Proper 4B, 2024

Text: Mark 2:23-3:6

Title: Lord of Rest

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We are bad at resting. 

We turn our hobbies into chores that demand more and more of our time and attention. 

We turn our vacations into sightseeing trips that leave us exhausted.

We buy vacation homes and then spend countless hours maintaining them.

We have our kids in so many sports and other activities that they never have time to relax.

Even in retirement we are busy watching grandkids, caring for aging parents, volunteering, and going to doctor’s appointments.

And when we have a spare moment, we’re on our phones busily scrolling away.

We don’t even get enough sleep on a regular basis.

When was the last time that you felt completely rested and at peace?

Church should be a place of rest, but that’s not always the case either. 

Certainly, parents of active young children can struggle to find rest during the church service, but that’s not exactly what I had in mind.

We can be so focused on the business of doing church that we lose sight of why we’re here in the first place.  Some of our lay leaders have confided in me that they sometimes dread coming to church on Sundays because they are so bombarded with questions and complaints and requests that they can’t focus on the real reason they are here, which is to worship.

I’m certainly guilty of this, too.  I think, “I’ll just catch them on Sunday,” or “I’ll just add a few more announcements before the service,” when you’re perfectly capable of reading your Weekly News, and the service itself can almost become an afterthought as Sunday mornings become busier and busier.

Rest is a good thing.  Rest is a gift from God.  You don’t need to feel guilty for resting.

The day of rest goes all the way back to Creation. God made the universe and everything in it in just 6 days.  And then, on the seventh day, He rested.  And He gave the human beings whom He had made in His image the gift of sharing in His rest. 

God didn’t create humans to be His slaves, but to be His representatives in caring for the world He had made, and that included taking time to rest.  Your body needs it.  Your spirit needs it.  The people in your life need for you to be well-rested.

And when the Lord brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery to freedom, He renewed that day of rest for them.

Slaves don’t get to rest.  Slaves don’t get days off.  But the people of Israel weren’t slaves anymore.  They were free.  And each Sabbath day was an occasion to rest, and to remember that the Lord had made them, and that He had liberated them.

Now, anytime you have a broad, general rule like, “No working on the Sabbath,” people are going to have questions. “What counts as work?”  “What are we allowed to do?”  What can’t we do?” 

So, to clarify this commandment, the elders and teachers of Israel came up with a host of explanations and regulations so that people knew if they were working or not. 

And that’s how the disciples got into trouble. They were out for a nice Saturday stroll with Jesus, walking through the grain fields.  And they were a little hungry, so they grabbed a few heads of grain here and there for a snack.

Sounds harmless, right?  Wrong.

First, they had to pick the grain.  That was considered harvesting.  That was work.  Not allowed on the Sabbath.

Then, they had to rub the husks off the grain before they could eat them.  That was threshing.  That was work.  Also, not allowed on the Sabbath.

The disciples were not being rebellious. They were not trying to earn a little extra money by working on the Sabbath.  They just wanted a snack.

But that went against the manmade traditions of the Pharisees.

And then, Jesus had the audacity to heal a man in the synagogue on a Sabbath day.  Certainly that counts as work, doesn’t it?  How dare He!

In His words and in His actions, Jesus shows that the true purpose of the Sabbath was for your enjoyment.  It was to give you life.  It was not meant to burden you.  It was meant to unburden you from all the pressures and stresses and strains of life.

Jesus calls Himself “Lord of the Sabbath.”  He is the “Lord of Rest.”

I don’t think that we use this title for Jesus enough.  It truly captures who Jesus is and what He’s come to do.

We are bad at resting.  We either making rules about how we should rest properly, or we turn our rest into more work to do.

Jesus comes to give you true rest.  Not just a day here or there.  Not just a few weeks of vacation a year.

Jesus comes to give you rest from trying to earn God’s favor, rest from trying over and over again to be a good person and doing the right thing only to fail over and over again.

As the Lord of rest, Jesus gives you rest from the need to keep the law perfectly, because He does that for you.  He fulfilled every commandment, every regulation of God’s Word completely and fully.  There’s nothing that you need to do to earn a spot in God’s Kingdom.

As the Lord of rest, Jesus carried your cross for you.  Jesus paid the penalty for your rebellion, your misuse of God’s gifts, your thinking that you have to do everything and can’t afford to take a break.

As the Lord of rest, Jesus rested in the tomb on the seventh day.  Jesus joins you in your rest when one day your work is done and you lay your head down one last time to rest in peace.

As the Lord of rest, Jesus rose from the dead on the eighth day, the first day of the new week.  And because Jesus rose, you are invited to the Land of Rest, the great Sabbath day that will never end. 

And that’s why we’re here on a Sunday and not a Saturday.  From the first generation of Christians, even in the book of Acts, we see Sunday as the Christian day of rest.  The Resurrection of Jesus is your great salvation event, where you are liberated from slavery to sin and death, and so it is fitting that we gather on this day to receive the Lord’s gifts, and to rest in His presence, as He serves us in this Divine Service.

Sunday worship is not about you doing some good things for God, and it’s certainly about doing the business of the church. Sunday is for resting, for receiving, for finding shelter and sanctuary from the busyness and the stressfulness of everyday life.

And then, you can go out from this place rested and refreshed and ready to serve the Lord according to your calling in your family, in your neighborhood, in your workplace or your school.

And even there, take time to rest, not in the way of the Pharisees with their burdensome rules and requirements on how to do it properly, but find times to receive the rest that Jesus gives you as Lord of the Sabbath.

And if you still can’t quite get it right, don’t worry.  You have an eternity of true rest awaiting you.

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