For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. For my yoke is easy - My Gospel imposes nothing that is difficult; on the contrary, it provides for the complete removal of all that which oppresses and renders man miserable, viz. sin. The commandments of Christ are not grievous. Hear the whole: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself. Can any thing be more congenial to the nature of man than love? - such a love as is inspired by God, and in which the soul rests supremely satisfied and infinitely happy? Taste, and know, by experience, how good the Lord is, and how worthy his yoke is to be taken, borne, and loved. This most tender invitation of the compassionate Jesus is sufficient to inspire the most diffident soul with confidence. See on Mark 8:34 (note).
Creeshna, the incarnate God of the Hindoos, is represented in the Geeta addressing one of his beloved disciples thus: "I am the creator of all things, and all things proceed from me. Those who are endued with spiritual wisdom, believe this, and worship me: their very hearts and minds are in me; they rejoice among themselves, and delight in speaking of my name, and teaching one another my doctrine. I gladly inspire those who are constantly employed in my service with that use of reason by which they come unto me; and, in compassion, I stand in my own nature, and dissipate the darkness of their ignorance with the light of the lamp of wisdom." Bhagvat Geeta, p. 84.
The word עול aval, among the Jews, which we properly enough translate yoke, signified not only that sort of neck-harness by which bullocks drew in wagons, carts, or in the plough; but also any kind of bond, or obligation, to do some particular thing, or to do some particular work. By them it is applied to the following things: -
1. The yoke of the Kingdom of heaven, עול מלכות השמים obedience to the revealed will of God.
2. The yoke of the Law, עול הורה the necessity of obeying all the rites, ceremonies, etc., of the Mosaic institution.
3. The yoke of the Precept, עול מצוה the necessity of performing that particular obligation by which any person had bound himself, such as that of the Nazarite, etc.
4. The yoke of Repentance, עול של השוכה without which, they knew, they could not enter into the kingdom of heaven. With the Jews, repentance not only implied forsaking sin, but fasting, mortification, etc.
5. The yoke of Faith, עול אמונה the necessity of believing in the promised Messiah.
6. The Divine yoke, עול רלעילא the obligation to live a spiritual life; a life of thanksgiving and gratitude unto God.
In Shemoth Rabba it is said: "Because the ten tribes did not take the yoke of the holy and blessed God upon them, therefore Sennacherib led them into captivity."
Christ's yoke means, the obligation to receive him as the Messiah, to believe his doctrine, and to be in all things conformed to his Word and to his Spirit.
Commentary on the Bible, by Adam Clarke [1831].