Jesus speaks here of a figurative bondage of unprofitable labor under an inadequate understanding of God's law (23:4; Acts 15:10; Gal 5:1; compare Sirach 40:1; Did. 6; 1 Clement 16). Other teachers in Jesus' day and afterward spoke of accepting the "yoke of God's kingdom," or God's rule, by submitting to the yoke of the law rather than merely human rule. Like a good sage, Jesus invites disciples to learn from him. Yet Jesus did not interpret the law, including the law of rest (Mt 12:1-14), the same way his contemporaries did; his yoke was lighter. In contrast to his opponents (23:4), Jesus interprets the laws according to their original purpose, to which he is privy (5:17-48; 11:27; 12:8)-for example, interpreting sabbath laws in terms of devotion to God rather than universal rules (12:7) and divorce law in terms of devotion to one's faithful wife rather than a loophole to reject her (19:4-8).

By speaking of God's law as his own, Jesus implicitly claims authority from the Father greater than that of Moses himself (11:27); other Jewish texts would have spoken only of "God's" yoke here (Smith 1951:153), or of the yoke of Torah (Davies and Allison 1991:289). Jesus models his words directly after the invitation of Ben Sira in Sirach 51:23-27, but here it is Wisdom herself who speaks (compare Sirach 24:19-21). Obeying God will bring his people rest for [their] souls (Jer 6:16 MT).

They will find Jesus' yoke light because he is a Master who will care for them (Mt 11:29). Jesus' yoke is not lighter because he demands less (5:20), but because he bears more of the load with us (23:4). In contrast to unconcerned religious teachers who prided themselves on their own position, like some religious leaders today (23:4-7, 29), Jesus was going to lay down his life for the sheep (20:25-28).

When as a young Christian I first began to know what Jesus was like, I decided that no one could know what he was like and not fall madly in love with him; my new motive for obedience was not to disappoint the One who loved me as no one else had. When we learn of Jesus (see also Eph 4:20-21), we find the very Lord of the universe to be humble, preferring to dwell with the humble, the "little ones." If Jesus is meek, the people in whose lives he rules cannot be proud or self-centered either, for the kingdom belongs to the meek (5:3, 5).