{"id":40265,"date":"2020-07-12T05:24:43","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T09:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=40265"},"modified":"2020-07-11T08:13:40","modified_gmt":"2020-07-11T12:13:40","slug":"take-up-my-yoke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2020\/07\/take-up-my-yoke.html","title":{"rendered":"Take Up My Yoke"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

I\u2019ve been thinking about a couple of sayings of Jesus and the possibility that the one gave rise to the other for a while now. The two sayings are \u201ccome to me\u2026take my yoke upon you\u201d and \u201ccome after me\u2026take up your cross.\u201d When John Squires blogged about one of the two sayings, I decided it was time to share my thoughts with a wider audience:<\/p>\n

Come to me, take my yoke, I will give you rest (Matt 11; Pentecost\u00a06A)<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\nThere is a natural connection on the level of meaning between the sayings about taking Jesus\u2019 yoke upon oneself and taking up one\u2019s cross. To take a yoke is to commit to an endeavor, but more than that, it is to make oneself the property of an owner who can then drive you wherever they wish and use you for their purposes. To bear a yoke is to be a slave. Crucifixion is a punishment that Roman authors say was fit only for a slave. The classic depiction of Jesus on the Via Dolorosa (and of Simon of Cyrene when conscripted) involves being forced along a route one does not wish to travel, a cross-beam across one\u2019s shoulders.<\/p>\nJohn Squires notes the connections with imagery used for Wisdom by Jesus ben Sira:<\/p>\n<blockquote>A hymn on the values of Wisdom concludes that book, with the invitation to \u201cacquire wisdom for yourself \u2026 put your neck under her yoke and let your souls receive instruction\u201d (Sir 51:25-26). Earlier in the book, this invitation to learn from Wisdom had been issued by Wisdom herself: \u201ccome to me, you who desire me, and eat your fill of my fruits\u201d (Sir 24:19)\u2026So many of these phrases resonate in the words attributed to Jesus in the book of origins (Matt 11:28-30). As he speaks, he claims the authority of Wisdom. His words provide insight, guidance, direction, as do the words of Wisdom in earlier Jewish traditions. Indeed, just a few verses earlier, the voice of Wisdom has been invoked by Jesus as he reflects on the criticisms he has received, as \u201ca glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners\u201d (11:19). The proof of the pudding is in the eating\u2014\u201cWisdom is vindicated by her deeds\u201d, is what Jesus responds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\u00a0<\/p>\nNote also the connection with a famous prophetic action by Jeremiah. Jesus embodying Wisdom as prophet, engaging at times in symbolic actions of his own, made this imagery appropriate for him to draw on and apply to his own activity and that of his disciples. After the crucifixion, persuaded that Jesus must have known what would transpire and that it had been part of God\u2019s plan all along, the disciples may have seen in the saying about taking up the yoke a prediction and a challenge related to taking up the cross. Jesus often spoke in veiled terms. They would have blamed their failure to grasp this deeper meaning on themselves.<\/p>\nConnecting this with a more general point, I find that I am less and less frequently concluding that things in our earliest sources are accurately described as \u201cpure invention.\u201d We need to allow for historical nuance that can have something be at once related to history and yet not (or not entirely) historical. When we do so, a great many things seem likely to be developments and transformations of things Jesus actually said and did, and even the purely symbolic stories often still reflect the impression that Jesus made as a historical figure. This point is one I\u2019ll explore more fully in the introduction to\u00a0What Jesus Learned From Women<\/em>.<\/p>\nThere is also some relevance of the sayings to our time, when many who claim to follow Jesus emphasize not self-sacrifice or servitude but self-reliance and success as understood by the world. Both the yoke saying and the cross saying connect with service and humble submission. Whether originally one which became the other or originally two separate sayings, and whether one or both is authentically from the historical Jesus, doesn\u2019t necessarily have to detract from that point. But it may in the minds of some. Many wrestle with how matters of historical critical study relate to questions of the relevance and application of the teaching contained in the material.<\/p>\nBefore concluding, let me say that I wonder whether this development from one saying to another has been proposed before. If not, perhaps it would be worth developing this into an article.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019ve been thinking about a couple of sayings of Jesus and the possibility that the one gave rise to the other for a while now. The two sayings are \u201ccome to me\u2026take my yoke upon you\u201d and \u201ccome after me\u2026take up your cross.\u201d When John Squires blogged about one of the two sayings, I decided […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":79910,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2314,2954,5645,5677,9325,10344,10826,13999],"class_list":["post-40265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historical-jesus","tag-cross","tag-economy","tag-jeremiah","tag-jesus","tag-poor","tag-rich","tag-sayings","tag-yoke"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Take Up My Yoke<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I've been thinking about a couple of sayings of Jesus and the possibility that the one gave rise to the other for a while now. 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