You Can Rest Easy

In Jesus, Sabbath is much more than a day off

[This is the sermon I gave this morning at Grace Lutheran Church in Eaton, Ohio. The text is Mark 6:30-44.]

In today’s Gospel lesson, Mark tells us that Jesus “had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd.”

The them in this sentence referred to the crowd that had gone around the Sea of Galilee to meet Jesus and the twelve apostles once their boat was moored.

But it could also refer to the apostles.

After returning from the mission on which Jesus had sent them, the apostles found themselves, with Jesus, accosted by people with requests for help and attention. Mark says that “they had no leisure even to eat.” Jesus invites the twelve to go to a “desolate place,” literally a “wilderness place,” the kind of place where God spent forty years forging the faith of His people after freeing them from slavery in Egypt.

On shore, the apostles may be disappointed to see the crowd. They want to eat in peace. They want to tell Jesus about what they did. They want a little down time to rest.

The truth is we all crave rest. Whether we’re still in the workforce or retired, there’s always something or someone demanding our attention and effort.

If we’re Christians, we are also called to participate with the Church in the Great Commission. Jesus tells us: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…” (Matthew 28:19-20)

That’s an enormous mission! Jesus deputizes every baptized believer to share the good news–the gospel–of forgiveness and eternal life through the crucified and risen Jesus. We’re to share Christ and His Word in our homes and with our families, at work and at play, online and IRL (in real life).

How do we do that and still do all that we need to do from day to day?

And if all of that doesn’t create enough pressure on us, God gives another command–A LAW: “Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy.” In this, the Third Commandment, we encounter another one of God’s basic laws, the smallest violation of which separates us from God and His kingdom.

Maybe you (like me) and the rest of the world find God’s commands that we be faithful to Christ and that we keep the Sabbath, like all the rest of God’s commands, impossible. (I hope honesty will compel you to say it’s impossible for you.) We can confess with Paul the apostle: “...I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.” (Romans 7:18)

If this is how you feel today, then you belong with the harassed and helpless crowd and the hungry, exhausted apostles in our Gospel lesson. Jesus looks at you this morning exactly the way He does at the crowd and the apostles with Him in the wilderness: with compassion. Then He does something from that compassion. Our lesson tells us that when He observes the helplessness of everyone around Him, He begins to teach them many things.

But what things exactly?

I suspect that if we were there in the wilderness in that moment, these are some of the things Jesus would teach us:

“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.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

And, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)

And, “I am the good shepherd [Who] lays down his life for the sheep…” (John 11:11)

Jesus is the good shepherd the harassed and helpless crowd was looking for. Jesus is the rest the apostles craved.

The good news–the gospel–He came to bring to us through His death and resurrection brings us the rest we need today and that by grace through faith in Him, will one day be ours in complete perfection for all eternity.

And here we see what Sabbath truly is and what rest is and why God wants us to experience it.

The Sabbath day is more than just a day of the week. The early Church knew this. It’s why the first Christians–Jewish Christians, remember–continued to go to synagogue or Temple on the Sabbath as long as they were still welcomed to do so AND gathered on Sundays, weekly little Easter Days, to worship and receive Sabbath rest together. Most of them would have needed to worship and receive what Jesus, the Good Shepherd, had to give them in worship, then work at their jobs. There were no days off. And yet, as surely as you and I who are gathered to receive God’s Word heard and read and given to us with, in, and under the bread and wine this morning, they received the gift of Sabbath rest.

In The Small Catechism, Martin Luther tackles the meaning of the Sabbath commandment: “We should fear and love God so that we do not despise His Word and the preaching of it, but acknowledge it as holy, and gladly hear and learn it.”

The Sabbath is not something we do; it’s something we receive.

The Sabbath happens when, at Jesus’ invitation, we receive His Word that first, reveals our sin and our vulnerability as human beings, calling us to repentance, and second, gives us the Gospel of Jesus, God the Son, our Good Shepherd, Who bears our sin, rises from the dead, and gives life to all who believe.

By the power of His Gospel, Jesus then gives us two promises, the reliability of both guaranteed by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. One promise is this: “...surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20) And the second promise: “...whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 11:24)

Repeatedly, in the forty-eight years since Jesus’ Gospel Word called me out of atheism to a life of daily repentance and faith in Him, I have seen these two great promises–His presence with believers now, His resurrection for believers forever–give peace and hope and sustenance to me and to all who, by the power of His Word, trust in Him.

Now, I ask you to consider something.

According to Mark, nobody in the crowd says they’re hungry?

But the apostles are; remember, they haven’t been able to eat.

The apostles tell Jesus the crowd might be hungry and, despite all that Jesus has recently empowered them to do, assume there is no way for them to be fed in the wilderness.

They want Jesus to send the crowd away.

But the crowd has already been fed on the Word of God that saves us from sin, death, and the devil and evidently is satisfied.

They have experienced that Jesus is the shepherd they need.

The apostles, apparently aren’t satisfied. They’re still in turmoil.

And so, mostly, I think, for the benefit of apostles and not the crowd, Jesus feeds the 5000 men and who knows how many women and children.

In this miracle, Jesus tells the apostles and us that nothing is impossible for Him.

He can be our good shepherd.

He can render perfect obedience to the Law of God, taking the death sentence for sin we deserve, then rising from the dead so that all who believe in Him will eternally share in His Resurrection.

Jesus gives us the same Word today. He does it in the Word read, heard, and explained, By these means, He gives us the rest He gave the crowd and the apostles in the wilderness.

And if with my insufficient words, the Word that brings rest in Jesus still seems distant or foggy, come to the table and receive His body and blood along with His unshakeable promise, “This is My body, given for you; this is My blood shed for you for the forgiveness of your sin.”

Then, friends, rest easy in His grace. Amen