Mark 2:23-3:6
Our Sabbath
As someone who just took vacation last week, I can tell you, resting isn’t always restful. It never ceases to amaze me that no sooner does a vacation end or even just a weekend, I instantly feel like I need another. I’m always yearning for another day to rest and relax because the ones I get are never enough. I’m sure you all can relate as well. When it comes to rest, I’m convinced that we don’t really know what it truly is. For consider that rest may mean different things to different people. To one, rest means climbing back in bed to sleep the day away. To another, rest means kicking their feet up in front of the TV and watching a movie or something. Others might go out to the garden, go work in the garage, or cook or bake to rest. For we must understand that rest is never one-dimensional. What it means to rest isn’t simply avoiding work. There’s more to it than the physical element. It’s also necessary that our minds find rest. This is why people will do different things to rest… because it may not be their body that needs rest, but their mind. Thus, we distract ourselves with a good book, watch TV, or work on a hobby. It’s something to get our mind off everything that burdens us. Even still, we can rest our bodies and rest our minds and still feel exhausted. For it points us to another dimension of rest that can’t be forgotten… the spiritual. We need rest for our mind, body, and soul. This is what it truly means to rest. It’s rest for the whole person; every part of our being must be cared for. This is why Luther explains the third commandment, the day of rest, as a day to go to church. Your spiritual health demands rest also.
For in our Gospel reading today, Jesus and the Pharisees clash over their understanding of the Sabbath, the day of rest. While the Pharisees hold to all their rules, Jesus shows us the rest God truly desired for us. For so we shall learn:
OUR REST AND LIFE ARE THROUGH THE ONE WHO FULFILLS THE LAW FOR US!
I.
Jesus and his disciples had been traveling from town to town throughout Galilee when it came time for the Sabbath. As you might be aware, the Pharisees had oodles of rules that related what you could or couldn’t do on the Sabbath. These were Jewish teachings that originally were meant for people to understand better what God meant by “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.” Yet, over time, these simple teachings turned into strict rules, like you can’t travel more than say 5 miles; you can’t lift more than 10 pounds; you couldn’t even do any cooking on the Sabbath so all your food had to be prepared the previous day. This is what leads us to the confrontation between the Pharisees and Jesus, as we read, “One Sabbath [Jesus] was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, ‘Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” Mark 2:23-24. The disciples start plucking grains from the fields because they’re likely hungry from all their travels. In order to rest, they need to tend to their bodily needs. Thus, Jesus gives the more outrageous example of King David. David was on a military conquest with his soldiers when he entered the temple and grabbed the bread which was reserved specifically for priests alone.
For you see, the Pharisees had perverted the intention of the Sabbath by adding to it all their rules and laws. They made it so that even proper rest wasn’t really restful when you’re worried about breaking one of thousands of rules. It’s the second interaction that shows the absurdity of their rules, as Jesus asks them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?’ But they were silent,” Mark 3:4. The Pharisees were so strict that they would’ve forbidden someone being healed or a life being saved on the Sabbath! That’s not what rest is! But the ironic part is that our perversion of rest is the exact opposite. It’s not that we have too many rules. It’s that we have no rules whatsoever. Modern man has little boundaries to separate a day of rest from the rest of the week. We act as if all days are the same, but they’re not meant to be. One day a week is designed by God for rest… physical rest, mental rest… and above all, spiritual rest. God has set apart this day so that we can come before him and receive the very thing our soul needs. But how often we desecrate this holy day by treating it as common by skipping church or ignoring God altogether!
II.
True rest, the true Sabbath, is that which is for body, mind, and soul. It’s why we need more than just a day off work. We need more than a good book to read. We need Jesus. We need to come and hear God’s word proclaimed to us so that it may grant us the peace and rest which comes only from God. For so Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath,” Mark 2:27-28. God gave the Sabbath to us so that we may have proper rest… not as a day to require more from us. If we reverse those, if we suddenly make this day all about what we must do for God, then we’re getting it all wrong. True rest is also a gift of God. It’s his presence with us in worship that allows us to unburden ourselves. In worship, we’re able to lay all our sins, all our griefs, all our cares before him for he takes them all for us to the cross.
This is what we must understand about proper, godly rest. It comes to us through the righteousness of Christ. It comes through Jesus fulfilling the law for us and in baptism, bestowing that perfect life upon us. True rest is looking at the cross of Jesus and knowing for certain that in his death, all of my sins have been washed away and that my death has been defeated. True rest is to have faith in Christ so that we may be at peace in body, mind, and soul. For there’s no more work we must do to please God, for it has all been done for us in Christ. It’s this rest that allow us as Christians at the end of life to yield ourselves into the hands of almighty God. When this life ends, God grants to us the true and final Sabbath rest when he shall raise us from our graves and grant to us eternal life!
Outside of this faith, there’s no lasting rest. But with God, we have rest for our souls because Jesus has died for us and risen from the dead to grant us eternal salvation. Come all you who are weary. Come to Jesus and lay your burdens down that you may have rest! In Jesus’ name! Amen!