This Yoke’s on You!

Freedom is one of those words everybody likes.

We want freedom from stress, freedom from debt, freedom from other people’s expectations, freedom from guilt, and freedom to make our own choices.

But when the Bible talks about freedom, it means so much more than just doing whatever we want.
This summer we are going through the book of Galatians, and you can find all the messages here.

This week Paul starts Galatians 5 with this powerful statement:
“It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.” – Galatians 5:1

You see, the Galatians had already put their faith in Jesus, but other teachers (called Judaizers) had come along telling them that Jesus wasn’t quite enough.  That they needed circumcision and obedience to the Law of Moses if they really wanted to be accepted by God.

A couple of weeks ago we saw this equation. How Paul was showing how the church went from this:

Jesus + faith = Salvation
To believing this:
Jesus + my performance (obeying the law) = Salvation

Paul is saying and is passionately declaring that this isn’t freedom! It’s actually another kind of slavery.

And to drive this point home, he gives us an image of a yoke, which would have been easily understood by the Galatian church. But for us, we may not see or understand the significance of this picture.

Which begs the question: What Exactly Was a Yoke?

I’m not a farmer, but I do know that a yoke was a wooden crossbar placed across the necks of animals (usually oxen) so they could pull a plow or cart together. I did a little research, and a couple of things about these yokes stood out to me.

First, these yokes had to fit properly, and if they were misshaped, they could rub the animals raw and make the work much harder than it needed to be.

Second, animals were often yoked together. A younger or inexperienced animal would be put with an older and stronger one, in order to learn how to move and work with the yoke on.

Throughout the Old Testament, a yoke often represented being under someone’s authority or carrying someone’s burden.
God said to Israel: “I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.” – Leviticus 26:13

Isaiah describes how God breaks the yoke of oppression. Jeremiah once even wore a wooden yoke as a prophetic sign of submission to Babylon that would come if they didn’t repent. The prophet Nahum spoke of God breaking the yoke of oppression from His people’s necks.

So, when Paul says, “Do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery,” that picture would have resonated with his audience.
Christ had set them free, but now they were being told they needed to carry another religious burden in order to fully be accepted by God.

But Not Every Yoke Was Bad

The image of a yoke wasn’t always a negative thing. In Jewish thought, it could also describe someone willingly putting themselves under God’s authority. Jewish writings would often talk about the “yoke of Torah,” or the “yoke of the commandments.”

The basic idea was this:
I am choosing to put my life under this authority.

And that gives us some context for something Jesus said.

“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

Notice Jesus didn’t say:
“Come to Me, and you’ll never have a yoke again.”
He says: “Take My yoke.”

You see, Christian freedom doesn’t mean living with no authority over your life. It means living under the right authority.

In Jesus’ day, becoming someone’s disciple meant more than sitting in a class and learning information. A disciple learned the teacher’s way of understanding Scripture and then tried to actually live it out. Different rabbis had different interpretations of how the Law should be applied. So, when Jesus says:

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me,”

He is basically saying:
Learn My Way. Walk with Me. Let Me show you what life with God is supposed to look like.

Then Jesus says:
“For my yoke is easy.” – Matthew 11:30

The Greek word translated easy (chrestos) can also mean good, kind, useful, or well-suited.
Jesus isn’t saying following Him will always be effortless. A yoke is still a yoke. But His yoke is good.

It is also interesting to know that Jesus grew up as a tekton (a craftsman or builder). He likely would have made physical yokes and would have understood what a wrongly fitted yoke would do and the damage it could cause the animal.

Some people have experienced religion like a badly fitted yoke.

Always striving.
Always guilty.
Always wondering, Have I prayed enough? Served enough? Given enough? Am I good enough?

There’s always another voice saying:

You should be doing more.
You should be further along.
God would be happier with you if…

Jesus would often confront religious leaders who placed this kind of burden on people:

“They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders.” – Matthew 23:4
But Jesus offers something different:
“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”

His invitation begins with grace. Eugene Peterson captures this passage beautifully in The Message: “Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

I love that phrase because it describes a life that isn’t driven by fear, pressure, or the need to impress God. It’s learning to walk with Jesus at His pace, trusting that His grace is enough.

That doesn’t mean we just sit back and do nothing. But this grace changes the motivation behind obedience. We aren’t obeying to earn God’s love; we obey because we’ve already received it, and this is what the apostle Paul is desperately trying to convince the church of.

Corrie ten Boom once told a story about carrying a heavy suitcase as a child. When she told her father it was too heavy, he picked it up and carried it for her. Years later, she recognized the lesson: God doesn’t necessarily remove every responsibility from us, but He carries what we were never meant to carry alone.

I love this picture of grace. There is still a load, but we don’t have to carry it by ourselves!

Paul then breaks this freedom down and makes it really practical:

“The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.” – Galatians 5:6
“Serve one another humbly in love.” – Galatians 5:13
“Love your neighbour as yourself.” – Galatians 5:14
So how do we know grace is actually changing us?

Look at how we treat people. Ask yourself:

How do I talk to my spouse when I’m tired?
How do I respond when my kids frustrate me?
How do I treat someone who disagrees with me?
What happens when I’m overlooked, offended, or inconvenienced?

Paul warns us that, “If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.”  – Galatians 5:15

It’s so easy to do just that with a comment, a sarcastic reply, or by simply having a conversation behind someone’s back. But the freedom Christ gives us is meant to produce love.

So, whose yoke are you wearing?
Is it a yoke of approval, guilt, or the pressure to prove yourself?

Jesus says:
“Come to me… Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.”

Following Jesus still involves surrender. A yoke is still a yoke. But His way leads to life rather than exhaustion. Jesus invites us to walk with Him, learn His way, and discover the unforced rhythms of grace. And when we do, freedom stops being merely something we experience and becomes something we give away.

We have been set free from the burden of earning God’s approval, so we can be free to love.