"Why Don't We Rest?"

After a Sunday morning service last week, there was a sheet of sermon notes left behind in the pews at Saint John's. The notes read, "God rested on the 7th day, why don’t we rest?” This got me thinking. Indeed, why don’t we rest? And, more importantly, what is true rest? The Ten Commandments prescribe a day of rest, but observing the Sabbath is not a Christian necessity. In fact, Sabbath observance is “only a shadow of what is to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.” (Col. 2:17)

The New Testament witness is clear (especially in Colossians and Hebrews): the true meaning of the Sabbath is revealed in Christ. God made us so that we would enter into his rest, but God’s rest is not merely the cessation of activity. That’s why Jesus, when he was persecuted for working on the Sabbath, said to his persecutors, “My Father is still working, and I also am working.” (John 5:17)

So if true rest is not merely the cessation of activity, then what is it? The story of Martha and Mary is eye-opening. (Luke 10:38-42) Whereas Martha “was distracted by her many tasks,” her sister Mary simply “sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to what he was saying.” The purpose of the Jewish Sabbath is to rest in the presence of God, and because Jesus is God, to sit quietly and listen to him is to find the true Sabbath.

Today’s would-be Christians have the same opportunity as Mary to enter this Sabbath rest. If only we would listen, Jesus still speaks to us: in prayer, in Scripture reading and reflection, in the preaching and teaching of the Church’s apostles and their successors. Most especially, Jesus speaks to us in his Holy Meal: “This is my body, given for you…this is my blood, shed for you.” Hello, Sabbath rest.

Sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to him may require us to flip off the TV when our favorite show is on, or it may require us to get out of bed on Sunday morning when all we want to do is sleep in. It may also require us to be very active, loving one another even and especially when we we’d rather have “me time”. Even though we’re active as we follow Jesus, it is his Spirit who activates us and, therefore, we find that we’re actually at rest in the midst of such activity.

Ultimately, sitting at Jesus’ feet and listening to him will require us to say “no” to activities that distract us from Jesus and turn us into busy-bodies. It can be difficult to say “no” to mere busy-ness, and it can be disconcerting to fall silent in God’s presence. (He may say things we’d rather not here.) Despite the difficulty and disconcertedness, it is at Jesus’ feet that we find true rest. We would do well to remember Jesus’ words: “Martha, Martha, you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing. Mary has chosen the better part, which will not be taken from her.”