THE EASINESS OF THE WAY

 "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."   (Matthew 11:28-30)

"In Biblical times, the yoke was a device of great assistance to those who tilled the field. It allowed the strength of a second animal to be linked and coupled with the strength of a single animal, sharing and reducing the heavy labour of the plow or wagon. A burden that was overwhelming or perhaps impossible for one could be equitably and comfortably borne by two bound together with a common yoke....

Why face life's burdens alone, Christ asks, or why face them with temporal support that will quickly falter. To the heavy laden it is Christ's yoke, it is the power and peace of standing side by side with a God that will provide the support, balance, and strength to meet our challenges and endure our tasks here in the hardpan field of mortality." (President Howard W. Hunter, Conference Report, October 1990)

The yoke in mortality that each one of us must bear is the responsibility to become perfect as our Father in Heaven is perfect. This responsibility is our journey to godhood and eternal life, a journey that we cannot travel alone for a yoke requires two to pull the burden attached to it. We cannot choose whether to bear a yoke, that choice was made before this world was, but we can choose which yoke we will bear. We can either choose to bear the yoke of Christ or the yoke of the Adversary. Christ has offered us His yoke and has promised that His yoke is easy. This yoke entails covenants and obedience and sacrifice. We might well ask ourselves, how can such a yoke be easy? The yoke of 'perfection' is easy because Christ is yoked by our side, gently leading us in the direction we should go to avoid the pitfalls and heartaches and shouldering the weight we cannot bear. His strength compensates for our lack and empowers us to overcome and become. With Him comes power and enlarged capacity. In short, he makes the way easy with the endowment of His grace.

A life of sin with scorching consequences which is the yoke of the Adversary is a far heavier and harder yoke to bear in mortality than Christ's yoke of commandments, covenants and sacrifice. When you are yoked with the adversary, you are left to bear the burdens of sin such as shame, addiction and moral degradation alone. The Adversary is not interested in being yoked with someone to bear burdens and consequences of sin. He is only interested in placing the yoke of oppression that leads to spiritual destruction on those who are willing to take it.  Satan's is a 'yoke of iron' that 'brings us down into captivity' (1 Nephi 13:5). Christ's yoke, on the other hand, offers freedom from sin and its devastating consequences. His compassion and mercy make it possible for us to cast off the yoke of sin and bondage and be free as is illustrated by the sinful woman who dared to enter the house of Simon, the Pharisee and who wept as she bathed the Saviour's feet. This woman would have found no forgiveness from Simon, a representative of the austere 'law' she was subject to but in his house she found the Saviour who was willing to take the burden of her sins upon Himself, to pay the price of justice in the winepress that He had to tread alone (Isaiah 63:3).

Simon, who was repulsed by the sinful woman, who omitted to observe the custom of the day to treat a distinguished guest with 'marked attention; to receive him with a kiss of welcome, to provide water for washing the dust from his feet, and oil for anointing the hair of the head and the beard' (Jesus The Christ, p. 261) stood in poor contrast to a sinful woman who acknowledged Christ's saving grace, who 'stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment' (Luke 7:38). This woman 'represents all of us with our burdens, making our way to the one true source of rest and relief. Knowing that ridicule might well follow her entrance into the eating chamber, knowing that her reputation would accompany her, and knowing that she would not be welcome by some within, still she entered. She was heavy-laden with the recognition of her sins and the downward spiral of her life' (Ted L. Gibbons, NT Lesson 10: Take My Yoke Upon You and Learn of Me, March 2011).

To those of us who are weighed down with heavy burdens of remorse and sin, mortal hardship and pain, sorrow and discouragement and who are often overwhelmed with the requirements for exaltation, the Saviour offers relief and peace, comfort and help. He alone has the capacity to carry all our burdens and all our sorrows and all our imperfections. He who has hung on the cross has taken upon Himself the hardships of mortality for each one who would come to Him and believe. He alone can wipe the slate clean and wash our garments though they be as scarlet to once again be white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). If we come to Him, He will set us free and He will encircle the faithful in the arms of His love (D&C 6:20).

For "he shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom............" (Isaiah 40:11).