Month: January 2021

Matthew the writer wants us to know and grasp Jesus’ viewpoint on the Sabbath. So   having just documented an interaction Jesus had with the Pharisees about it, he immediately records another incident, apparently on the same day. “Going on 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?” 

Previously, Jesus had been accused by the Pharisees of breaking Sabbatical law by allowing His disciples to quench their hunger by picking grains on the Sabbath – the one day God had specifically told His people not to work. Jesus’ response was that the immediate need of the disciples temporarily displaced the ceremonial observance of Sabbatical principles: A starving man should be fed on Sabbath, even if that means work must be done. Besides which, everyone knew that temple law is not broken when the priest does work at the temple. Jesus’ presence was far superior to the temple, so His disciples’ work is not in violation either. 

In this instance, most every aspect is reversed from the previous story. Where the Pharisees had confronted Jesus at the location His disciples were ‘working’ by picking grain, now Jesus goes to the Pharisee’s place of work (“their temple”) and sees one of their disciples – a man with a withered hand. Further, where Jesus had earlier asked the Pharisees a question, now they ask Him a question. Theirs is a question steeped in dishonesty, for it is not asked that revelation might be given, but that accusation might be made. 

Ironically, this fact itself continues the pattern of reversal. For where Jesus had asked His question to free their myoptic worldview, they ask that they might ensnare toward their own; “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”

In the mind of the Pharisee, healing on the Sabbath was forbidden unless it was a life-threatening emergency. The healing they are tempting Jesus to do is to alleviate a pre-existing condition, not solve an immediate crisis like the hunger the twelve had. It was an opportunity to get Jesus to contradict His earlier teaching, and so be able to accuse Him of inconsistency. After all, the man in question could simply look for healing on another day of the week. Jesus simply didn’t need to heal him right then and there. 

What they failed to grasp is that they are looking for the wrong answer by asking the wrong question. God’s Law was never about legalism and minutiae. It was about God. It was about revealing principles that are important to God’s character and ways. The very fact that God cared enough about people to even give them the Law to start with tells us that God cares. How much more the story of the garden, Babel, Noah, Exodus, and the great many instances where God demonstrates His overwhelming love for people through Israel’s history. The very Law the Pharisees prided themselves on knowing dripped with the obvious answer! God cares deeply for those He made in His own image, and that fact must dominate our response to the community around us. 

Sabbath or not, we always need to emulate His character of mercy, compassion and love. Always. Every day and every hour and in every circumstance!

True godliness results not from mere mimicry, but from a deepening relationship with God himself.

Philip A. Bence

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Where does demonstrating God’s love and care for others fit in your personal list of priorities?

The creation account in the book of Genesis tells us the order in which God   made all things. First was light and the concept of day and night. Then the sky, then land, then vegetation, then stars, then fish and birds, then all manner of land creatures, and finally, man. At that point God gives man sovereignty over the land, fish, birds and land creatures and seed-bearing plants and trees. Then God rests. 

From that order we can know that while man doesn’t create anything, we yet have sovereignty over almost all of creation. Not all of it, because we were not given light, nor water, nor sun or moon, nor stars. Complete mastery of those things is beyond us. But mastery of the land is not beyond us. That we can control. We can shape the land as we desire, and people do. Farmers clear the land of trees and rocks and enslave it to their own uses. Landscapers do, and likewise builders of cities, dams and golf courses. We use the land as we desire, and where we desire, we reshape it to our use. We can even mine the land and burrow through solid rock.

Likewise, we were given rulership over animals. So people use them for clothing, food and pets. We can even enslave them in zoos as we desire, or pen them into ‘wildlife perserves’ that they can only escape under penalty of imminent death. They – and insects, plants and trees – are helpless to rule over us. Such is the impact of God’s spoken word assigning rule as He purposes. 

But God’s order is another matter. While we can rule over creation, we are not creators – merely rulers. We are given rulership of that which came before us so that the world might thrive under us. Creation is made for God’s great glory and therefore is not here merely for our selfish use. In fact, our foolishness about the matter is incurring God’s wrath. To this point one day the prophet foretells, “..Your wrath has come. The time has come for judging the dead, and for rewarding your servants the prophets and your saints and those who reverence your name, both small and great— and for destroying those who destroy the earth.” (italics mine) 

Rulership comes with responsibility. Also with the one thing that was made AFTER us, which we can know was made for us, not merely given to us. The Gospel of Mark gives us more detail than Matthew does, reporting of Jesus, “Then he said to [the Pharisees], “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”  Matthew only documents Jesus using a single sentence, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” This is sufficient to know that the Sabbath was made for us, not the other way around. 

That doesn’t mean we can ignore the principle for which God made the Sabbath. It does mean that our Lord and King is also Lord and King of that which was made for us. Therefore, what we chose to use the Sabbath for either directly honors Jesus Christ who made us, or it does not. We need to choose wisely!

A world without a Sabbath would be like a man without a smile, like a summer without flowers, and like a homestead without a garden. It is the joyous day of the whole week.

Henry Ward Beecher

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Is God honoured through your use of the hours He gives you? 

Back in chapter 9, Matthew recorded the Pharisees seeing Jesus eating dinner at his   (Matthew’s) house. At the time, Jesus was dinning with many tax collectors and people known to be violators of God’s law. The Pharisees then approached Christ’s disciples and asked why Jesus would do such a thing. Jesus’ advice to the Pharisees in response was, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.”

That was some time ago. As the Gospel narrative continues, we read of the Pharisees confronting Jesus about His disciples’ behavior. Although this time the parties being called to account are different, Jesus’ advice to the people pointing out the error is along exactly the same lines, “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” The behavior of the Pharisees (in pointing out the religious error of others) was all Jesus needed to know that they had not grasped what He had earlier told them; Mercy always triumphs over ritualistic observance. 

You would think they would’ve at least looked into the matter. If they did, they would’ve found that mercy saved Noah, who in merely acting according to what he knew of God’s character found mercy and shelter for his whole family from worldwide catastrophe before any of God’s Law was given. The same with Abram, who had listened to God’s call and found God’s mercy overshadowing his foolish missteps in Egypt – it was only later he built an altar to God and sacrificed. And what of Lot, who was saved by Abraham’s intercession before the ten commandments were given? Even then, it was mercy triumphing over sacrifice when Moses found God’s mercy sufficient for the forgiveness and redemption of his whole nation – well before the tabernacle was built. 

Likewise with Rahab, who appealed to what she knew of God and found salvation for her family long before she could participate in Jewish ritual. Also with David, who cried for mercy after his moral failure and found reinstatement as King before the temple was built. Yet in spite of these (and many more) examples in the scrolls they knew, the Pharisees still sought to put ritualistic obedience ahead of God’s mercy. So though Jesus had told them once before, He tells them again. Last time they but lacked that direct instruction. This time they still ignore it, and they’ve compounded their error by condemning the innocent.

When God gives us a Word He expects us to act on it. We cannot simply dismiss or overlook it and move forward. We cannot jump over a lesson in our discipleship journey. Jesus will just bring us back to the same point again later. 

As Eugene Peterson noted, discipleship is a long steady obedience in the same direction. Although the road of discipleship has many twists and turns, there are no shortcuts, and trying to take one always results in a greater error than just ignorance! 

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.

James, brother of Jesus the Christ (from Jas 1:22–25)

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Is there an instruction that God told you that you have thus far ignored?

The Jewish temple in Jesus’ day was a truly impressive building. There were  other  impressive temples, such as the temple of Zeus in Lystra, and the temple of Artemis in Ephesus. All of those were impressive structures. But the temple in Jerusalem was not only impressive from an architectural viewpoint. It was truly glorious on account of God Most High, who was worshipped there. Consequently, Jewish appreciation for the temple was much higher than modern sensibilities typically allow for great city buildings in our day. We might like and value our stadiums, museums and city halls, and we do worship God in our churches (old and new). But while such buildings are highly significant to us, they do not embody our cultural identity like the Jewish temple did for Israel. For us, there is another church to go to, another building to be raised up that might be nicer than the last. For the Jews, there was no other temple. 

This in mind, Jesus’ statement to the Pharisees during His argument with them about proper behavior on the Sabbath is all the more striking. He said, “I tell you that one greater than the temple is here.”

Jesus had just made two statements about people’s behavior in and around the temple on the Sabbath. He noted that King David had, “…entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread…”, and that, “the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent.” Let’s not miss what He was saying – His point was that the priorities of God place the immediate need of man and the honor of God higher than the ritualistic observance of ceremonial law. 

But if that is so, how much more should we place the wisdom of God above our immature application of His Word? To this point Jesus says, “If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.” And if we did understand His Word rightly – as God having instituted the Sabbath for mankind on account of His own action of resting on the 7th day – then how much higher a priority should His very presence be above even our observance of Sabbath? To that point Jesus adds, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.” 

In the very presence of the Lord of the Sabbath, the Pharisees are insisting on the priority of their own faulty worldview. They have never even considered that perhaps they didn’t have a lock on God’s thinking. They see with their worldly eyes and immediately judge with their crooked hearts instead of using their heads. Modern missiologists call this error, “ethnocentrism”, the idea that we know best, and therefore we are fit to judge everyone else according to our worldview.

When they did that, the Pharisees missed an opportunity to directly learn from God and what He was doing right in front of them. 

What are we missing when we do likewise?

Anybody can observe the Sabbath, but making it holy surely takes the rest of the week.

Alice Walker

APPLICATION: Worship

Is God not with you right now? What is your response to Him?

God had commanded the Israelites to make numerous offerings. There were  burnt  offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings and trespass offerings. There were also daily offerings at the temple, and in Numbers 28 God told the Israelites to make additional offerings on the Sabbath: “On the Sabbath day, make an offering of two lambs a year old without defect, together with its drink offering and a grain offering of two-tenths of an ephah of fine flour mixed with oil. This is the burnt offering for every Sabbath, in addition to the regular burnt offering and its drink offering.” 

The fact that there were offerings on the Sabbath (and even extra offerings on that day), meant that the priests at the temple had to work on the one day the rest of society had off. This was in spite of God’s clear mandate to observe the Sabbath, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates.” 

It was this very point Jesus was making when He rebuked the Pharisees for criticizing His disciples for picking some grain on the Sabbath, “…haven’t you read in the Law that on the Sabbath the priests in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?”

We don’t usually think about such things in our culture anymore. Our secular governments have all but erased the cultural habit of Sabbath. In our day, Jesus’ rebuke of the Pharisees has been taken as a cart blanche mandate for the erasure of the Sabbath, but both worldviews (ours today and the Pharisees back then) are mistaken. Sabbath is not a principle we can ignore, nor is it a taxing legalistic requirement by which we can judge others. 

After all, it is obvious that the fact the priests technically violated the Sabbath wasn’t a problem for either the priests or for God, or He wouldn’t have commanded it to start with. The implication is likewise obvious. Sabbath is not supposed to be an inflexible religious observance so much as a regular practice that mandates a clear focus on our relationship with God. 

One always has to read what God’s Word says as firstly about God, and therefore how we can emulate Him and His ways. God rested on the 7th day of creation. If God rests, His creation must rest also. If God took time to focus on His relationship (as Father, Son and Spirit), we must do so also. But that God took the 7th day of the week does not mean that Sunday needs to be Sabbath. Our particular Sabbath could be any day of the week, because God’s institution of Sabbath as the seventh day predates the concepts of Sunday or Monday or Friday. Therefore Sabbath is not about following a legal requirement for a particular day of the week. It is about making time with God a priority on a weekly and regular basis.

If you don’t take a Sabbath, something is wrong. You’re doing too much, you’re being too much in charge. You’ve got to quit, one day a week, and just watch what God is doing when you’re not doing anything.

Eugene Peterson

APPLICATION: Intentionality

In these days, how do you keep a weekly focus on God?

Jesus, having been confronted by the Pharisees about His disciples’  behavior in gathering  and eating grain on the Sabbath, said, “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.”

The Pharisees would have immediately thought about that episode in 1Samuel 21. David, having been warned by Jonathan that King Saul was after him with murderous intention, took his men and left town. Their lives in danger and a journey ahead of them, David went to Ahimelech the priest and demanded bread. Ahimelech had only the consecrated bread, of which God had said, “This bread is to be set out before the Lord regularly, Sabbath after Sabbath, on behalf of the Israelites, as a lasting covenant. It belongs to Aaron and his sons, who are to eat it in a holy place, because it is a most holy part of their regular share of the offerings made to the Lord by fire.”  In spite of God’s clear instructions to the priests, the book of Samuel records, “So the priest gave him the consecrated bread, since there was no bread there except the bread of the Presence that had been removed from before the Lord and replaced by hot bread on the day it was taken away.”  

The principle at work is one of priority. David’s overwhelming immediate and urgent need clearly mandated extraordinary behavior. That’s exactly the same situation that Jesus had found Himself in with his disciples. Consequently, He effectively did just as Ahimelech the priest had done.

Jesus notes that the Pharisees error is thinking that God’s ceremonial law has the same priority as God’s moral law. Ceremonial law is there to light the way to normative righteous living. When unusual circumstances arise, the normal way of living must be sacrificed for the greater good. You don’t claim your bread is special and only for you when the King is standing in front of you and asking on account of his hunger. To do so would be to attempt to honor God by dishonoring the very one God sent to save you.

The Pharisees prided themselves on living in strict obedience to the written code. In order to do so they studied the written Word of God on a regular basis – so we know they would’ve read of David’s appropriation of the consecrated bread repeatedly – and each time with margin and motive to study it thoroughly. Subsequently, they had no excuse to not have understood how David avoided the judgment of God on account of his actions, except to have grasped the very concept Jesus now throws back at them. 

To this point He prefaces His example with, “Haven’t you read…?” Jesus knows that the value of reading God’s Word is not just that we know the text and so can live it out legalisticly. It is that we know God. That we grasp His character, His ways and His worldview. It is that we know the text, but also look beyond the text to ask ourselves WHY God put it in His Word to start with. 

And this much we know: Everything we read in Scripture is there to reveal something of God to us. Not just to educate us about Him, but to inspire, motivate and encourage us to enjoin Him in His mission of reconciliation and restoration. 

Legalistic obedience says you had better keep every rule or you’re finished. Gracious obedience says if God sees in your heart a spirit of grace; if He sees a sincere and loving and humble willingness to obey; if He sees a positive response to His Word, even though there are times when we fail, then He counts us as obedient because that’s the spirit in our hearts. Even though our gracious obedience may be filled with defects, it’s the proper attitude that God is after.

John MacArthur

APPLICATION: Intentionality

God concerns Himself primarily with our maturing in Him. So too must we have more grace for those around us. 

Having just promised rest to whosoever will in saying, “Come to me, all you   who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest,” Jesus now leads His hungry band of disciples through a grainfield so they can work on the Sabbath rest day. “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields 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.” ”  

The Gospel writer knows that the apparent contradiction between word and action is best seen in the light of why He was teaching about rest to start with, so the scene is set with the words, “At that time”, which ties the grain-field incident to Christ’s teaching at verse 25, where Jesus was praising His Father for revealing truth – not to the wise and learned, but to the childlike in faith. 

Recall that Jesus had just been teaching that the wearisome focus on ceremonial law the people were used to was not going to reveal the Father to them. The Pharisees and teachers of the law were wrong. That approach couldn’t lead people to salvation (witness the woes He pronounced on the cities He did much of His work in) and it couldn’t give satiate the soul. Only Jesus Himself could reveal the Father and only the ‘Jesus way’ could provide true rest. So while Jesus’s trip through the grainfields provided food for His disciples (who were legitimately hungry), the real purpose was an object lesson to those who were watching and listening. 

Jesus was tying the truth of His teaching to His observable behavior: A stringent and harsh observance of God’s ceremonial law is not truth, and such a view clouds the understanding of who God even is. 

The Pharisees don’t get the point. They only perceive a violation of God’s law. The injustice of that violation fills them with so much anger that they cannot simply watch from the sidelines. So they confront Jesus and point out His disciples’ ignorance, no doubt expecting a humble recognition of error. 

But Jesus’ response to them is not that. It is however, exactly what you’d expect from someone who is growing weary of correcting ignorance dressed up as wisdom: “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 in the temple desecrate the day and yet are innocent?” 

Jesus’ opening comment, “Haven’t you read…” tells the greater story. The Pharisees’ whole job was to read the Scripture and explain what they found – yet in all their reading of the minutiae of ceremonial law they had failed in discerning the greater principle of God’s character, which was the whole point of the law to start with. 

The point could hardly be clearer.

If the servants of the temple could break the Sabbath for good reason, then so could the Almighty, who was worshiped in the temple and who stood before them as the Son of Man.

Stuart K. Weber

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Everything we read in Scripture is there to reveal something of God to us. Not just to educate us about Him, but to inspire, motivate and encourage us to enjoin Him in His mission of reconciliation and restoration. 

The Jews had God’s Law, wherein God had said, “Six days you shall labor, but on the seventh day you shall rest; even during the plowing season and harvest you must rest.” The teachers of the Law therefore knew that when God gave directions about the Sabbath, it was meant to take precedence over His previous direction about working. For though God had decreed that work was good and necessary even before the fall in Genesis 2:15, He Himself practiced Sabbath during the creation week in Genesis 2:1-3, which was prior to any work He assigned to Adam. 

Jewish leadership knew that even before Moses wrote the Pentateuch. Consequently, even to this day orthodox Jews are exceedingly careful to ensure that nothing they do during the Sabbath might considered or even be perceived as work. 

It is of little wonder then, that the Pharisees would take objection to how Jesus acted as He and His band of disciples moved about; “At that time Jesus went through the grainfields 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.” ”

To the Pharisees, the act of picking grain and rubbing the hulls off it to expose the edible kernel could and would be noted as work. After all, someone would be paid to do exactly that in order for the farmer to sell the grain. It was a job. A job the disciples were now doing, and a job Jesus knew they would do on account of their rather great hunger, which is why He led them through the grain fields to start with. As far as the Pharisees could see, Jesus had led the disciples into sin. Worse, He was sinning Himself for not reprimanding them for working on the Sabbath!

Of course, the disciples were not being paid for their activity – they were simply satiating their hunger. All Jesus did is bless them by providing for that hunger. 

Blessing another by caring for an urgent felt need is not a violation of Sabbath. It is the exercise of compassion. Compassion does not nullify God’s command to rest. Neither is it an excuse for rejection of God’s revealed plan. Rather, compassion is a component of God’s character, and God’s character is that from which His Word springs. 

That fact does not mean that God’s Law should be replaced by our interpretation of His character. After all, He is God, and we are not. We cannot judge Him, though He judges us. What we can do is realize that Christ did what He did so that we might glean from it (pun fully intended). And this is what we can glean: It is not wrong to bless another made in His image by providing for urgent felt needs on the Sabbath Day. But it is wrong to use our Sabbath Day to focus on pointing out another’s fault in our own eyes. For to do the latter we have to assume God’s seat as judge, and that is something we should be exceedingly hesitant to do. 

Even if our job (for which we are paid) is in the judicial system of our day. 

A believer longs after God, to come into his presence, to feel his love, to feel near to him in secret, to feel in the crowd that he is nearer than all the creatures. Ah! dear brethren, have you ever tasted this blessedness? There is greater rest and solace to be found in the presence of God for one hour than in an eternity of the presence of man.

Robert Murray McCheyne

APPLICATION: Intentionality

How is your Sabbath keeping? Is God your focus, or is something lesser the foremost thing on your mind?  

Before humankind fell into sin, the Scripture records what God meant for  those He made  in His image. Not only were they to enjoy God’s presence and fellowship, but they were to work. Genesis 2 notes, “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” It is for this reason that every human being has to do something. In fact, people get greatly frustrated by inactivity because we were never designed to live and grow the way a tree does (simply existing in a single location). We were designed to work; to accomplish that which is pleasing to our senses, giving order and structure to the world around us. 

But it is not just that we are to work. Rather, we are to work in a way which is free from stressful urgency, and in an environment that is both beneficial (providing food for our bodies) and joyful (a delights to behold). 

It follows then that the Kingdom of God is not an expectation to sit on a cloud and listen to a harp for eternity. God’s reign and rule includes meaningful and productive work for His people. But that work and productivity is nothing like the harsh and often urgent demands that humankind currently experience in the workplace. Nor is it the difficult burden of trying to prove oneself worthy to an exacting and ungracious god. For these reasons Jesus said, “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.”

A yoke is not something most in our highly mechanized world know about. The word is used for a piece of wood that a farm owner would put on the shoulders of his animal(s), and to which would be fastened ropes to a farm implement. The animal could then be used to pull the implement (usually a plow) through a field to work the ground. No doubt Jesus deliberately fashioned the illustration to connect our sense of work being difficult and His remembrance of Adam’s original job as delightful. 

Yet one cannot help but note that the onus is on the individual. We are to take His yoke. He is too humble and gentle to force it upon us. The paradox of taking something to ourselves that involves obedience and labor as sources of rest and comfort is something we need to learn. 

When we do accept His assignment, we realize that working in the Kingdom of God is not to satisfy a boss at work or even to provide for ourselves. Rather, work is to bring glory to our creator and Lord and to fulfill our purpose as creation. Subsequently, we find ourselves being freed from our daily grind. Our work becomes something we do with energy and vigor because we want to please God, and God in His pleasure lets us see how He is using our work to bring the blessing of His Kingdom to others (whether lost or saved, mature or immature). 

Whether we labor at a highly physical job or a think tank, whether it is work for subsistence or work for enormous profit, working with and because of Jesus is satisfying, even in the here and now. How much more so in the days to come, when His Kingdom is fully here physically as well as spiritually!

Fame, pleasure and riches are but husks and ashes in contrast with the boundless and abiding joy of working with God for the fulfillment of his eternal plans.

John Piper

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Work for ourselves or a boss is miserable and grinding activity. Work with and for God is joy and lightheartedness, even if it is physically taxing. 

Jesus said, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give  you rest.”

This verse is often given to those who are suffering. That’s not its original context, but the verse doesn’t entirely loose its meaning when so applied because one of the primary promises that the risen Jesus makes is one of peace. John wrote of Jesus’ promise, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you.” Later in John chapter 20 we read of Jesus speaking His peace to those who had walked with Him – three times saying, “Peace be with you.” 

Rest being an outcome of peace, it is not entirely wrong to appeal to Jesus’ promise of rest whenever we find ourselves harried or oppressed or suffering some weight upon our soul. Yet the context in which Jesus speaks of giving rest adds much depth of meaning to His promise. Consider that He had just told the disciples that the towns in which He did many of His miracles were to be harshly judged on account of their unbelief. For sure, the Jews of rural Israel would never have counted themselves as unbelievers. They believed. But they believed that they could earn their way to God by religiously following the Law.  

Jesus knows that trying to earn your way into God’s good graces is a wearisome burden. Not only because it is actually impossible apart from faith, but because it is exhausting to live on high alert, lest you say or do anything that offends. It is tiring to have to work long hours so that you can afford an acceptable offering in the eyes of a religious official. Being a devout follower of any legalistic system is to live with a constant and challenging burden. One might think that it is easier for those who dedicate themselves to study instead, but you cannot study your way into God’s good graces either. No amount of knowledge of God’s Word and/or ways can substitute for adoption as His child. So having just explained that the Son alone knows the Father, that the Father alone knows the Son, and that the Son grants to those who come to Him to know the Father, Jesus promises rest to those who do come to Him.

That is the truly wonderful thing about this promise. Rest is something we gain when we are in the presence of Jesus. Rest from wearisome work because His work on the cross is enough. Rest from the burden of sin because He takes it from us. Rest from trying to earn our way into the Father’s presence because He simply reveals the Father – freely and without cost – to those whom He knows. Everything about Jesus speaks rest to our souls. 

Moreover, Jesus gives rest to our bodies. To come to Him is to lay down whatever we carry that we might bask in His presence. To come to Him is to set aside the pressure of the day that we might listen intently for His Voice. To come to Him is to know true rest for body, mind and spirit. This is the privilege all who know Jesus have; real and present rest – whenever we come to Him , whenever we need refreshment. Truly, there is no striving in the Kingdom of God. Just peace, right-ness in our walk and work, and joy. Glory to God. 

Prayer girds human weakness with divine strength, turns human folly into heavenly wisdom, and gives to troubled mortals the peace of God.

Charles Spurgeon

APPLICATION: Intentionality

Do you need peace or rest today? Seek Him. He has it for you.