"Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me" combines an everyday agricultural image with the language of discipleship. A yoke was literally associated with bearing a load, but yoke imagery could also describe accepting authority, obligation, or a way of instruction.
Jesus therefore invites weary hearers not into the absence of all obligation, but under his own yoke.
Yokes joined animals to work and became a natural metaphor for burdens and subjection. Jewish religious language could similarly speak of accepting a yoke in relation to divine rule or obligation.
In Matthew, the command "learn from me" interprets the metaphor. Jesus presents himself as the teacher whose yoke is kind and whose burden is light, in contrast with burdens that crush rather than give rest.
The ancient metaphor keeps the familiar phrase from becoming merely an invitation to relaxation. Jesus offers rest through discipleship: the hearer exchanges one kind of burden for allegiance to him.
The context therefore joins comfort with authority. Jesus claims the right to place his own yoke upon disciples while simultaneously describing himself as gentle and lowly and his burden as light.