A Sermon by Charles Calder Mackintosh
Matthew 11:30. For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.
It is very instructive to notice the connection in which the Redeemer introduced these words. He had pronounced woe against Chorazin and Bethsaida. Most of His mighty works had been done in those cities; yet where we should have expected that most fruit would be brought forth, there was almost none. And so Christ pronounced their doom, saying that in the great day they would be found guiltier than Tyre and Sidon and even than Sodom, and that they should receive the greater condemnation. He had at the same time thanked His Father that it seemed good in His sight to make known savingly the mysteries of His kingdom unto babes, while they were hidden from the wise and prudent. Then, stretching out His arms of mercy, He invited all that labour and are heavy laden to come to Him for rest.
These three things then are alike true: that men’s destruction is from themselves, that their salvation is from God, and that Christ is a free Saviour to whom all are equally invited to come. We may find it hard – I should rather say impossible – in this world to understand how the glorious sovereignty of Him who has mercy on whom He will have mercy is in perfect harmony with these three things: the absolute freeness of the gospel, our free agency, and full accountability for our reception of it. Yet each of these is a Bible truth, and it will be your wisdom to accept them as from the lips of God; it may preserve you from many fatal errors to do so. It will be for your soul’s salvation to submit yourself to their influence, in order that (1) a sense of the guilt of not repenting may work in you a suitable fear, (2) the revelation of God’s sovereignty may wean you from trust in yourselves or in any arm of flesh, and (3) the exhibition of the grace of Christ may draw you to the Saviour.
The invitation Jesus gave in the blessed passage, to which our text forms the conclusion, is of three kinds: “Come unto Me”; “Take My yoke upon you”; and, “Learn of Me”. It does not seem to matter whether we regard these three, taken together, as bringing before us what we may call the complete act of faith – receiving Christ for the whole of salvation – or as holding forth faith with some of its fruits and the things that accompany it. But we may view the Redeemer in the first of these invitations as setting before us His attractiveness as a Priest, how His precious blood can cleanse sin away;
1Taken, with editing, from Memorials of the Life and Ministry of Charles Calder Mackintosh, recently republished by Free Presbyterian Publications (242 pages, paperback, £12.00). Mackintosh (1806-1868) was a noted Scottish minister, first in Tain and then in Dunoon.
in the second, His attractiveness as a King and a Master; and in the third, as a Prophet and Teacher. He thus meets all the needs of the sinner seeking salvation and all the felt needs of His people while in this world.
But as if all this was not enough, there are promises and inducements held out to the children of men to attract them to Christ’s service and induce them to comply with these gracious invitations. First, He gives rest; second, He is meek and lowly; third, His yoke is easy and His burden is light. He gives rest. In coming to Him as their Priest, the burden of guilt first falls off, the dark clouds of wrath are dispelled. In coming to Him as their King and taking His yoke upon them, they find rest from the vanity of seeking happiness in the world and in sin; and in coming to Him as their Prophet, they find rest from the darkness and ignorance of the natural state.
The whole man finds rest. The conscience finds rest in His blood; the affections find rest in taking up His easy yoke; and the understanding finds rest in the certainty and excellence of the truths which He teaches. He is “meek and lowly in heart”. He does not despise to teach the poorest, the vilest and the most ignorant; nor is He wearied by their stupidity. He is not disgusted (to say it with reverence) by their brutish ignorance, their slowness of heart to believe and receive His truth. So He encourages the poor and the ignorant to come and learn of Him, adding with all His majesty and authority: “Ye shall find rest unto your souls”. Finally His very yoke is easy; His very burden is light. This is our special subject.
1. Christ’s yoke is easy. The meaning is not that Christ’s disciples bear His yoke carelessly or indifferently; that it does not demand all the energies of their souls and call them into exercise; or that they do not feel it to be a solemn and important and (if it was in their own strength) a difficult thing. But it is meant that they feel it to be in its nature pleasant and delightful, and especially so as contrasted with the yoke of the world and of sin. Now, it may not be difficult to conceive that it is easy in some of its aspects. It is pleasant to know or hope that one’s sins are forgiven; it is pleasant to contemplate the Saviour’s meekness, compassion and lowliness. Yet how can that yoke be easy, when an essential part of it is to deny ourselves, to take up the cross and follow Christ in the narrow way?
(1.) It is easy because it is His yoke. It is the yoke of Him who is our rightful Lord, who is infinitely worthy of the love of the whole heart and the service of the whole being, who has the claims of Redeemer as well as Creator, who is holy, who is gracious, who is God all-sufficient, whom all the angels of God worship. His forerunner, who knew His glory, said of Him that he was not worthy to unloose His shoe-latchet. It is said of another of His servants, who knew His yoke, that he esteemed His reproach greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt, however much he might suffer in confessing His name. If it is an honour to serve the best and highest of earthly kings, what an honour it is to serve Him who is King of kings, Lord of lords, and at the same time the Friend and Brother of His people!
(2.) It is the yoke of liberty. They who bear it are His redeemed ones, who have been delivered with a great deliverance. They have been blessed with freedom from the condemning sentence of the holy law, which bound them over to eternal death. They have been blessed with freedom from the servitude of sin, which once they served till, in the light of the cross, they saw its evil and its vileness. They have obtained freedom from the tyranny of Satan, who once led them captive at his will – with freedom from the power of a present evil world, which once they worshipped till in the same light of the cross they discovered its vanity (Gal 6:14). Seeing the King in His beauty, they learned to desire the better country. Christ’s servants then are His freed men; as bought with a price, they take His yoke upon them; so the yoke is a sign of redemption.
(3.) Christ’s yoke is easy, because His disciples feel that it is a yoke of love. It consists much in the exercise of love to an unseen Saviour. They not only delight in the law of God after the inward man, but they feel they are under the greatest and most endearing obligations to love Him who first loved them and gave Himself for them. The dying love of the Redeemer is the great motive to faithfulness in His service; “the love of Christ constraineth us”. Further, it is the yoke of begun conformity to the mind that was in Christ Jesus: the lowly, meek, loving, self-sacrificing, self-consecrating mind that was in Christ Jesus. All its services are designed to bring about this result, to conform His people more to Christ. And there is a heavenly sweetness and peace in the exercise of these dispositions – in the very desire and thirst for them.
(4.) The Redeemer’s yoke is easy because it is borne in His own strength, for no one really takes His yoke on them except in the strength of “the grace that is in Christ Jesus”. If Christ’s people were required to go in their own strength, if they were commanded to grow in grace in their own strength, they would soon sink under the burden. But when He calls them to take up His yoke, He puts His Spirit within them; and He has left the promise of the Spirit, that in His light and strength they may follow Christ.
Not only is provision thus made for the general purposes of the Christian life, but also for all its special purposes. There are very precious promises, faithful and sure, suited to every case and to every emergency in which they can be placed in this world. “My presence shall go with thee; and I will give thee rest.” “As thy days, so shall thy strength be.” “My grace is sufficient
for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” As the believer stands in the righteousness of Christ and as every grace flows to him through Christ’s intercession, so it is the believer’s privilege to have recourse at all times to Him for grace to help in time of need, on the foundation of His finished work.
But someone may say, How can this truth – that Christ’s yoke is easy – be consistent with the Christian life being one of suffering and self-denial, with the gate to life being strait and the way narrow? It might be enough to answer, in the language of Paul, that “the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us”, and that the exercise of that hope by which believers are saved is more than sufficient to counterbalance any present suffering in the way.
But more than this: every part of the suffering which is appointed for Christians, in serving Christ in this world, is necessary for their present spiritual good and usefulness and their eternal happiness. Their Lord assures them of this and they have some experience of it. Does the conflict with sin occasion acute suffering (as we know from Paul’s experience)? The Christian is thus prepared more and more for estimating what a great thing salvation, a holy salvation, is. Or is it the conflict with his spiritual enemies? He thus makes increasing acquaintance with the sympathy of the great High Priest, who was “tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin”. Or is it the conflict with other kinds of trial? “If we suffer,” says Paul, “we shall also reign with Him.” If the believer lived up to his privileges, he would see special love in the most rugged steps of the journey.
But someone else may say, Are Christians not often sad and gloomy? Do they not often complain of darkness and bondage? True, Christians often bring trial upon themselves by their unfaithfulness, their inconsistency or their unbelief. They provoke God to chasten them; they bring darkness and bondage on their own spirits. Christians have constant reason to mourn because of sin, and they are often distressed because of the sins of others. There are some whom they would take with them to heaven, but who will not listen to the invitation, “Come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the Lord hath spoken good concerning Israel”. But did you ever meet with a Christian who complained that he had too much of the fear of the Lord, too much love to Christ, or too much communion with God? What is it that makes him sad? Is it not because of how little he knows of these things and how little of this heavenly fellowship he experiences? And is this not the best and most conclusive of all testimonies to the easiness of Christ’s yoke and the lightness of His burden?
Yet someone may still say, I cannot understand how such a yoke should
be easy if it includes spirituality of mind, self-denial, heavenly-mindedness, continual conflict with sin in the heart, watchfulness and prayer. Consider, my dear fellow sinner. To what must we trace such an estimate of the Christian life? Is it not to that state of heart which slanders the blessed God and calls the Redeemer a hard Master? And do not think that I use too strong language when I say that this is the state of heart which reigns in hell!
2. What is implied because Christ’s yoke is easy and His burden is light. Only remember that, in order to any true experience of its pleasantness, two things are necessary which indeed are implied in taking the yoke of Christ upon us. The first is: for acceptance in the sight of God and for all spiritual strength, we must depend on Christ alone. So long as we place any dependence on any fancied righteousness or strength of our own, and are unwilling to quit every such miserable ground of hope, we cannot have true rest. When conscience is wakened up and enlightened by the truth, we have nothing of our own that can give comfort or impart strength, and Christ will not make Himself known as the giver of rest till we give Him the place that is His due, simply depending on Him for righteousness and strength.
The second thing is: we must really give Christ our hearts and make, not a formal, but a sincere and unconditional surrender of ourselves to His guidance. There must be no halting between two opinions; we must cease from seeking to serve God and mammon, the world and Christ; we must cease from seeking to reserve a corner of our hearts for some idol, some worldly pleasure, some lust. We must give Christ our hearts, and take Him to be our portion; and then our Saviour undertakes to make us happy, to satisfy and ravish our hearts with His own love. “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house; so shall the King greatly desire thy beauty: for He is thy Lord, and worship thou Him” (Ps 45:10,11).
Therefore what is our experience? Is our religion a task, a burden which in some, or many, of its observances we would shake off if we could? Or is it the source of true peace and happiness to us? Is our service the service of slaves, or of freemen and children? No doubt some enjoyment may be found in a religion of self-righteousness, in a religion whose great end is to pacify conscience and to feed and pamper self; but this is not Christ’s yoke, and this enjoyment is not the true rest. But supposing we profess to have taken Christ’s yoke upon us, knowing the implicit dependence upon Him and the entire devotedness to Him that are implied in it, what is our experience?
Do we find Christ a hard master, or have we experienced some true rest in His service? Do we love the Word of Christ better than any other book, and the day of Christ better than any other day? Do we love Christ’s house?
Do we love His Person, though not as we would? Do we the more experience that His yoke is easy and His burden is light, if we are enabled more to rely upon Him exclusively and to devote ourselves to Him, to seek as our chief aim that He may be magnified? Is this so the more intensely we are engaged in His work and the more we are energetically employed in seeking to have sin mortified? This is an evidence that we have proved His word and know it by experience to be true. Supposing whatever we do in our religion to satisfy conscience is taken out of the way, what would remain? Would the kernel after all be there, or would it almost all disappear?
But let me not be misunderstood here. True discipleship is consistent with only broken rest in Christ, with the experience of only a scanty measure of rest in Christ, particularly on the part of the young or the tried disciple. One may say, I do see things in a new light: how vain the world is, how great the soul and salvation are, how solemn eternity is; I do see that the great end of life is to find Christ and to follow Him; I do see a loveliness and excellency in the Saviour that make Him infinitely worthy of the trust and love of sinners; and I do desire to have Him as my Priest and Teacher and King. But I cannot say that I have attained to settled peace. Instead of this, I am troubled in a new way. I often fear that my sins are not forgiven.
You are not to expect a peace that would leave you independent of coming afresh every day to the blood of Christ for cleansing. That would be false peace. It would be well for you if you were never so satisfied with your coming and your faith that you should put them in Christ’s place.
Another may say, I am very ignorant of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven and slow of heart to understand. I never felt my ignorance as I do now.
If this is because you have begun to come in contact with the great things of God, it is well. Christ can give you light. He can carry you on in the knowledge of Himself.
This other person may say, But I thought at one time that sin was dead in me, and that my heart would always overflow with love to the Saviour. Yet now I find sin’s power defiling all I do.
Well, you must learn, under the guidance of the Captain of salvation, to fight that good fight of faith which precedes the enjoyment of everlasting life.
But I am afraid I may betray the Master. I am exposed to many temptations; I have unworthy associates who do not know the Lord.
Be more afraid of conformity to the world than of any temporal suffering. But Christ prays for His own; Christ can keep you unspotted from the world.
Or you may say, I have not the freedom in prayer which I once had; God is silent to me.
Yet follow on. Seek His blessed face. “For a small moment have I for-
saken thee; but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer” (Is 54:7,8). Do not then be discouraged but follow on to know the Lord, and remember these great words, “The path of the just” – that is, of the humble disciple who feels himself a sinner and can do nothing without Jesus – “is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day” (Prov 4:18).
What obligations lie on Christians to commend the yoke of Christ to others by a consistent, humble, fruitful walk, by suitable behaviour under trial, by speaking well of His name – especially to the young – and by trying to win others to His service! Commend the precious Saviour, dear friends.
Though some of us may be, and have reason to be, ashamed when we place ourselves side by side with some of the Bible worthies, or with some of the characters in The Pilgrim’s Progress, yet surely every Christian would desire to add his Amen to the testimony which one of Bunyan’s pilgrims gives for Christ when he is in the river of death: “This river has been a terror to many; yea, the thoughts of it also have often frightened me. The waters, indeed, are to the palate bitter, and to the stomach cold; yet the thoughts of what I am going to, and of the conduct that waits for me on the other side, do lie as a glowing coal at my heart. I am now at the end of my journey; my toilsome days are ended. I am going now to see that head that was crowned with thorns, and that face that was spit upon for me. I have loved to hear my Lord spoken of; and wherever I have seen the print of His shoe in the earth, there I have coveted to set my foot too. His name has been to me sweeter than all perfumes. His voice to me has been most sweet, and His countenance I have more desired than they that have most desired the light of the sun. His word I did use to gather for my food, and for antidotes against my faintings. He has held me and has kept me from mine iniquity; yea, my steps hath He strengthened in His way.”
With what deep earnestness and love ought we to seek to press the Saviour’s invitation on our fellow sinners who are yet without rest, because without Christ; on the afflicted and distressed; on those who are living for a present world; on those burdened with sin; on the aged; but especially on the young. There is no rest except in Christ, no security against falling into the world’s snares and a thousand temptations except by being in His fold. Besides, one’s usefulness in this world much turns on an early coming to the Saviour; and no one ever regretted coming to Christ when young; yet thousands – brought late in life to repentance – have wept over lost youth and manhood. Above all, life is uncertain and the judgement day, of which Christ speaks in this chapter, is sure to come.
As all this is true, should the Saviour’s invitation not sink into every heart here? Should it not sink into your heart, my dear young hearer, so that you not only give it a passing thought, but resolve in the strength of almighty grace to comply with it and make thorough, earnest work of coming to the Saviour, as that on which your present peace and eternal salvation turns? The Lord grant it, for Christ’s sake!