A Kind and Gentle King

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

What an invitation! In a mere 10-15 seconds, Jesus speaks some of the most comforting words we find in Scripture. Come to Jesus for gentle and humble instruction. Come to Jesus for deep, satisfying rest. Come to Jesus to have your burdens lifted. But what should we make of the word picture Jesus uses to illustrate his offer? Everyone who labors under a heavy burden should place themselves under Jesus’ yoke where their labors can be made easy, and their burdens can be made light. We can exchange a taxing yoke for a pleasant one. But what does it mean to take Jesus’ yoke upon us?

A common approach to interpreting this word picture comes from understanding the way oxen were yoked together side-by-side. The untrained ox would learn from the trained ox how to work within the confines of the plowman’s harness. We can then imagine Jesus coming alongside us to train us as he bears the weight of the yoke, and we benefit from his gentle tutelage.

When we place this passage within the context of the New Testament, we might also consider the yoke the Pharisees placed upon the Israelites, demanding their obedience to man-made commandments. The apostles even confronted the Pharisees in Acts 15 about the yoke of the law of Moses.

But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”...“Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.” Acts 15:5, 10-11

Jesus lifts the oppressive weight of the law’s demands, replacing it with his gentle, patient, grace-filled instruction. We no longer toil under the burdensome weight of laws and commandments that we can never truly fulfill. Rather, we enjoy the grace Jesus offers and respond with loving obedience.

There is an element of truth in these explanations, but Jesus paints a picture that requires a much larger canvas. As with much of Jesus’ verbal artwork, the picture is seen most clearly through the lens of the Old Testament.

The book of 1 Samuel documents the start of Israel’s monarchy - a single king ruling over the twelve tribes. From the very start, God warns the Israelites about what they can expect from a king.

So Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking for a king from him. He said, “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you: he will take your sons and appoint them to his chariots and to be his horsemen and to run before his chariots. And he will appoint for himself commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and some to plow his ground and to reap his harvest, and to make his implements of war and the equipment of his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive orchards and give them to his servants. He will take the tenth of your grain and of your vineyards and give it to his officers and to his servants. He will take your male servants and female servants and the best of your young men and your donkeys, and put them to his work. He will take the tenth of your flocks, and you shall be his slaves. And in that day you will cry out because of your king, whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the LORD will not answer you in that day.” 1 Samuel 8:10-18

Fun times. Yet, the Israelites demand a king to rule over them so they can be like all the other nations. As we continue reading, Saul is a disaster as their first king. He is followed by his son Ish-bosheth, then David, Solomon, and Rehoboam. Though we tend to think positively of the many highlights of the monarchy under David and Solomon, the reign of Rehoboam begins with a request from Jeroboam and the people of Israel.

“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” 1 Kings 12:4

The prediction from 1 Samuel 8 had indeed happened even under the reign of two of Israel’s most notable and accomplished kings. Solomon ruled with a heavy yoke and the people are asking for Rehoboam to rule as a king with an easy yoke. Rehoboam has an opportunity to delight his people by easing their burden. He put off giving an answer and consulted with his advisors about what to do.

Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’” 1 Kings 12:6-11

Much could be said about the foolishness of relying on counsel from young men but suffice it to point out that Rehoboam’s folly led to a civil war that divided the kingdom of Israel. Rehoboam remained as king over the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, but Jeroboam ruled over the other ten tribes as king of Israel. The kingdoms remained divided and were eventually defeated by their enemies and carried into captivity.

The oppressive yoke of Solomon and Rehoboam crushed the people of Israel and ultimately destroyed the nation. The yoke was the weighty demands of service placed on the people by their king - the demands we saw in 1 Samuel 8. The king would take their sons and daughters and a tenth of their crops and livestock. Rather than serving the people, the king would use the people as slave labor to serve himself.

Using the yoke as a metaphor for harsh subservience is common in the Old Testament.

I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves. And I have broken the bars of your yoke and made you walk erect. Leviticus 26:13

therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. Deuteronomy 28:48

But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, to work it and dwell there, declares the LORD. Jeremiah 27:11

For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: I have put upon the neck of all these nations an iron yoke to serve Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and they shall serve him, for I have given to him even the beasts of the field. Jeremiah 28:14

And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit, and the earth shall yield its increase, and they shall be secure in their land. And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I break the bars of their yoke, and deliver them from the hand of those who enslaved them. Ezekiel 34:27

When we come to the New Testament, the Jews have returned from exile back into the land of Israel, but they are very much subject to Roman rule. In this context, Matthew opens his gospel with “the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David.” Matthew refers to Jesus ten times as the Son of David. If we compare this to the other gospels, Mark and Luke each identify Jesus as the son of David three times. John does not identify him this way at all. Matthew intends to emphasize that Jesus is not simply a prophet, but the Messianic king of Israel, descended from David as the prophets foretold.

If we work our way through the section of Matthew’s gospel leading up to our text at 11:28-30, we will see a recurring theme.

Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.” Matthew 11:2-6

John’s question is quite simple. “Are you the Messiah I’ve been expecting?” Jesus’s answer is also quite simple. “I do all the things the Messiah is supposed to do. What do you think?”

Jesus uses the opportunity afforded by John’s question to elaborate further for the crowd around him. John is the forerunner of the Messiah - “Elijah who is to come” (v. 13). Yet John and Jesus are not recognized for who they are within the flow of redemptive history (v. 18-19). The very miracles Jesus had earlier noted as marks of the Messiah have been ignored by significant numbers of people (v. 20-24). Jesus tells the crowds that the Messianic king that was promised in the Scriptures is walking through their cities, but the people are not recognizing him. For Jesus, this is understandable because they suffer from a spiritual blindness that only God the Father can heal (v. 25-27).

It is in this context of looking for the promised king and Messiah, and Jesus’ clear teaching that their king and Messiah is walking among them, that Jesus speaks those famous words of comfort.

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

Israel has been divided. They have gone into exile. The nation now sits under heavy Roman rule. However, one “has been born king of the Jews” (2:2) who can free them from their oppression. Israel has never known a king that did not rule them with a heavy yoke, but Jesus has come to change that. He is the king that Jeroboam and the people of Israel desired. Remember the request of Jeroboam: “Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” Jesus will gladly be that long-desired king, heeding the wise counsel of Solomon’s advisors, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.”

But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

Throughout his earthly life, we see Jesus serving the needs of those around him - feeding the hungry, healing the sick, even raising the dead. However, Jesus’ greatest act of service comes as he dies in our place, paying the penalty for our sin. Rather than taking our lives, he gives his own. Rather than crushing our hopes, he fulfills them. Through his death and resurrection, he rescues us from the penalty and power of sin, and he invites us to live under the freedom of his gracious rule. It is in the context of this marvelous service that we come to willingly serve him.

Jesus makes his appeal to us with a beautiful invitation, “Come to me.” However, we should be careful to recognize it is not an invitation to come alongside him but to come under him. We submit to him not as a gentle companion and tutor, but as a gentle and compassionate king. And though his rule is not harsh, it is always authoritative - “learn from me,” he says. As our king, Jesus wants to teach us how to live. And in living under his instruction, we will find rest.