Friday, 18 July 2025
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:30
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“For My yoke – handy, and My burden – it is light” (CG).
In the previous verse, Jesus told His hearers to take His yoke upon themselves and learn from Him because He is benignant and lowly of heart. In doing this, He promised rest for their souls. He now continues with the closing words of the chapter, “For My yoke – easy, and My burden – it is light.”
He introduces two new words. The first is chréstos, easy. It is derived from chraomai, to treat or use. As such, it signifies employed, but by implication, it would mean useful while being kind or good. There is no direct English word that blends kind and good, but the word was a common slave name in the Greco-Roman world. A slave who was both kind and good may have been called Handy.
The second new word is phortion, signifying a burden. It is the diminutive of phortos, an invoice. As such, the word figuratively refers to a task or service as a burden.
Jesus explains here why they should take His yoke upon them. His yoke is one that is handy to have, being useful and good, while at the same time it is essentially burden-free. The fulfillment of the law by Him is something that is beneficial to all because it removes that burden from us. It is always available and good (handy) because it is offered to all people. When it is accepted, the results are eternal in nature.
Life application: Why anyone would want to put themselves back under the yoke of the law is hard to figure out. The easy example of tithing is a perfect illustration. Those who are having financial troubles cannot give cheerfully if they cannot afford dinner. And yet preachers will beat a precept from the Law of Moses over the people’s heads as if it still applies.
No matter what law it is, if Jesus has fulfilled it, we are free from it. We are no longer being imputed sin (2 Corinthians 5:19). By law is the knowledge of sin (Romans 3:20). This doesn’t mean we should go out and do wrong things. It means we are to rest in the grace of Christ and not try to take up the burden that He has already carried for us. In doing so, we will only offend God who sent Jesus to do what we could never do.
Lord God, thank You for the infinite grace of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen.
Matthew 11
11 And it was, when Jesus, He finished through-arranging His twelve disciples, He departed thence to teach and proclaim in their cities. 2 And John, having heard in the prison the works of the Christ, having sent two of his disciples, 3 they said to Him, “You, You are ‘the Coming,’ or do another we anticipate?” 4 And Jesus, answering, said to them, “Having gone, you report to John what you hear and you see.” 5 Blind – they up-look, and lame – they walk, lepers – they are cleansed, and deaf – they hear, dead – they are roused, and poor – they are evangelized. 6 And blessed, he is, who if not he should stumble in Me. 7 And these going, Jesus, He began to speak to the crowds about John: “What you went out into the wilderness to view? A reed wavering by wind? 8 But what you went out to see? A man having been enrobed in fine cloaks? You behold! Those wearing the fines, they are in the kings’ houses. 9 But what you went out to see? A prophet? Yes! I say to you and beyond a prophet. 10 For this, he is about whom it has been written, ‘Behold, I, I send My messenger before Your face, who, he will prepare Your way before you.
11 Amen! I say to you, not he has risen in ‘born of women’ greater than John the Baptist, but the least in the kingdom of the heavens, he is greater than he. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of the heavens, it is forced, and forcers, they seize it. 13 For all the prophets and the law, until John, they prophesied. 14 And if you incline to receive, he, he is Elijah, the ‘being about to come.’ 15 The ‘having ears to hear,’ let him hear. 16 And to what I will liken this generation? It is like children in markets, sitting and addressing their companions, 17 and they say, ‘We piped to you and not you danced. We bewailed to you and not you breast-beat.’ 18 For, he came, John, neither eating, neither drinking, and they say he has a demon! 19 He came, the Son of Man, eating and drinking, and they say, ‘You behold! A man, a glutton, and a winebibber! A friend of taxmen and sinners!’ And it is justified, the wisdom, from her children.”
20 Then He began to defame the cities in which they occurred – the most of His miracles – because they reconsidered not. 21 “Woe, you, Chorazin! Woe, you, Bethsaida! For if in Tyre and Sidon, they occurred – the miracles, those done in you– if in sackcloth and ashes formerly they reconsidered. 22 Moreover, I say to you, it will be sufferable – Tyre and Sidon – in Judgment Day than you. 23 And you, Capernaum, the ‘until heaven, you having been elevated,’ until Hades you will be descended. For if in Sodom they occurred – the miracles, the ‘having occurred in you’ – it remained, if until the day. 24 Moreover, I say to you that it will be sufferable – land Sodom – in Judgment Day than you.”
25 In that time, Jesus answering, He said, “I acknowledge You, Father, Lord ‘the heaven and the earth’ that You hid these from wise and sagacious, and You revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, for thus it was satisfaction before You. 27 All, it was delivered to Me by My Father. And none, he knows the Son if not the Father, nor any he knows the Father if not the Son, and whom if the Son He should will to reveal. 28 You come to Me, all those laboring and having been encumbered, and I, I will give rest to you. 29 Lift My yoke upon you, and you learn from Me, for benignant I am, and lowly of heart, and you will find rest – your souls. 30 For My yoke – handy, and My burden – it is light.”