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Elmwood Yoke,
Agricultural instrument,
Elmwood and metal |
| Jesus said, ‘Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light.’ |
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| | Reflection on the Agricultural Yoke
As quite a few of us may not remember what exactly a yoke looks like, in our modern day industrialised agricultural times, I chose a simple image of a yoke. It shows a simple wooden beam normally used between a pair of oxen or other animals to enable them to pull together on a load, mainly for ploughing the fields, and preparing these fields for sowing seeds on fertile ground…
Yes, a yoke is always carried by two; pulling forward together. So who is joined to us on our yoke? Christ. He is carrying, ploughing and moving forward with us, at the same rhythm, at our pace, but gently making sure we move in the right direction. We can be weighed down with problems or having hard times ploughing our fields, but in today’s Gospel Jesus offers Himself to us, as willingly carrying our burdens with us.
But of course, it isn’t all about us. We also get directly invited by Jesus to help other people carry their yokes. He asks us to open our eyes to the burdens borne by others and open our hearts to people who are in need of our help. Furthermore, we are not just invited to help people around us carry their yokes, but we are also called to help Jesus Himself ‘shoulder His yoke’ by being His followers and taking up our cross daily and follow Him… the true challenge of Christian discipleship and witness.
by Patrick van der Vorst |  | |
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