A disciple needs a teacher, but the teacher must teach process more than facts. If we are to keep all that He commanded, we must learn more than facts.
There is a place where He teaches us process.
“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 shall find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy, and My load is light.” Matthew 11:28-30
We learn from Him when we are shoulder to shoulder with Him, like two oxen yoked together to pull a plow. But it is His yoke alone that we must take. All that we think we have to do has to be set aside to learn from Him.
This is a place for two and two only. It is a time to walk quietly, to ask simply, and hear quickly. We come to Him, asking Him what He wants to do. Walking with Him, we can learn to work, at His pace, in His way. He is plowing a field; He wants us to join Him in it. It is simple work that requires steadfastness more that zeal; He will keep plowing in the same field until it is done.
Just as the oxen pull the plow in the hand of the farmer, we will be directed by the hand of God as we are yoked with Jesus. He is teaching us to be directed by God; He is teaching us to keep all that He commanded. He is teaching us process through shared work, not through the classroom.
We thought what we were struggling to do was necessary; we were exhausted trying to carry the burdens of life. We were doing the “right” thing; we thought we understood.
But He has a different way of teaching. What is hidden from the wise and intelligent He reveals to those who are simply yoked together with Him, learning to just work with Him in what He wants to do. The one in the yoke gets to hear Jesus explain what the theologian cannot figure out.
This is not an abstraction; this is a straightforward way to come to Jesus. Walk down a long path with Him, away from everything else. Ask Him what He wants to do working with you. Listen; ask simple real questions. This is the place to learn. He explained the whole Old Testament in a few miles on the road to Emmaus.
Then do what He says.
-Greg Whitten
