Teks -- Matthew 11:30 (NET)

11:30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”

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Vincent: Mat 11:30 - Easy

Easy ( χρηστὸς )

Not a satisfactory rendering. Christ's yoke is not easy in the ordinary sense of that word. The word means originally, good, serviceable. The kindred noun, χρηστότης , occurring only in Paul's writings, is rendered kindness in 2Co 6:6; Tit 3:4; Gal 5:22; Eph 2:7 (Rev.), and goodness, Rom 2:4 (Rev.). At Luk 5:39, it is used of old wine, where the true reading, instead of better, is good (χρηστός ) , mellowed with age. Plato (" Republic," 424) applies the word to education. " Good nurture and education (τροφὴ γὰρ καὶ παίδευσις χρηστὴ ) implant good (ἀγαθὰς ) constitutions; and these good (χρησταὶ ) constitutions improve more and more;" thus evidently using χρηστός and ἀγαθός as synonymous. The three meanings combine in the word, though it is impossible to find an English word which combines them all. Christ's yoke is wholesome, serviceable, kindly. " Christ's yoke is like feathers to a bird; not loads, but helps to motion" (Jeremy Taylor).

Wesley: Mat 11:30 - For my yoke is easy

Or rather gracious, sweet, benign, delightful: and my burden - Contrary to those of men, is ease, liberty, and honour.

JFB: Mat 11:30 - For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light

Matchless paradox, even among the paradoxically couched maxims in which our Lord delights! That rest which the soul experiences when once safe under Christ's wing makes all yokes easy, all burdens light.

Clarke: Mat 11:30 - For my yoke is easy

For my yoke is easy - My Gospel imposes nothing that is difficult; on the contrary, it provides for the complete removal of all that which oppresses and renders man miserable, viz. sin. The commandments of Christ are not grievous. Hear the whole: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. Can any thing be more congenial to the nature of man than love? - such a love as is inspired by God, and in which the soul rests supremely satisfied and infinitely happy? Taste, and know, by experience, how good the Lord is, and how worthy his yoke is to be taken, borne, and loved. This most tender invitation of the compassionate Jesus is sufficient to inspire the most diffident soul with confidence. See on Mar 8:34 (note)

Creeshna, the incarnate God of the Hindoos, is represented in the Geeta addressing one of his beloved disciples thus: "I am the creator of all things, and all things proceed from me. Those who are endued with spiritual wisdom, believe this, and worship me: their very hearts and minds are in me; they rejoice among themselves, and delight in speaking of my name, and teaching one another my doctrine. I gladly inspire those who are constantly employed in my service with that use of reason by which they come unto me; and, in compassion, I stand in my own nature, and dissipate the darkness of their ignorance with the light of the lamp of wisdom."Bhagvat Geeta, p. 84

The word עול aval , among the Jews, which we properly enough translate yoke, signified not only that sort of neck-harness by which bullocks drew in wagons, carts, or in the plough; but also any kind of bond, or obligation, to do some particular thing, or to do some particular work. By them it is applied to the following things: -

1.    The yoke of the Kingdom of heaven, עול מלכות השמים obedience to the revealed will of God

2.    The yoke of the Law, עול הורה the necessity of obeying all the rites, ceremonies, etc., of the Mosaic institution

3.    The yoke of the Precept, עול מצוה the necessity of performing that particular obligation by which any person had bound himself, such as that of the Nazarite, etc

4.    The yoke of Repentance, עול של השוכה without which, they knew, they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven. With the Jews, repentance not only implied forsaking sin, but fasting, mortification, etc

5.    The yoke of Faith, עול אמונה the necessity of believing in the promised Messiah

6.    The Divine yoke, עול רלעילא the obligation to live a spiritual life; a life of thanksgiving and gratitude unto God

In Shemoth Rabba it is said: "Because the ten tribes did not take the yoke of the holy and blessed God upon them, therefore Sennacherib led them into captivity.

Christ’ s yoke means, the obligation to receive him as the Messiah, to believe his doctrine, and to be in all things conformed to his Word and to his Spirit.

Defender: Mat 11:30 - easy

"Easy" could better be rendered "kind." A yoke is normally cruel and painful, but the yoke of Christ is kind."

TSK: Mat 11:30 - my yoke // burden

my yoke : Pro 3:17; Mic 6:8; Act 15:10,Act 15:28; Gal 5:1, Gal 5:18; 1Jo 5:3

burden : Joh 16:33; 2Co 1:4, 2Co 1:5, 2Co 4:17, 2Co 12:9, 2Co 12:10; Phi 4:13

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Poole: Mat 11:28-30 - Take my yoke upon you // For I am meek and lowly // For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light

Ver. 28-30. Our Lord having before showed;

1. That all power was given to him;

2. That none could know the Father but by and in him; closes his discourse with an invitation of persons to him. By the weary and heavy laden, in the text, some understand those that are laden with the sense of their sins, and the feeling the guilt of them. Others understand, with the burden of the law, which the apostles called a yoke, Act 15:10 .

Mr. Calvin thinks this too strait an interpretation. Others understand heavy laden with trials and afflictions. Christ will give rest to all those of his people that are any ways weary and heavy laden, but in an order first to souls wearied and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, and their want of a righteousness wherein to stand before God. Then to such to whom he hath given this rest, he promises also rest from their troubles and persecutions in the world, Joh 16:33 . It is very like he used this term, Come, with respect to that of Isaiah, Isa 55:1,2 . That by coming is to be understood believing is plain from Joh 6:44-46 Heb 11:6 . The rest promised chiefly respecteth the soul, as appears from Mat 11:29 . The promise may be understood both of that rest which believers have in this life, Rom 5:2 15:13 , and also of that rest which after this life remaineth to the people of God, Heb 4:9 . Whatever the rest be, it must be of Christ’ s giving and our seeking; nor is it to be obtained without labour and suffering, for it followeth,

Take my yoke upon you The members of Christ are not without a yoke, a law and rule by which they are obliged to walk; and though the service of God be a perfect freedom, yet to flesh and blood it is a yoke, grating upon our sensitive appetite, and restraining our natural motions and inclinations.

For I am meek and lowly Humility and meekness are in themselves yokes, as they are contrary to our pride, and aptness to swell in a high opinion of ourselves; and to our wrath and danger, which sometimes boils to a great height, without any due fuel: and as in themselves they are a great part of Christ’ s yoke, so they fit and dispose us to take Christ’ s further yoke upon us, and may be here considered as means directed for the better performance of the precept,

Take my yoke upon you Our Lord also by this precept lets us know there can be no true faith without obedience to the commands of Christ. Though true faith and obedience be two things, yet they are inseparable; Show me thy faith (saith James) by thy works; and the rest of the text is not promised to either of them severally, but to both jointly.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light Our Saviour had before Mat 7:13,14told us that the way to heaven is a strait way, how doth he now tell us his yoke is easy and his burden light?

Answer:

1. Nothing makes it hard or burdensome but our corruption, which floweth from the depravation of human nature.

2. It is much easier than the yoke and burden of the law.

3. Though it be hard to beginners, yet it is easy when we have once accustomed ourselves to it.

4. It is easy, considering that we do it not in our own strength, but by assistance from God, Jer 31:33 Eze 36:25,26 Joh 15:3 , we are delivered even from the moral law, considered as a covenant, and as merely commanding us, and affording no help and assistance.

5. It is also easy; as we are by the love of God constrained to our duty, so we are freed from the rigour of the law. It is easy and light, as it is a course of life highly consonant to our reason, once delivered from a bondage to our passions. Finally, it is much more easy and light than the service of our lusts is. There is no greater slavery than a subjection to our lusts, that if a drunkard saith "Come," we must come, if an harlot saith "Go," we must go. Or than our service to the world, &c. To say nothing of the exceeding easiness of it, from the prospect of the great reward proposed and promised to those who keep the commandments of Christ, the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2Co 4:17 ; as Jacob’ s hard service of fourteen years seemed to him but a few days.

Haydock: Mat 11:30 - For my yoke is sweet

For my yoke is sweet, &c. For though, in regard of our weak nature, it be a very heavy yoke, yet the grace of God renders it easy and light, because our Lord himself helps us to bear it, according to that of the prophet Osee, (Chap. xi, ver. 4) I will be unto them as he that takes the yoke from off their head. St. Bernard says, that our Saviour sweetens by the spiritual unction of his grace, all the crosses, penances, and mortifications of religious souls. St. Augustine owns that before he knew the power of grace, he could never comprehend what charity was, nor believe that any one was able to practice it; but the grace of God renders all things easy. (Rodriguez, On Mortification. Chap. xix.)

Gill: Mat 11:30 - For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Christ calls a profession of faith in him, and subjection to his ordinances, a yoke, in allusion to the law of Moses, and in distinction from it; and a "burden", with respect to the very heavy ones the Scribes and Pharisees laid upon the shoulders of the people, obliging them to a strict observance of them; though of a different nature from either of them; "for his commandments are not grievous", hard and heavy to be borne, as their's were, but "easy and light": not that they are so to unregenerate men, or are easily performed by the strength of nature, and power of men's free will: but they are good and amiable, and lovely in their own nature, and are cheerfully complied with, and abundance of spiritual pleasure and delight is enjoyed in them by believers, when they have the presence of God, the assistance of his Spirit, and the discoveries of his love. Moreover, the commands of Christ, and the ordinances of the Gospel, are so in comparison of the law of Moses; which required perfect obedience, but gave no strength to perform, and threatened with condemnation and death, in case of the least failure; and of the numerous, and some very severe rites and usages of the ceremonial law; and of the bulky and heavy traditions of the elders, and ordinances of men.