Real Rest
Life is stressful. An article in the New York Times describes the situation: “Stressed, Tired, Rushed—A Portrait of the Modern Family.” It pointed out,
Children are much more likely than not to grow up in a household in which their parents work, and in nearly half of all two-parent families today, both parents work full time, a sharp increase from previous decades. What hasn’t changed is the difficulty of balancing it all. Working parents say they feel stressed, tired, rushed, and short on quality time with their children, friends, partners, or hobbies, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
How do we escape the stress? Many try to do it through vacations. Meticulously designed, they carefully include all the details so they can take advantage of all the recreation and relaxation to be gained from restful times away. They just want some time to chill.
Too often, these attempts at respite become more effort than their “real lives.” There are even vacations from which they need a break, and they can’t wait to get home! Vacations can be exhausting, and it would be nice to get some real rest! But is there such a thing as “real rest?”
As you may know, “sabbath” means rest (to cease or desist). God used the first six days to create everything, and “He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done” (Genesis 2:2). So, the seventh day is called sabbath. God knows what real rest is. He created it, along with His whole creation. Unfortunately, as with much of what God has made, humanity has made counterfeits of the real thing.
Counterfeit rest is never satisfying. Our attempts to create rest lead to frustrating times of exhaustion, leaving us to gladly opt for a “stay-cation” rather than dealing with the hassles of devising our artificial attempts at rest.
Jesus rebuked the religious leaders for turning the day of rest into the opposite. They made it into a day of extreme anxiety and fear, a burden for those who sought diligently not to break the Sabbath . Instead of seeing a respite positively, it became a time of controlling every detail of one’s life. They had to be extremely careful not to commit anything construed as work on the Sabbath. They welcomed the end of each burdensome holy day!
But God still has a positive rest for humanity. Jesus offers redemption and, along with that, provides His rest. He has much to say about the concept of rest and those who enter it. The New Testament gives us a picture of the kind of rest God intended for us to enjoy. In Christ, we’ve got quite a vacation coming! But it starts now.
First, there is rest from the burden of the Law. It’s human nature to believe we can impress God with our actions. News flash: We can’t! The Apostle Paul—probably the foremost expert on impressing God with his behavior—came to know this truth and wrote, “…by the works of the Law no flesh will be justified” (Galatians 2:16).
Are you made of flesh? Paul’s instruction includes you! You and I must relax and realize that we can’t impress God. The vacation from the Law starts there, and the ticket is knowing Christ. He offers us a current rest.
There is also a future rest described throughout the Bible. It is the culmination of all we believe. The Israelites entering the Promised Land is a “type” or foreshadowing of our entering that rest. In Hebrews 4, the writer bounces back and forth, comparing the Israelites entering—or not entering—the Promised Land to our entering His “rest.” And he assures us, “For we who have believed enter that rest” (vs. 3). This rest is indescribably good, and we simply call it heaven.
Do you need a vacation? The good news is that Jesus offers you one here and now. The good news is that He has it entirely arranged here and in heaven—no more fretting over vacation plans. So take advantage of it today.
“Jesus said to them, ‘The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.’” —Mark 2:27