In Matthew 11:28-30 all of us who are weary and burdened, are encouraged to take up the yoke of Christ and learn of Him. And He then promises that we will find rest for our souls.

Every time I have heard that passage preached (or taught it myself), the emphasis has been on a wooden beam that is traditionally laid across the shoulders of a beast of burden. That yoke distributes the weight of the beam and allows the animal to more efficiently pull the plow and help the farmer plant his field.

But recently, that term “yoke” has taken on a new meaning for me.  In John Mark Comer’s book “Practicing the Way,” Comer suggests that each rabbi had his own “yoke.” That “yoke” was a Hebrew idiom for his own particular set of teachings. His “yoke” wasn’t a heavy wooden beam, but rather the special way each rabbi explained scripture.

If you were the rabbi’s disciple (apprentice), you learned of his unique understanding of the Torah and you began to teach it that way. The “yoke” wasn’t a piece of wood, it was the sum total of a particular rabbi’s understanding of God’s Word.

So maybe in Matthew 11, Jesus wasn’t focusing on the proper way to use a beast of burden. Maybe He was urging His disciples to pay careful attention to His unique teaching. He wanted them to see God’s Word through His eyes and understand its truth via the Holy Spirit.

And this week, I am guessing that He wants that same thing for us. He wants us to listen to His word, to think about its application in our everyday life. He wants His words to impact the way we live and affect our decisions.

When we do so, there is rest, real rest.

First century disciples literally followed their rabbi around. They walked when they walked, they slept when they slept, ate on the rabbi’s schedule and paid attention to what he said. They got a lot of his dust kicked up on them.

And I think that is the formula for modern living too. As we follow hard after Jesus, paying careful attention to His teachings, we will find rest. Our anxieties about life will begin to fade into the proverbial sunset as we “take His yoke upon us and learn of Him.”