In the Bible, the very first chapter of the first book, Genesis, tells the story of God creating and uses a framework of six workdays to describe its development. Then in Chapter 2, verses 1 and 2, we see work, work, work.
[2:1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. [2] And 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.
The story of creation from the Jewish scriptures, believed by Christians, is that creation was the product of
God gets right to work from the beginning of time. That’s unique. Many other creation stories in other cultures start with conflict between gods. They say we and our world are products of destruction. But the Christian story says we are products of construction.
When it’s all done, God is satisfied, and can rest. He’s said over and over as he created, it’s good. When he created humans he said it was very good. And then he rested, satisfied he’d done good work.
For the rest of the summer, we’ll be looking at work and rest, and how important they are for followers of Jesus.
And it starts here, with the simple fact that God works, and is still working to provide, care, heal and sustain life for us on earth.
God and Jesus work: in John 5:17 he responded to those who objected to him healing people on Saturday, what should have been a day of rest. He said, “My Father is working until now, and I am working.”
God didn’t stop working forever, he is still at work, including in and through his son Jesus.
Later in John 5:36 it’s clear God the Father has given him work to do…like an assignment.
Finally, work is in paradise. If the Garden of Eden, in creation, we get a picture of heaven on earth, and we see work is meant to be there, not just added in after humans rebelled against god – it was there before the rebellion. The nature of work changed, but it was meant to be there already.
Today we’ve seen, work is meant to be a good thing…something God embraces. Not an evil virus infecting life.
Question: Why is the goodness of work not more apparent in human life? What makes this so hard to believe?
Acknowledgements: Tim Keller, Every Good Endeavour and Work & Rest
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We have talked a lot about the need for rest...the main way we see that spoken of in the Bible is Sabbath rest - one day in seven, one year in seven.
In Judaism, this was very structured and supported by cultural and societal norms. Jesus' approach seemed to be to peel away the layers of societal and cultural norms, all the rules that had been developed over the years, and simply return to the God-given command to rest on the seventh day.
This was his usual routine - where humans focus on actions, in hopes that it will change hearts, Jesus wants to focus in on the heart. Jesus wants to mold hearts to want to know and follow him, and where that then transforms their actions.
This makes taking Sabbath rest both easier and harder.
It’s harder, because just blindly following rules isn't all that hard, especially when everyone else in society follows them as well.
It’s easier because of the freedom we explored last week...freedom from slavery to rules, replaced by a new kind of obedience, to a person rather than a code. Jesus gives rest from enforced rest – he gives true rest.
We can see it in how Jesus handled the crushing demands of his own work: Mark 6:30-32 ESV
The apostles returned to Jesus and told him all that they had done and taught. And he said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.” For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat. And they went away in the boat to a desolate place by themselves.”
He took rest when he needed it, we have several examples of unstructured rest that he took "regularly". When I found I’d been sitting too long at an office job, I used to go for a walk around the block from my office. I called it my sanity walk. Or at other times, I would just get up and do something different. Working from home, I might empty the dishwasher, then get back to my computer refreshed from the change of pace.
We also see Jesus taking weekly rest. “He went to synagogue to worship on the seventh day. When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom.”
It was Jesus’ “custom” to take weekly Sabbath rest according to the rules of his father in heaven, and not according to the rules of the Pharisees.
We also see Jesus living with an annual rhythm. He celebrated the annual feasts – we see him attending Passover in Jerusalem, for example. As he travelled to and from various religious festivals, there are ebbs and flows in his energy and work – the big moments in his ministry regularly coincide with major festivals. Sometimes he is in small towns, sometimes in the city. There were intense times and places and low times and places in his culture...and his ministry needed both.
The Bible also commands a year of rest after six years of work - not to lay around, but let the land lie fallow and improve, and let slaves and debts go free. There was also a command that every 50 years, a complete reset and leveling of the playing field should occur. Unfortunately there is no evidence they ever listened to and observed these.
Let’s not let the same thing happen to us!
Question: What rest can you plan for today? This week? This year? Now dream a little bit - what could a "reset" year look like this decade? What about for the whole of your life?
Just in time for summer's blend of work and rest, Redeem the Commute is starting a new series of daily challenges to help busy people restore life to the commuting lifestyle. This seven week series will look at the meaning and purpose of work, rest, and ancient practices that have helped followers of Jesus to keep the two in perspective and balance for centuries.
