Stephen
Terry, Director
Jesus,
the Giver of Rest
Commentary
for the January 29, 2022, Sabbath School Lesson
"Come to me, all you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28, NIV
Rest, something so elusive, yet
desired by all. How many of us have said that we will finally find rest once we
get past the next stressful event in our lives? Rest will be ours tomorrow,
next week, next month, next year, or sometime. We will finally be able to take
it easy when we finish our education, when we find a suitable place to live,
when our children become adults, when we retire. We often wish our lives away
yearning for a respite that never seems to come. When it is Monday, we wish it
were Friday and the intervening days were past, but we fill the weekend with so
much "rest" that we arrive once again on Monday all too exhausted.
If that were not enough, we
project our own unrest onto others. When we see people sitting or standing
around not engaged in some form of work, we think of them as lazy and time wasters.
When we think this way about others, we naturally think they feel the same
about us should we dare to take time to rest and recover. But we were never intended to be ceaselessly working automatons, impervious
to injury and breakdown. Eventually we do break down, and we may find it
impossible to regain the previous vigor we failed to preserve.
While we were
created for activity[i]
from the beginning, we were also given the blessing of rest.[ii] On
a simple, literal level, it meant that one day in seven would be a time for
refreshing strength and energy for the tasks of the week to come. But metaphorically
it goes far beyond that, for even in the beginning it pointed us toward the hope
of salvation to come. Before anyone fell into rebellion at the Tree of
Knowledge of Good and Evil the type of our salvation was created along with
everything else during Creation week. It pointed toward the antitype of Jesus
on the cross, to come at the appointed time. The gift of rest was given to humanity
before anyone had the opportunity to earn that rest. It epitomized the gift of
salvation, free of works and available for no other reasons than the compassion
and love of God for his creatures. As a model for grace, it tells us that no
one can claim salvation because they deserve it. Only God could give it, and he
was more than willing to do so.
When God called his people out
of Egypt for the Exodus, they had done nothing to deserve him freeing them from
enslavement except to ask for deliverance.[iii]
In his compassion and grace, he brought them out. He set them free and then
reminded them of the Sabbath of Creation, and in restoring to them the memory
of rest, he also told them that the rest applied to all, not just the Jews.
Even in the Exodus, when he freed his people, they were not only the Jews, but
included a "mixed multitude" who chose to cast their lot with the Jews. This
also pointed to the cross where Jesus would die not for the Jews only, but for
all of humanity. Just as salvation was intended for
all, the metaphorical type that points to it, the Sabbath, must be for all as
well. But through ignorance or self-absorption, we fail to receive the gift. It
can be like a parcel sent to the wrong address, and since we did not know it was
coming, we never tracked it and simply missed out. Or it may arrive and since
it was not what we expected or liked, we tossed it into the garage to await our
next trip to Goodwill.
Ignorance of this gift is
common. I was also ignorant for a time. But when I became aware and opened the gift,
the more I unwrapped, the more beautiful and perfect it seemed. Like any gift,
it said much about the one who sent it. This was no perfunctory last-minute
purchase at a minimart. It fit me as though made specifically to my
measurements. One of the misconceptions about the Sabbath is that one size fits
all. Therefore, we prescribe sabbath observance to be the same for everyone. This
means that no matter how beautiful the Sabbath may be, we must endure hours on uncomfortable
pews, while we are spoken down to by someone who is no more perfect than we are.
But if we submit and endure this weekly exercise, often followed by feasting, we
tell ourselves that the Sabbath has indeed been kept.
Too many spend the day entirely shut off from the Creation that surrounded that
first Sabbath. Little wonder that so many watch the hours until sundown when
they can finally stop "resting" and simply relax.
People might view the common
Sabbath services differently if they knew the power politics that occur behind
the scenes and determine every aspect of what takes place in church each week. Too
many jostle one another to take hold of the portion they care about, the music,
the order of service, the announcements, etc. to protect their perspective on
what should take place and when. Things are so tightly run that even the Holy
Spirit must take a number and wait until he is called. When his number finally comes
up, it is doubtful whether he will respond as he is out enjoying the Creation
that the Sabbath is supposed to point us to. Even the lovely rays of the sun
must be filtered through man-made stained glass before they are allowed into
the church. It is as though we do all we can to isolate ourselves from the
world we were created to live in, fortified behind
ramparts against the evil we imagine would destroy those who fail to cloister
with us.
But how can this be for people
who were set free from slavery by God several millennia ago, people whom Jesus
also certified to be free[iv]
in the present through his gift to us? As I already mentioned, even when the
rest available to us is clear, self-absorption can lead us to turn from it.
When self is on the throne of our hearts, we can refuse even the most obvious
blessings as being contrary to our own ideas, ideas that we have formed as
defensive feedback against a world that has become a vast echo chamber of
dysfunctionality playing to and feeding off the narcissism that, to some degree, lies within each of us. We see this even in
simple conversation when we get what we feel is an important idea and instead
of waiting until others have had their say, we talk over the top of them,
demonstrating we feel what we have to say is more important than any damage we
might do to their self-esteem. Barring an emergency, this is asserting
ourselves over others. This is magnified in church, where all must remain silent
while one person speaks at length. There are many examples in the gospels of
Jesus' dialectical approach to teaching others. He encouraged questions and
asked them himself to elicit discussion. While he could read hearts, we cannot,
and without dialogue, we cannot know what is in the hearts and minds of those who
hear us. Even though he could read hearts, he still drew out those around him because
he knew no one else could. We would do well to do the same.
Because of ignorance and self-absorption,
we have failed to find the rest God has extended to each of us. But despite our
failure to enter in, the rest remains.[v] It
is not found in the busyness that some consider Sabbath keeping. It is not to found
in bleeding all joy from that day for fear of "doing our own pleasure" on the
Sabbath.[vi]
Instead, the Sabbath should be a delight, and joyful delights are not forced
but arise naturally from a loving heart. In talking of doing one's own
pleasure, Isaiah may have been contrasting manufactured rules for observing the
Sabbath with the spontaneous joy of walking and talking with God in the garden without
the interposition of another human being. The Reformation was based upon the
principle that we could each read scripture and approach God on our own, but
centuries later, we seem to have drifted back to the idea that God can only
legitimately speak to us through the words emanating from the pulpit each week.
We are like the Israelites of
old who preferred to be like the nations around them. Rather than serve God
directly, they chose a king and in doing so God said they had rejected him.[vii]
Have we in choosing a clerical class to stand between us and God done the same
thing? Do we find it easier to accept a human being we can see and touch rather
than a God we cannot? All-too-human, corrupt kings eventually led to the
destruction of Jerusalem and the Babylonian captivity. Are we on that same path
to Babylon, eschewing the freedom God granted from slavery in the past only to
form chains of attachment to others who would stand in the place of God towards
us? If so, it is little wonder that during all this time we have failed to find
the rest God offered his people with the Exodus, and we still struggle to enter
today. It is too easy to go to church, sit in a pew for an hour or two, and go
home claiming to be a Sabbath keeper. But our hearts tell us the truth about
whether we have finally found the rest God offers.