You Will Find Rest When You Yoke Yourself to Jesus

Everyone experiences feelings of overwhelmingness, depression, and hopelessness when personal problems, physical challenges, and troubling thoughts become too much. During these times, what is the best action to take?

Some people search for their solace in a bottle, while others seek professional therapy. In extreme cases, some will contemplate if their life has enough value to continue living. Even if one is not facing unbearable stress but simply experiencing life’s less staggering burdens, it can still be extremely aggravating.

What faithful Catholics find beneficial during any times of turmoil is to contemplate Jesus’s double-barreled invitation to us:

“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28-30).

This invitation is double-barreled. Our Lord first invites us to come to Him for rest, and then He invites us to take up His yoke.  Jesus isn’t simply saying come to Him and He will take away all your troubles. He is telling us that if we turn to Him and His Father, we are more likely going to rest not just our bodies, but our minds and souls.

Rest Both Physically and Spiritually

We know that resting is so important that even God rested at the end of each day of creation, as told in Genesis. We read in the Gospels how Jesus rested when He took time away from the crowds and His ministry to spend time with his Father, to enjoy a meal with his apostles, and even to take a nap on a boat during a storm at sea.

In today’s wild and fast-paced world, rest is critical to us so we can refocus on what really matters. Resting can be purely physical, such as putting our feet up and taking a nap, but it can also be a spiritual rest, where we ponder the wonders of our Lord, ruminate on how good He is to us, and hope for eternal life with Him.

Resting spiritually in God is when you put aside all the noises and distractions of the world and solely focus on Jesus and listen to God speaking to you through the Holy Spirit. Jesus is not promising that resting in Him will deliver you from adversity and stress. His invitation to come to Him for rest means you should present your burdens to Him, have faith that your Lord works everything together for your good, and find comfort in knowing that with Him you can endure all things.

Some people find they can better focus if part of this restful time involves reading Scripture. There are many Bible verses which speak of God’s promises to provide rest when you seek Him and which might inspire you to jump out of the fast paced lane, slow your day down, and find rest in God’s presence.

One of these most popular Bible passages is Psalm 23, where David praises God for providing rest:

“The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures he makes me lie down; to still waters he leads me; he restores my soul.”

Jesus’s Yoke

Once we find rest in Jesus, He invites us to “take up” His yoke.

A yoke was a wooden harness hand-carved to fit the neck and shoulders of a pair of farm animals, most often oxen. Bonded together, the oxen act in unison, making the tasks of ploughing a field or pulling a cart more easily handled.

Figuratively, a yoked person is acting in submission to another. While not literally joined with another by a wooden harness, there is nevertheless a bonding. Taking someone’s yoke upon you makes you in servitude to what your paired partner says or to where he/she directs you.

Jesus is telling us not to carry our yoke but to carry His. By carrying Jesus’ yoke we are living our lives with Him and in Him. Just as our Savior came to serve, which culminated in Him giving His life for others, we should do the same. As we ponder Jesus placing His yoke upon our shoulders, we should conceptualize agreeing to work alongside Him, humbly serving others. Doing so will give meaning and purpose to our lives, which will have the added effect of helping us forget our burdens and finding renewed energy.

It feels comforting when yoked to something or someone who shares some of the load. There is even more peace of mind when this someone is the Light of the World. Learning from Jesus and joining in His mission results in our lives having more meaning and our troubles weighing less.

When yoked with Christ, one moves together in the same direction and at the same pace. You can’t go in a different direction or go any faster than He goes. Our Lord sets the direction and sets the pace. The world is at a very frenzied pace and is heading in an immoral direction. If you don’t yoke yourself with Jesus, you’ll most likely be stressed out trying to keep up with society’s accelerated tempo and dangerous trajectory.

Join Christ

Why follow the pace and direction of the secular culture and godless people when Christ invites you to join Him? He has created a partnership that will bring you more joy and less headaches. Plus, He will teach you how to learn from His humility, share in His loving obedience to the Father, and pray with steadfast trust.

Today’s hurried and depraved world entices us to the wide path toward destruction. Furthermore, our personal burdens and toils of life can feel overwhelming. During all these moments, Jesus offers his helpful yoke for us to embrace, bringing us more rest, more joy, and more meaningful purpose. He directs us on the narrow path toward eternal life with His Father and Him.