Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 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. For My yoke is easy (kind) and My burden is light.                                                                                                              

                                                                                                               Matthew 11:28-30 

It is one of the most beautiful invitations that Christ makes to humanity. Instead of doubling down on self-sufficiency and continuing down the road paved with mere survival, Jesus offers us rest…real rest in the midst of a chaotic world. This invitation goes out to anyone who is weary and burdened with life. It is an invitation to discover the true meaning to life, the reason for which all of us have been created. But it requires that we let go of our own efforts and simply rest in the provision given to us by God through a personal relationship with Jesus.

So what does all of this have to do with kindness? The answer is found in the yoke of Christ. When we think about a yoke, we usually picture putting a bit in a horse’s mouth or placing some kind of harness around the snout of an animal in an attempt to control it. For this reason, yokes are not always met with the greatest of enthusiasm. Neither animals nor human beings like the idea of being controlled, especially against their will. But this is not at all how we should refer to the yoke of Christ. The yoke that Christ offers is described as “easy” and His burden is referred to as “light.” What is truly amazing about this yoke is that the word “easy” comes from the same root word as that of kindness. In other words, Christ’s yoke is the same as the fifth fruit listed by Paul in Galatians (Galatians 5:22-23). The yoke of Jesus is kind.

What should we expect from a God described as love (1 John 4:8), a Savior who is gentle and humble at heart (Matthew 11:29), and the Spirit who produces all of these things within us (Galatians 5:22-23)? It should come as no surprise that when we trade in the burdens of life for an intimate, personal relationship with God, we experience rest and every good thing (Matthew 11:28, Matthew 7:11). But there is a substitute for authentic rest and it often disguises itself as something quite reasonable. This counterfeit message that promises rest but rarely delivers is nothing less than religion itself. Consider Paul’s words:

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery.

                                                                                                               Galatians 5:1 

Merely a few statements prior to Paul listing the fruit of the Spirit, he tells us why Christ cam to earth and then warns us not accept anything less than His provision. This counter gospel, referred to as a “yoke of slavery,” works against the peace and rest that Christ purchased for us at Calvary. Although we might be tempted to think that this yoke to which Paul refers is sin, it is not. Paul is warning us to avoid being placed under the condemnation and burdensome religious ritual that was being demanded then and which still exists today. This is to what Jesus was referring when He confronted the Pharisees:

They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.                                                                                                           

                                                                                                                   Matthew 23:4-7 

This is what religion does. It lays on our shoulders burdens that we were never meant to carry. And often the purveyors of religious burdens do not even abide by their own rules and statutes. They are merely there for show and the acceptance of men. So Paul reminds us that in Christ, there is freedom. The presence of the Spirit brings the same (2 Corinthians 3:17). This is what it means to experience the kindness of God by taking on the yoke of Christ.

Is your spiritual life marked by guilt, shame, duty, and drudgery? If so, trade in that life, take on the yoke of Jesus, and discover what real freedom is like…authentic, spiritual freedom!