Stop! (Sabbath Rest)

Stop!

Mark 2:23-28

Grace, peace, and mercy unto you all in the name of Jesus, the Risen Christ. Amen.

“Stop.”

I guess I first heard it as a whisper. It’s remarkable that I ever heard it I guess. Perhaps I didn’t want to hear it at all. I was trying to drown out hearing it with all that I just had to get done.

“Stop.”

I was too busy to just stop.

I needed to get my seminary work done… “Stop.”

I needed to get my school work done… “Stop.”

I needed to get my sermon written for Sunday… “Stop.”

Well, here we are. It’s Sunday. And, I’m preaching on the Sabbath. And, you’re here. So, I guess I’m preaching to the choir then.

Oops

Yes, it’s Sunday. So, why isn’t our church more full?

So, why isn’t everyone here?

Ohhhh…those people aren’t here.

Those people that are too busy.

Those people that have other things to do.

Those people who would rather go to St. Mattress than to join us at Gloria Dei.

Those people who don’t need the Sabbath.

Those people who don’t want the Sabbath.

Those people who have too much going on in their full lives than to spend an hour at church.

So, I guess I am preaching to the choir. I mean we are here.

We are the ones who don’t mind spending an hour in church.

We are the ones who are giving up an hour for Jesus.

I mean, it’s not like we’re expected to spend two hours here.

I mean we don’t have to go to Bible study, too.

We’re here. And we’re engaged.

It’s not like we’re wondering what we need to do the rest of the day…

Or what we have to get ready for the upcoming week…

Or what we’re going to eat for dinner and how we can possibly find time to make it…

If we’ll even have time to sit down together…

We’ve got stuff to do…

When is this sermon going to end anyways? “Stop!”

Do you know what “Sabbath” means? It literally means, “Stop.”

But we don’t have time to stop! “Stop.”

You see, there is nothing new under the sun. In the second chapter of Mark, the Pharisees get upset with Jesus and His disciples over the Sabbath.

One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him: how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?” And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:23-28)

The text seems to be a bit of a reversal to our full and seemingly abundant lives today. Some 2,000 years ago, the Pharisees were adding their man-made restrictions to the Sabbath. They were turning the Sabbath into a burden. They believed that man was created to honor the Sabbath.

Created. Looking back at the magnificent and marvelous Creation that God did, He created all things.

He created man. And, in His creation, He blesses 3 things:

He blesses the animals and says to be fruitful and multiply.

He blesses man, His prized creation, and says to be fruitful and multiply.

And, He blesses the Sabbath and made it holy.

He blessed the stopping of His creative work.

He blessed rest.

But just like the rest of His creation that was changed and cursed with the fall, in time the Sabbath was changed.

Fallen man changed the Sabbath.

Fallen man added to God’s divine law.

Fallen man made a mess of things, and made a mess of rest.

Ugh

Today is different than when Jesus and His disciples were confronted by the Pharisees. Today we don’t seem to have a legalistic Sabbath. Today we might wonder if there even is a Sabbath. Too often our lives are too busy for a Sabbath rest it seems. It’s not that we don’t love God. We do. Too often we just don’t know how to spend time with God. We just don’t have time…for God…all the time. We’ve got too much to do. We’ve got full lives to live.

Well, just as the Pharisees tried to do more by adding to God’s divine law, we do not live more fully when we do more.

We do not live more fully when we are so busy that we do not have time for God.

We do not live more fully when we do not honor the Sabbath or when we do not embrace the Sabbath rest.

We do not live more fully when we crowd our time with our wants and squeeze out the “inconvenience” of the Sabbath rest.

You see, we have become perhaps the most emotionally exhausted, psychologically overworked, and spiritually malnourished people in history.

“Stop.”

Satan was sitting around with some of his devils and demons contemplating how to take more souls away from Jesus. One of the devils says to Satan, “I know what we can do. We can convince them that Jesus doesn’t exist.” Satan replied, “No, we’ve tried that. In the end it just doesn’t work. At some point, they’re going to realize that there is something greater than them.” Another one of the devils says, “How about we convince them that their sin doesn’t matter? We can convince them that they can do whatever they want to do.” Satan replied, “Well, that’s a good start and we’ll surely win some souls that way, but too many are going to see the consequences of what they do and that might backfire. And if that happens, they might get sorry for what they do.” Then one of the devils said, “I have got the perfect strategy. Let’s make them so busy that they don’t have time for God!”

Now, if we are truly honest with each other…if we are truly honest with ourselves, we would admit that we are too busy. Our full and seemingly abundant lives are a constant mess of hurry.

No…I’m not preaching to the choir this morning. I’m preaching to an overwhelmed people. A busy people. A hurried people. A distracted people. An exhausted people.

Think I’m meddling? Yea, I guess I am. But my finger is not just pointed at you. You see, I’m preaching to myself.

· Husband.

· Dad.

· Son.

· Brother.

· Friend.

· Head of School and High School Principal.

· Vicar.

· Overwhelmed. Busy. Hurried. Distracted. Exhausted. Sinner.

And, if that is not convicting enough, it is important to remember that honoring the Sabbath is a commandment.

I know I should do this, but I struggle.

And yet not following this commandment is as bad as adultery, murder, stealing.

Yikes!!!

I can’t live this way. We can’t live this way. It’s not the full and abundant life that we think. We can’t fix it. We need help.

Aha

And, Jesus looks at the Pharisees. He is saddened by their hardened hearts. And He simply says what is needed to be heard—what you and I need to hear: The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath. (Mark 2:27-28)

Jesus, the incarnate Son of God, Lord of lords and King of kings, is lord over the Sabbath.

[deep breath] “Stop!”

We need rest.

In 2004, I had my first bout of heart troubles. I knew something was wrong. My heart was pounding and racing, and I was out of breath.

I was 29 at the time…young and dumb, and I waited until the next day to drive an hour away from our rural home in Michigan to see my father-in-law’s cardiologist. They did some tests and quickly diagnosed me with atrial fibrillation.

The doctor said I could either go home and take medicine to try and convert my heart to a sinus rhythm or I could go to the hospital and have IV medications which might work quicker.

But, the key he said was to give my heart some rest—no walking, no moving around, and absolutely no stress.

When he said that, I was thinking about life at home. You see, we lived on campus at the Lutheran high school where I was serving as Principal, teacher, coach, and grounds keeper. Whenever I looked out the window, I either saw 40 acres of grass that needed cutting or I saw the school and gym and knew there was always stuff to do—records to keep and lessons to be planned.

So, I called my wife to give her an update.

Rachel was home with our two toddler sons, Jonah and Eli. When she answered the phone and knew it was me, she said, “Hold on…” Then I overheard her on the other end of the phone: “Don’t put that in your mouth! Get down from there! Give me those car keys—the last time you had them we couldn’t find them for weeks! Ohhh, don’t you look at me like that!”

Then she came back to the phone and said exasperatingly, “Steve, sorry about that, but these kids are driving me nuts today. What did the doctor say?”

I said, “Well, my resting heart rate is like 178, and I’m in atrial fibrillation. I’m not quite sure what that all means, but the doctor says I can come home and take medicine or go to the hospital, but he says I need rest and can’t have any stress…”

Before I could finish, she said, “I think you need to go to the hospital. You aren’t going to get any rest here,” which was followed up by a “Don’t kick the soccer ball inside!”

And so off to the hospital I went to get some rest.

Rest. O how we wrestle with rest. But, God created rest for us.

My problem with atrial fibrillation continued for years. In 2020 I had to undergo a heart ablation to try and stop the A-Fib.

Hours into the procedure to doctor went into the waiting room to talk with Rachel. He let her know that he worked and worked and worked but couldn’t get me into a sinus rhythm. He told her my heart was too tired for him to continue the procedure and that he was going to just let my heart rest a bit while under anesthesia before trying to shock me into a sinus rhythm.

Here she was—all alone in a COVID era waiting room. She texted family and friends and our Leadership Team at LSA—but she left me off of the text chains. She knew that when I came out of the procedure and was able to return to my room, I would be all alone with no visitors allowed and that I would eventually check my phone to see what I missed at work or to check my notifications. And, she did not want me to read the scary news she was getting from the doctor and her fears that she was sharing with others. The doctor was explicit to her—my heart needed rest.

Rest. Stop. Peace.

It is true that our bodies need rest. But, so do our minds and our souls. We are to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. But, God also wants the entirety of us—body and mind and soul to rest. He wants us to rest in Him. He wants us to live within the Sabbath rest.

Whee

You see, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and He is our Sabbath rest. Just as God commanded the honoring of the Sabbath for his prized creation to rest and be relieved of labors, Jesus came to give us rest and relieve us of our labors of attempting to achieve salvation by our works. We no longer rest for only one day, but we forever cease our laboring to attain God’s favor.

Jesus came to fulfill the Law and not abolish it. Jesus came to be our Sabbath rest and not abolish the Sabbath rest. Because of our life in Jesus, each and every day is the Sabbath—a day of honoring God, thanking God, worshipping God, praising God, resting in God.

Yeah

My friends, because of our life in Jesus, we live more fully when we just STOP and pause and take in what God has given us and has done for us. It is our rest in Jesus that we have the full and abundant life. We live more fully when we abide in Jesus.

Yes, we live more fully when we abide in Jesus.

You have heard this before in recent sermons, and you will hear this again and again of what it means to have a full and abundant life as Jesus says in John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” (John 10:10)

The thief tries to work through hurriedness and busyness to draw us away from God. But, Jesus came that we may have life and have it abundantly. Yes, we live more fully not when we do more, but rather when we abide in Jesus…when we abide in the Sabbath rest Jesus gives.

It is in our Sabbath rest in Jesus that we are free from cultural constraints and free from cultural expectations.

It is our Sabbath rest in Jesus and not our fast paced neck breaking superficial lives that we live more fully.

It is our Sabbath rest in Jesus and not our rushing from here to there to do more and be more involved that we live more fully.

It is our Sabbath rest in Jesus and not our busyness and our hurriedness that we live more fully.

The ruthless elimination of hurry begins with our Sabbath rest in Jesus.

Our full and abundant life begins with our Sabbath rest in Jesus.

We need to Stop. I need to Stop.

[I invite the praise band to come on back up here with me.]

I said that I’m not preaching to the choir. I am preaching to myself. And, you might be asking yourself like me, so, where do I go from here? What is my next step? I want to live this out, but how do I Stop?

Well, we abide in the Sabbath rest when we surrender ourselves into Jesus’ Sabbath rest. We Stop and live more fully in the Sabbath rest when we give over our thoughts, emotions, and daily battles to God himself. We Stop when we surround ourselves in God’s Word and in God’s truth, and surrender everything to Him.

Do you want to live more fully? Then Stop.

Do you want to be a better parent? Then Stop.

Do you want to be a better co-worker? Then Stop.

Do you want to be a better friend? Then Stop.

Do you want to have a better business? Then Stop.

Do you want to love others? Then Stop.

Do you want to grow in your faith? Then Stop.

Stop. Stop and pause and abide in Jesus.

Trust in Jesus.

Rest in Jesus. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath.

Jesus who gives us life…the full and abundant life…through His death and His resurrection.

It’s really quite simple…we simply need to let God be God and let Him do. And, we need to just be. God created us to be human beings—not human doings. He reminds us of that in the Psalms: Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

Or, Stop striving and know that I am God.

Conclusion

My friends, we Stop and live more fully when we heed the invitation from Jesus to come to Him in our weariness and burdens and find rest. Listen to the beautiful words of Jesus:

“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 you will find rest for your souls.

Amen.