Sometimes we have to remember that life in Jesus is not primarily about this idea of "Okay, we're Christians now, so it's time to put our noses to the grindstone and be productive, hard-working Christians for the Kingdom, never tiring and never slacking off." But Jesus didn't come merely to be our boss. He came to take away our sin through His death, and to satisfy our needs and our souls by His resurrected life. If we REALLY know who He is, He doesn't make us weary. He makes us happy. As we've been looking at for the past few posts, He satisfies our hunger, quenches our thirst, and He also is our rest.
Matthew 11:28-29
28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Jesus' claim is that you find rest for your souls in Him. I think it's safe to say that this is a rest for your soul that you won't find elsewhere in the world. Sure, there's yoga and meditation and entertainment and all that other stuff in which people find rest and restoration, but do those things leave you with the lingering knowledge of the love of your Savior? A relationship is so much bigger and more effective than just a "thing" or an activity. God is a relational God, and that's why we are relational people. I don't know about you, but I'm never more at peace than when I'm with a person that I share a mutual love with. God wants to be a person to us -- in Jesus -- not just an idea or some abstract thing.
Mark 2:27-28
27 And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. 28 Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.”
God knows that we humans have a very finite supply of strength and energy. So He prescribed rest into His universal plan for humanity*. The Sabbath (which the Israelites were instructed to "keep holy") was a gift TO His people. In fact, all His commandments are for our own good. God created people, so He knows the blueprints for what makes society work best. And one of those things that humans and society require is rest. In the same way that God's best is to obey your parents, be honest in all that you do, keep yourself pure for your future spouse, etc, His best is also that you not work hard 365 days a year. His absolute best is that you take one day off per week. For a lot of us, that can be a tough or impossible routine to keep steady. I believe that we're allowed flexibility. Remember, Jesus said that the Sabbath was made for man, not vice versa. I think He was addressing the problem of following the Sabbath commandment so religiously that it actually became more of a burden instead of a gift of rest. So use it as a gift!
Finally, any amount of rest can be resting in Christ if we choose. Most of us these days end our day with some TV or reading, followed by bedtime. But even if your "quiet time" takes place in the morning, you can take a few minutes to focus on resting in Jesus before going to sleep. Or, you know, any other time of day.
Remember to rest and to be intentional in your rest in Jesus.
*The Sabbath actually started with the fact that God Himself rested on the 7th day, after which He blessed and sanctified the 7th day of creation (Gen. 2:2-3). God did not NEED to rest, necessarily. But I think He knew what He was doing. Ultimately, the Sabbath points to Jesus. Jesus is "Lord of the Sabbath" (Mark 2) and therefore always HAS been, especially considering that He was there at its beginning following the creation of all things, since everything was created by Jesus and for Jesus (Col. 1).
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