About this passageSpoken at the end of a chapter in which Jesus has been rebuking towns that did not respond to him. A yoke is the wooden frame that couples a draft animal to a load, and rabbinic usage had long applied the word to the obligations of the Law — so the image is of exchanging one burden for another, rather than of putting burdens down. What the passage promises is a lighter yoke, not an empty field.
"Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
In plainer words
Come here, all of you who are worn out and carrying too much, and I will let you rest. Take my yoke instead — learn from me, because I am gentle and not proud — and you will find rest in yourselves. My yoke fits. What I ask you to carry is light. Note that he does not offer to remove the harness. He offers a better one.
A restatement in modern English, written for this collection. The passage above is the text; this is one way of putting it.