Dear friends,

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  (Matthew 11:28-30)

I'm sure that this passage from Matthew 11 is one you will have heard before, but like most of Jesus' teaching it leaves us thinking, "we understand what the words mean but what is he saying?"  Because of things that I heard preached and taught in my formative years I have always had a picture of the kind of yoke that links two oxen or cattle together, so that they support each other and share the load as they work.  In my mind's eye I have always thought of myself on one side of the yoke and Christ on the other side.  Whatever burdens in life we have to bear, this picture is one that reminds us that Christ walks beside us and never leaves us, whatever we have to do or face.

It's a comforting and helpful picture - not least because it's true.  Jesus promised his followers, "Lo, I am with you always, to the end of time." 

Just recently, I have seen a different way of picturing what Jesus might have been saying.  Imagine yourself on one side of the yoke and imagine another human being on the other side of the yoke.  What does the yoke look like?  Imagine the cross between you.  The side arms of the cross linking your shoulders, the head of the cross in front, just before your eyes, the foot of the cross earthed in whatever task is having to be undertaken.

"Take my yoke upon you."  Could Christ be saying in effect, "I am the yoke?"  This image is one that I find equally comforting and helpful, but also slightly more relevant to contemporary life and certainly more powerful.  If Christ is the yoke then not only am I working with another person, but that person is working with me.  The arms of the cross keep us separate in our individuality and uniqueness, just as Christ sees us individual and unique, but also remind us of our equality in his presence.  The arms of the cross, the yoke that joins us together, causes us to need each other, to have to work together for the task to be achieved, which can only be achieved because of the yoke that holds us together.

One way of interpreting this saying of Jesus' is that we must see others as our partners, and always see Christ who stands with us and betweens us, who keeps us separate in our individuality but joins us together in a common task. 

There's just one other thing, however, that it is important to remember.  It is not the ox on the one side of the yoke who decides which ox is going to go on the other side; that is decided by the one who is in charge.  Christ's yoke is not something that allows us to pick and choose who we want to share the gospel with, but Christ's yoke is something that links all people of all generations together, gifts and skills matching needs and purpose.

Try it.  Next time you are standing next to someone who is a complete stranger to you, perhaps in a queue for the bus or for the supermarket checkout, imagine the cross of Christ standing between you; the head of the cross firmly pointing to heaven for you both, the foot of the cross firmly rooted in the earth where you live; and the arms of the cross linking you together in one common humanity... and just see how different it makes you feel!

God bless you all,