For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

²⁸ “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

I've often read this passage and puzzled over the seeming paradox which is presents. It sounds all nice and comforting if you take it and read it seperate apart from the rest of the bible. However when we look at the rest of the bible we see that the most godly people, the people who have submitted to Christ's yoke entirely are the one's who seem to have the hardest lives. For examples read Hebrews 11:36-38.

I think the answer to the paradox lies in the word "easy". For something to be easy their must be something else which is hard, or at the very least harder then the thing said to be easy. Now we know Jesus' word to be infallible and so if He says submitting to His authority and rule is easy then we must draw the conclusion that it is easier then something else. "Easy" may not match the definition that we have as fallen creatures but it is easy in comparison to the life of a man who refuses to submit to Christ's authority.

This many of you have heard and if you haven't heard it specifically it makes sense. What for a long time didn't make sense to me was how can I see my life from the viewpoint that Christ had when He said submitting to Him is easier then not. I think the key factor that makes a life like Christ's easy is satisfaction. Think from the perspective of someone who is not willing to submit entirely to Christ. They have nothing. To have any sort of happiness or satisfaction they must make assumptions about life and themselves in which they forfeit their spiritual integrity. They have to constantly live with the knowledge that they have created truth and its only the assumptions they've assumed about life and reality which enable them to experience their fake forms of happiness and joy. These assumptions because they are faulty in nature are the reasons why people fall into depression and anxiety and live unhappy lives in general.

A christian on the other hand has great satisfaction and security in the knowledge that he is "yoked" with Jesus Christ. Compared to the non believer who has yoked himself to the figments of their own imagination. So my conclusion is that the yoke of Christ is not easy, at least not easy in the sense that we would like it to be. It is however easier then a life not under submission but its still a difficult life. Often we expect things of Christ and we misinterpret promises God makes us in the bible and here is one that I have been misunderstanding for along time. Hope this helped some of you as much as it helped me.