My Burden Is Light
by Terry Wane Benton
When Jesus said His burden is “light”, He did not mean that all of His commands were easier in nature than those under the Law of Moses, but that His are “light” because you are first “yoked” as a team and now you can “do all things through Christ who strengthens” (Philippians 4:13). When we yoke to Christ we make a full commitment to be united with Him and He promises to be with us. Thus, this unit is two working together, not one alone.
Yoking to Jesus, we learn from Him (Matthew 11:28), and we find “rest for our souls.” Before we took on this yoke, we found ourselves weak and helpless, and the burden was too heavy. Like Paul, we felt wretched and hopeless, needing help from outside ourselves (Romans 7). When Paul was yoked to Jesus, he found rest for his soul, salvation, forgiveness, and power inside. Why? Because he is empowered by the forgiveness of sins when he fails and confesses and tries again, and is empowered with the love of Christ to be an overcomer. He finds that with Jesus as his yoke-partner, Jesus’ burden is light.
The law was weak through the flesh, and Paul found himself powerless to remedy the condemnation that comes with failing the law. But with his yoking to Christ, he found forgiveness, hope, and new strength. Like a man without a loving woman has no spring in his step, a man with only a yoke of bondage walks much differently than the man who knows and loves Christ. A man in love has more energy, a better outlook, and is empowered by the union of mutual love.
To yoke to Jesus and learn from Him is like a light coming on in the mind and heart, like a morning star rising in the heart, like an empowering food that energizes the spirit, like having new life, like having a great new hope, like feeling like you are on the winning team, like being confident that you are “more than a conqueror” through He Who strengthens you. With the blood of Jesus and with the word of His apostles’ testimony and the love we have for Christ and He has for us (Revelation 12:11), we find that “His yoke is easy” and “His burden is light.” Your perspective changes, and you see afflictions here as “but for a moment” and that they work “for us an eternal weight of glory.”
Only those who are yoked to Jesus and are learning from Him will understand what I am saying. The outlook and power come within the union that is committed to learning from Him. There is power in the blood and in the word and in the love. Without those things, you have a heavy load to carry in life. It is hopeless without union with Jesus Christ!
