Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Matthew 11:29

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.

29. learn of me ] i. e. “become my disciples;” an idea also conveyed by the word “yoke,” which was used commonly among the Jews for the yoke of instruction. Stier quotes from the Mishna, “Take upon you the yoke of the holy kingdom.” Men of Belial=“Men without the yoke,” “the uninstructed.”

for (or, because) I am meek and lowly in heart ] The character of Jesus described by Himself; cp. 2Co 10:1, “the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” It is this character that brings rest to the soul, and therefore gives us a reason why men should become His disciples.

rest unto your souls ] Cp. Jer 6:16, “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk therein.”

unto your souls ] Not relief from external bodily toil.

my burden is light ] Contrast with this the burden of the Pharisees, ch. Mat 23:4, “heavy burdens and grievous to be borne.”

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Take my yoke – This is a figure taken from the use of oxen, and hence signifying to labor for one, or in the service of anyone. The yoke is used in the Bible as an emblem:

(1)Of bondage or slavery, Lev 26:13; Deu 28:38.

(2)Of afflictions or crosses, Lam 3:27.

(3)Of the punishment of sin, Lam 1:14,

(4)Of the commandments of God.

(5)Of legal ceremonies, Act 15:10; Gal 5:1.

It refers here to the religion of the Redeemer; and the idea is, that they should embrace his system of religion and obey him. All virtue and all religion imply restraint – the restraint of our bad passions and inclinations – and subjection to laws; and the Saviour here means to say that the restraints and laws of his religion are mild, and gentle, and easy. Let anyone compare them with the burdensome and expensive ceremonies of the Jews (see Act 15:10), or with the religious rites of the pagan everywhere, or with the requirements of the Popish system, and he will see how true it is that Jesus yoke is easy. And let his laws and requirements be compared with the laws which sin imposes on its votaries – the laws of fashion, and honor, and sensuality – and he will feel that religion is freedom, Joh 8:36. He is a freeman whom the truth makes free, and all are slaves besides. It is easier to be a Christian than a sinner; and of all the yokes ever imposed on people, that of the Redeemer is the lightest.

For I am meek … – See the notes at Mat 5:5. This was eminently Christs personal character. But this is not its meaning here. He is giving a reason why they should embrace his religion. That was, that he was not harsh, overbearing, and oppressive, like the Pharisees, but meek, mild, and gentle in his government. His laws were reasonable and tender, and it would be easy to obey him.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Mat 11:29

Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me.

The school of Christ

I. There must be docility, obedience, willingness to learn of that Teacher.

II. The school is in the recesses of the soul-it is everywhere.

III. Branches of instruction.

1. Humility.

2. Patience.

3. Fortitude.

4. Love. (H. W. Beecher.)

Christen effective Teacher

I. Christs fitness to be mans Teacher.

1. He understands mans nature.

2. He understands all those things which man has need to know.

3. He understands perfectly the art of imparting knowledge.

II. The methods by which He teaches man.

1. By His words, works, character, as made known in the Bible.

2. By the truths He now imparts to the human heart through the Holy Spirit.

III. The effect of Christs teachings-Rest.

1. This instruction leads to the pardon of sin.

2. To the assurance that we are reconciled to God.

3. To the removal of all fear of evil.

Observe-

1. The evidence that we are learning of Christ is that we are becoming like Him.

2. All should submit to be taught by Christ. (American Homiletic Review.)

Unspoken teaching

We are taught, and we teach, by something about us that never goes into language at all. (Bishop Huntingdon.)

The advantages of humility

I. Whence we are directed to learn it. We are to learn it from Christ, because it is a grace so peculiarly Christian, that no other institution will furnish us with it. All ancient schemes of morality are chargeable with this defect. They are advanced rather as arguments for men of learning to dispute than as directions of life to be reduced to practice; humility left out of them. And though some have declaimed with great zeal on the contempt of glory, yet we find these men to have declined the applause with greater vanity than others pursued it. The Jews were rendered proud by their privileges. Christianity first taught the true doctrine of humility; Christ its pattern. His circumstances, disciples, are all of lowly character.

II. Recommend from the encouragement here given, that it will bring rest to our souls. Tranquillity of mind is the spring of our present felicity; without it all acquisitions are insipid. When we remember the miseries which arise from resentment of real or fancied injuries, humility recommends itself to us as a support and protection. The humble will keep, without inconsistency, within the bounds of justice and sobriety, neither impatient in prospect nor fretted in the event. Before honour is humility. Humility softens the terrors of death. If we are His disciples, let the humility of the Master correct the pride of His servants. How much our own happiness depends on this disposition. (J. Rogers, D. D.)

Our Saviours humility

I. Humility towards God the Father was exhibited in several ways. In not exceeding the bounds of His commission; in obedience and forbearance; He did not employ His illuminating Spirit in the task of refuting error. Humble in the manifestation of His power. How has His humility been imitated by us? True we have no supernatural gifts to exert with humility; but those we have do we so use?

II. Humility is exhibited in His intercourse with mankind. Look at the choice He made of disciples. He told the centurion he would go to his house. Let us not suppose that His humility was allied to weakness or timidity. It was a humility manfully arrayed against vice and pride. It did not stoop nor waver. It did not flatter. It was associated with courage. We need this humility, just estimate of self; only to respect what is true and good, not mere outward show. (F. W. P. Greenwood, D. D.)

The meek and lowly

One:-

I. The first quality which jesus claims.

1. Meek as opposed to ferocity of spirit manifested by the zealots and bigots.

2. There is a sternness which cannot be condemned.

3. It is meek in heart.

II. Lowliness of heart.

1. He is willing to receive the poorest sinner.

2. This lowliness leads Him to receive the most ignorant. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

I. It is something for the Christian to enjoy-Rest.

1. Rest from legal servitude.

2. From wrathful apprehensions.

3. From carnal pursuits.

4. From earthly anxiety.

5. From terrific forebodings.

II. Something to bear-Yoke.

1. Subjection to the mind of Christ (Php 2:5).

2. Resignation to the will of Christ.

Why called a yoke?

1. Because it opposes our corrupt nature.

2. Because it opposes the maxims of the world.

3. Because it is repugnant to the schemes of men.

III. Something which the Christian is to be taught-Learn of Me.

1. Meekness.

2. Humility.

Christ teaches:

1. By His Spirit.

2. By His Word.

3. By His example. (The Pulpit.)

The three exchanges

I. The exchange of yokes.

II. The exchange of burdens.

III. The exchange of teaching. (H. Bonar.)

The yoke of Christ

Our Lord speaks of His service as a yoke or burden, because it is so esteemed by all who know Him not.

I. What is meant by the yoke of Christ? It includes-

(1) the yoke of His profession;

(2) The yoke of His precepts;

(3) The yoke of His dispensations.

II. The appointed means by which sinners are enabled to bear this threefold yoke-Learn of Me.

1. Are you terrified with the difficulties attending your profession? Learn of Jesus (Heb 12:3).

2. Do you find it hard to walk stedfastly in His precepts? Learn of Jesus (Rom 15:3).

3. Are you tempted to repine at the dispensations of Divine Providence? Take Jesus for your pattern (Joh 18:11).

III. The happy effect of bearing this yoke. Rest, to the soul. This affords the best and most unshaken evidence that He has begun a good work of grace in our hearts. (John Newton.)

The double yoke

If the yoke for oxen is meant, it was a yoke for two: it passed across the shoulders of two animals, and they bore the yoke together, and so the yoke was easier and lighter for each. Jesus is bearing a yoke. His is a yoke for two. He would have us take the vacant place beside Him, and share with Him.

I. Christs yoke.

1. His Fathers will.

2. The work given Him to do.

3. All involved in His Sonship.

4. Seeking and saving the lost.

5. Redemption of the world from sin.

6. Winning the worlds heart for God.

II. Christs yoke shared by us. Illustrate how Paul shared it. We may share in

(1) the active work;

(2) the spirit of the work;

(3) the joy and reward of the work.

Conclusion:-There is no forced bearing of yokes with Christ, we must choose to come under it with Christ, (R. Tuck.)

Rest in submission

The text suggests a figure. Two oxen are yoked together at the plough. But they toil unwillingly. They fret and chafe themselves. They strive to force themselves free of the galling yoke. They are weary, oppressed with their slavery. Would it not be rest for those oxen if they would cheerfully submit; simply accept the toil before them; encourage their spirit quietly and bravely to suffer, and bear, and do; fret no more at the yoke, but take it, bear it, and in bearing it discover how light and easy and restful the very yoke can become? (R. Tuck.)

Humility

The great business of man is the regulation of his spirit. Rest is only found in ourselves in a meek and lowly disposition of heart.

I. Much of trouble comes from dispositions opposite to humility.

II. Humility is the best security against heart-aches.

III. Christian humility is opposed to that spiritual pride which is the worst of all prides. (Sterne.)

Mans unrest

There are three causes in men producing unrest:

I. Suspicion of God.

II. Inward discord.

III. Dissatisfaction with outward circumstances. For all these meekness is the cure. (F. W. Robertson.)

The yoke lined

The yoke of Christ will be more easy than we think of, especially when it is lined with grace. (T. Manton.)

We well remember an old man who carried pails with a yoke, and as he was infirm, and tender about the shoulders, his yoke was padded, and covered with white flannel where it touched him. But what a lining is love! A cross of iron, lined with love, would never gall the neck, much less will Christs wooden cross. Lined with Christs love to us! Covered with our love to Him! Truly the yoke is easy, and the burden is light. Whenever the shoulder becomes sore let us look to the lining. Keep the lining right, and the yoke will be no more a burden to us than wings are to a bird, or her wedding-ring is to a bride. O love divine, line my whole life, my cares, my griefs, my pains; and what more can I ask? (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Hard beginnings

Some beginners are discouraged in their first attempts at a godly life, and so give over through despondency, They should remember that the bullock is most unruly at the first yoking, and that the fire at first kindling casts forth most smoke. (T. Manton.)

Imitating Christ the highest art

In the great galleries of art that are the glory of London, Paris, Munich, Dresden, and Rome you may see the artists of the future. Young men toil there day after day, patiently copying the masterpieces of the painters who are world-renowned, learning thus to become painters themselves. Every line, every colour, every gradation of light and shade they put forth their utmost skill to imitate. They are not content that their picture should be something like the original; their ambition is to make their copy so exact that none but an experienced eye shall be able to tell which is the original and which is the copy. To-day, my friend, place yourself before the Lord Jesus; look on His character, so majestic in its righteousness, so tender and attractive in its love, and resolve to become like Him. Let not your ambition be lower than that with which the young artist sits down before some masterpiece of Raphael or Rubens, nor the patience with which you strive to accomplish it less. (R. A. Bertram.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 29. Take my yoke upon you] Strange paradox! that a man already weary and overloaded must take a new weight upon him, in order to be eased and find rest! But this advice is similar to that saying, Ps 55:22. Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he will sustain thee; i.e. trust thy soul and concerns to him, and he will carry both thyself and thy load.

I am meek and lowly in heart] Wherever pride and anger dwell, there is nothing but mental labour and agony; but, where the meekness and humility of Christ dwell, all is smooth, even, peaceable, and quiet; for the work of righteousness is peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever. Isa 32:17.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

29. Take my yoke upon youtheyoke of subjection to Jesus.

and learn of me; for I ammeek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your soulsAsChrist’s willingness to empty Himself to the uttermost of HisFather’s requirements was the spring of ineffable repose to His ownSpirit, so in the same track does He invite all to follow Him, withthe assurance of the same experience.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

Take my yoke upon you,…. The phrase is Rabbinical. The Jewish doctors often speak a of , “the yoke of the kingdom of heaven”, and of persons taking it upon them; and which they exhort to, and express in much such language as here b;

, “take upon you the yoke of the holy kingdom”, every day. They distinguish this from the yoke of the law, and say c

“a man must first take upon him the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, and after that take upon him the “yoke” of the commandment.”

Their sense I take to be this, that a man must first make a profession of his faith in the God of Israel, and then live conformably to his law: agreeably to this, Christ exhorts such persons who come to him for rest and happiness, to profess their faith in him, to embrace the doctrines of the Gospel, to submit to his ordinances, and to walk according to those laws, commands, and orders, which he, as king of saints, has made, and requires obedience to: so those who come to him for life, and believe in him, as the Saviour of their souls, though they are not to trust in, and depend upon any duties performed by them; yet they are not to sit still, or lay aside the performance of good works, or live a licentious course of life, but are always to be doing the will and work of their Lord. And this he calls “his yoke”, in distinction from the yoke of the law of Moses, and of the traditions of the elders.

And learn of me, for I am meek, and lowly in heart: respect seems to be had to Zec 9:9 where such characters as these are given of the Messiah. The meekness, humility, and lowliness of Christ appear in his assumption of human nature; in his subjection to his Father; in the whole of his deportment and conversation among men; in his submission to the ordinance of baptism; in the whole course of his obedience to God, and in his sufferings and death: and he is to be imitated herein, by all his followers, who may learn many excellent things from his example, as well as from his doctrine; and particularly, that whereas, though he was so great a person, yet condescended to perform every duty with readiness and cheerfulness, his disciples should not think it below them to conform to every ordinance of his, to every branch of his will; for he has set them an example, that they should tread in his steps, and walk even as he has walked. There never was such an instance of humility, and lowliness of mind, as Christ; nor is there any example so worthy of our imitation as his. The Jews have a saying d,

“for ever let a man , “be meek as Hillell”, and let him not be wrathful as “Shammai”:”

which two men were presidents of their universities about the times of Christ. But our Lord says, “learn of me”, not of “Hillell”, or any of your doctors,

and ye shall find rest unto your souls; referring to Jer 6:16 and which shows the rest he speaks of in the preceding verse, to be not a corporal, but a spiritual one; and which is to be enjoyed “in”, though not “for” the observance of Christ’s commands; whose “ways are ways of pleasantness, and all” whose “paths are peace”.

a T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 4. 1. Bab. Beracot, fol. 61. 2. Zohar in Lev. fol. 46. 4. Caphtor, fol. 44. 2. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 2. 2. b Zohar in Num. fol. 51. 2. Caphtor, fol. 48. 2. c Misn. Beracot, c. 2. sect. 2. T. Hieros. Beracot, fol. 4. 2. d T. Bab. Sabbat, fol. 30. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

Take my yoke upon you and learn of me ( ‘ ‘). The rabbis used yoke for school as many pupils find it now a yoke. The English word “school” is Greek for leisure (). But Jesus offers refreshment () in his school and promises to make the burden light, for he is a meek and humble teacher. Humility was not a virtue among the ancients. It was ranked with servility. Jesus has made a virtue of this vice. He has glorified this attitude so that Paul urges it (Php 2:3), “in lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself.” In portions of Europe today people place yokes on the shoulders to make the burden easier to carry. Jesus promises that we shall find the yoke kindly and the burden lightened by his help. “Easy” is a poor translation of . Moffatt puts it “kindly.” That is the meaning in the Septuagint for persons. We have no adjective that quite carries the notion of kind and good. The yoke of Christ is useful, good, and kindly. Cf. So 1:10.

Fuente: Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament

Yoke [] . ” These words, as recorded by St. Matthew, the Evangelist of the Jews, must have sunk the deeper into the hearts of Christ ‘s Jewish hearers, that they came in their own old, familiar form of speech, yet with such contrast of spirit. One of the most common figurative expressions of the time was that of the yoke for submission to an occupation or obligation. Very instructive for the understanding of the figure is this paraphrase of Son 1:10 : ‘How beautiful is their neck for bearing the yoke of thy statutes; and is shall be upon them like the yoke on the neck of the ox that plougheth in the field and provideth food for himself and his master. ‘

“The public worship of the ancient synagogue commenced with a benediction, followed by the shema (Hear, O Israel) or creed, composed of three passages of scripture : Deu 6:4 – 9; Deu 11:13 – 21; Num 14:37 – 41. The section Deu 6:4 – 9, was said to precede Deu 11:13 – 21, so that we might take upon ourselves the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, and only after that the yoke of the commandments. The Savior ‘s words must have had a special significance to those who remembered this lesson; and they would now understand how, by coming to the Savior, they would first take on them the yoke of the kingdom of heaven, and then that of the commandments, finding this yoke easy and the burden light” (Edersheim, “Life and Times of Jesus,” and ” Jewish Social Life “).

Meek [] . See on Mt 5:5.

Lowly [] . The word has a history. In the classics it is used commonly in a bad and degrading sense, of meanness of condition, lowness of rank, and cringing abjectness and baseness of character. Still, even in classical Greek, this is not its universal usage. It is occasionally employed in a way which foreshadows its higher sense. Plato, for instance, says, “To that law (of God) he would be happy who holds fast, and follows it in all humility and order; but he who is lifted up with pride, or money, or honor, or beauty, who has a soul hot with folly, and youth, and insolence, and thinks that he has no need of a guide or ruler, but is able himself to be the guide of others, he, I say, is left deserted by God” (” Laws, “716). And Aristotle says :” He who is worthy of small things, and deems himself so, is wise “(” Nich. Ethics,” 4 3). At best, however, the classical conception is only modesty, absence of assumption. It is an element of wisdom and in no way opposed to self – righteousness (see Aristotle above). The word for the Christian virtue of humility [] , was not used before the Christian era, and is distinctly an outgrowth of the Gospel. This virtue is based upon a correct estimate of our actual littleness, and is linked with a sense of sinfulness. True greatness is holiness. We are little because sinful. Compare Luk 18:14. It is asked how, in this view of the case, the word can be applied to himself by the sinless Lord ? “The answer is,” says Archbishop Trench, “that for the sinner humility involves the confession of sin, inasmuch as it involves the confession of his true condition; while yet for the unfallen creature the grace itself as truly exists, involving for such the acknowledgment, not of sinfulness, which would be untrue, but of creatureliness, of absolute dependence, of having nothing, but receiving all things from God. And thus the grace of humility belongs to the highest angel before the throne, being as he is a creature, yea, even to the Lord of Glory himself. In his human nature he must be the pattern of all humility, of all creaturely dependence; and it is only as a man that Christ thus claims to be lowly; his human life was a constant living on the fulness of his Father ‘s love; he evermore, as man, took the place which beseemed the creature in the presence of its Creator” (” Synonyms, “p. 145). The Christian virtue regards man not only with reference to God, but to his fellow – man. In lowliness of mind each counting other better than himself (Phi 2:3, Rev.). But this is contrary to the Greek conception of justice or righteousness, which was simply” his own to each one. ” It is noteworthy that neither the Septuagint, the Apocrypha, nor the New Testament recognize the ignoble classical sense of the word.

Ye shall find [] . Compare I will give you and ye shall find. The rest of Christ is twofold – given and found. It is given in pardon and reconciliation. It is found under the yoke and the burden; in the development of Christian experience, as more and more the “strain passes over” from self to Christ. “No other teacher, since the world began, has ever associated learn with rest. ‘Learn of me, ‘ says the philosopher, ‘and you shall find restlessness. ‘ ‘Learn of me, ‘ says Christ, ‘and you shall find rest ‘” (Drummond, ” Natural Law in the Spiritual World “).

Fuente: Vincent’s Word Studies in the New Testament

1) “Take my yoke upon you,” (arate ton zugon mou eph’ humas) “Take my yoke upon you,” of your own will and accord, as a voluntary choice; This alludes to the yoke work by an ox, a symbol of subjection to a master, to learn and serve Him, Jesus Christ, Num 19:2; Deu 21:3; Deu 28:48; Jer 28:14; Isa 9:4.

2) “And learn of me;” (kai mathete ap’ emou) “And learn from me,” by personal experience, through trust in me, willingly, humbly, trustful, Luk 9:23; Joh 15:10-11; 2Co 10:5; Eph 4:20-23. To learn of Jesus was and is to lay aside the “yoke of bondage” of the law, to accept Jesus as both absolute Savior and Master, Mat 6:24; Luk 16:13.

3) “For I am meek and lowly in heart:” (hoti praus eimi kai tapeinos te kardia) “Because I am (exist by nature), meek and lowly in heart,” in care, affections, and compassion, Zec 9:9. Therefore His lessons are given in compassion, consideration, and simplicity, that one may learn, if he is willing, 2Co 10:1; Php_2:5-7; 1Pe 2:21.

4) “And ye shall, find rest unto your souls.” (kai heuresete anapausin tais psuchais humon) “And you (will) all find rest to your souls,” Isa 28:11-12. Rest and relief from sin-conscious guilt, shame, and fear that prevents rest to the wicked, Isa 57:20-21; Heb 2:15; Heb 4:3; Rom 5:11; Jer 6:16.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

29. Take my yoke upon you. Many persons, we perceive, abuse the grace of Christ by turning it into an indulgence of the flesh; and therefore Christ, after promising joyful rest to wretchedly distressed consciences, reminds them, at the same time, that he is their Deliverer on condition of their submitting to his yoke. He does not, he tells us, absolve men from their sins in such a manner, that, restored to the favor of God, they may sin with greater freedom, but that, raised up by his grace, they may also take his yoke upon them, and that, being free in spirit, they may restrain the licentiousness of their flesh. And hence we obtain a definition of that rest of which he had spoken. It is not at all intended to exempt the disciples of Christ from the warfare of the flesh, that they may enjoy themselves at their ease, but to train them under the burden of discipline, and keep them under the yoke.

Learn of me It is a mistake, I think, to suppose that Christ here assures us of his meekness, lest his disciples, under the influence of that fear which is usually experienced in approaching persons of distinction, should remain at a distance from him on account of his Divine glory. It is rather his design to form us to the imitation of himself, because the obstinacy of the flesh leads us to shrink from his yoke as harsh and uneasy. Shortly afterwards, he adds, (verse 30,) my yoke is easy But how shall any man be brought willingly and gently to bend his neck, unless, by putting on meekness, he be conformed to Christ? That this is the meaning of the words is plain; for Christ, after exhorting his disciples to bear his yoke, and desirous to prevent them from being deterred by its difficulty, immediately adds, Learn of me; thus declaring that, when his example shall have accustomed us to meekness and humility, we shall no longer feel his yoke to be troublesome. To the same purpose he adds, I will relieve you So long as the flesh kicks, we rebel; and those who refuse the yoke of Christ, and endeavor to appease God in any other manner, distress and waste themselves in vain. In this manner, we see the Papists wretchedly torturing themselves, and silently enduring the dreadful tyranny under which they groan, that they may not bow to the yoke of Christ.

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

(29) Take my yoke upon you.As the teaching of the Pharisees was a yoke too grievous to be borne, so the yoke of Christ is His teaching, His rule of life, and so is explained by the learn of Me that follows. (Comp. Sir. 51:26.)

I am meek and lowly in heart.The stress lies upon the last words. Others might be lowly with the lowliness which is ambitions ladder, but pride and self-assertion were reigning in their hearts. The Christ, in His infinite sympathy with men of all classes and conditions, could boldly incur the risk of seeming to boast of His humility, in order that He might win men to come and prove by experience that He was able and willing to give them rest, to hear the tale of their sorrows, and to turn from none with scorn.

Ye shall find rest unto your souls.Here, as often elsewhere in our Lords teaching, we have a direct quotation from Jeremiah (Jer. 6:16).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

29. Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly My gentle spirit and soul-subduing doctrines can alone give that temper by which the soul of the man, and the soul of the living world, may come to their true rest. Unto your souls Unless there be peace within there can never be peace without. Theorists and socialists will in vain attempt by external organizations to give peace. They are mistakenly endeavouring to work from the without to the within. Men’s hearts need to be regenerated in order that a perfect organization of society may exist, or be maintained. Human institutions are what human hearts make them. The organization of society is generally as good as the moral and mental state of the mass will permit. When men’s hearts become right, the true freedom may be attainable.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you will find rest to your souls.”

The yoke of Jesus is not based on submitting to His instruction but on learning from Jesus Himself what it meant to be meek and lowly in heart, and walking in submission to Him. It is the yoke of the Kingly Rule of God. In general a yoke is a wooden instrument that joins two animals so that it makes it easier for them, acting together, to pull a heavy load. The idea may well be that Jesus was, as it were, in the yoke, and that those who came to Him joined Him in the yoke and as it were walked with Him as He walked in meekness and lowliness (compare Gal 2:20). Thus did they learn from Him (compare Isa 30:21 where we have the words of the yoke-master). How else could it be made easy? This ties in with the attitude which was required of His disciples in the beatitudes as a result of God’s blessing of them (Mat 5:3-9).

‘Meek and lowly in heart.’ The idea behind meekness is not that of being afraid to stand up and be counted, but of not being continually concerned with one’s own interests. The meek person never gets het up about selfish concerns, for in cases like this his concern is only to please God and look after God’s interests. That is why Moses was able to be described as ‘meek’ (Num 12:3). Lowliness of heart goes with meekness. Compare ‘poor in spirit’. There is no thought of exalting self. Note how this connects with the activity of the Servant in Mat 12:19-20, and with the continual emphasis on the fact that true greatness is found in being lowly (Mat 20:25-28).

‘And you will find rest to your souls.’ Compare Jer 6:16 where the rest is found by walking in the old paths, ‘the good way’. So the good way was to be found by walking as He walked. Note that in Jeremiah the failure to listen to what God was saying resulted in the exile. Here the One Who representing Israel has come out of exile (Mat 2:15) offers the opportunity to them to ‘return from (spiritual) exile’ and find rest. But this is the rest of quietness and confidence. ‘In returning and rest you will be saved, in quietness and in confidence will be your strength’ (Isa 30:15)

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Mat 11:29-30. Take my yoke upon you The word yoke is used even by the heathen philosophers, to signify doctrine and precepts. St. John interpreting this passage in his first Epistle, 1Jn 1:3 substitutes the word commandments instead of yoke. The meaning is, “My doctrine and precepts are easy and pleasant; in which respect they are distinguished from the Mosaical ceremonies, and also from the traditionary precepts of your doctors, who bind up heavy loads of duty, and lay them upon men’s shoulders.” Some have apprehended, says Dr. Doddridge, that when our Lord says, I am meek, and lowly in heart, he intends peculiarly to recommend the imitation of his humility and meekness, as what would especially conduce, in the natural consequence of things, to promote the repose and tranquillity of their minds. But I apprehend that our Lord chiefly means to remind them of the general lenity of his temper;whichwouldengagehimtodeclineallgrievous impositions, and unnecessary burdens, and tenderly to instruct them in the way of pardon and life. See chap. Mat 12:19-20. Dr. Heylin reads this, For I am a mild and condescending master. The original word ‘, Mat 11:30 properly signifies both light and pleasant; and the other , easy, may be also rendered good, gentle, and agreeable; and so with great propriety may express that true pleasure and cheerfulness, which are the genuine result of a sincere subjection to Christ’s government. That Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden light, must be acknowledged, because all his affirmative precepts are as necessary in the souls of men, as food is to their bodies; and for his negative injunctions, abstinence fromdrink is not more expedient for persons swelled with the dropsy, than they are to all who would preserve the health and vigour of their souls. The obedience therefore which he required, is such a reasonable obedience as every gracious and well-informed mind must rejoice in; and the pleasures which he promises are the pleasures of goodness, the most extensive, satisfying, and durable of all pleasures, being to the mind a delicious and continual feast. See Macknight and Hammond.

Inferences.Whatever were the motives which inclined the Baptist to send his disciples to Jesus, which we cannot doubt were the best, we certainly should be thankful for the inquiry; as thence we derive a convincing testimony of the truth of that Gospel, which is strongly supported by the evidence of prophesy and of miracles. If at any time tempted to doubt the truth of Christianity, we should recollect the veracity and unanswerable proofs of it which are contained in the comprehensive words of our Redeemer, Mat 11:4-6.Proofs arising from the miracles, and from the prophetic testimony which was borne to him. Our Lord pronounces a blessing upon those who shall not be offended in him. It is our wisdom and our duty to consider what those things are in the doctrine or circumstances of Christ, which have proved the most dangerous stumbling-blocks, and endeavour, in constant dependence on divine grace, to fortify our souls against those temptations which may arise from them: so the trial of that faith, which is a much more valuable treasure than gold which perisheth, though tried in the fire may be found unto praise, and honour, and glory.

How happy would it be, if we could learn, through the grace of God, to correct the natural inconsistencies of our tempers and conduct by wise reflections! how much more improving would our attendance on the ministrations of God’s servants be, were we seriously to ask ourselves to what purpose we attend! What went ye out for to see? Mat 11:7-9. It ought surely to be followed with such considerations, since it is intended to lead us to the kingdom of heaven;a glorious prize, too glorious to be obtained by faint wishes and inactive desires! There is a sense in which it still suffers violence (Mat 11:12.): and how sad is the degeneracy of our nature, that we should exert so little warmth in such a pursuit, and to much for every trifle!

Instead of that holy ardour with which men should press into it, they fold their hands in their bosoms, and lose themselves in soft luxurious dreams, till the precious opportunity is for ever gone. How eager then should we be, to press into that heavenly city, where our home and our privileges are! where we are free denizens, and may have our names enrolled in the book of God!

Whatever measures good men take, they will never escape the censures of the world: however contrary in their manners the Baptist and the holy Jesus, they were equally reproached by the Pharisees. The most unspotted innocence, and the most unparalleled excellence, did not prove a defence against the reproach of tongues. A man’s best gifts, and best actions, which are both well intended, and well calculated for edification, may be made the matter of his reproach. It is true, in some sense, that Christ was a friend of publicans and sinners (Mat 11:19.), the best friend they ever had; for he came into the world to save sinners, great sinners, even the chief. So he said very feelingly, who had been himself, not a publican and sinner, but a pharisee and a sinner: but this is, and will be Christ’s praise to eternity; and they forfeited the benefit of it, who thus turned it to his reproach. For ourselves, we shall discover in all things sufficient cause to adore the wisdom and goodness of God, when, happily, we are of the number of the true children of this incarnate Wisdom.

What can we imagine more dreadful than the guilt and condemnation of those, who hear the gospel only to despise it? How can we read the doom of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum, (Mat 11:21-24.) without trembling for ourselves, lest we should incur the like terrible sentence?We (who have now the written word in our hands, the gospel preached, and gospel ordinances administered to us, and who live under the dispensation of the spirit,) have advantages not inferior to those of these ungrateful cities; and our account in the last day will be accordingly. The professors, therefore, of this age, whether they go to heaven, or to hell, will be the greater debtors in either of these places: If to heaven, the greatest debtors to divine mercy, for those rich means which brought them thither: If to hell, the greatest debtors to divine justice, for those rich means which would have kept them thence!

Still we see the gospel hidden from many, who are esteemed the wisest and most sensible of mankind (Mat 11:25.); and, blessed be God, we shall see it revealed to some, who, in comparison of them, are but babes. Let not this offend us: but rather, taking our notions from the word of God, let us learn to honour those babes, as possessed of the truest wisdom, and adore the riches of divine grace, if we are in their number, while many of superior capacities, but enemies to the work of grace, are left to stumble at this stone, till they fall into final ruin.

How solemn a truth have we in the words of Christ, Mat 11:27. All things are delivered unto me, &c.! Christ is the sovereign dispenser of salvation, and the Lord of all things, even in his mediatorial office, by the donation of his father; as well as in his divine nature God over all, blessed for evermore. All the springs, and the whole dispensation of the divine favours, are in the hands of Christ; as Priest and Sacrifice, as Saviour and Mediator, Head and Pattern, Pastor and sovereign Judge of men. There is no knowledge of the Father and the Son, no belief of the mystery of the Holy Trinity, but what is a gift of God, by Jesus Christ. How lovely is this dependence! blessed Lord! we accept it with joy; we desire to depend on thee! Make us to know the father; make thyself known to us: but let the love in us be yet greater than the knowledge!

Under all our troubles and afflictions, after our miscarriages, in our temptations, and in our inability to do good, our only remedy is, to have recourse to Christ; and how sweet is it to be able to fly to a Redeemer, who comes to meet us, in order to solicit us to come to him! Mat 11:28. Sinners, wearied in the ways of iniquity, throw yourselves into the bosom of this amiable Shepherd, who, while on earth, took so much pains to seek you, and to bring you back to his fold. Penitents, humbled under the weight of your crimes, unite yourselves to this sanctifying Victim, who bore your sins on the cross. Christians, overburdened with the multitude of your defects, and with the greatness of your duties, lift up yourselves to this eternal High-priest, who is at the right hand of God his father, continually making intercession for you. The blessed Jesus excepts none; all are invited, all are urged to come to him. None shall seek, and not find: none shall go to Christ, without receiving rest. He himself promises, and shall we not believe?

Jesus Christ is the great teacher of humility, Mat 11:29. Learn of ME, says the blessed Saviour, with great and peculiar propriety; for it was a lecture of philosophy until then but little known in the world. Humility was a virtue, which had not so much as a name among the Gentiles before Christianity. But, supposing it had been known to the world before our Saviour, yet no mere mortal was fitted to teach it in perfection; and therefore it was a doctrine and a discovery reserved for and peculiarly adapted to the character and contrition of the Lord Jesus Christ; who not only humbled himself to the meanness of our nature, but vouchsafed to assume one of the lowest conditions of life, to teach us perfect humility in all its parts and circumstances; that humility, without which we can find no rest to our souls. Pride is the source of a thousand disquietudes.

It is not sufficient to go to Christ by faith; we must through his divine grace take upon us the yoke of his law and gospel, that we may conform our lives thereto, and study his disposition and behaviour, in order to imitate them. In the schools of the world, some study philosophy, others physic, law, &c.; in the school of Christ, every one must study meekness and humility: for to these two the whole science of Christianity may be reduced; the meekness of love, calm and sedate in the midst of wrongs, injuries, affronts, persecutions; without envy, without malice, without revenge: humility of heart, remote from all inordinate and worldly desires, by which pride is nourished; ascribing nothing to itself, and desiring nothing; ready to part with all things, to be placed below all men, to remain in silence and oblivion. Lord, vouchsafe to teach us this science, writing it in our hearts by thy love!

How easy and sweet it is to serve Christ, even bearing his cross! how hard and painful is the slavery of the world, of sin, and of our own passions, even with all their false pleasures! That satisfaction, peace and comfort, which grace gives here below, and that which hope encourages us to expect in heaven, make a Christian full amends for all his pains in subduing his passions through the power of grace, and in opposing the world.

REFLECTIONS.1st, Having finished his instructions to his disciples whom he sent forth, our Lord did not devolve the work to them and sit down idle himself, but departed thence to teach and preach in their cities; and in this blessed work the disciples sent from John found him employed. We are told,

1. Where John was; in prison, for his fidelity in reproving Herod the king. Such reward may the zealous ministers of God sometimes expect to meet. But the fame of Jesus reached him even there: and now, no doubt, with joy he heard of his labours and success. If we be disabled, it is still a most reviving cordial to hear that the work of God prospers.

2. The question that he put to Jesus by the disciples whom he sent; Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another? art thou the promised Messiah, or not? Some have supposed John was himself in doubt, and either discouraged by his long confinement, or, like the rest of his countrymen, prepossessed with the notions of a temporal Messiah; though it seems much more reasonable, from the testimony which John had borne to him, to suppose, that not for his own sake he sent this message, but for the sake of his disciples; whom, though they had cleaved to John hitherto, yet, he being shortly to leave them and to be cut off, he introduces to Jesus, that they might receive him from the fullest conviction of his character, and hence-forward commence his disciples. Note; (1.) God will not leave his people destitute: if one able minister be removed, another is raised up. (2.) It is the duty of faithful ministers to lead their hearers off from all attachment to men, even themselves, and to direct them simply to Jesus. (3.) Where the matters of our eternal salvation are concerned, it becomes us to be inquisitive, and to see that our faith be built on sure grounds.

3. The answer of Christ returned to their inquiries. He refers them to the facts which they beheld, as the most satisfactory proofs of his being that Messiah who should come into the world. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, &c. full evidences these of a divine mission, and a clear fulfilment of the prophesies which went before concerning him. Isa 35:5-6; Isa 61:1. And the poor have the gospel preached to them; those whom the Scribes and Pharisees despised, he received kindly, and acquainted them with the glad tidings of his grace, which many of them willingly received: or the poor preach the gospel; mean and illiterate men are endued with great gifts and abilities to propagate the doctrines of the gospel: and blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me; not prejudiced against him because of his poverty; the meanness of his station, and the despicable followers who attended him; but, looking above all these things, beholds in his works and words his divine character, and gives him the glory due unto his name. Note; (1.) Many treat the poor with contempt; but Christ hath taught us a different lesson; of such his church is chiefly composed, and this adds abundant honour to them. (2.) There are many things in Christ’s character and gospel which minister occasion of offence to the proud and self-righteous; but faith admires the condescensions of Jesus, and adores him for that at which others stumble and fall.

2nd, When John’s disciples were gone, Jesus took this opportunity of passing a high encomium on his character and ministry. He would not say it in their hearing, lest it should seem flattery; nor would have it reported to John, for he well knew how ill the best can bear even deserved praise.
1. He addresses a question to the multitude around him, many of whom had been John’s hearers. What went ye out into the wilderness to see? a reed shaken with the wind? was it mere curiosity; or did you suppose him a man unsteady and wavering? It was John’s honour that he was uniform and steady in his preaching and labours: and an intimation is contained in this question, that they who had gone so far to hear him should well consider what he had said, and inquire what profit they got by their attendance. Note; Many go a great way to hear ministers from curiosity, who soon forget all that they hear as a dream. But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? No. His garb bespoke his deadness to the world. He neither spoke nor dressed like a courtier. His reproofs were plain and rough as his appearance: the case of those to whom he addressed himself required it. Behold, they that wear soft clothing, and live delicately, are in kings houses; and he was utterly unlike those; his manners austere, his conduct steady. Note; (1.) In the work of the ministry, unshaken resolution is needful, which is alike unmoved by frowns or smiles. (2.) They who have heard and seen God’s ministers, should often inquire what they have gained thereby, or what end they purposed by their attendance. (3.) Our dress should be according to our station. It is no evil in those who are in kings’ courts to put on soft clothing; though it would be sinful in others to imitate them in expensive apparel which they cannot afford, or which is unbecoming their situation or character in life.

2. He tells them plainly the distinguished honour of this eminent teacher. But what went ye out for to see? a prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet. In general all held John for a prophet, and yet they understood not that peculiar distinction which he enjoyed above all who went before him.

[1.] He was the person foretold, Mal 3:1 as the forerunner of the Messiah, who should more immediately prepare his way, and usher him into the world. The other prophets saw him at a distance, and only spoke of him as to appear in the fulness of time. John beheld him face to face, and pointed him out as present: behold the Lamb of God!

[2.] Among them that are born of women, there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. Not only his miraculous birth, his being filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb, his exemplary life, rendered him singular; but, above all, the clear revelation that he had of the Messiah, his baptizing him in the Jordan, seeing the heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descending upon him, and the testimony he bore to him on that occasion,these made John far superior to all his predecessors. Notwithstanding, he that is least in the kingdom of heaven, is greater than he; the least of the ministers and apostles of Christ, or the meanest believer in him, would in clearness of gospel light, and knowledge of Jesus, be able to see farther, and to speak more distinctly of his sufferings, death, grace, and glory, and of the spiritual nature of his kingdom, than even the most eminent saints and prophets of old. Note; (1.) True greatness is not to be measured by outward splendour, but by the gifts and graces of God’s spirit, and the manifestations which Jesus makes of himself to the soul. (2.) If we enjoy greater advantages than others, our condemnation will be the greater if we do not profit under them.

[3.] By John the gospel of the kingdom began to be preached, and God owned his ministry with eminent success; for from the days of John the Baptist until now, a space of little more than two years, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force; the publicans and harlots, who by the Scribes and Pharisees would be reckoned intruders, convinced now of their guilt, and turned to the Lord, eagerly pressed for a place in the Messiah’s kingdom; and multitudes of others, awakened to a discovery of their sin and danger, eagerly embraced the declarations of grace, and with a holy violence strove to enter in at the strait gate. Note; (1.) Wherever divine grace has quickened the soul, there salvation will be made the great concern, and eager diligence used to make our calling and election sure. (2.) It is a distinguished honour conferred on any minister of the gospel, when God is pleased to make him eminently instrumental in calling sinners to fly from the wrath to come. (3.) Sluggish and negligent triflers in religion may never hope for admission into the kingdom of God. See the Annotations.

[4.] In the ministry of John the Old Testament dispensation closed, and the New began. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John; in types and predictions they pointed to the future Messiah, all the ritual service of the temple being designed to direct the worshippers to him; and, viewed in this light, it appears truly glorious: but now he was come, in whom all these were to be fulfilled. And if ye will receive it, and can credit my assertion, this is Elias which was for to come; not Elijah personally, but he who was spoken of, Mal 4:5 and who came in the spirit and power of Elijah, like him in dress and manners, and imitating his zeal. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear; which intimates that these were things that deserved attentively to be weighed, and, though dark and difficult to be believed, were truths of great importance. Note; (1.) The word of God must be examined with serious concern: it is not a slight and cursory perusal which will be sufficient to let us into the meaning; deep meditation, fervent prayer, and comparing spiritual things with spiritual, being necessary to a right understanding of the mysteries of grace. (2.) It is not hearing, but receiving the truth in the light and love of it, which can make us wise unto salvation.

3rdly, Having spoken of the excellence of John’s ministry, he cannot but reflect upon the inexcusable perverseness and stubbornness of that generation, which had for the most part continued in their impenitence, notwithstanding John’s preaching, and in opposition to all the miracles and means of grace which they had enjoyed under his own ministry and that of his apostles. For which an aweful reckoning remained.
1. He seems at a loss for a similitude whereunto he shall liken the men of that generation, they acted so contradictorily and absurdly; like sullen and froward children, who, when their playfellows use every little art to engage them, mimicking a wedding or a funeral, and inviting them to dance with them, or in mournful responses to answer them, morose and ill-natured they will join in neither. Such was the temper of the Scribes and Pharisees, with their disciples, respecting the ministry of Christ and his fore-runner; who used different means, but neither could prevail. John called to mourning, preaching repentance and humiliation, and in his own abstemious and self-denying conduct set them an example of mortification; and, so far from being affected thereby, they treated him as melancholy, and possessed by a devil. The son of man, with the sweetest music of gospel grace, sought to engage their minds; and by every kind word and deed endeavoured to insinuate himself into their affections; free and open in his manners, affable to all, joining with them in partaking the innocent refreshments of nature, and ready to converse with the chief of sinners for their good; and immediately they brand him as a glutton, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners, an encourager and a partaker with them in their immoralities. But wisdom is justified of her children. They who are through grace made acquainted with the truth, will approve all the means and methods which God is pleased to use, though others reject and despise them: or Christ, the wisdom of God, will be acquitted of all these malicious accusations of wicked men, by all who truly become the children of God, and are enlightened to know his true character. They will admire and adore him for what others revile and malign him. Note; (1.) there is nothing so absurd or contradictory which the enemies of the gospel will not say and do, in order to vent their malice against the ministers and truths of God. (2.) God uses every means with sinners, declaring the terrors of his law and the comforts of his gospel, sending them, by turns, mercies and judgments, and all to work on their obdurate hearts, or to leave them inexcusable in their impenitence. (3.) Different ministers have different manners of address, and are more particularly suited to the dispositions and tempers of some than of others: some are struck with a Boanerges, some melted under a Barnabas, a son of consolation; some are affected with the more austere manners of one like John the Baptist, others engaged by the sweetness and affability of Jesus. Every one has his gift, and all for the edification of the body of Christ, and for bringing sinners into his fold. (4.) The most powerful and engaging ministrations are not always crowned with success: but, when we have discharged our souls, and men refuse to hear the voice of truth, of reason, of conscience, neither drawn by the bonds of love, nor driven to God by all the terrors of wrath to come, then their blood is on their own heads; we are free. (5.) The greatest, the best of men, even he that was more than man, have been reviled as mad or libertines, as preaching doctrines of despair or licentiousness. Let it not seem strange if the same things be said of us, and if what is our highest honour in God’s sight be made matter of severest reproach. He is near who will justify us. (6.) Though the gospel and the ministers of it in general be slighted and reviled of men, to some their word will be a savour of life, and they will justify God in all his ways, being themselves living instances of the efficacy of the methods that he has taken to bring poor sinners to himself.

2. As he had reproached the obstinacy of that generation in general, he particularly upbraids the cities wherein most of his mighty works were done, because they repented not; for to lead them thereunto was the great end of all his miracles and preaching; but it had been in vain: and how shall they escape who neglect so great a salvation? They must needs perish who reject the only remedy which can cure them: and such wilful obstinacy must bring down greater damnation.

3. Two instances are particularly brought, of cities which had enjoyed the greatest means and mercies, and yet were more hardened than even the vilest of the heathen.
[1.] Woe unto thee Chorazin! wo unto thee Bethsaida! places in Galilee peculiarly favoured with Christ’s miracles and preaching; and yet the generality of the inhabitants persisted in their impenitence; though, had the like mighty works been done even in Tyre and Sidon, abandoned to wickedness as they were, they would have repented in sackcloth and ashes, and humbled themselves to prevent the impending ruin. Therefore at the judgment-day their doom shall be more tolerable than that of those cities which, by rejecting the gospel, fall under the most aggravated guilt. Note; An awful day is near, when the eternal states of all must be determined; when all the means of grace and mercies that we have enjoyed, must be accounted for; and none will receive so great damnation as those who, in opposition to the clearest light of the gospel, have persisted in the darkness of error and sin.

[2.] Capernaum, with peculiar emphasis, is threatened. Thou most dignified by the residence of Jesus, and distinguished with singular advantages above all other cities, which art exalted to heaven in outward privileges, shalt be brought down to hell, to utter destruction; and fall deeper into eternal misery from the heights of abused mercy. For even Sodom’s doom will be more tolerable than hers; for if the like miracles and long-continued ministry of Jesus had been vouchsafed to that city, her ruin would have been averted: but if Sodom was not spared with less guilt, Capernaum, with greater, must needs sink under more aggravated ruin. Note; Many of this day seldom think of the inestimable talent committed to them in the oracles of God and the gospel of his Son; but for these things a solemn account must soon be given; and woe to the sinner whose profiting at that day shall not appear.

4thly, Though in general the perverseness of the many afforded the most melancholy prospect of their destruction, yet did not the gospel word return in vain.
1. Our blessed Lord offers up his thanks to God the Father for those who had already yielded to be saved by grace through his sacred ministry; who, though few, and in the eyes of men despicable, poor, and illiterate, yet were precious to Jesus, and were the travail of his soul.
[1.] He addresses God as his Father, in whose love he had the most assured interest, and as the Lord of heaven and earth, the sovereign disposer of all things, able to do whatever he pleased according to the counsels of his own will. Note; Prayer is then a pleasing service, when we can call God Father, approach him with confidence, and, persuaded of his all-sufficiency to supply our wants, can quietly cast our care upon him.

[2.] He adores his divine will in being pleased to hide the glorious truths of gospel grace from the worldly-wise and carnally prudent, and revealing them to such as, comparatively speaking, respecting natural abilities, learning, and human accomplishments, were vastly their inferiors. Note; (1.) It is a mortifying truth, and of hardest digestion to the proud heart of man, that those whom the world admires as great, learned, and wise, the deepest scholars, the most profound statesmen, the most reverend doctors, and acute metaphysicians, in general are not, through the indulgence of their pride and their unwillingness to stoop to the humiliating terms of the gospel, even on a level with the meanest clown, respecting the knowledge that maketh wise unto salvation; but for the most part farther removed from it, and, through the self-confidence of their own hearts, given up to learned ignorance, and left to the spiritual blindness of their fallen spirits. (2.) The major part of those who embrace the gospel in its power, are such as the great and wise in the flesh despise, poor in every respect but grace, poor in station, abilities, human literature, and all that a foolish world admires. Some few indeed are found of the wise, mighty, and noble, but not many; and this will ever be, till the latter day’s glory arrives, as it was from the beginning, a stone of stumbling and rock of offence: Have any of the rulers and Pharisees believed?

2. Christ invites every mourning soul to come to him, with kindest assurances both of his power and willingness to help and save them.
[1.] He declares the plenitude of power with which he is invested for the comfort of all who should apply to him for refuge: All things are delivered unto me of my Father. As Mediator, he hath received a delegated authority, distinct from that which he essentially possesses as God over all, blessed for ever. The work of reconciliation, and all the blessings of grace and glory, are lodged in his hands. And no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. It is not the effort of man’s natural skill and labour, but a divine revelation which alone can make known to us the true character of God, his triune existence and perfections, together with the designs of his grace. And as there is a mutual consciousness between the divine Persons in the undivided Godhead, he, who from eternity lay in the bosom of the Father, is alone able to make him known, being invested with his mediatorial character for this very purpose. Note; (1.) There is no true knowledge of God, or intercourse to be maintained with him, but in and by Jesus Christ. (2.) To all those who will embrace Christ as their Saviour, he manifests himself as he doth not unto the world, Joh 14:22-23.

[2.] He declares his readiness to receive every poor sinner who comes to him weary and heavy laden; and invites them to lay down their burdens of sin and sorrow at his feet, that they may find rest unto their souls. Note; (1.) The persons invited are all that labour and are heavy laden; those who are convinced of their guilt and danger feel the insupportable burthen of sin, and are weary not merely of the burthensome rites of the ceremonial law, but of the bondage of corruption. And all, without distinction of nation, or difference in the measure of their guilt and sinfulness, are invited. Jesus rejects none because of the depth of their miseries, who do not themselves reject his mercies. (2.) The invitation is, Come to me, willing to receive, and able to relieve, all the wants of the miserable and the desperate, who by faith cast their care upon me, renouncing every other hope and dependence, placing their trust on me alone as their Saviour to the uttermost, and taking me henceforward for their Lord and Master. (3.) The promise made to such is, I will give you rest; pardon and peace of conscience to silence the accusations of guilt, power against sin to deliver you from the wearisome bondage of corruption, setting the soul at liberty from all terrifying fears, and enabling you on sure foundations to expect a part in the eternal rest which remaineth for the people of God. (4.) The dutiful returns for such mercies are here prescribed: Take my yoke upon you. We must receive Christ in all his offices; as the King to rule in and over us, as well as the Prophet to teach, and the Priest to atone for us. Obedience to his gospel must follow faith in his promises; and he asks nothing from us but that we should copy his example and be like him, that we may be meet for the enjoyment of him. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart; tempers which must ever characterise the disciples of Jesus, in opposition to that pride, perverseness, passion, and, self-will, which are natural to the fallen mind. He was meek under every provocation, patient towards the dulness of his scholars; lowly in heart, condescending to the meanest, and submitting for our sakes to every abasement; and when we learn to be like him, we shall find rest to our souls; such divine dispositions will bring a present heaven to the soul, and enable us to enter into rest here below, happy in communion with Jesus, and stamped with his image. Nor may we think that his yoke implies any thing grievous. No: his yoke is easy, and his burden light: his service is perfect freedom. Even the afflictions, temptations, and difficulties that we may meet with, are to be counted all joy; since so powerful will be the assistance of his grace, so abundant his consolations, and so blessed the issue, that we have reason continually to go on our way rejoicing, and to own to his eternal praise, and for the encouragement of others, that his ways are ways of pleasantness, and all his paths are peace.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

Mat 11:29-30 . To regard (Olshausen, Calvin) as referring to the cross , is at variance with the context. Jesus has in view His guidance and discipline , to which they are to subject themselves through faith in Him. Comp. Sir 51:26 , and the very common Rabbinical use of in Schoettgen, p. 115 ff.

] not that, but because; motive for (i.e. learn in me, learn from me; Buttmann, neut. Gr. p. 279 [E. T. 324]), with which words Jesus presents Himself as their moral example, in contrast to the character of the teachers of the law and the Pharisees, who, if they affected to be meek and humble, were, as a rule, not so at heart ( . belongs to both words), but only in appearance, while in reality they were tyrannical and proud. Comp. 2Co 10:1 .

. , . . .] Jer 6:16 .

] may mean good and wholesome (comp. , Plat. Rep. p. 424 A), or suave (Vulg.), gentle and agreeable. The latter suits the figure and the parallelism.

] the burden which I impose (comp. on Gal 6:5 ).

] for it is the discipline and duty of love, through which faith manifests its practical results, 1Jn 5:3 . “Omnia levia sunt caritati” (Augustine), notwithstanding the strait gate and the narrow way, and the cross that is to be borne.

Fuente: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer’s New Testament Commentary

DISCOURSE: 1350
CHRIST A MEEK AND LOWLY TEACHER

Mat 11:29. Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

EVERY office which Christ sustains in the economy of redemption, is replete with encouragement to sinful man. His sufficiency as our great High-Priest to make atonement for us, and his power as our King to subdue our enemies, are subjects of frequent meditation, and sources of unspeakable comfort, to the true Christian. His prophetic office, especially as exercised towards ourselves, is less considered by Christians in general, though it is equally necessary for us, and no less conducive to our eternal welfare. In a preceding verse our Lord has told us, that none can know the Father, except they to whom the Son should reveal him; and, in the words before us, he invites all to come and learn of him the mysterious truths, which, though already recorded in the written word, cannot be apprehended aright, unless he unfold them to us, and enable us to understand them.
In these words we may discern,

I.

Our duty

Christ having undertaken to teach us the way of safety, and the way of duty, we should learn of him,

1.

With the teachableness of children

[Children receive with the most implicit submission whatever their teachers tell them. Thus should we learn of Christ: we should not bring our own preconceived notions to the Scriptures, or presume to try the mysteries of revelation at the bar of our own corrupt reason; but we should believe whatever God has spoken, and receive it simply on the authority of the speaker. Nor should the opinions of the wisest philosopher be of any weight with us, if they be clearly contrary to the voice of inspiration [Note: Isa 8:20.].]

2.

With the diligence of students

[They who have a thirst for knowledge, are almost constantly employed in deep thought, and laborious investigation. Nor do they account any pains too great, if only they can gain that eminence and distinction, which superior attainments will ensure. Thus should we be occupied in pursuit of divine knowledge; reading the word, searching into it as for hidden treasures, meditating upon it day and night, and praying over it for divine illumination. While others are careful, and cumbered about many things, we should be sitting at the feet of Jesus [Note: Luk 10:39-42.], and embracing all opportunities of religious instruction, whether in public or in private.]

3.

With the obedience of devoted followers

[Earthly knowledge may be merely speculative: divine knowledge must be practical; it is of no use at all, any further than it purifies the heart and renews the life. Whatever we find to be the mind and will of God, that we must do without hesitation, and without reserve. As the reasonings of men are to be disregarded when opposed to the declarations of God, so are the maxims of men to be set at nought, when by adopting them we should violate a divine command. One single word, confirmed with Thus saith the Lord, should operate more powerfully to the regulating of our faith and practice, than the sentiments and customs of the whole world combined.]

The description which our Lord has given us of his own character, shews what abundant provision is made for,

II.

Our encouragement

Our Lords words are not to be understood as an exhortation to learn meekness and lowliness from his example, but as a reason why we should cheerfully submit ourselves to his teaching. In this view they are very encouraging: they imply, that,

1.

He will condescend to our ignorance

[Those who are proficients in deep knowledge, cannot bear the drudgery of teaching children the first rudiments of language. But Jesus, who is able to instruct the highest archangel, is yet willing to take, as it were, under his tuition the most ignorant of mankind. As in the days of his flesh, he spake the word to men as they were able to bear it, so now will he give us line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, and there a little [Note: Isa 28:10.]. When his own disciples forbad people to bring their children to him, under the idea that his time ought not to be occupied with persons so incapable of benefiting by his instructions, he rebuked them, and desired that all, of whatever age or description, might have the freest access to him [Note: Mar 10:13-14.]; being as willing to adapt himself to the capacity of a child as to the more enlarged understandings of the Scribes and Pharisees.]

2.

He will bear with our dulness

[Human teachers are but too apt to feel irritation from the stupidity of their disciples. But Jesus, who has infinitely more to bear with than we can have, is ever patient, and ready to renew yet again and again the lessons that he has given us a thousand times. Scarcely any person can be conceived more dull of understanding than his own disciples, who, after he had been teaching them for nearly four years, were yet ignorant of the necessity of his death, of the ends of his resurrection, and of the spiritual nature of his kingdom. He was constrained sometimes to complain of them in this very view; Are ye also yet without understanding [Note: Mat 15:16.]? Nevertheless he continued to teach them, till he had initiated them fully into all the mysteries of his kingdom. And thus will he do to the most ignorant of men; he will open their understandings [Note: Luk 24:25.], and guide them into all truth [Note: Joh 16:13.].]

3.

He will encourage our feeblest efforts

[It not unfrequently happens, that they who are slow of understanding, are altogether driven to despondency through the impatience of their teachers. But Jesus is all meekness and lowliness: and, however weak our efforts be, provided only they be sincere and humble, he will bless them with a measure of success, and with manifest tokens of his approbation. We may appeal to the experience of all, in confirmation of this truth: who ever sought instruction from him in a way of reading and prayer, without finding his mind gradually opening to an apprehension of the truth? Has not Jesus shewn, if we may so speak, a partiality for the poor and weak, revealing to them what he has hidden from the wise and prudent [Note: Mat 11:25.]; confounding thereby the wisdom of the wise [Note: 1Co 1:27.], and securing to himself the glory of his own work? Yes; in reference to the illumination of the mind, as well as to any thing else, we may say, He will not break the bruised reed, nor quench the smoking flax, but will bring forth judgment unto victory [Note: Mat 12:20 and Zec 4:10.].]

But, in addition to the encouragement which his condescension affords us, we have a further inducement to learn of him, from the consideration of,

III.

Our reward

An attention to the instructions of earthly monitors is productive of no little benefit. But if we diligently learn of Christ, our advantages will be greater than we can well conceive: we shall find benefit to our souls; we shall obtain rest,

1.

From the uncertainty of conjecture

[Mankind in general are in a state of doubt respecting the most important of all concerns: though they may assent to the principal truths of Christianity, they feel no assurance respecting them. But those who have learned of Christ, soon attain a full persuasion of the things they have been taught. The Scripture speaks of a threefold assurance; an assurance of understanding [Note: Col 2:2.], an assurance of faith [Note: Heb 10:22.], and an assurance of hope [Note: Heb 6:11.]: of all these, the men of this world have no idea: they are ready to speak of such things as marks of daring presumption. But the disciple of Christ has an inward witness of the truths he has learned [Note: Heb 11:13. 1Jn 5:10; 1Jn 3:19.]; and knows perfectly that they are not a cunningly-devised fable [Note: 2Pe 1:16.]. He can venture his soul upon them with as much confidence, as he can recline his weary body upon his bed. He knows in whom he has believed; and that the soul which is committed to Jesus, is safe for ever [Note: 2Ti 1:12.].]

2.

From the accusations of conscience

[In spite of mens endeavours to silence the convictions of their conscience, they never can obtain peace but in Gods appointed way. But the person that has learned of Christ to rely simply on his blood and righteousness, enjoys a peace that passeth all understanding. He knows that the blood of Jesus will cleanse him from all sin, and that there is no condemnation to the soul that believes in him ]

3.

From the turbulence of passion

[Whatever difference there may be in the natural tempers of men, all have some predominant passion that leads them captive. But the disciple of Christ has a new and more powerful principle infused into his soul [Note: Gal 5:16-17.]; by means of which he is enabled to bring into subjection his corrupt appetites, and to mortify those evil dispositions which are such a fruitful source of misery to the unregenerate. This forms the great line of distinction between the Lords people and others; for, whereas others are led captive by some sin, believers have not so learned Christ, if they have indeed heard him and been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus [Note: Eph 4:19-21.]: on the contrary, they that are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts [Note: Gal 5:24.].]

4.

From the fear of death

[Men may brave death on a field of battle; but all, except the true Christian, shrink from it in its more silent and gradual approaches. But Christ purchased for his followers a deliverance from this bondage [Note: Heb 2:14-15.]. With respect to them, death has lost its sting: yea, it is counted amongst their richest treasures [Note: 1Co 3:22.]: and they are enabled to look forward to it with pleasure, as the period when all their conflicts will cease, and their joys be consummated for ever [Note: Php 1:23.]

Such is the heritage of the servants of the Lord; and such is the rest that Christ will impart to all who learn of him.]

Address

[Are there any amongst us that are prosecuting human learning with avidity? O remember, that the knowledge of Christ infinitely transcends all other knowledge [Note: Php 3:8.], and will bring with it a more certain, and far nobler, recompence. Be persuaded then to devote to it some portion of every day, and the whole of your sabbaths, that you may not only be wise, but wise unto salvation [Note: 2Ti 3:15.].

Are there any that are dejected on account of their own incapacity to learn? Consider the abilities of your Teacher; and say, whether he be not able to instruct you, as well as others? He can make the blind to see out of obscurity, and out of darkness [Note: Isa 29:18.]: yea, he will the more readily exert himself on your behalf, because the excellency of the power displayed in your proficiency will the more evidently appear to be of him [Note: 2Co 4:7.]. Take comfort then, and expect the certain accomplishment of that promise, Then shall ye know, if ye follow on to know the Lord [Note: Hos 6:3.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

29 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.

Ver. 29. Take my yoke upon you ] q.d. Though freed by me from the damning and domineering power of sin, you must not think to live as you wish. In the greatest freedom is the least licence. a To argue from mercy to liberty is the devil’s logic: from mercy to duty is the right reasoning, as Rom 12:1 . Christians must not be yokeless, aweless, masterless, Belialists, that wander at will as wild asses, or canes, , but they must yield the obedience of faith, and be adding to their faith virtue, and to virtue knowledge, &c., linking the graces hand in hand as in a dance (so the word signifies, ), 2Pe 1:5 ; 2Pe 1:11 , so shall they have an entrance ministered unto them further and further into Christ’s glorious kingdom.

And learn of me ] The Arch-prophet, the Counsellor, that excellent speaker, as he is called in Dan 8:13 , that came out of the Father’s bosom, and hath his Father’s will at his fingers’ ends. Besides what he taught us by himself and his servants, he hath written for us those excellent things of his law, those lively oracles. He hath also left us, as here, his own practice for a pattern of the rule, and for a complete copy (as St Peter calleth it, , 1Pe 2:21 ), to write after. Pindarus saith of Hiero Syracusanus, that he had cropped off the tops of all virtues; b Melancthon, of Frederick the elector of Saxony, that he had picked out the flower of all noble abilities and endowments, c The same author proposeth George, Prince of Anhalt, for an example of unparalleled piety, worthy of all men’s imitation. Machiavel sets forth Caesar Borgia (a far worse man) as the only pattern for a prince to express. St Jerome, having read the religious life and death of Hilarion, folding up the book said, Well, Hilarion shall be the champion whom I will imitate, How much rather should we say so of Christ: every one of whose actions, whether moral or mediatory, were for our imitation. In his moral actions we should learn of him by doing as he did,1Pe 2:231Pe 2:23 . In his mediatory, by translating that he did to our spiritual life, as to die to sin, live to righteousness, &c.

For I am meek and lowly in heart ] Lo, here is a piece of Christ’s yoke, which he therefore so calleth, because as the yoke maketh the heifer hang down her head and frame to hard labour, so doth humility (the mother of meekness) work in our hearts, Hos 10:11 . d Ephraim was a heifer used to dance and delight in soft straw, and could not abide to plough: but the Lord will make him (and all his) both bear and draw, and that from their youth up, Lam 3:1-66 . And whereas meekness and lowly mindedness go coupled here together, we must know that they are virtutes collectaneae, as Bernard calleth them, a pair of twin sisters, never asunder. Remember, saith Mr Tyndale to Mr Frith, that as lowliness of mind shall make you high with God, even so meekness of words shall make you sink into the hearts of men.

And ye shall find rest unto your souls ] These Christian virtues have virtutem pacativam, they lodge a sweet calm in the heart, freeing it from perturbations and distempers. A humble man saith, Who am I but I may be despised, abused, injured? And that which will break a passionate man’s heart, will not break a meek man’s sleep. e

a In maxima libertate minima licentia. Salvian

b .

c Freder. selegit florem ex omnibus virtatibus. Scultet. Annal.

d quasi , ab , terra. Humilitas, ab humo.

e Socrates cum in comoedia taxaretur ridebat: Polyagrus vero seipsum strangulabat. Aelian. 5.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

29. ] , both ‘ from My example ,’ which however is the lower sense of the words, and ‘ from My teaching ,’ from which alone the can flow; the of Mat 11:25 ; Mat 11:27 .

. . . . quoted from Jer 6:16 Heb. Thus we have it revealed here, that the rest and joy of the Christian soul is, to become like Christ; to attain by His teaching this and of His.

Olshausen makes an excellent distinction between , an attribute of divine Love in the Saviour, and or , ch. Mat 5:3 : Pro 29:23 , which can only be said of sinful man, knowing his unworthiness and need of help.

is only here used of Christ. (Stier on Joh 14:1 .)

Fuente: Henry Alford’s Greek Testament

Mat 11:29 . : current phrase to express the relation of a disciple to a master. The Rabbis spoke of the “yoke of the law”. Jesus uses their phrases while drawing men away from their influence. : not merely learn from my example (Buttmann, Gram. , p. 324: on , that is, from the case of), but, more comprehensively, get your learning from me; take me as your Master in religion. The thing to be learned is not merely a moral lesson, humility, but the whole truth about God and righteousness. But the mood of Master and scholar must correspond, He meek as they have become by sorrowful experience. Hence : not that , hut for I am, etc. What connection is there between this spirit and knowledge of God? This: a proud man cannot know God. God knoweth the proud afar off (Psa 138:6 ), and they know God afar off. God giveth the grace of intimate knowledge of Himself to the lowly. : rest , such as comes through finding the true God, or through satisfaction of desire, of the hunger of the soul.

Fuente: The Expositors Greek Testament by Robertson

your souls = your own selves (emph.)

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

29.] , both from My example, which however is the lower sense of the words, and from My teaching, from which alone the can flow; the of Mat 11:25; Mat 11:27.

. . . . quoted from Jer 6:16 Heb. Thus we have it revealed here, that the rest and joy of the Christian soul is, to become like Christ; to attain by His teaching this and of His.

Olshausen makes an excellent distinction between , an attribute of divine Love in the Saviour, and or , ch. Mat 5:3 : Pro 29:23, which can only be said of sinful man, knowing his unworthiness and need of help.

is only here used of Christ. (Stier on Joh 14:1.)

Fuente: The Greek Testament

Mat 11:29. , take ye) To take the yoke of Christ upon us, is to give oneself up wholly to His discipline.-, …, because, etc.) Hence it appears why we should willingly learn from Jesus. Our meekness and lowliness are consequent upon our so doing.- , …, I am meek and lowly, etc.) Although His language is fearful in Mat 11:20; Mat 11:24. Meekness produces easiness of yoke; lowliness of heart, lightness of burden. The Pharisees were austere and proud. Condescension (Demissio) is a much to be admired virtue of God, which is described as fully as possible, although it is not named in Scripture, by one word; whose likeness, humility, is found in the saints; whose opposite, pride, in Satan and the wicked. For it is condescension, that that highest Majesty should have deigned at all to make creatures, and especially men, however contemptible, however mean, and to look on them without disdain, and to unite them to Itself. And the Son of God in a most conspicuous manner manifested His humility in our flesh.-See Psa 34:7; Psa 113:6; Luk 1:48; Luk 1:52-53; Luk 12:37; Luk 22:27; Joh 12:26; Joh 13:14; Php 2:8; Heb 11:16.- , in heart) Lowly does not by itself express a quality of the heart, which meek does; therefore in heart refers rather to lowly than to meek. The word completes the expression: see Rom 2:5.-, and) is introduced as in , and I, in Mat 11:28. Thus the LXX. in Jer 6:16, and ye shall find purification[547] for your souls. Rest flows from the heart of Christ into our souls; see Mat 11:29.- , ye shall find rest) as yet unknown to you, but sought for and desired.

[547] In E. V. it is, And ye shall find rest unto your souls.-(I. B.)

Fuente: Gnomon of the New Testament

Rest Under the Yoke

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.Mat 11:29-30.

1. Christ saw the people as poor, toiling, jaded animals labouring in the yoke, carrying an almost intolerable load, and in sheer compassion and love He cried to them, and said, Come unto me, and I will give you rest. And this rest He proposed to give, not by relieving them of every yoke and burden, but by an exchange of yokes and burdens. He proposed to take away the heavy yoke they were then bearing, and to give them His yoke instead. The yoke you are bearing, He said to them, in effect, is too galling; the burden you are carrying is too heavy; they are more than flesh and blood can bear. Take off your yoke, lay aside your burden, and take Mine instead, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

2. So Christ also lays a yoke upon us. But what sort of yoke? Justin Martyr, who lived in the first half of the second century of the Christian era, tells us that when Jesus was a carpenter at Nazareth He used to make ploughs and yokes for oxen. It has been suggested that this ancient Church Father derived that curious piece of information from the now lost Gospel according to the Hebrews. If we may accept it as correct,and it comes from very old times,Jesus was a yoke-maker by trade. Then He knew what make of yoke would be hard to wear and what easy. The easy yoke would be one that would not gall the back of the poor ox on which it was fitted, one, perhaps, that was deliberately eased so as not to press on a tender place. This is what a considerate artisan would be careful to see to; and we may be sure that in His artisan life Jesus would be thoughtful for the welfare of the dumb animals with which He had to do. He is considerate as a Master of human souls. There are some whose slightest commands sting like insults, and others so gracious, genial, and considerate that their very orders are accepted by the servants as favours. It is a delight to serve such masters. Their yoke is easy. Now Jesus Christ is the most considerate of masters. As Milton said, reflecting on the unwelcome limitations imposed upon his service by his blindness, Doth God exact day labour, light denied?

In using the metaphor of a yoke, Christ was probably employing an expression which was already proverbial. In the Psalms of Solomon, which are a little earlier than the time of Christ, we have: We are beneath Thy yoke for evermore, and beneath the rod of Thy chastening (Psalms of Solomon 7:8); and He shall possess the peoples of the heathen to serve Him beneath His yoke (Psalms of Solomon 17:32). The yoke was a common Jewish metaphor for discipline or obligation, especially in reference to the service of the Law. Thus, in the Apocalypse of Baruch: For lo! I see many of Thy people who have withdrawn from Thy covenant, and cast from them the yoke of Thy Law (xli. 3). Comp. Lam 3:27; Sir 51:26; Act 15:10; Gal 5:1; Pirqe Aboth, iii. 8. In the Didache (vi. 2) we have the whole yoke of the Lord, which probably means the Law in addition to the Gospel.1 [Note: A. Plummer.]

Taking the text in its own simplicity we find three things in it

I.The YokeTake my yoke upon you.

II.The LessonLearn of me.

III.The RestYe shall find rest unto your souls.

I

The Yoke

Take my yoke upon you.

1. When Jesus spoke these words He referred to the yoke He Himself wore as Man. That was the yoke of a perfect surrender to the will of God, and absolute submission to His throne. To all who came to Him He said, Take my yoke; the yoke I wear is the yoke I impose upon you. As I am submissive to government, so also must you be, if you are to exercise authority. Said the Roman centurion, I also am a man under authority, having under myself soldiers. The condition for the exercise of authority is ever that of submission to authority.

At the very beginning of His career Christ had to make His choice between self and God. The significance of the temptation in the wilderness is surely this, that Christ then deliberately chose to walk in Gods way, and with His eyes wide open submitted Himself to the yoke of Gods holy will. That is, indeed, the key of our Lords life. Deus vult was His watchword. He pleased not Himself. It was His meat to do the Fathers will, and to accomplish His work. He shrank from nothing which the will of God brought to Him. When it brought Him to Gethsemane and the cross, He said, The cup which the Father hath given me to drink, shall I not drink it? And that is the yoke He is commending here to the people, the yoke He had all His life borne Himself.

2. It is not easy at first to lay aside every other yoke and accept the yoke of Christ. The yoke is easy when you have put your neck beneath it; but to bring yourself to that point may involve a wrestle with self that almost tears the heart asunder. The burden is light when you have forced your reluctant shoulders to bear it; but to do that may be the most difficult thing in all the world. There are some things that are easy enough to do, once you have made up your mind to do them; it is making up the mind that is the straining, torturing thing. And easy as may be the burden that Christ imposes, calmly as the souls experience may go on when once the soul has settled down to the Christian conditions, there remains for all of us the battle with stubbornness and pride, the coercion of the stiff and resisting will, before we pass into the Christian peace. It is a difficult thing to take up the easy yoke. It is a heavy task to make ourselves carry the light burden. And we need not, therefore, distrust the genuineness of our Christward desires because we are conscious of so much difficulty in driving our rebellious natures to the point of Christly submissiveness.

How hard it is to be a Christian, cried Browning in the opening words of his Easter Day. To-day some people are trying to make it more easy. So they are discreetly silent about the yoke, and the cross, and the denying of self, concerning all of which Jesus spoke so plainlywhile they make the most of the joy, and peace, and comfort of the Gospel. The experiment does not appear to be very successful. Chivalrous souls would be more drawn by the spirit of adventure in response to a trumpet-call to battle than to listen to these soothing songs of ease. But if it did succeed, what would be the value of a Christianity so one-sided, so enervating, so self-indulgent? In fact, I do not see how you can call it Christianity at all. The ship is stranded at the bar of the harbour. What is to be done to float her? You can throw the cargo overboard; but then the very purpose of her voyage will be destroyed. It will be better to wait till the flood-tide, and then the ship will rise in the deep water and sail out to sea, cargo and all. It is vain to float our Gospel ship by throwing cargo overboard. The only wise course is to take Christs full message. To have the yoke and the cross as well as the pardon and the peace.1 [Note: W. F. Adeney.]

Is there no difference when you are on your bicycle between bicycling with the wind, when you scarcely feel the wind and go smoothly and firmly down the road, and bicycling against the wind? There is all the difference. In one there is peace and rest, and swiftness and progress. In the other it is beating up, beating up this way and that. You could hardly have a simpler and yet a truer illustration of the difference between being borne by the Spirit along the course of the will of God and trying to beat against the will of God and against the action of the Spirit. It is to fling ourselves into the tide of the SpiritJesus was driven by the Spirit into the wildernessto yield ourselves to the action of the Spirit, and to pass down the will of God before the wind. That is peace; that is rest. And there is no other in the world.2 [Note: Bishop A. F. W. Ingram.]

3. Ease comes by practice. When we have fully surrendered ourselves to Christ, the yoke becomes easy and the burden light. To yield to Christ, to obey His conditions, brings us into harmony with the eternal order of things, and makes us realize this; we know, when once we have yielded and obeyed, that we are in the spiritual positionif one may employ the phrasewhere we have all along, although perhaps without understanding it, wanted to be; and they who hear Christs call and answer to it are sure, so soon as their responsive movement towards the calling Christ is made, that the souls questions are settled once for all, the souls requirements met and its instinctive, deep-seated capacities filled. It is difficult to force ourselves to the yoke; but once it is taken up, the yoke fits, sits lightly, does not fret or gall. Christ is found to do no violence to the soul. Really to accept Christs conditions is to find ourselves where we want to be, set going on the true and satisfying line of life. We give ourselves to Christand in that surrender we, so to say, receive ourselves back again, made great and free. Christs whole method and spirit of life, once we comprehend and accept it, comes to us as the one right and natural thing.

We know what a galling bondage an uncongenial service may be; we know, on the other hand, what a genuine, an unalloyed delight that work is which is absolutely congenial. We make most of our children learn some musical instrument or other. But to many a boy the hours he spends at the piano are sheer drudgery. His practice-hour is Egyptian task-work to him. He has no taste or aptitude for music. But watch the man with music in his soul at the piano! Watch a Paderewski play! His hands ripple over the keys in a kind of ecstasy. Playing is not task-work to him, it is a rapturous delight. It is congenial work. When sons are growing up and the time draws near when they must face life for themselves, their parents great anxiety is to discover what their special aptitudes are, for in the long-run no man can be really happy or useful in his work unless he has some taste and fitness for it. A boy with mechanical aptitudes is unhappy if put to a literary or intellectual calling. A boy with intellectual tastes is wasted if put to mechanical employment. If a man is to be happy and useful he must find a congenial sphere in life. And the law holds good in higher concerns than the choice of a trade or calling. It is valid also in the moral and spiritual realm. If a man is to be at rest and peace, his soul must be in congenial service. And that is why Christs yoke is easythe service of God is congenial service.1 [Note: J. D. Jones.]

At the time of the great Civil War in America, the call went round the land for men to take up the cause of their countrys freedom. The men responded, and it was noticed that men whose lives had been made a very burden to them by all sorts of trifles, men who were always suffering friction and irritation because little things went wrong, men who, perhaps, could not stand any little trial or trouble without becoming almost unendurable to live withthese were the people who, not groaning and making a misery of it, but with a certain exultation of the heart, took upon them the great yoke of their countrys emancipation, and straightway all the little burdens were forgotten, they became absolutely trivial and insignificant, and the burden that they bore was light.1 [Note: C. Silvester Horne.]

Matthew Henry characteristically says that Christs yoke is lined with love; and St. Bernard cried in his distant day, O blessed burden that makes all burdens light! O blessed yoke that bears the bearer up!

II

The Lesson

Learn of me.

1. We understand now why Jesus adds, Learn of me. To take His yoke is to be trained in His school. It was a common thing for Jewish teachers to issue such invitations, just as to-day men issue prospectuses. Here, for instance, is a passage from the book of Sirach, written several centuries before the birth of Jesus: Draw near unto me ye unlearned, and lodge in the house of instruction. Say wherefore are ye lacking in these things and your souls are very thirsty? I opened my mouth and spake. Get her for yourselves without money. Put your neck under the yoke, and let your souls receive instruction. She is hard to find. Behold with your eyes how that I laboured but a little, and found myself much rest. The disciple must sit at his Masters feet, and patiently learn of Him, drinking in His teaching, absorbing His spirit, gradually growing into the knowledge and character that He desires to impart. This is required of the disciple of Christ who would learn His secret of rest.

When He says, Come unto me, and learn of me, we are not to think merely that we have to learn something; but we have to know that if we learn it in any other way than from Jesus, it is a lost learning.2 [Note: Erskine of Linlathen.]

It must have been at one of the early meetings [with University students at Edinburgh], when he had for text the grand Gospel invitation in the end of the eleventh of Matthew, that Mr. Drummond used an illustration which caught their attention and guided some to the discipleship of Christ. You ask what it is, this coming to Christ. Well, what does Jesus Himself tell you here? He says, Learn of me. Now, you are all learners. You have come to Edinburgh, some of you from the ends of the earth, to learn. And how did you put yourself in the way of learning what is here taught? You went to the University office and wrote your name in a book. You matriculated; and becoming a University student, you went to get from each individual professor what he had to teach. So, with definite purpose to learn of Christ, must you come to Him and surrender yourself to His teaching and guidance. Sometimes thereafter, when a happy worker had to tell of a new addition to the number of Christs disciples, he would pleasantly say that So-and-so had matriculated. 1 [Note: G. A. Smith, The Life of Henry Drummond, 300.]

2. Jesus gives us a perfect pattern of submission. I am meek and lowly in heart. Here alone in the New Testament is mention made of the heart of Jesus. He whose yoke we take, whose service we enter, whose lesson we learn, is lowly in heart; His love stoops from heaven to earth; His care is for all who are weary with earths vain service, all who are down-trodden in the hurry and rush of life. In Him they shall find what their souls need; not freedom from sickness, sorrow, or death, not deliverance from political or social injustice. No; He Himself suffered patiently; He endured these hardships and the agony of loneliness, desertion, and misunderstanding. He gives rest and refreshment to the soul. When meekness enters into the heart and is enthroned therein as a queen, a revolution takes place in that heart. At the gentle swaying of her wand many a Dagon crumbles to the ground. Pride must go, false ambition must go, resentment must go, jealousy must go; all these false gods must go, and take their baggage with them. And when all those have left, the roots of restlessness and worry will be plucked from that heart.

In the meekness and lowliness of Jesus lies great part of His mastery over men; in meekness and lowliness like those of Jesus lies our rest. The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is like the dust from flowers in bloom. It insinuates and instils. The meek man is not without opinions, or a stranger to enterprise. He does not live in an untroubled sphere, but he has no desire to see his opinion imposed on any. Children find out the meek; for meekness is the childhood of the soul. Haughty men are never young, the meek never grow old. Most of us have known some. The young are warmed by them, the middle-aged soothed, the old supported. Meek hearts live for ever: they are the stock of an immortal tree. They inherit lives that live after them, they are spiritual children. David says, God is meek: Christ says, I am meek. The Holy Spirits emblem is a dove. The dove comes when you do not stir it. Ask gently in silent prayer. He came thus to Christ, and will to you when kneeling and broken down. Thou, who art Thyself meek and lowly, take pity and create in us Thy meekness.1 [Note: R. W. Barbour, Thoughts, 105, 112.]

3. We must learn humility, because without it there can be no true obedience or service. Humility is the keynote of the Divine music which Jesus came to make in our world. It is because we have lost it that all has become discord. It is the keystone of the arch of the Christian virtues. It is because that is wanting that the whole structure of the Christian character so often crumbles into ruin. We are loth to give meekness that prominent position among the Christian virtues which Christ assigned to it. We often go so far as to put pride in its place, though pride is probably the most hateful of all vices in the sight of God. Without meekness it is impossible to perform any good and acceptable service to our fellow-men, for pride vitiates and stultifies all we do; and it is impossible to love and serve God, for pride banishes us from Him, since it is written: As for the proud man, he beholdeth him afar off. True humility, therefore, must be ours if we would obtain rest unto our souls.

The man that carries his head high knocks it against a great many lintels which he who stoops escapes. The lightning strikes the oak, not the grass. If you wish to be restless and irritated and irritable all your days, and to provide yourself with something that will always keep you uncomfortable, assert yourself, and be on the look-out for slights, and think yourself better than people estimate you, and be the opposite of meek and humble, and you will find trouble enough.2 [Note: A. Maclaren, A Rosary of Christian Graces, 154.]

III

The Rest

Ye shall find rest unto your souls.

1. When we respond to Christs invitation and come to Him, we enter into the rest of faith. The very act of trust brings tranquillity, even when the person or thing trusted in is human or creatural, and therefore uncertain. For, to roll the responsibility from myself, as it were, upon another, brings repose, and they who lean upon Christs strong arm do not need to fear, though their own arm be very weak. The rest of faith, when we cease from having to take care of ourselves, when we can cast all the gnawing cares and anxieties that perturb us upon Him, when we can say, Thou dost undertake for me, and I leave myself in Thy hands, is tranquillity deeper and more real than any other that the heart of man can conceive. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in thee. Cast yourself upon Christ, and live in that atmosphere of calm confidence; and though the surface may be tossed by many a storm, the depths will be motionless and quiet, and there will be peace, subsisting at the heart of endless agitation.

Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering waterfall, with a fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the fork of a branch, almost wet with the cataracts spray, a robin sat on its nest. The first was only Stagnation; the last was Rest. For in Rest there are always two elementstranquillity and energy; silence and turbulence; creation and destruction; fearlessness and fearfulness. This it was in Christ.1 [Note: Henry Drummond.]

2. This was Christs own rest. In reading the story of Christs life you are struck by that wonderful self-possession, that quiet dignity of soul which never forsook Him. There is never anything approaching to the agitation which betokens smaller minds. There is that large equanimity which never forsakes Him even in the hour of profoundest distress. Look at Him during the quiet years in the home. Though conscious of the high calling which awaited Him He never showed any impatience during those thirty years. Though He knew He should be about His Fathers business, He first found it in the little home in which He lived. Watch Him, too, when He moves out into the busy activities of His ministering life; you still find the same quiet self-possession and restfulness of soul. He stands absolutely unmoved amongst those temptations and seductions which were set before Him. So, when the crowd thronged round Him while on His way to the healing of Jairuss daughter, you see His quietness, self-possession, and restfulness of spirit. Even when you come to the final scenes of the agony, there is the same equanimity, for it is equanimity which can detach self from the urgency and the duties of the moment. When you turn to the pages of the evangelists, what is uppermost in the mind surely is this, the thought of the quietness, the dignity, the unrivalled tranquillity, the self-possession, the restfulness of soul which never deserts their Lord and Master. Throughout all, He possessed that restfulness of soul of which He speaks here. And this is the secret which the world has so often longed for. All men are disposed to say at a later stage of their life, Give us what you will, I do not ask now for joy or happiness; give me the capacity for sweet contentment, give me quietude of soul, give me the power to be at rest.

We can no more leave the path of duty without danger of ruin than a planet could without danger break away from the path of its orbit. The moral law is as binding and beneficent in its action, if duly obeyed, as the physical law. The yoke is a badge, not of servitude, but of liberty; duty and law are not stern and forbidding, but gentle and friendly; they are but two names for the fostering care of God over all His works. Wordsworth, who with clearer insight than all others caught a glimpse of the face of God beneath the veil of Nature, thus addresses Duty:

Stern Lawgiver! Yet thou dost wear

The Godheads most benignant grace;

Nor know we anything so fair

As is the smile upon thy face:

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds

And fragrance in thy footing treads;

Thou dost preserve the stars from wrong;

And the most ancient heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.

To humbler functions, awful Power

I call thee: I myself commend

Unto thy guidance from this hour;

Oh, let my weakness have an end!

Give unto me, made lowly wise,

The spirit of self-sacrifice;

The confidence of reason give;

And in the light of truth thy Bondman let me live.1 [Note: A. M. Mackay.]

3. This strange gift of rest is at once immediate and progressive. I will give you rest, that is, on your coming to Me; and ye shall find rest, that is, on your continuance with Me. The experiment of faith is to issue in an experience of rest which pervades every part of life until the whole is under its dominion, and until the peace of God reigns unhindered in the throne-room of the heart. As the tide setting in from the deep rises steadily until every dry inlet and creek along the coast-line is filled with the oceans fulness, so is the experience of Christs rest to increase and enlarge in the lives of His people. No man has learned all there is of a language or its literature when he has but mastered the alphabet. And no man finds all that the rest of Christ is who is content with a mere casual acquaintance with the Son of God. For the relationship which is adjusted on our first coming to Him must be strengthened on our side by a constant increase of the area of surrender, answering to increasing light. And it is in this ever-enlarging obedience that rest is increasingly found.

When our surrender is made, the pain of our sacrifice is great in proportion to our former selfishness. It is also harder to bear, or more protracted when there is any looking back. When we have once renounced our self-will and deliberately chosen the Will of God, if we look back we not only expose ourselves to grievous risk, but also we make everything so much harder to accomplish. If we would be brave in the surrender of the will, we must set our faces in the way of the higher life, contemplate the beauty of the graces proposed to us, and deny the former gratifications and appeals of self-love. We shall indeed prove that the surrender of our will and the acceptance of Gods Will is no pleasing action of the soul; but rather that, again and again, as grace increases so love will be tested. And yet, so perfect is the response of Divine love, that habitual surrender of the will to God leads to great peace in the fact that we have no will but His. Thus St. Catherine of Siena was enabled to make so complete a surrender of her own will that our Lord gave her His Will. She had made her communion with such devotion that she was led to pray that He would take away from her all comforts and delights of the world that she might take pleasure in none other thing, but only in Him. If we are moved by a like holy desire, we should persevere in the constant surrender of the will; nor let us be discouraged though we have to renew our efforts at ever-increasing cost. New and higher ways of self-surrender will appear, new opportunities of sacrifice will be presented, greater and more interior sufferings will test us, whether our love is equal to really great things; whether we will aspire to the heroism of the Saints in the effort after perfection. Be ye perfect is the Divine precept which echoes in the soul inflamed by love.1 [Note: Jesse Brett, Humility, 14.]

4. When we give ourselves up to the Father as the Son gave Himself, we shall find not only that our yoke is easy and our burden light, but that they communicate ease and lightness; not only will they not make us weary, but they will give us rest from all other weariness. Let us not waste a moment in asking how this can be; the only way to know that is to take the yoke upon us. That rest is a secret for every heart to know, for never a tongue to tell. Only by having it can we know it. If it seem impossible to take the yoke upon us, let us attempt the impossible, let us lay hold of the yoke, and bow our heads, and try to get our necks under it. If we give our Father the opportunity, He will help and not fail us. He is helping us every moment, when least we think we need His help: when most we think we do, then may we most boldly, as most earnestly we must, cry for it. What or how much His creatures can do or bear God alone understands; but when it seems most impossible to do or bear, we must be most confident that He will neither demand too much nor fail with the vital Creator-help. That help will be there when wantedthat is, the moment it can be help. To be able beforehand to imagine ourselves doing or bearing we have neither claim nor need.

They tell me that on a farm the yoke means service. Cattle are yoked to serve, and to serve better, and to serve more easily. This is a surrender for service, not for idleness. In military usage surrender often means being kept in enforced idleness and under close guard. But this is not like that. It is all upon a much higher plane. Jesus has every mans life planned. It always awes me to recall that simple tremendous fact. With loving, strong thoughtfulness He has thought into each of our lives, and planned it out, in whole, and in detail. He comes to a man and says, I know you. I have been thinking about you. Then very softlyIloveyou. I need you, for a plan of Mine. Please let Me have the control of your life and all your power, for My plan. It is a surrender for service. It is yoked service. There are two bows or loops to a yoke. A yoke in action has both sides occupied, and as surely as I bow down my head and slip into the bow on one sideI know there is Somebody else on the other side. It is yoked living now, yoked fellowship, yoked service. It is not working for God now. It is working with Him. Jesus never sends anybody ahead alone. He treads down the pathway through every thicket, pushes aside the thorn bushes, and clears the way, and then says with that taking way of His, Come along with Me. Let us go together, you and I. Yoke up with Me. Let us pull together. And if we will pull steadily along, content to be by His side, and to be hearing His quiet voice, and always to keep His pace, step by step with Him, without regard to seeing results, all will be well, and by and by the best results and the largest will be found to have come.1 [Note: S. D. Gordon, Quiet Talks on Service, 79.]

Rest Under the Yoke

Literature

Ainger (A.), Sermons Preached in the Temple Church, 39.

Allon (H.), The Indwelling Christ, 43.

Brandt (J. L.), Soul Saving, 251.

Burrows (W. O.), The Mystery of the Cross, 141.

Chadwick (W. E.), Christ and Everyday Life, 11.

Curnock (N.), Comfortable Words, 56.

Denney (J.), The Way Everlasting, 308.

Dods (M.), Christ and Man, 38.

Frst (A.), True Nobility of Character, 302.

Holden (J. S.), The Pre-eminent Lord, 180.

Holden (J. S.), Lifes Flood-Tide, 70.

Kelman (J.), Redeeming Judgment, 19.

Knight (H. T.), The Cross, the Font, and the Altar, 1.

Little (W. J. K.), Characteristics of the Christian Life, 223.

Little (W. J. K.), The Hopes of the Passion, 156.

Maclaren (A.), A Rosary of Christian Graces, 145.

Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 9.

Owen (J. W.), Some Australian Sermons, 93.

Rate (J.), Leaves from the Tree of Life, 1.

Russell (A.), The Light that Lighteth Every Man, 293.

Temple (W.), Repton School Sermons, 84.

British Congregationalist, Jan. 18, 1914 (A. E. Garvie).

Christian World, May 20, 1909 (J. D. Jones).

Christian World Pulpit, x. 309 (H. W. Beecher); xii. 222 (H. W. Beecher); xl. 396 (H. Ross); xli. 156 (T. R. Stevenson); lxv. 305 (J. H. Jowett); lxix. 81 (A. F. W. Ingram); lxxix. 68 (A. B. Scott); lxxxii. 43 (A. C. Dixon).

Church of England Pulpit, lxi. 414 (H. E. Ryle).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

my: Mat 7:24, Mat 17:5, Joh 13:17, Joh 14:21-24, Joh 15:10-14, 1Co 9:21, 2Co 10:5, 1Th 4:2, 2Th 1:8, Heb 5:9

and learn: Mat 11:27, Mat 28:20, Luk 6:46-48, Luk 8:35, Luk 10:39-42, Joh 13:15, Act 3:22, Act 3:23, Act 7:37, Eph 4:20, Eph 4:21, Phi 2:5, 1Jo 2:6

for: Mat 12:19, Mat 12:20, Mat 21:5, Num 12:3, Psa 131:1, Isa 42:1-4, Zec 9:9, Luk 9:51-56, 2Co 10:1, Phi 2:7, Phi 2:8, 1Pe 2:21-23

and ye: Mat 11:28, Jer 6:16, Heb 4:3-11

Reciprocal: Lev 1:14 – of fowls Deu 10:12 – what doth Deu 28:48 – a yoke Jdg 14:6 – he told 1Ki 12:4 – our yoke 2Ch 10:4 – Thy father 2Ch 10:11 – I will put 2Ch 14:7 – and he hath given Neh 3:5 – put not Psa 25:8 – teach Psa 25:13 – His soul Psa 32:8 – instruct Psa 45:4 – meekness Psa 81:6 – I removed Psa 95:11 – my rest Psa 116:7 – thy rest Psa 119:64 – teach Pro 1:22 – ye simple Pro 14:29 – slow Son 4:1 – thou hast Isa 28:12 – This Isa 29:19 – meek Isa 42:2 – General Lam 3:27 – bear Lam 5:5 – Our necks are under persecution Mat 5:5 – the meek Mat 20:25 – called Luk 1:79 – to guide Luk 6:47 – doeth Joh 8:32 – ye shall Gal 6:1 – in the Gal 6:2 – Bear Phi 2:12 – work Phi 4:12 – I am Col 2:17 – the body 1Th 2:7 – we 2Ti 2:25 – In Tit 3:2 – gentle Jam 3:13 – with meekness Jam 4:7 – Submit 1Pe 3:4 – a meek

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

LEARNING OF CHRIST

Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.

Mat 11:29

Just before our Lord spoke these words, He had declared His joy and thankfulness that intellectual eminence had nothing to do with the entrance into His school; that the mysteries of His teaching were hidden from the wise and prudent and revealed to babes. His Apostles maintain the same attitude. It might have seemed as though the triumph of Christianity must necessarily involve the depreciation of mental power. But in widest contrast with such a thought has been the actual course of the Churchs history.

I. No special privileges for intellect.At the entrance into the Kingdom of God the human intellect is received now exactly as it was in the time of St. Paul. In and by itself, apart from the consideration of its use, it constitutes no claim to enter into the kingdom; it has no special privileges, no exceptions, no promise of a good place there. The intellect must be brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; it must take His yoke upon it. And then it shall learn of Him.

II. Things to be learnt.Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me.

(a) Humility. The faith of Jesus Christ presses upon us the resolute cultivation of humility.

(b) Seriousness. Christianity bears a great part in the growth of the intellect by making it serious. To realise that our search for truth is conducted in the sight of God should lift us at once above the temptation to be ostentatious, or mercenary in the use and exercise of intellect.

(c) Unselfishness. The intellectual life will surely gain in purity and strength if the heart that animates it is unselfish. We are told that the besetting troubles of education and of learning in our day are hurry, worry, and money. If so, what a career is open for minds that are raised by the obedience of Christ and the example of His Cross high above this wasteful strife of tongues.

III. The resultpersonal influence.To be humble, to be serious, to be unselfish, these are the chief obligations which Christianity imposes on the intellect; these are the conditions of its entrance into the service of the kingdom of Almighty God: and when the highest gifts of intellect are consecrated by union with these graces, the result is a power of personal influence which it would be difficult to limit.

Bishop F. Paget.

Illustration

The education which I advocate, said Professor Faraday, has for its first and last stephumility. I well remember hearing Mr. Darwin say about a writer who was much talked of, and who is apt to be at once very positive and wide-reaching in assertion, Ah! I never read a page of him without thinkingtheres five or six years work for any one to see whether thats true. Humility and patience; these are the unfailing and characteristic elements in the temper of those who have really most advanced the empire of human knowledge.

Fuente: Church Pulpit Commentary

1:29

Yoke is from ZUGOS, which has been rendered in the Authorized Version by yoke 5 times and pair of balances 1. The word is used as an illustration of the obligation that one must accept as a co-worker with Jesus in the service of righteousness. Learn of me is consistent with the whole situation, for if a man expects to serve his yokefellow he should desire to know something about him. That learning will reveal that the owner of the yoke is meek and lowly which means he is humble and interested in the welfare of the unfortunate ones of earth. The rest is to be for the soul, not that a disciple of Jesus will be an idler in the vineyard. But while his body may be bent down with the toils of the service and from its persecutions imposed by the enemy, the inner man will be at peace and rest in the Lord. (See 2Co 4:16.)

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary

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.

[My yoke.] So The yoke of the law: The yoke of the precept: The yoke of the kingdom of heaven.

Fuente: Lightfoot Commentary Gospels

Mat 11:29. Take my yoke upon you. The Jews called the law a yoke. Our Lord here refers to His rule, doctrine, and leadership.

And learn of me. Either, take pattern from me, or as the context suggests, become my disciples.

For I am meek and lowly in heart, not in appearance merely, as the scribes. Humility is the first requisite in learning of God. The meek and lowly One can teach us this first lesson. The lowliness seems the greater from the language of Mat 11:27.

And ye shall find rest unto your souls. Rest of soul is the true aim; we must seek it, and seek it from Christ Man is made for Christ, and his heart is without rest, until it rests in Him.

Fuente: A Popular Commentary on the New Testament

Here note, That the phrase of take the yoke is judaical; the Jewish doctors spake frequently of the yoke of the law; the yoke of the commandments: and the ceremonies imposed upon the Jews are called a yoke, Act 15:10.

Now as Moses had a yoke, so had Christ.

Accordingly, observe, 1. Christ’s disciples must wear Christ’s yoke. This yoke is twofold; a yoke of instruction; and a yoke of affliction; Christ’s law is a yoke of instruction; it instructs; it restrains our natural inclinations, it curbs our sensual appetites; it is a yoke to corrupt nature; this yoke Christ calls his yoke, Take my yoke upon you: 1. Because he, as a Lord, lays it upon our necks.

2. Because he, as a servant, bore it upon his own neck first, before he laid it upon ours.

Observe, 2. That the way and manner how to bear Christ’s yoke must be learnt of Christ himself. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; that is, learn of me, both what to bear, and how to bear.

Observe, 3. That Christ’s humility and lowly-mindedness, is a great encouragement to Christians to come unto him, and learn of him, both how to obey his commands, and how to suffer his will and pleasure. Learn of me, for I am meek.

Fuente: Expository Notes with Practical Observations on the New Testament

Mat 11:29-30. Take my yoke upon you Believe in and obey me: hearken to me as a teacher, rely on me as a Saviour, and be subject to me as a governor. And learn of me , Be my disciples; be taught by me, namely, all things pertaining to your acceptance with God, your duty, and your happiness: for I am meek and lowly in heart Meek toward all men, lowly toward God. As an instructer, I will show myself to be most mild, gentle, and forbearing; kind and condescending toward all my disciples, directing them with tenderness, patience, and lenity, in the way to pardon, life, and salvation, not imposing on them any unnecessary burdens: and, as an example, recommending by my practice both meekness and humility; meekness by bearing all kinds of injuries, and humility by condescending to do the meanest good offices to the meanest of mankind. Learn, then, of me to be meek and humble, both in disposition and behaviour; and ye shall find rest to your souls That composure, tranquillity, and satisfaction which nothing but humility and meekness, with an entire subjection to me, can give. The original words may be properly rendered, Ye shall find refreshment to your souls, such as you would in vain seek elsewhere; refreshment, arising from clear manifestations of the divine favour, consoling influences of his Spirit, lively hopes of his glory, and sensible communion with him. For my yoke is easy Gr. , gracious, sweet, benign, agreeable; and my burden light Or, pleasant, as

also signifies. Such it is to those in whose hearts the love of God prevails over the love of the world and sin. To them, the commandments of God are not grievous, but delightful. They love his law, and their pleasure is in it all the day long.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Verse 29

Take my yoke upon you; submit to my authority. He speaks not as their Teacher merely, but as their Master and Lord.

Fuente: Abbott’s Illustrated New Testament

ake, Syr., bear, My yoke. He means, ye have borne a heavy and well nigh intolerable yoke, and the burden of the old law of sin and concupiscence. Come unto Me, I will take it away, and will change it into the sweet yoke of the evangelical law of grace and charity. I will refresh you by My yoke, which indeed is a yoke because it is a law binding the soul, but at the same time it is medicine, yea a bed, in which ye may sweetly rest, especially, by means of the humility which it teaches and commands. For it is the one and only medicine of all diseases, both of soul and body, and the alleviation and rest of all burthens. For nothing is harsh to the meek, nothing difficult to the lowly, says S. Leo. For as wool receives cannon balls and breaks their force by its softness, so meekness and humility break and soften all hard and rugged things. This yoke, therefore, is the gospel of Christ, and the law of grace. Whence S. Bernard (Serm. 15. in Ps. 91) says, “He invites those who labour to refreshment. He calls those who are laden to rest; and yet He does not take away either burden or labour, but He exchanges them for another burden, another labour, but a light burden, a sweet yoke, wherein rest or refreshment, even though it appear not, nevertheless is found.”

And learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, i.e., in the affection of the heart, viz., will, says S. Bernard (Serm. 49 in Cant). For many are lowly in word, few in heart. And ye shall find, &c. Listen to S. Augustine. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of Me, not to frame a world, not to create all things, visible and invisible, not to do miracles in the world and to raise the dead; but that I am meek and lowly in heart. Dost thou wish to be great, begin from the least. Thou art thinking of constructing a mighty fabric of loftiness, think first of the foundation of humility. And as great as each one wishes to build up his edifice, the greater the building, so much the more deeply let him dig his foundation.” Wisely says Climacus (Gradu 25). “Humility is a grace of the soul without a name, being named by those alone who have made trial of it, an inexhaustible treasure, having obtained a name from God, a singular gift of God. Learn, He says, not of an angel, not of a man, not out of a book, but from Me, that is, from My dwelling in you, and working in you, because I am meek and lowly in heart, and in thought, and in sense, and ye shall find rest from internal conflicts in your souls.

2. And better, Auctor Imperf. and Maldonat. Learn of Me, i.e., do not fear to come to Me, and to take the yoke of My gospel on your neck, for if ye come and receive it, ye shall indeed learn that I am no tyrant, nor a severe and rigid King, but a lowly, meek, element and benign Lord.

Moreover, Christ was of so great humility and meekness in bearing with the Scribes, His disciples, and the multitude, in bearing injuries, derision, the scourge, the cross and death, that even if He had wrought no miracle He would, by such meekness, have proved sufficiently, and more than sufficiently, that He was the Man from Heaven and the true Prophet sent from God. I verify admire more Christ’s meekness, than His miracles and His raising the dead.

Moraliter. Learn from hence how great, and how dear to Christ is humility. It is as if He said, learn of Me not to create a world, not subtilely to dispute concerning God and the Holy Trinity, not to perform Herculean labours, but that I am meek and lowly in heart.

2d. Humility is the secret of peace. There is no rest for the mind, save in humility. Do you wish for rest? Embrace humility, a lowly place, a lowly office, humble food, clothing, &c. It is impossible for the proud to have peace of soul, because they always desire great things, and often are unable to attain them.

3d. Humility takes from man every labour and all burdens. Humility is the alleviator of every labour, and the renewer of strength: as a certain Doctor has well said, humility is a medicine against all diseases; and health of soul and body. Moreover, Hippocrates hath said, Creatures without gall are long lived, i.e., animals which have no gall, such as stags, live long. The meek, therefore, and the humble, are healthy and long lived; for meekness brings into due order both the mental character and the humours of the body, which bile disorders, hence diseases.

4th. Humility is the virtue of Christ. Learn of Me, He says. This is mine own especial virtue, dear to Me above all others, which, by descending from Heaven to this lower world, and by stooping to the shameful death of the cross, I manifested in such a manner that none should be more illustrious and more wonderful in My life and in My death. Thus on the contrary, pride is the sin of Lucifer. Humility, therefore, makes us most like Christ. What more worthy? What more desirable?

Well says S. Augustine (Epist. 112). “They who have learnt of the Lord Jesus to be meek and lowly in heart make greater progress by praying and meditating, than by reading and hearing.”

Finally, Christ here joins meekness with humility, because they are, as it were, twin sisters, or as mother and daughter. Whence S. Bernard (Sermon 2, on those words in the Apocalypse, cap. 12, A great sign Rev 12:1) says, Like as naughtiness is the mother of presumption, so true meekness proceeds only from true humility.

Hear Climacus (Gradu. 24). The light of dawn goes before the sun, meekness precedes humility. Therefore, let us hear first Christ the Light, who disposes those things, as it were, by steps. Learn, He says, of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart. After that, He thus defines meekness: Meekness is the immutable state of the mind which preserves an equable frame in good fortune and in disgrace. Meekness is sincerely and ex animo to pray for those who trouble you without being troubled yourself. Meekness is a jutting rock against the fury of the sea, which breaks all its waves, whilst itself remains unmoved and unbroken. Meekness is the prop of patience, the gate of charity, yea its very parent, the proof of prudence. For He will teach, saith the Lord, the meek His ways. It is the procurer of pardon, the confidence of sinners in prayer, the habitation of the Holy Spirit. “For upon whom shall I look, save upon the meek and quiet person?” (Psalm 66, Vulg.)

For My yoke is sweet (Vulg.). The yoke and burden of Christ is the gospel, say SS. Hilary, Bede, and others. The law of the gospel, therefore, is a yoke, because it binds us to discipline, lest any one should depart from justice. The Gr. for sweet is not , i.e., sweet like sugar, but , i.e., benefical, humane, kind (Arab.), good in comparison with the old law. 1st Because it has fewer and easier precepts; 2d. Because it gives greater grace, which much lightens the burden of the command; 3d. Because it rules us as sons, not by fear, as servants, like the ancient law; 4th because it does not threaten, nor bring in death, like the old law, but takes it away; 5th Because it promises to those who keep it the most felicitous life, and as it were, leads them by the hand to the sweetness of celestial joys, according to the words, “They shall be satisfied with the fulness of Thy house: Thou shalt give them drink of thy pleasures as out of a river.” Psa 36:9.

He says, therefore, take My yoke upon you, because in the yoke of Divine servitude, perfect consolation and refreshment are included. Whence S. Ambrose (Lib. de Helia et jejun. Cap. 22): Receive, therefore, the yoke of Christ, do not fear because it is a yoke. Make haste, because it is light. It doth not bruise the neck, but dignifies it. Why do ye doubt? Why delay? It does not bind your neck with chains, but couples it with grace. It does not constrain of necessity, but directs the will to good works.

My, because indeed I, Christ, lay it upon you, yea, indeed, I beat it with you, and put My neck under the burden, yea I bear and carry all the burden, and you yourself with it. For that is called a yoke, which two beasts joined together bear. Christ then places one portion only of the yoke, i.e., the Evangelical Law, upon our neck; He himself bears the other and heavier part, and therefore He draws this yoke with us, and infuses strength and courage into us to draw it, both by His grace and by His example. So lately there was a certain priest in Japan of the Society of Jesus, who generously endured a dreadful death for Christ’s sake, who was often wont to say. “Christ therefore makes the yoke putrescent before the face of the oil.” Is. x. 27. (Vulg.)

We may apply what we read in the life of S. Mechtildes, who when she was tormented with fearful headaches and could find no rest, heard these words from Christ as He showed her the wound in His side, enter now, and be at rest. This straightway she did, and entered in with gladness. And it seemed to her that He had as many silken pillows as she had felt pangs of headache. And the Lord said, “Silk worms carry silk, and of Me it has been written, I am a worm and no man. Hitherto thou hast served Me devotedly in labours; from henceforth thou shall study to serve Me in pleasing exercises of virtues by My example; and the things which shall be insupportable to thee, I will carry with thee.”

This yoke, therefore, of Christ is not so much a yoke as a silken pillow, because it does not press us with trouble, but releases us from the weight of earthly things, and raises us to Heaven.

Wherefore S. Bernard appositely compares this burden to the plumage of birds. Thus he writes to the monks (Epist. 341), “In the way of life the more swiftly, the more easily we run; and the larger the Saviour’s light burden grows, the more portable it becomes. Does not the quantity of plumage a bird has lighten, rather than weigh it down? Take away its feathers, and what remains of it is borne down to the ground by its own weight.”

Thus, likewise, is Christ’s discipline, thus His sweet yoke, thus His light burden; if we lay it down, we are ourselves depressed, because He carries us rather than is carried by us. S. Ambrose adds (in Ps. cxix. Serm. 3), “To carry the yoke of Christ is sweet, if you consider it an ornament to your neck, not a burden. Lift up, therefore, thine eyes to the Lord thy God, seek God, and thou shalt find Him. Erect thy neck; thou earnest a necklace, not a chain. Many creatures delight in a necklace, and seem to themselves to be adorned rather than made naked; like as the cheeks of the turtle-dove will bear the marks of her modesty, the necklace of her neck will raise the presumption of her liberty. There is nothing more glorious than that yoke of Christ.” Lastly, S. Bernard (Serm. 15 in Ps. Qui habitat) by yoke and burden understands the load of God’s gifts and favours, because the burden of the law which is imposed is the gift of grace, the perfect observance of which brings all other gifts into the mind. “God burdens us when He unburdens us. He lades us with benefits when He unlades us of our sins. This is the voice of him who is burdened, “What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that He hath done unto me?” The voice of him who is burdened, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” Moreover, to the proud and carnal, the yoke of Christ and the law of humility, abstinence, continence, mortification, seems very heavy and intolerable, because they are devoid of the Spirit, and only love and think of the flesh and fleshly things. Truly says S. Chrysostom (Hom. 14, in 1 ad Cor.), “Virtue is rugged if it be compared with our weakness; for that it is easy and light, hear Christ testifying, My yoke is sweet, and My burden is light. But if thou dost not understand, let not wonder seize thee, for thou art not of a brave mind: for as, when strength of mind is present heavy things become light, so when it is absent, light things become heavy. What, I ask, was sweeter than manna? What readier to their hand? Nevertheless the Jews murmured when they were feeding on delicacies. What more dreadful than the hunger and the other labours which Paul endured? Nevertheless he rejoiced and was glad, saying, Now I rejoice in mine infirmities. What, then, was the cause of these things? Diversity of mind, which, if thou wouldst make it such as it ought to be, thou wouldst discern the easiness of virtue.”

Fuente: Cornelius Lapide Commentary

The yoke that farmers put on their oxen is a metaphor for the discipline of discipleship. This is not the yoke of the Mosaic Law but the yoke of discipleship to Jesus. Learning from Him involves assimilating what He reveals, not just imitating Him or learning from His experience.

Jesus is not only the authoritative revealer. He is also the humble Servant of the Lord. He deals gently with the weak (cf. Mat 18:1-10; Mat 19:13-15). Jesus quoted Jer 6:16, a passage that pointed to Him. The yoke of discipleship may involve persecution, but it is easy (good and comfortable). His burden is light compared to the loads Israel’s religious leaders imposed on their disciples.

". . . this voluntary making of the yoke as heavy as possible, the taking on themselves as many obligations as possible, was the ideal of Rabbinic piety." [Note: Edersheim, The Life . . ., 2:144.]

". . . what makes the difference is what sort of master one is serving." [Note: France, The Gospel . . ., p. 450.]

Israel’s unbelief is a strong theme in this chapter. We can see it in John’s question (Mat 11:1-15), in Jesus’ generation (Mat 11:16-19), in the cities of Galilee (Mat 11:20-24), and in the proud wise (Mat 11:25-30). [Note: Morgan, p. 111.]

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)