The Joy of Rest
Written by Ed Allen
Saturday, 05 October 2002 19:00
I'm in the middle of a series of lessons on "building a balanced life." Last week, we talked about building margin into your life. I used the analogy of a piece of paper with margins around it. We have to say "no" to some things to have margin in our lives. Some of you will remember, the first week we talked about the need to slow down in order to regain balance. We used the image of the tightrope as a balancing illustration. "SLOW" was a very clever acronym for (1) Surrender the desire for more, (2) learn to wait on God, (3) obey the fourth commandment, (4) Welcome God into each day. To build balanced lives—slow the pace.
The week after that, we talked about changing our goal. Many of us have been headed in the wrong direction: we've been headed toward achieving as much success and the accouterments of success. Instead we need to aim for significance. Paul in the book of Philippians says we need to change our energy source from my best efforts to letting Christ live through me. We need also to change our way of thinking from resting on confidence in our own accomplishments to resting on being in Christ. Third, we have to change our goal from getting it all to getting God's prize. The punch line: the way that change happens is to be interrupted by God. That's what happened to the apostle Paul. He was on his way to greater significance. He was riding down the road to Damascus to persecute more Christians, got knocked off his horse and blinded. He asked, "who is it?" and a voice said, "It's Jesus." We said "listen and respond well to God's interruptions," because He is going to interrupt. Things will happen in our lives and interrupt us. When we respond well to those, there's a chance for change to happen.
After that, we discussed experiencing the significance of work in our lives. We said that work takes up such huge emotional, physical, mental and spiritual energy in our lives, that there is no way we can be in balance unless we have the right view of work. And, once again, we used the word "WORK" as an incredibly clever acronym to represent: Work is WORTHY of our best effort; ORDAINED by God; work is REQUIRED for participation in the community; and work shouldn't KILL the rest of your life. Notice that we said work is for His purposes for you: your work is sacred. It is set apart by God as something special.
I was going to come in this morning and remark about how tired we are, and use the drama we just saw to pound you with statistics about how tired we are and then I was going to talk about how much we need rest. I was going to give some illustrations about how much physically we need rest, a story or two about what can happen without rest in our lives, and then we were going to talk about what the Bible calls rest—how the word Sabbath as a noun means 7th day, which is also used as a verb meaning to cease or desist or stop from your work. We were going to trace that in the Old Testament and land on a verse in the New Testament where Jesus talks about the Sabbath. It was going to be really good. Here's the conclusion we were going to come to: that in order for your life to be balanced there has to be a regular rhythm. (Jabin gets up to talk about the rhythm of crewing). (You row a boat). (Did you do it with a group?) (Yes). (Little guy in back yells out cadence so you row together).
Have any of you done a tug of war? The side that wins when both are evenly matched is the side that gets the most regular rhythm going. I am convinced that in order to live balanced lives we've got to have a rhythm going. Think of it in terms of Jabin's crew guy: "Work?rest?work?rest?work?rest." We were going to talk about getting the right rhythm to life, I was going to put it up on power point and have a summary with a neat graphic, and the punch line was going to be this rhythm. God built this rhythm into the universe. He pre-wired us for this rhythm. This rest is really about worship. Illustration I used a few weeks ago about the whale: remember this? The way they got the whale to safe waters out from under the ice cap was to drill holes for the whale to spout through at intervals along the ice until he was led out to open waters. That's a vivid illustration of what worship is. We go along all week and then we have a day to blow off, exhale: rest. We inhale—God, essentially. I was going to expand the illustration—you and I are caught under the ice cap. There is a trail of holes that goes one way, and an easier path goes the other way. The easier path leads away from open water in exactly the wrong direction.
That's the kind of life we are leading, the rhythm gets off. We're doing the wrong kinds of things to rest—we're going for distraction instead of real rest. We don't really get what our heart, minds, and souls need. Something gets off, everything gets frenetic, we get more distracted to deal with the interruptions to make them go away, the pace picks up more and more, and there is no rhythm left between work and rest. Our lives get off kilter and out of balance.
Then I thought, something is missing here that has to do with this idea of rest and Sabbath. So I read the passage several times and I think I got it. There is more going on here than Jesus saying, "You've got to take a day of rest each week."
At that time Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, "Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath." He answered, "Haven't you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He entered the House of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. Or haven't you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests desecrate the day (they're working), yet are innocent? I tell you that one greater than the temple is here. ( How dare He say that in the Pharisees' presence? One greater than the temple—Jesus—was there.)If you had known what these words mean, 'I desire mercy not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the innocent. For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath." (Matthew 12: 1–8)
What does that mean: I desire mercy, not sacrifice? Here is our first hint. Jesus is getting at the same thing the prophet who said it was getting at. If you have missed everything else don't miss this: several weeks ago, when we were working through Jeremiah, on a day we thought would be just another Sunday, I preached from Jeremiah Chapter 7 which Old Testament scholars call "The Temple Sermon." Jeremiah essentially goes through the temple, saying, "Wake up! You're all feeling right because you're following some rituals, and you are in the temple so you feel protected. They even had a slogan they would say: "This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord." This meant the felt God would protect them because of the temple. Jeremiah said, God is not after the temple and your rituals—those are just ceremonial reminders of the real deal. If you don't have the real deal, then the ceremonial reminders are nothing—they're empty religion. It doesn't mean anything to Him—or you. This is about a relationship. It's about hearts—real spirits—about mercy, not sacrifice. The whole system is set up to remind us of God's mercy.
In Mark's account of this incident, in Mark Chapter 2, Mark recalls something even more outstanding. Mark says the Sabbath is made for you, not you for the Sabbath.
The disciples weren't breaking the Sabbath. They were breaking the rules imposed on the Sabbath, those elaborate rules that for 100's of years the Pharisees and others had erected in order to "Sabbath keep." For instance, you could cook if the water had already started boiling before the sun went down the day before Sabbath. But if the sun was down and the water hadn't started to boil you had to turn it off. You could only take 5, maybe 7 steps outside your house—couldn't get your oxen out of the ditch—thousands of regulations were expected in order to Sabbath keep. Here were Jesus' disciples violently trampling on those regulations.
Here's the punch line. The Pharisees had made the mistake of institutionalizing the Sabbath. The Sabbath, they thought, was the thing that we had to serve. But actually God gave the Sabbath to serve us, because we need rest. This isn't an extra hoop that we have to jump through, in fact, NONE of His commands are. His commands are always FOR us, not imposed on us. The Sabbath was for our benefit, not a hoop.
I don't know how you feel about Martin Luther. At least half of our congregation is Catholic-former Catholic. There are some negative things that can be said about Luther, even things about his character, although Luther is one of my heroes. We could make an argument that it would be better if the Body of Christ wasn't separated, and weren't arguing and even killing one another. But one of the things we need to applaud Luther for—and, to its credit the church of the Middle Ages tried to correct as well, though not successfully—is that Luther tried to save the church from becoming the same thing—an institution that we had to serve. I think Jesus was saying—you've got that backwards. The Church is for you—not imposed on you.
The same thing is true of the Sabbath, and this is critical to our understanding of Jesus and how radically he separated himself from the "religion" of the day. Often when I am talking with folks about faith, and they don't know Christ, I'll shock them by saying, "You know Jesus was one of the least religious guys I know." There is good evidence for this. Those most upset with Him were the religious people. And the folks He reserved His criticism for were the people like me, honestly. Professional religious people. The answer men. The checklist men. Those asking if you've jumped through this or that hoop. Jesus is saying, "No! God has given all this for your provision." I have wanted this week to tell you all this, but I felt it still wasn't enough. In Matthew 9–14 it says:
Going out from that place, He went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, they asked Him, "Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?" He said to them, "If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath." Then He said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus.
Now, that one confused me a little bit. But ultimately, it underscored that the Sabbath is made for our needs. But it confused me enough to cause me to explore the context of the passage. Before we go to the context, you need to know that the passages are often arranged thematically, not chronologically. Matthew's point as he wrote the gospel was to prove Jesus as the Christ the Son of the living God. Matthew is saying, "Look—you need to fall down and worship Him." In Mark, Chapters 2 and 3, Jesus' discussion and arguments with the Pharisees all come near the beginning in two Chapters. Now, we know Jesus did not have all his arguments with Pharisees all at once. The passages are arranged that way to set us up for the point that Jesus had the most problems with the religious guys. He points out that Christ is for everyone, not just the Jews. The paragraph right before the passage is Chapter 11:
Come to Me, all who are weary and 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 if you come to Me. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
Evidently, no matter where you are, or what you're going through, if you come to Jesus today you will find rest for your soul. Now how is that connected to Matthew 12, I wondered? I decided to scroll back through the Old Testament teachings on the Sabbath. When Moses gives the 10 Commandments, he said, "Keep the Sabbath because of creation." God worked six days and rested on the seventh. Because of the rhythm of creation, you do like wise.
In Deuteronomy Chapter 5, Moses reminds Israel about Sabbath-keeping for a different reason: because the Lord has delivered you from the hand of Pharoah. In Deut. 12, he says that God is going to establish a place of worship for the people to go to. Then he says something astounding:
You are not to do as we do here today, everyone as he sees fit, since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He will give you rest from all your enemies around you so you will live in safety. (Deut. 12:8)
Back in Genesis 2 is the same word—rest—in reference to the garden of Eden—and I realized that the Sabbath is just a symbol of a place of rest. The promised land is a place of rest because it is God's provision for you. Maybe, I thought, the reason our lives are out of balance is because we're not resting in God. We don't depend on Him. Last week, we had a response time, something we don't do often, and the punch line was: Do less, and trust God more. Remember I said we live lives that Jesus may not even recognize? We have worked so hard, and are surrounded by so much comfort and competence, that we don't have to depend. So every once in awhile, God interrupts us with a crisis or something happens. And then we just fall on our knees, depend on Him, rest in Him?no! We just work harder, trying to make everything line up, because we're afraid to depend on God.
The reason we are out of balance: we're not slowing down. There's not enough margin. We're going in the wrong direction still, perhaps. We don't have God's view of work. Not following God's rhythm. Fundamentally, these represent a lack of dependence on Him. We just don't depend on God. I can't answer for you, only for myself. You have to answer that for yourself—what keeps you from depending on God? Radical dependence on God. I would guess 90% of people that end up in Northern Virginia are not people who depend easily. We've worked it all out. We should be the most deliriously happy people on the planet. We've got more than most people in all of human history have ever had. But are we deliriously happy? Maybe we've been going towards the wrong things.