Advice is plentiful, but success is elusive.  Rarely do we rise from our sleep of a morning declaring, “that was a hall-of-famer.”  Yesterday’s burdens lasted longer than daylight. They make us unrested, weary our souls, load us with the world’s cares.  The strongest morning joe cannot take off the edge.  Or restore what tension has taken from us.  The Curse is strong.  What little we know of our own and others’ lives press down with a gravity no planet can muster.

We know all the tricks.  Turn off our screens.  Get more natural light during the day.  Set the thermostat lower.  Hang blackout curtains. We don’t eat after 7pm. Or drink coffee after noon.  Reserve our bed for sleep.  Drink chamomile tea.  And try to stop thinking, “If I don’t fall asleep soon, tomorrow will be ruined.”  Yet all the “Quick, Proven Ways to Get Better Sleep” the internet boasts fail to include the one thing man was given by his Maker for rest.

Before man had lived a full day,

…on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy.   Genesis 2:1

When God graciously takes a people to be his own, blessed people, he instructs them.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.… For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. Exodus 20:8-11

No other religion in the ancient world had a day of rest.  Work, work, works!  All the ancient and contemporary world’s idolatrous religions command man to work harder, be better, do more.  And man’s fallen, cursed, twisted nature pines for Adam’s Covenant of Works.  Striving to be his own god, to ascend to the heavens by the work of his own hands.  But the Tower of Babel is never tall enough.  Only the gracious giver of all good and perfect gifts can command, promise and provide rest.  

The Bible is filled with promises for rest.  Psalm 127 declares, “He gives to his beloved sleep.”  And the author of Hebrews encourages us that “there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest.” And one of Jesus’ sweetest invitations is “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

Only God’s grace brings a rest that refreshes body, mind, and spirit. And the Sabbath is both the root and goal of our restfulness.  It is a sign of God’s gracious gift and a means of grace which grants it.  Yet we often attempt to turn even that into work.   We encumber the observance of the Sabbath with legalism, tedium and guilt.  And it becomes a thing to be rested from rather than rested in.

Nothing steals God’s gracious provision of rest through the Sabbath like legalism.  We see this in hard-heartedness of the religious leaders of Jesus’ day.  Rather than resting on the Sabbath they are following Jesus, spying on him and scrutinizing his every move in order to find some basis for accusation.   And in Mark 2:23-28, they desecrate the very Sabbath they accuse Jesus’ disciples of defiling by their hardness of heart.

In response to their complaint, Jesus gives one of the most important principles of Sabbath-keeping.  “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.  So, the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”   Far from adding laxity to Sabbath observance, Jesus points out the beauty and purpose for God’s gift of rest through the Sabbath.  A gift that brings rest like nothing else.

Join us as we examine Mark 2:23-28 and consider how we are the think rightly about the Lord’s Day and how we observe it.   We meet Sundays at 10:30 am on the square in Pottsville, Arkansas right next to historic Potts’ Inn for worship.  Get directions here or contact us for more info.  Or join us on Facebook Live @PottsvilleARP or YouTube.