Day 14: Matthew 12
A DAY OFF?
'Rest when you get there.' It's a phrase that my friend Pete used to tell me had been drummed into him as a footballer, to strive to win the ball and do something with it, and rest when he’d done it. I never heard that, but I did hear a lot of 'If in doubt, get it out' in my team. I'm guessing we weren't as good as Pete's team.
I've found that as I've entered the working world, there often seems to be a never ending pile of tasks and as some tasks are completed, new tasks get added. If we're not careful, busyness can take over and dominate our lives. I'm bad for this. I will often seek out additional tasks for some reason to make myself busy.
I blame my mum for this. Every evening she brings back work for the next day, and can often be found sat in front of the TV while doing some prep for lessons. During my university years, she would often wake me up needlessly in the holidays, worried that I would 'waste the day' if I slept longer. What she didn't realise was that as a student, my days would largely be spent playing Pro Evolution Soccer and eating chips while watching the Crystal Maze. Sleep was the most productive thing I did.
I recently floated the topic of the Sabbath in our life group, discussing what we think God intends for us, what it should mean. One of the group discussed that they believed God intends for us to set aside a day of the week designed specifically for rest, reflection, and focusing on God so that work doesn't dominate our lives. Another stated their belief that since Jesus had come, he has made a way that we don't have to just come together on one specific day to go to the temple to worship God, and that we can observe the principles of the Sabbath daily.
I like both points. I love through Jesus we can come to God and enjoy that intimacy daily, but I also believe it is a solid principle to forget about work for a day, reflecting on God's greatness and enjoying some extra closeness with Him.
As we look at what Jesus does and says here, we can take some things about the Sabbath and apply them to our lives. Firstly, Jesus comes against the excessive rules put on by the Pharisees at the time. The Pharisees had taken the basic command of not to work on the Sabbath, and added loads of extra rules on top, so that they could show how well they were keeping the command by going nowhere near work.
A friend of mine imagines that they would go around looking at a situation saying “That looks a bit worky to me, I wouldn't do that...” They used the Sabbath as a rule-keeping exercise, to show how good and righteous they were, completely missing the point. Jesus points them to what matters, showing them the Sabbath isn't about a set of rules. The point of the Sabbath was to draw nearer to God, to enjoy our relationship with Him.
We can mark the Sabbath in many different ways. I don't believe you always have to alone in a place of solitude. Here, Jesus is with the disciples, so he's obviously not spending the day silently sat in contemplation. Church is a good way of doing this, coming together to corporately worship God and declare His greatness. I believe we can have great times of just relaxing together and enjoying life. However, I also believe we need to get better at slowing down to reflect on God and spend extra time with Him with no agenda. I appreciate we have quiet times, and they are key, but I think there's something special about just taking that bit extra out on a day to stop and be with God.
A while ago, I read a story about a guy who got locked in his bathroom for a couple of hours, with nothing to read or watch or do. He spent that time praying, and loved it. Since then, he's tried to make a conscious effort to just stop once a week, and he says it's crucial to his week.
Today, consider just stopping. Find a gap in your schedule, and just book it to relax in the presence of God. Just stop and speak to Him, listen to Him, reflect on life. As we do, I pray we'll be refreshed and it will become a pivotal time in our weeks.
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