The Gentle Teacher

The Gentle Teacher

Read: Matthew 11:28-30

“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.”

Matthew 11:29

“Quit sweating, quit wrestling. It is not try but trust.”

—John G. Lake

IN WORD The demands of our faith often overwhelm us. Perhaps that’s because we see them as demands. When Jesus tells us to follow Him, when He insists on complete obedience and undying allegiance, when He reminds us that we have not lived up to the laws of God, we frail creatures feel as though He is pointing out our obligations and telling us to do better. He is not. He is offering us a better way.

Rather than placing demands on us, Jesus offers us new life. What we perceive as His requirements are actually compelling pieces of evidence that we need not try to do better but to give up trying to do it ourselves. We’re supposed to see how impossible His standards are. That’s the point.

When Jesus tells us to take His yoke—the piece that binds and guides a beast of burden—upon us, He is not telling us to leave a state of freedom for His captivity. We’re already captive. We already have a yoke on us—our own. We are already slaves to our sense of independence and self-management—and it is a horribly burdensome yoke. No, when He offers us His yoke, He is offering us a way out of this self-effort we’ve insisted on for years. He is offering us life-giving direction and purpose. He is generously giving us His own life.

IN DEED Dependence on Jesus is a prerequisite for obedience. We cannot reverse the order without being crushed beneath the obligations of life and our attempts at self-righteousness. We must be taught dependence first.

There is a huge difference between a taskmaster and a teacher. Which way do you most often relate to Jesus? Have you been reverting to the self-management to which we were all once enslaved? Learn to see His yoke as a life-giving promise. Though He insists on everything we have in the transaction, He demands it for our freedom, not our captivity. Remember the gentleness of your Teacher, and know that His yoke never adds to your burden.