How can I find rest?
“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 didn’t rest on the seventh day of creation because He was tuckered out. Instead, he embedded the Sabbath principal in the physical earth. Land is to lie fallow every seventh year (Leviticus 25:3-4). Humans are to cease from work one day a week (Exodus 23:12).
In the Ten Commandments, the two prohibitions against idolatry and Sabbath work make up a mere 20 percent of the commandments (Exodus 20:3-17). Yet those commands and the commentary God offered on them make up more than 60% of the text. In other words, God has more to say about these two commands than all the others combined.
When we recognize God’s ownership of our time and treasure—our two most valuable commodities—we live longer, we’re more productive, and we’re more generous.
Jesus consistently rejected the traditional Sabbath regulations. On the Sabbath, he healed a man with a shriveled hand (Mark 3:1-6), a woman bent over (Luke 13:10-17), a man with dropsy (Luke 14:1-6), a lame man at Bethesda (John 5:1-9), and a man born blind (John 9:1-7, 14).
Taken as a whole, the point of each of these events could be simply summarized: humanity should be served by the Sabbath, not burdened by it. Or as Jesus put it in today’s verse (Mark 2:27-28), “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.” Jesus was reclaiming the Sabbath from religion and giving it back to humanity.
The Sabbath is a pause in our week. Our practice of Sabbath is a gift we receive, resting from work to refresh our souls, worship God with other believers, and reconnecting with family and friends so we can invest in our communities. When the rhythm of rest punctuates our work, we’ll experience more productivity at work and more connectivity at home. This is the life God wants for you as much as you do.
