The power of the yoke

Opinion

Robust Leadership, Theology | Beulah Wood | 02 December 2018

For her Hui address, our new President, Beulah Wood, drew messages from the remarkable biblical symbol of the yoke. This is an abbreviated version of her speech.

Bullocks with yokes were integral to our New Zealand pioneering days, and I saw them often in India where I worked for more than 25 years.

The yoke for one

Single person yokes can be made of timber, carved to suit the human wearer, like those that once enabled milkmaids to carry two full buckets of milk. Or they can be like the carefully selected bamboo ones still used in Kathmandu, West Bengal and East Asia.

A yoke is valuable. It enables an otherwise impossible task. It may even make a task easy. Jesus said, u201cMy yoke is easy, and my burden is lightu201d (Matthew 11:30). That verse has meant much to me. The tasks God has given meu2014writing, teaching on family in India, committees, teaching preachingu2014can be stressful. At times I struggle or fail. Yet I know they fit right for me. I like them, while some friends would hate them. Well, I would hate many of theirs.

The yoke for two

I imagine Jesus in the carpenteru2019s shop, making balanced, fitted yokes for his neighboursu2019 oxen. Jesus thought a yoke such a blessing that he offered a yoke to his best friends. Perhaps he would pull with them in the task. u201cTake my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your soulsu201d (Matthew 11:29). And Paul saw achievement, comradeship and trust pictured in a yoke. He called one of his companions in Christian work u201cmy true yoke-fellowu201d (Philippians 4:3 KJV). When people work together like that, they achieve much more than they could separately.

We may apply this to both our work for God and our marriages. The gift of marriage can empower a couple to cling to each other at the depth of their being with complete two-way respect and two-way love, enabling deep mutuality in all of life and leisure. For that kind of partnering, Paul told the Ephesians, u201cSubmit to one anotheru201d (Ephesians 5:21 NIV). That is a blessed yoke.

And in this nation, another meaning of two pulling together can be that we recognise that coming through the portal of the bicultural journey, we will find a strength that is right for greater justice and manaakitanga. We would be lacking without it.

The yoke for a team

Then I also see a broader application. This land of ours was cleared for roads and brought in for farming with the aid of bullock and horse teams ploughing, carting and logging. Jesus knew about bullock teams. In one parable, a man who refused to attend a feast said he was trying out five yoke of oxenu2014ten animals who pulled together. Paulu2019s u201cDo not be yoked together with unbelieversu201d (2 Corinthians 6:14 NIV) has in view a yoke as a commitment to another, a covenant, and this is how we are, as members in our local church, in our associations and in our union of churches.

Paul wrote of a team of men and women pulling together in Christian work, and he loved that joint effort and companionship. u201cI ask you, my true yokefellow, to help these women who have labored with me for the gospel, along with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers...u201d (Philippians 4:3 BSB).

If we are yoked together as members of Baptist churches, what does that yoke do? With it we can do more than we ever could separately, while appreciating that companionship. We have a covenant. Let us use it to inspire us to pull together as Baptists in New Zealand.

Story: Dr Beulah Wood

Beulah is the President of the Baptist Churches of New Zealand and the New Zealand Baptist Missionary Society. After missionary service in India and the death of her husband when they served in Nepal in 1980, she raised her four daughters in New Zealand. Beulah later returned to South India as a writer and teacher in a theological college seconded by Interserve and NZBMS, focusing on preaching, women and family issues.

Scripture: Unless otherwise specified, Scripture quotations are from New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright u00a91989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Versionu00ae, NIVu00ae. Copyright u00a9 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.u2122 Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The u201cNIVu201d and u201cNew International Versionu201d are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.u2122

Scripture quotations marked MSG are taken from THE MESSAGE, copyright u00a9 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson. Used by permission of NavPress. All rights reserved. Represented by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.