1. Take On My...What?

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"Take my yoke upon you and learn from me
for I am meek and humble of heart; 
and you will find rest for yourselves."
Matthew 11:29 

This very passage is at the CORE of what discipleship is it. If we do not take on Jesus's yoke, then we are not truly His disciples. To put it quite bluntly, without taking on Christ's yoke our discipleship is nonexistent. 

But what does it mean to take on another's yoke? 
Getting to the very root of things, what on earth is a yoke?

Jeff Cavin's has enlightened me to this answer in order to help me become a disciple of Our Lord, and now I wish to share it with you in hopes of helping you on your journey into discipleship. I will try to explain these things in simple and understandable terms that any reader can grasp.

I will go into the historical understanding of Jewish discipleship more in future blog posts, but for now I am simply going to state that a disciple is a man who follows his rabbi wherever He goes in order to learn the ways of the rabbi and take on the rabbi's yoke.

To take on the Rabbi's yoke is to take on the Rabbi's very worldview without reserve:

                                        -->  To LIVE like the rabbi
                                        -->  To THINK like the rabbi.
                                        -->  To ultimately BECOME like the rabbi.

This means taking of the rabbi's worldview. When a rabbi says to his disciple "Take my yoke upon you" he is saying:

"Take on my worldview. 
See EVERYTHING as I see it.

See marriage as I see it.
See finances as I see them.
See the widow as I see her.
See the orphan as I see him/her..."

without reserve

The rabbi is saying "Become like me...

without reserve."

This is what being a disciple is. The reason the man follows his rabbi is to come to KNOW Him in order to BECOME like Him. This is at the center of discipleship. The become a disciple is a CALL. WE are not the ones CHOOSING God as Our Lord and Savior. Rather, we are ACCEPTING this SPECIFIC invitation of His to become His disciples. He is our rabbi.

As disciples, our goal in life is to come to know Our Lord in order to form a RELATIONSHIP with Him and to BECOME LIKE Him. This is His call. In my next blog post, I will go into more detail on how to form this relationship with Our Lord. Until then... deuces.

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