Matthew 11:30

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

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) Easy.—The Greek has a wider range of meaning—good, helpful, kind, profitable.

My burden is light.—The “burden” of Christ was the commandment that most characterised His teaching—the new commandment that men should love one another; and those who obeyed that commandment would find all to which it bound them light and easy.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

11:25-30 It becomes children to be grateful. When we come to God as a Father, we must remember that he is Lord of heaven and earth, which obliges us to come to him with reverence as to the sovereign Lord of all; yet with confidence, as one able to defend us from evil, and to supply us with all good. Our blessed Lord added a remarkable declaration, that the Father had delivered into his hands all power, authority, and judgment. We are indebted to Christ for all the revelation we have of God the Father's will and love, ever since Adam sinned. Our Saviour has invited all that labour and are heavy-laden, to come unto him. In some senses all men are so. Worldly men burden themselves with fruitless cares for wealth and honours; the gay and the sensual labour in pursuit of pleasures; the slave of Satan and his own lusts, is the merest drudge on earth. Those who labour to establish their own righteousness also labour in vain. The convinced sinner is heavy-laden with guilt and terror; and the tempted and afflicted believer has labours and burdens. Christ invites all to come to him for rest to their souls. He alone gives this invitation; men come to him, when, feeling their guilt and misery, and believing his love and power to help, they seek him in fervent prayer. Thus it is the duty and interest of weary and heavy-laden sinners, to come to Jesus Christ. This is the gospel call; Whoever will, let him come. All who thus come will receive rest as Christ's gift, and obtain peace and comfort in their hearts. But in coming to him they must take his yoke, and submit to his authority. They must learn of him all things, as to their comfort and obedience. He accepts the willing servant, however imperfect the services. Here we may find rest for our souls, and here only. Nor need we fear his yoke. His commandments are holy, just, and good. It requires self-denial, and exposes to difficulties, but this is abundantly repaid, even in this world, by inward peace and joy. It is a yoke that is lined with love. So powerful are the assistances he gives us, so suitable the encouragements, and so strong the consolations to be found in the way of duty, that we may truly say, it is a yoke of pleasantness. The way of duty is the way of rest. The truths Christ teaches are such as we may venture our souls upon. Such is the Redeemer's mercy; and why should the labouring and burdened sinner seek for rest from any other quarter? Let us come to him daily, for deliverance from wrath and guilt, from sin and Satan, from all our cares, fears, and sorrows. But forced obedience, far from being easy and light, is a heavy burden. In vain do we draw near to Jesus with our lips, while the heart is far from him. Then come to Jesus to find rest for your souls.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

My yoke is easy ... - That is, the services that I shall require are easily rendered. They are not burdensome, like all other systems of religion. So the Christian always finds them. In coming to him there is "a peace which passeth all understanding;" in believing in him, "joy;" in following him "through evil and good report," a comfort "which the world giveth not;" in bearing trials and in persecution, "the hope of glory;" and in keeping his commandments, great reward.

Remarks On Matthew 11

1. A spirit of inquiry about the person and works of Christ is especially proper, Matthew 11:2-3. John was solicitous to ascertain his true character, and nothing is of more importance for all than to understand his true character. Upon him depends all the hope that man has of happiness beyond the grave. He saves, or man must perish. "He" will save, or we must die forever. With what earnestness, therefore, should the old and the young inquire into his character. Our eternal all demands it; and while this is delayed, we are endangering our everlasting felicity.

2. Clear proof has been furnished that Jesus is the Christ and can save us, Matthew 11:4-5. If his miracles did not prove that he came from God, nothing can prove it. If he could open the eyes of the blind, then he can enlighten the sinner; if he could unstop the ears of the deaf, then he can cause us to hear and live; if he could heal the sick, and make the lame walk, then he can heal our spiritual maladies, and make us walk in the way of life; if he could raise the dead, then he can raise those dead in sin, and breathe into us the breath of eternal life. If he was willing to do all this for the body which is soon to perish, then he will be much more willing to do it for the soul, that never dies. Then the poor, lost sinner may come and live.

3. We see in this chapter Christ's manner of praising or complimenting men, Matthew 11:7-15. He gave, in no measured terms, his exalted opinion of John - gave him praise which had been bestowed on no other mortal ranked him far above the purest and sublimest of the prophets. But this was not done in the presence of John, "nor was it done in the presence of those who would inform John of it." It was when the disciples of John had "departed," and his commendation of John was spoken to "the multitude," Matthew 11:7. He waited until his disciples were gone, apprehending, doubtless, that they would be likely to report what he said in praise of their master, and then expressed his high opinion of his character. The practice of the world is to praise others to their faces, or in the presence of those who will be sure to inform them of it, and to speak evil of them when absent. Jesus delivered his unfavorable opinions of others to the people themselves; their excellences he took pains to commend where they would not be likely to hear of them. He did good to both, and in both prevented the existence of pride.

4. The wicked take much pains, and are often fickle and inconsistent, for the sake of abusing and calumniating religious people, Matthew 11:18-19. They found much fault with the Saviour for doing the very same thing which they blamed John for not doing. So it is commonly with people who slander professors of religion. They risk their own characters, to prove that others are hypocrites or sinners. The object is not truth, but calumny and opposition to religion; and hitherto no means have been too base or too wicked to pour contempt on the followers of Christ.

5. The purest characters may expect the shaft of calumny and malice, and often in proportion to their purity, Matthew 11:19. Even the Saviour of the world was accused of being intemperate and a glutton. If the only perfectly pure being that ever trod the earth was thus accused, let not his followers think that any strange thing has happened to them if they are falsely accused.

6. Judgments will overtake guilty people, and cities, and nations, Matthew 11:21-22. They fell on Sodom, Tyre, Sidon, and Capernaum. They may long linger; but in due time the hand of God will fall on the wicked, and they will die - forever die.

7. The wicked will suffer in proportion to their privileges, Matthew 11:23-24. So it was with Capernaum. And if they of ancient days suffered thus; if more tremendous judgments fell on them than even on guilty Sodom, what shall be the doom of those who go down to hell from this day of light? The Saviour was indeed there a few days; he worked a few miracles; but they had not, as we have, all his instructions; they had not Sunday schools, and Bible classes, and the stated preaching of the gospel, nor was the world blessed then, as now, with extensive and powerful revivals of religion. How awful must be the doom of those who are educated in the ways of religion - who are instructed from Sabbath to Sabbath - who grow up amid the means of grace - and then are lost!

8. The poor and needy; the weary and heavy-ladened; the soul sick of sin and of the world; the sinner conscious of guilt and afraid to die, may come to Jesus Christ and live, Matthew 11:28-30. The invitation is wide as the world. The child and the old man may seek and find salvation at the feet of the same Saviour. No child is too young; no man is too old: no one is too great a sinner. Christ is "full" of mercy, and all who come shall find peace. O how should we, in this sinful and miserable world, borne down with sin, and exposed each moment to death - how should we come and find the peace which he has promised to all, and take the yoke which all have found to be light!

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

30. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light—Matchless paradox, even among the paradoxically couched maxims in which our Lord delights! That rest which the soul experiences when once safe under Christ's wing makes all yokes easy, all burdens light.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Ver. 28-30. Our Lord having before showed;

1. That all power was given to him;

2. That none could know the Father but by and in him; closes his discourse with an invitation of persons to him. By the weary and heavy laden, in the text, some understand those that are laden with the sense of their sins, and the feeling the guilt of them. Others understand, with the burden of the law, which the apostles called a yoke, Acts 15:10.

Mr. Calvin thinks this too strait an interpretation. Others understand heavy laden with trials and afflictions. Christ will give rest to all those of his people that are any ways weary and heavy laden, but in an order first to souls wearied and heavy laden with the burden of their sins, and their want of a righteousness wherein to stand before God. Then to such to whom he hath given this rest, he promises also rest from their troubles and persecutions in the world, John 16:33. It is very like he used this term, Come, with respect to that of Isaiah, Isaiah 55:1,2. That by coming is to be understood believing is plain from John 6:44-46 Hebrews 11:6. The rest promised chiefly respecteth the soul, as appears from Matthew 11:29. The promise may be understood both of that rest which believers have in this life, Romans 5:2 15:13, and also of that rest which after this life remaineth to the people of God, Hebrews 4:9. Whatever the rest be, it must be of Christ’s giving and our seeking; nor is it to be obtained without labour and suffering, for it followeth,

Take my yoke upon you. The members of Christ are not without a yoke, a law and rule by which they are obliged to walk; and though the service of God be a perfect freedom, yet to flesh and blood it is a yoke, grating upon our sensitive appetite, and restraining our natural motions and inclinations.

For I am meek and lowly. Humility and meekness are in themselves yokes, as they are contrary to our pride, and aptness to swell in a high opinion of ourselves; and to our wrath and danger, which sometimes boils to a great height, without any due fuel: and as in themselves they are a great part of Christ’s yoke, so they fit and dispose us to take Christ’s further yoke upon us, and may be here considered as means directed for the better performance of the precept,

Take my yoke upon you. Our Lord also by this precept lets us know there can be no true faith without obedience to the commands of Christ. Though true faith and obedience be two things, yet they are inseparable; Show me thy faith (saith James) by thy works; and the rest of the text is not promised to either of them severally, but to both jointly.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Our Saviour had before {Matthew 7:13,14} told us that the way to heaven is a strait way, how doth he now tell us his yoke is easy and his burden light?

Answer:

1. Nothing makes it hard or burdensome but our corruption, which floweth from the depravation of human nature.

2. It is much easier than the yoke and burden of the law.

3. Though it be hard to beginners, yet it is easy when we have once accustomed ourselves to it.

4. It is easy, considering that we do it not in our own strength, but by assistance from God, Jeremiah 31:33 Ezekiel 36:25,26 Joh 15:3, we are delivered even from the moral law, considered as a covenant, and as merely commanding us, and affording no help and assistance.

5. It is also easy; as we are by the love of God constrained to our duty, so we are freed from the rigour of the law. It is easy and light, as it is a course of life highly consonant to our reason, once delivered from a bondage to our passions. Finally, it is much more easy and light than the service of our lusts is. There is no greater slavery than a subjection to our lusts, that if a drunkard saith "Come," we must come, if an harlot saith "Go," we must go. Or than our service to the world, &c. To say nothing of the exceeding easiness of it, from the prospect of the great reward proposed and promised to those who keep the commandments of Christ, the exceeding and eternal weight of glory, 2 Corinthians 4:17; as Jacob’s hard service of fourteen years seemed to him but a few days.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Christ calls a profession of faith in him, and subjection to his ordinances, a yoke, in allusion to the law of Moses, and in distinction from it; and a "burden", with respect to the very heavy ones the Scribes and Pharisees laid upon the shoulders of the people, obliging them to a strict observance of them; though of a different nature from either of them; "for his commandments are not grievous", hard and heavy to be borne, as their's were, but "easy and light": not that they are so to unregenerate men, or are easily performed by the strength of nature, and power of men's free will: but they are good and amiable, and lovely in their own nature, and are cheerfully complied with, and abundance of spiritual pleasure and delight is enjoyed in them by believers, when they have the presence of God, the assistance of his Spirit, and the discoveries of his love. Moreover, the commands of Christ, and the ordinances of the Gospel, are so in comparison of the law of Moses; which required perfect obedience, but gave no strength to perform, and threatened with condemnation and death, in case of the least failure; and of the numerous, and some very severe rites and usages of the ceremonial law; and of the bulky and heavy traditions of the elders, and ordinances of men.

Geneva Study Bible

For my yoke is {k} easy, and my burden is light.

(k) May easily be carried. For his commandments are not grievous, for all who are born of God overcome the world; 1Jo 5:4.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Expositor's Greek Testament

Matthew 11:30. χρηστός, kindly to wear. Christ’s doctrine fits and satisfies our whole spiritual nature—reason, heart, conscience, “the sweet reasonableness of Christ”.—φορτίον, the burden of obligation.—ἐλαφρόν: in one respect Christ’s burden is the heaviest of all because His moral ideal is the highest. But just on that account it is light. Lofty, noble ideals inspire and attract; vulgar ideals are oppressive. Christ’s commandment is difficult, but not like that of the Rabbis, grievous. (vide With Open Face.)

Bengel's Gnomen

Matthew 11:30. Ζυγός Μου, My yoke) In one point of view, Scripture speaks of the cross, in another of the yoke of the godly, see ch. Matthew 10:38.—χρηστὸς, easy) for I am meek.—ἐλαφρὸν, light) for I am lowly.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - For. The fact of my giving work will not prevent this rest, but the contrary. My yoke is easy (χρηστός); suave, Latin; "sore" (Wickliffe); "sweete" (Rheims). And so are God's judgments (Psalm 119:39, ' Psalms of Solomon,' 8:38). Contrast Ecclus. 28:19, 20. And my burden is light. For "his commandments are not grievous" (1 John 5:3). "Omnia levis suut caritati" (Augustine, in Meyer).



Matthew 11:30

Vincent's Word Studies

Easy (χρηστὸς)

Not a satisfactory rendering. Christ's yoke is not easy in the ordinary sense of that word. The word means originally, good, serviceable. The kindred noun, χρηστότης, occurring only in Paul's writings, is rendered kindness in 2 Corinthians 6:6; Titus 3:4; Galatians 5:22; Ephesians 2:7 (Rev.), and goodness, Romans 2:4 (Rev.). At Luke 5:39, it is used of old wine, where the true reading, instead of better, is good (χρηστός), mellowed with age. Plato ("Republic," 424) applies the word to education. "Good nurture and education (τροφὴ γὰρ καὶ παίδευσις χρηστὴ) implant good (ἀγαθὰς) constitutions; and these good (χρησταὶ) constitutions improve more and more;" thus evidently using χρηστός and ἀγαθός as synonymous. The three meanings combine in the word, though it is impossible to find an English word which combines them all. Christ's yoke is wholesome, serviceable, kindly. "Christ's yoke is like feathers to a bird; not loads, but helps to motion" (Jeremy Taylor).