Many folks have accepted the first of these invitations.  They have “come” to Jesus, and received sweet rest from His hand.  But they have gone no farther.  At the close of that first invitation there is a punctuation period, a full stop.  Some of the old schoolbooks used to say that one should stop at a period and count four.  Well, a great many people have followed that old rule here, and more than followed.  They have stopped at that period, and never gotten past it.  I want just now to ask you to come with me as we talk together a bit about this second invitation, “Take My yoke.”

Jesus used several different words in tying people up to Himself.  There is a growth in them, as He draws us nearer and nearer.  First always is the invitation “Come unto Me.”  That means salvation, life.  Then He says, “Follow Me,” “Come after Me.”  That means discipleship.  “Learn of Me” means training in discipleship.  “Yoke up with Me” means closest fellowship.  “Abide in Me” leads one out into abundant life.  “As the Father hath sent Me, even so send I you,” means living Jesus’ life over again.  And then the last “Go ye” is the outer reach of all, service for a world.

Surrender a Law of Life.

Just now we want to talk together over this little three-worded sentence from Jesus’ lips, “Take My yoke.”  What does it mean?  Well, that word yoke is used in all literature outside of this book, as well as here, to mean this:  surrender by one and mastery by another one.  Where two nations have fought and the weaker has been forced to yield, it is quite commonly spoken of as wearing the yoke of the stronger nation.  The Romans required their prisoners of war to pass under a yoke, sometimes a common cattle yoke, sometimes an improvised yoke, to indicate their utter subjugation.  These Hebrews to whom Jesus is speaking are writhing with sore shoulders under the galling yoke of the Romans.  One can imagine an emphasis placed on the “My.”  As though Jesus would say, “You have one yoke now; change yokes.  Take My yoke.”

There is too a higher, finer meaning to this surrender when by mutual arrangement and free consent there is a yielding of one to another for a purpose.  And so what Jesus means here is simply this—­surrender.  Bend your head down, bend down your neck, even though it’s a bit stiff going your own way, and fit it into this yoke of mine.  Surrender to Me as your Master.

And somebody says, “I don’t like that.  ‘Surrender!’ that sounds like force.  I thought salvation was free.”  Will you please remember that the principle of surrender is a law of all life.  It is the law of military life, inside the army.  Every man there has surrendered to the officers above him.  In some armies that surrender has amounted to absolute control of a man’s person and property by the head of the army.  It is the law of naval service.  The moment a man steps on board a man-of-war to serve he surrenders the control of his life and movements absolutely to the officer in command.