“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Matthew 11:29).
At this point in His ministry, Jesus has been teaching in the “cities” as designated in verse one, and He here issues an appeal for His hearers to follow Him and to learn both from Him and about Him.
As they learn of His ways, they will move from the shackles of the sin and oppression of their past lives and into the freedom of His way of life. “Yoke,” of course, is a symbol of their submission to Him as their leader going forward.
From Him, they will learn to be gentle as He is; that is, caring, fair, kind, and even mild, having a “sweet reasonableness” about Him. As well, Jesus is “lowly in heart,” alluding to His humble nature.
Neither of these qualities should be interpreted as weakness—Jesus was never weak. In fact, His ability to maintain balance in His life and self-control in the face of all the harshness that He experienced attests to His strength.
The “rest” Jesus offers is not a “rest” from life: but, rather, it is a partnership with Him—He is our “yokefellow”—so that we will be able to cope positively with whatever life throws in our pathway.
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