The Lord of Rest

23 One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” 25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: 26 how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” 27 And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” – Mark 2:23-28 ESV

John's disciples came to Jesus asking why He and His disciples didn’t follow their lead and keep the fast days appointed by the Pharisees. Their question has a certain sense of superiority about it because the brand of Judaism under which they were raised placed a heavy emphasis on religious performance. In a sense, the practice of one’s faith had become competitive rather than contemplative. It had become more about outward appearances than the inner disposition of the heart.

That is why Jesus dedicated much of His Sermon on the Mount to addressing the hypocrisy of a performance-based religion.

“Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity!” – Matthew 6:1-2 NLT

“When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them.” – Matthew 6:5 NLT

“And when you fast, don’t make it obvious, as the hypocrites do, for they try to look miserable and disheveled so people will admire them for their fasting.” – Matthew 6:16 NLT

Jesus had come to provide freedom from this dead-end existence of religious ritualism and rule-keeping. Not long after delivering His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus issued what has become known as His Great Invitation: “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 ESV).

Jesus offered rest to those worn out by the constant pressure to measure up and keep up with all the rules, regulations, rituals, and rites of their religion. It was a non-stop and never-ending treadmill of existence based on effort and earning. But Jesus had come to offer something far better: rest for their souls (Matthew 11:29).

Which brings us to today’s passage. The scene is a wheat field somewhere in Galilee.  Mark describes Jesus and His disciples taking a shortcut through the field, and as they did, the disciples casually plucked off the heads of grain and ate them as a snack. They were not doing anything illegal because the Mosaic Law allowed such behavior.

“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat your fill of grapes, but you must not carry any away in a basket. And when you enter your neighbor’s field of grain, you may pluck the heads of grain with your hand, but you must not harvest it with a sickle.” – Deuteronomy 23:24-25 NLT

But as Mark reveals, the problem wasn’t what they were doing; it was when they were doing it. It was the Sabbath, and many rules were tied to that day of the week. God had originally established the Sabbath as a day of rest and had included its observance as part of the Ten Commandments.

“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the LORD your God. On that day no one in your household may do any work.” – Exodus 20:8-10 NLT

God provided the people of Israel with the rationale for setting apart this one day above all the other days of the week.

“For in six days the LORD made the heavens, the earth, the sea, and everything in them; but on the seventh day he rested. That is why the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and set it apart as holy.” – Exodus 20:11 NLT

It was a day of commemoration, when the people were to set aside their normal daily activities so they could recall what God had done on their behalf. He was the Creator-God, who made the universe and all that it contained, including them. Observing the Sabbath was intended to remind them of their complete dependence upon God. Their human effort was of no real value. Their very existence depended on God, and by resting on the seventh day, they placed all their hope in Him; He would meet their needs. God had illustrated this principle to the people of Israel long before He set apart the seventh day as holy.

As the Israelites made their way from Egypt to the land of Canaan, God graciously provided them with “bread from heaven.”

“Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.” – Exodus 16:4-5 ESV

This bread from heaven (manna), was to be collected daily, but on the sixth day, they were to collect enough to meet their needs for two days. On the seventh day, they were to “rest” from gathering manna because God had provided all they needed the previous day.

The Sabbath was meant to remind them of God’s provision for all their needs. But over time, Israel's religious leaders turned the Sabbath into a rule-laden, performance-driven day where everything was measured by human effort. They had transformed the God-ordained mandate to rest into a form of work. The religious leaders created a litany of man-made laws to measure the people’s observance of this day of rest. It became all about their ability to keep every law associated with this one day.

According to the Mishnah (the oral law of Israel), 39 different categories of laws were associated with keeping the Sabbath. They included laws concerning carrying, burning, cooking, washing, harvesting, and threshing. According to this oral law, a Jew was forbidden to light a candle on the Sabbath but could hire a Gentile to do it for him. It was also considered Sabbath-breaking to gaze at one’s image in a mirror. So this day of rest had become a day of wearisome, burdensome rule-keeping.

So, when the Pharisees observed Jesus’ disciples plucking wheat, they condemned them for “reaping” on the Sabbath, and they confronted Jesus for allowing His disciples to violate their oral laws.

“Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?” – Mark 2:24 NLT

Jesus knew these men prided themselves on their knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures and used a story contained in the writings of Samuel to justify the actions of His disciples (1 Samuel 21:1-6). Jesus recounts how David, who was on the run from King Saul, had arrived at the town of Nob and asked the high priest to provide food for him and his soldiers. The only bread available was “the holy bread—the Bread of the Presence that was placed before the Lord in the Tabernacle” (1 Samuel 21:6 ESV).

According to the Mosaic Law, this bread was reserved for the priests alone. Yet, Jesus points out that when David “was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him…entered the house of God…and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him” (Mark 2:25-26 ESV). In doing so, David violated the law, but in this case, it was acceptable because David was the Lord’s anointed. The prophet Samuel had anointed David as the next king of Israel. He was to be the God-ordained replacement for the disobedient and disappointing King Saul.

By recounting this story, Jesus pointed out a major flaw in their understanding of the Sabbath.

“The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” – Mark 2:27 ESV

God had set apart the Sabbath as a reminder to the people of Israel that He was their provider; He would care for them. The Sabbath was the day they rested from all their vain efforts at self-provision and relied completely on the One who made the universe and all it contains. God allowed David and his men to eat the Bread of the Presence because David was the Lord’s anointed. David's physical needs took precedence over the laws concerning the holy bread.

Jesus pointed out to the Pharisees that, as the Son of Man, He was “lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28 ESV). As God’s anointed, Jesus had full authority to permit his disciples' behavior. He was placing their well-being above the oral law of the Pharisees. God made the Sabbath, and as the Son of God, Jesus had every right to do what He deemed holy and acceptable on the Sabbath. 

Jesus came to bring rest to the weary and remove the burden of performance and religious rule-keeping. For the average Jew, the Sabbath had become a burdensome and tiring 24 hours marked by constant vigilance and fear of violating the rules. There was no rest, but Jesus had come to change all that. When He offered His Great Invitation, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28 NLT), He was speaking to those exhausted from trying to keep all the religious rules and burdened by the weight of trying to earn favor with God. He came to offer them “the bread of life” (John 6:35) and “living water” (John 7:37). He boldly claimed, “Whoever comes to me will never be hungry again. Whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:36 NLT). 

When Jesus encountered the Samaritan woman at the well, He offered her this living water, stating, “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life” (John 4:13-14 NLT). The Samaritan woman was enticed by the idea of never having to draw water from the well again, but Jesus was offering her release from the burden of her sin. Her thirst went far beyond the physical; she longed for love, acceptance, forgiveness, and hope. As a Samaritan, she was despised by the Jews. As a woman with a checkered past, she was rejected by her own people. But Jesus offered her love, acceptance, hope, and a future free from the burden of sin. 

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Come to the Lord!

Isaiah 55-56, Revelation 11

Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. – Isaiah 55:1 ESV

The invitation of God extends to all men. He offers them the opportunity to come to Him and receive what they could never find anywhere else. He promises to quench their thirst, to satisfy their hunger, to provide them with true bread, and to make an everlasting covenant with them. And He offers it all at no cost. This amazing passage is a clear prophesy of the redemptive work God offered through His Son, Jesus Christ. The Messiah was the ultimate fulfillment of this offer made by God. But to accept the offer of salvation through His Son, all men would have to accept the invitation of God to come. They would have to forsake their ways, thoughts, and attitudes. They would have to admit that God's ways were in direct contradiction to their own. The whole idea of a single, solitary man dying as the payment for the sins of all mankind makes no sense to us. The concept of God taking on human flesh and dying a sinner's death on a cross in order to make men right with God is impossible for us to fully grasp. But God says, “For my thoughts are nor your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways” (Isaiah 55:8 ESV). His ways and thoughts are higher than ours. The way He works is beyond our comprehension. But we must come to Him. We must accept His ways. We must realize that His way is the only way. God would ask us, “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for the which does not satisfy?” (Isaiah 55:2 ESV). Rather than take God at His word, men will go out of their way trying to find false substitutes for what God has offered to provide. They will seek satisfaction elsewhere, wasting money and time trying to replicate the blessings of God by seeking them from this world. But God continues to say, “Come!”.

What does this passage reveal about God?

God's invitation will not last forever. There is a time limit to His offer and there is a day coming when His offer will be removed from the table. So God lovingly pleads with mankind, “Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon” (Isaiah 55: 6-7 ESV). The present is the time for salvation. Yet men presumptuously put off the inevitable, delaying their response to the invitation, assuming that they will have plenty of time to accept the offer at a later date. Yet the book of Revelation makes it painstakingly clear that the day will come when God's offer of salvation runs out. He will send His Son back to earth to bring judgment on all those who have rejected Him as their Savior. The offer made in the opening verses of Isaiah 55 will expire. But amazingly, we live in a day when God's offer is still available to all men. His promise of both abundant and eternal life still stands. The gift of His Son is still available and for those who accept Him as their Savior, the satisfaction and salvation God offers is still accessible. 

What does this passage reveal about man?

Because our ways and thoughts are so radically different than God's, we have a hard time accepting what He has to offer. We don't want to believe that His gift of salvation is free and available to us apart from any good works or human effort. That just doesn't make sense to us. So we determine that there must be something more needed. We wrongly assume that we can somehow earn our way into God's good graces by doing good things or by attempting to live a good life. Then there are others who just conclude that this life is all there is and so we should attempt to enjoy all that we can get from this life while we are alive. So we seek satisfaction from the things of this world. We spend our money on that which is not really bread. In other words, we attempt to buy fulfillment and satisfaction from those things that are merely poor replicas of the real thing. We end up working hard to get our hands on things that can never bring the satisfaction they promise. And all the while, God is offering us more. He is inviting us to enjoy life and life more abundantly. .

How would I apply what I’ve read to my own life?

Even in the end times, as God will wrap up His divine plan for mankind, He will continue to offer His invitation of hope and healing. Revelation 11 tells us that, during the Great Tribulation that will come on the earth in those days, God will send His two witnesses. These two individuals will be sent from God and will witness on behalf of God. They will have miraculous powers. They will perform powerful miracles designed to prove their validity as God's messengers, much like the miracles Moses did before Pharaoh. But these two witnesses will die at the hand of the Antichrist. They will be martyred and their bodies will be left in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days. Then God will raise them from the dead. He will restore them to life. And as a result, “Great fear fell on those who say them” (Revelation 11:11 ESV). God will then speak from heaven and call them to Himself, and they will ascend into heaven much like Jesus did. Their ascension will be followed by a great earthquake and the deaths of one tenth of the city of Jerusalem. But this cataclysmic event will have a dramatic impact on those who are left. “…and the rest were terrified and gave glory to the God of heaven” (Revelation 11:13 ESV). Even in those days, God will be revealing Himself through His messengers and through His miracles. He will be inviting all men to recognize that He alone is God. He has power over death. He is almighty and a force to be reckoned with. But even then, His offer will still stand. “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price” (Isaiah 55:1 ESV).

Father, I can't thank You enough for the offer You extended to me so many years ago. You invited me to come. You offered me the gift of Your Son. It wasn't based on my merit. It wasn't because I somehow deserved it. And You offered it in spite of the fact that I was seeking satisfaction in anything and everything but You up until that point. Your invitation was a free gift and I am eternally grateful for it. Amen

Rest For the Weary.

Matthew 11:20-30

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” – Matthew 11:28-30 NLT

These three verses are highly familiar to most of us. But how many of us know the context in which they were given? As is always the case when studying Scripture, context plays a huge role in helping us understand and apply what the Word is trying to communicate to us. Here in Matthew, we have Jesus addressing the question from John the Baptist regarding His Messiahship. He then launches a stinging attack against the cities of Capernaum, Korazin and Bethsaida. These three small cities sit on the north side of the Sea of Galilee and would have been regular stops for Jesus during His ministry there. Capernaum had become His adopted hometown and it was there that He based most of His ministry while He was in the region of Galilee. So the people living in these cities would have had regular glimpses of Jesus and heard His messages repeatedly. Yet Jesus condemns them for their unbelief. In spite of all the miracles He had done right in front of their eyes, they remained non-repentent and unbelieving. Jesus shocks them by comparing them to the cities of Tyre, Sidon and and Sodom, each with a well-known reputation for wickedness and godlessness. Jesus indicates that had He done miracles in these cities, they would have been convicted of their sins, repented, and believed in Him. But the hearts of the people living in Galilee were hardened, stubborn, and representative of the rest of the nation of Israel. Here was Jesus, the Son of God, working miracles in their midst by the power of God, and calling them to repent and return to God, but they refused.

Right in the middle of His stinging discourse, Jesus prays an interesting prayer. He turns to His Father and thanks Him for hiding the truth of His message from those who think they're wise and clever, but for making it plain to the childlike. Jesus recognizes that this was God's plan. Regardless of how many miracles Jesus performed, those who arrogantly relied on their own wisdom and knowledge would fail to see Him for who He was. The Pharisees and religious leadership of Jesus' day are perfect examples of this kind of individual. They were self-righteous and unwilling to recognize their own sinfulness and repent of it. They saw no need for a Savior for their sins, they simply wanted a Messiah to set them free from Roman rule. But Jesus says that God reveals His truth to the childlike, those who are innocent, humble and trusting. It is to those individuals that God chooses to reveal His Son. Those whose lives are marred by sin, sorrow, and a recognition of their own helplessness and hopelessness are the ones who seemed drawn to Jesus and had no trouble believing in Him. The blind, the lame, the diseased, the outcasts, the chronic sinners – these are the ones who believed.

So Jesus offers them His well-known invitation. And it comes in two parts. First, He invites all those who are weary and weighed down to come to Him. His offer is to all who are burdened by sin and weighed down by the requirements of trying to keep the Law in their own energy. They are worn out by trying to carry the heavy yoke of the Law. It never was meant to save them, but to reveal their own sinfulness and incapacity to satisfy the holy demands of a righteous God. Jesus offers them rest. But then there is the second part to Jesus invitation. He invites them to exchange the yoke they are carrying for the one He offers. He describes His as an easy yoke, because in this yoke they will find they have a partner to help them pull the load. Jesus offers to come alongside them, teaching, training, and assisting them. Rather than arrogant and unloving like the religious leadership of the day, Jesus says He is humble and gentle, caring and compassionate. His yoke is easy to bear and the burden He gives is light. Yes, there is still work to do and effort is required, but rather than weariness and heartache, Jesus offers rest, peace and joy.

It seems that those who come to Jesus are the ones who are weary and worn out from trying to live life in their own power. They are beaten down by their own sinfulness and their inability to do anything about it. Like a blind man, they have no problem knowing they have a problem and that they are unable to fix it. Like a man who has a demon and is powerless to get rid of it, they will run to Jesus and beg Him for help. Jesus invites the weary to find rest in Him. But He also invites those same people to get in the yoke with Him, to begin focusing their efforts on accomplishing His will and living for His kingdom causes. He replaces our self-effort with His own power. He exchanges our heavy burden with His light one. He gives us an easy yoke in place of an impossible one. But it all begins with childlike, innocent, trusting faith in Him.

Father, I find that the degree to which I find rest in Jesus is directly related to my willingness to recognize just how weary I am from trying to live the Christian life in my own strength. I can get too wise and clever for my own good, and begin to believe that I can somehow pull this off in my own strength. But it is when I run out of steam that I tend to run to Him. Keep me childlike and dependent. Don't allow me to become arrogant and self-righteous. Keep me in the yoke with Christ, living in dependence on Him and resting in His love, strength and grace. Amen.