invitation to take up another burden: “Come, share your burdens with Me. I will pull when you have no strength. I will teach you how to plow the Earth to prepare it for the Kingdom of God.”
This is the great gift of the Incarnation. Though Jesus, God is no longer a distant deity, living in the heavens far beyond our world. He is Emanuel, “God With Us,” who has come to share in all that we must bear as creatures on this Earth. At the same time, He is the Christ who offers Himself to ease our burdens. What better yoke-mate could we hope for?
