This morning I watched my toddler spill the sticky liquid she had begged me for just moments prior, on purpose, while looking me straight in the eye as I repeatedly told her not to.

What an image, I thought, of how often we approach God in the same way regarding that special sin we thought we really wanted, but as soon as we turn from him to cling to it, suddenly we’ve found ourselves in the midst of a sticky mess.

As early as 12 months I begin using the vernacular “obey” with my children. Prior to this age, and for as many years as I can after, I hum and sing songs like “trust and obey” in their ears. Their obedience is something that I expect as their parent. I expect that when I ask them to do, or not to do, something that they will listen. Sometimes the command is essential for their immediate physical safety: “look both ways before crossing the road.” Sometimes, the command is concerning their conduct: “say please and thank you.” In either instance, the Biblical command concerning their obedience is clear: “Children obey their parents in the Lord for this is right (Ephesians 6:1).”

The usage of the term yoke in the Bible conjures the image of oxen. Webster defines it as, “a wooden crosspiece that is fastened over the necks of two animals and attached to the plow or cart that they are to pull.” Together, the oxen each have the same objective: pull the cart. Yet, depending on the strength of the team member this objective could be made significantly less or more difficult.

Imagine two teams of oxen are given a challenge to reach the end of a field first. The first set are given a straight path, with protective barriers on each side that they are able to walk from point A to point B with no obstructions. Now, picture another set who have no barriers and may use any part of the field they please, but spotted along the field are logs and puddles and other manners of distraction along the way as they attempt to travel from point A to point B.

Both teams ultimately reach the conclusion. However, one team was offered a more effective means to reach that conclusion than the other. Furthering this analogy, upon completion of the task, rewards await the oxen team that completed the task by encountering the fewest amount of obstructions. It seems almost unfair that one team was given a protected route and a straight path from point A to B. In our society today, we would challenge this and say, “the other team had to encounter all those difficulties. It wasn’t fair!” But this is just what Jesus offers: barriers to protect us, combined with his strength to cross the obstacles, but for the sake of our freedoms we far too often reject.

Unlike the oxen in this analogy we have a choice. Choosing Jesus means we are yoked together with him in eternal freedom from the consequence of our sin. The barriers given in scripture are there to keep us from harm, not force restrictions that cost us something good. Jesus himself gives us the perfect example when “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 2:12).” At any point Jesus had the power and authority to command tens of thousands of angels, “do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels (Matthew 26:53),” but Jesus was able to see beyond this temptation and the distractions of the world to obey the Father for he knew the joy that was set before him. We are given the same promise in Hebrews, “since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted (Hebrews 12:1-3).” We lose sight of the joy that is set before us when we take our eyes off of Jesus and set our sights on things of this world.

From the moment Satan tempted Eve in the garden humanity has engaged in the same temptation to question whether or not what is outside of the barrier is worth abandoning the path for. So often we mistakenly believe that God has withheld something good from us and that we should just go and take it for ourselves. But what we find are puddles, and logs, and lack the strength to move through them on our own. Suddenly that special sin is sticky. It’s muddy. And without being yoked to a teammate whose strength is able to see us through to the other side our steps sink among the muck and mire and we become yoked, rather, to our sin. When we pick the desires of our flesh over obedience to God we choose enslavement to sin. When Jesus says “my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matthew 11:30),” he means he can offer us a way by which “all of our paths can be made straight (Proverbs 3:6)” when we acknowledge Him in all of our ways.

We’re either enslaved to our sin, or we’re enslaved to Jesus. One offers eternal condemnation, the other eternal freedom.

Now, this can seem a bit like prosperity gospel. Yoke yourself to Jesus and suddenly there are no more puddles or mud to muck through. This is not the case. In fact, Jesus says, “in this world you will have trouble, but fear not for I have overcome the world (John 16:33).” What happens when we yoke ourselves to Jesus and start pursuing Him rather than our sin is that he makes our path morally straight, he enables our decision making to align with His good and perfect will; once we have accepted his sacrifice for our sin, as we love him and pursue a knowledge of Him, we find ourselves free from the enslaving burdens of sin.

I expect my children to obey me because the Bible commands them to. Not because I’m some scary figure of authority, but because I’m the God ordained authority in their life. God’s will for my life, in part, is to teach them the chain of command. God, me, them. Less of a chain. More of a direct link. God’s word commands them to obey and it commands me to train them up. When they begin a life of understanding that intertwines obedience with love they see the gospel more plainly. If we love him we obey him: Jesus showed us this by obeying the father all the way to the cross. Freedom is found in obedience to his word, and with Jesus we have the strength we need to overcome sin in order to obey.

Finally, when we yield to him, we take rest in Him. When we place our lives in his hands we give over our struggles to the one who is strong enough to temper them. We yoke ourselves to a teammate whose strength overcomes even the muckiest, deepest sin pits. Really, he’s more than a teammate. He’s the whole team. His strength in us, not ours, gives us victory. So go to him. All you who are heavy laden, burdened down by the weight of sin, and he will give you rest.

“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28).”