“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” These were the inviting words of Jesus, the closing to a teachable moment, before He left to take a walk with His disciples.
It was a lazy Saturday afternoon: blazing hot with clear skies. It was the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week. Built into Jesus’ life rhythm was a core practice - an entire day, every week, set aside just to slow down, and stop.
But on this particular Sabbath, the Pharisees were stalking Jesus. The disciples were hungry, as they often were, and Jesus led them through a corn field. The disciples bent down and broke off some heads of grain to eat. Sure enough, that sent the Pharisees into a tailspin. How dare they harvest grain on the Sabbath! That was work! It was forbidden to work on the Sabbath!
Ohhh, Jesus was in trouble now! The Pharisees took issue with how Jesus and his friends were celebrating the day, royally missing the heart of God behind this practice. This was a day set aside to celebrate the goodness of God, to connect and commune with Him, to delight in His abiding presence, to take rest in His yoke.
But if you fast-forward to the twenty-first century, perhaps we, too, have it backwards. Or perhaps we don’t have it at all! We aren’t legalistic about the Sabbath - most of us don’t even practice Sabbath at all. A day off, sure. Sunday worship, when I can. But Sabbath? Very few of us even know what that is.
Friends, we’re in the midst of a series called “Love Has a Pace”, based on the book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry. If you missed any of those messages, I invite you to view them on our website or download the podcast. The first week Erik spoke to us about the problem. Our lives are in constant chaos, hurrying from one thing to the next. In week two, Erik explained that more time isn’t the solution, but wearing the yoke of Rabbi Jesus is. We’re called to be just like Jesus, to imitate Him, to learn from Him, and to grow with Him…for His yoke is easy and His burden is light. Last week, Erik delved into the spiritual disciplines of solitude and silence. Jesus silenced the outside world of haters and hurry by physically going somewhere – the desert, a solitary or lonely place, a quiet place – somewhere to connect with God.
This week, we’re focusing on Sabbath. So, let’s take a journey back to the very beginning. “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” And after six days of hard, creative work to get the universe up and running, we read this in Genesis chapter 2, verses 1 to 3:
Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing; so, on the seventh day He rested from all His work. Then, God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it He rested from all the work of creating that He had done.
Sabbath. The seventh day.
Sabbath. God stopped.
Sabbath. God rested.
Sabbath. God blessed.
God built Sabbath directly into the DNA of creation. He worked for six, rested for one. All of life requires a rhythm of rest. Yet in the relentless busyness of modern life, we have lost the rhythm between work and rest.
There are two main Hebrew words used for rest in the Bible. The first is shabbat (S-H-A-B-B-A-T). From this, we derive the English word sabbath. This word for rest, shabbat, simply means to “stop” or “stop working.” Think of an hourly job where you clock out at the end of a shift. The work is done; there’s no more until you clock back in.
The other main Hebrew word for rest used in the Bible is nuakh. (Noo-akh) N-U-A-K-H. This means to “dwell” or “settle.” This is not the same as clocking out from an hourly job. This type of rest is like sitting around a fire pit with a loved one and a puppy, with a cold glass of …water… in your hand, recounting the days’ events. It’s essentially about being restfully present.
God sets up shabbat and nuakh right around the same time. In the Bible’s account of creation, God works for six days creating the world and rests on the seventh day. After six days of bringing order to chaos, now it’s time to shabbat from this work. Only a few verses later, we read that God creates humans and then immediately “rests them” or “settles them” with Himself in the Garden of Eden (nuakh). It seems like the ideas of shabbat and nuakh are meant to work together. God leads by example as He rests from work (shabbat) and then dwells together (nuakh) with His people. In doing so, He built a rhythm into the fabric of creation.
In the New Testament, we see the clearest picture of God’s presence taking up space on earth and dwelling with God’s people in the person of Jesus. The Gospel tells us that Jesus had a lot to say about the Sabbath and the true rest that God intends for His people.
Matthew sets up for His Gospel readers a series of connected stories where Jesus is confronted by Israel’s religious leaders and teachers – the Pharisees. In one particular instance on the Sabbath day, the leaders object to Jesus’ disciples picking corn as they’re walking through a field.
We read this in Matthew chapter 12, verses 1-2:
At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath, and His disciples became hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat. But when the Pharisees saw this, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples do what is not lawful to do on a Sabbath.”Was Jesus ignoring the 4th commandment to keep the Sabbath? Jesus responds, saying, “The Son of Man is the Lord of the Sabbath.” This argument redefines the Sabbath, asserts His role as the promised Messiah, and points to His divinity. The Pharisees are understandably upset by this. But to Jesus, Sabbath observance pointed to something greater than checking a box and doing nothing.
Matthew tells these stories about Sabbath controversies immediately after quoting Jesus’ words about rest:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.”All this talk of rest right before a passage that deals with Sabbath? This is no mistake.
It seems that God’s people had become weary and burdened by the heavy weight of observing the Sabbath, and Jesus hoped to redefine the meaning of Sabbath for them. The people were in need of rest, both in ceasing from hard work (shabbat) and being present together with God (nuakh). Jesus ushered in the promise and reality of both.
Jesus reminded the people of God’s actual intent for the Sabbath: unity with God, unity with creation, and unity with each other that was first found in the Garden of Eden on page one of the Bible. Jesus reminded us that the Sabbath was about mercy and was purposeful. It was supposed to point to Him, the One promised through all of Israel’s prophets, the One who would restore the rhythm of creation.
When followers of Jesus observe the Sabbath, we live as if this restoration has already taken place. We take a break from the broken rhythms of hustle and hardship to set aside time to delight in His presence and to extend these things to the world around us. When we observe the Sabbath well, we become little resting places of God’s presence.
Sabbath rest is an invitation to practice for eternity. It’s where we regularly, intentionally engage in God’s rule and reign in our hearts and on earth. We have to shabbat in order to nuakh — to stop working in order to truly rest in God’s presence. When we practice this intentional stop, we make room for Him to take up residence in our individual lives. When we do this together, we’re making space for it in our communities. Even better, we are taking part in this new creation story, setting the stage for God to make His dwelling place, His resting place, right here, right now.
So, how do we do this? Let me give you four quick thoughts and one final thought:
1. We stop. We cease from all working, all thinking about working, all worrying and all wanting. Easy, right?!
2. We rest. We rest our soul, meaning, we rest our whole person. Physically, we sleep. Mentally and emotionally, we calm down, we relax, and we process the week. Spiritually, we cease our striving and our creating. And we rest in God’s love for us through abiding in Him.
3. We delight. We pamper our soul with activities that spark joy and wonder, gratitude and happiness. We eat good food, walk in nature, spend time with family or friends, listen to music, play games, or just have fun with God.
4. We worship. We incline our hearts toward grateful praise and adoration of God. And we surrender our lives to Him, one week at a time.
5. And finally, we remember.
I love the way Exodus phrases the fourth commandment: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Yes, the Sabbath is Holy. Holy means to be set apart, sacred, and special. Holy means perfect in goodness and righteousness. This means to set the Sabbath day aside from all other days and make it special.
Specifically, we are called to keep it “for the Lord.” In other words, the rest is not to be aimless rest, but God-centered rest. Nuakh. We direct our attention to God in a way that is more concentrated and steadier than on ordinary days. We keep the day holy by keeping the focus on the holy God.
So, on this Holy Day, we remember. We remember who God is. We remember whose we are. This speaks to the rhythm of life. The assumption is, we will forget. We have very short-term memories. We are called to remember. Remember, so as not to forget.
“Remember the Sabbath” also means “remember that everything you have received is a blessing.” Remember to delight in your life, in the fruits of your labor. Remember to stop, and to offer thanks for the wonder of it. Like a path through the forest, Sabbath creates a marker for ourselves, so if we’re lost, we can find our way back to our center.
Friends, remembering has been a big part of Christopher’s and my sabbath keeping, especially this summer. Not too long ago, maybe a year ago, I preached my first sermon from this pulpit. I told you a bit of my story - how I had been a sick kid, and how, at age eight, I had a very direct and personal encounter with Jesus. In that moment, Jesus was comforting. He was steady. He was present. He was a peace provider and a strength giver.
This summer, God reminded me of those moments. This summer, Christopher and I spent a lot of time with doctors and pathologists and oncologists. And each time we walked away with the call to remember. Remember God is who He says He is. Remember God is faithful. Remember God has brought us out of the Valley of the Shadow before. Remember He is with us now.
He has also called us to remember YOU and YOUR faithfulness, generosity, and love. You, First United Methodist Church, you blessed us with a wedding. You walked with us through the celebration of marriage. You have been there through all of the ups and downs of the last eight years I’ve served here. I know that. I remember that. I delight in the love God has shown me through you. And now I can rest assured in knowing that you again will walk with me, walk with us, through this time of cancer, surgery, treatment, and all of the other adventures that lie ahead. You are an extension of God’s presence in our lives and to everyone you meet here on earth. I delight in this. I praise God for this. On each Sabbath day, and in the hours in between, Chris & I will remember this. And as we do so, we lean into Christ - to draw from His well of strength and love. We lean into the arms of the Almighty, who says nothing is too big for Him.
Today, friends, I ask you… How are you remembering the Sabbath? Are you carving time in your life to stop? Are you resting in the presence of God? Are you taking a day to delight in the Lord? Is your worship pleasing to God? How do you remember God’s faithfulness in your life?
The One who knows you, the One who created you, the One who loves you, wants you to take time to stop, rest, delight, worship, and remember Him.
You have heard these words many times this summer, but this is one my favorite ways to remember on the Sabbath who He is and how He loves me. Hear these intimate words and remember He, who is holy and faithful:
I have called you by name, from the very beginning. You are mine. And I am yours. You are my Beloved, on you my favor rests. I have molded you in the depths of the earth and knitted you together in your mother’s womb. I have carved you in the palms of my hands and hidden you in the shadow of my embrace. I look at you with infinite tenderness, and care for you with a care more intimate than any other relationship on earth. I have counted every hair on your head and guided you at every step.
Wherever you go, I go with you. Wherever you rest, I keep watch. I will give you food that will satisfy all your hunger and drink that will quench your thirst. I will not hide from you. You know me as your own, as I know you as my own. You belong to me. Wherever you are, I will be. Nothing will separate us. We are one.
