Sermon Tone Analysis

Jesus’ Example Of Rest

Edwin R. Roberts of Princeton Seminary once sat under a pastor who concluded his announcements, “I am not going to take a vacation this summer; the devil never does!”

Roberts went home and re-read the Gospels to see what Jesus’ attitude is.

He found that of His three years’ active ministry, there were mentioned 10 periods of retirement!

This was in addition to the nightly rest and the sabbath rest.

Whose example are we following?

the Devil’s?

Blessed Lord, You have caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning.

Grant that we may so hear them, read, mark, learn, and take them to heart that, by the patience and comfort of Your holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life.

… through Jesus Christ, Your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

A Curious Situation

The Sabbath was given to us as a gift by the Lord at the conclusion of His work of creation.

79] Our word “holy day” or “holiday” is so called from the Hebrew word “Sabbath,” which properly means to rest, that is, to cease from work; hence our common expression for “stopping work” literally means “taking a holiday.”61

[80] In the Old Testament, God set apart the seventh day, appointed it for rest, and commanded it to be kept holy above all other days.

In the 10 Commandments, God includes a command to set the 7th day apart as a Holy Day of rest:

In the Large Catechism, concerning the Sabbath, Dr. Luther writes:

In the Large Catechism, concerning the Sabbath, Dr. Luther writes:

79] Our word “holy day” or “holiday” is so called from the Hebrew word “Sabbath,” which properly means to rest, that is, to cease from work; hence our common expression for “stopping work” literally means “taking a holiday.”61

[80] In the Old Testament, God set apart the seventh day, appointed it for rest, and commanded it to be kept holy above all other days.

In time, God’s people began using that sacred rest to study His Word, thus:

Robert Kolb, Timothy J. Wengert, and Charles P. Arand, The Book of Concord: The Confessions of the Evangelical Lutheran Church (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2000), 395–396.

We continue that practice in the Divine Service that God has gifted to us.

You are to hallow the day of rest.

[6] What is this?

Answer:

We are to fear and love God, so that we do not despise preaching or God’s Word, but instead keep that Word holy and gladly hear and learn it.

Is Christ leading the Way, or am I getting in the way?

Are you making a way, or getting in the way?

Jesus is walking through some fields with His disciples, and it looks like they were literally making a path by eating the heads of grain.

Apparently, this was a perfectly legal activity, since (1) Jesus permitted it and (2) the Pharisees did not complain about them stealing; they complained that they were working:

(ESV)

24 And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

The Pharisees had a problem with people working on the Sabbath, and reaping was considered a form of work.

Somehow, the Pharisees in their zeal had determined that anything that they could interpret as a violation was a violation, therefore the disciples’ acts of plucking heads of grain and eating them was not an act of sustenance, but an act of work.

The Wisdom of the Lord

Jesus’ response addresses, not the allegation, but the action.

That in itself was, as usual, a wise riposte to the hostile maneuver of the Pharisees, which as always, stopped them in their tracks.

The Pharisees were not tasked by God to defend the sanctity of His Holy Commands, but the Priests and the Levites were.

David and his men ate the Bread of the Presence, which only the sons of Aaron could eat:

Jesus’ response addresses, not the allegation, but the action.

That in itself was, as usual, a wise riposte to the hostile maneuver of the Pharisees, which as always, stopped them in their tracks.

The Pharisees were not tasked by God to defend the sanctity of His Holy Commands, but the Priests and the Levites were.

David and his men ate the Bread of the Presence, which only the sons of Aaron could eat:

David was a foretaste of the Divine Promise, and he and his men did something that clearly went contrary to the letter of the Law.

Jesus is the reality to which David pointed, his men did something that could only be deemed a transgression by twisting the Law, and yet the High Priest absolved the lesser of the greater violation, while they sought to condemn the Greater of what was actually no violation at all!

Bread for the Tabernacle

Bread for the Tabernacle

5 “You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf.

6 And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord.

7 And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord.

8 Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever.

9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”

5 “You shall take fine flour and bake twelve loaves from it; two tenths of an ephah shall be in each loaf.

6 And you shall set them in two piles, six in a pile, on the table of pure gold before the Lord.

7 And you shall put pure frankincense on each pile, that it may go with the bread as a memorial portion as a food offering to the Lord.

8 Every Sabbath day Aaron shall arrange it before the Lord regularly; it is from the people of Israel as a covenant forever.

9 And it shall be for Aaron and his sons, and they shall eat it in a holy place, since it is for him a most holy portion out of the Lord’s food offerings, a perpetual due.”

You Can’t Beat God Giving, No Matter How Hard You Try

In Jesus’ answer, not only did He arrest them in their attempt to play the role of the Accuser, He also gave them an opportunity - an opportunity to rest.

Hearing the Word of Christ and receiving His Word by faith, they would have found rest, the fuller rest of which the 7th Day was only a foretaste.

The Apostle Paul would later express this truth in Romans 10:17-

We all need that rest, not merely a rest from our attempts to earn righteousness through our works, but also from the state of enmity that we are in as a result of being sinners who are unable to justify ourselves in any way apart from God’s grace.

We can’t outdo God in justifying us, in cleansing us from our sins, anymore than we can beat God in blessing us in any other aspect of our lives.

What we can do, and what will bless us as we do it, is humbly rejoice as Paul and Peter say to us:

Jesus cares - enough to invite you into His rest.

It’s a rest that never ends, a rest that comes, not at the end, like the rest commanded in the Law, but at the beginning:

Today is the day, not because it is Sunday, but because today the Word of the Lord has come to you - His Word of forgiveness, His Word of release, His Word of peace.

So let the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.