Let Jesus be your Sabbath!
Mark 2:27- Then Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
Do you tuck in your mattress in every night? Do you read bed stories or sing lullabies to your mattress to help it drift off into sleep? Of course not, that would be absurd! Our beds are here to help us fall asleep and get a good night’s rest, not the other way around. Who would do such a thing?
God gave his people a day of rest called the Sabbath. It was a day of physical rest and of spiritual rest. Unfortunately, as time went on, God’s people continued to add laws to the Sabbath like how many steps you were allowed to take on the Sabbath. It got to the point that even if you did something the LORD said was good like helping your relative or neighbor, it would be considered sinning because you did not rest on the Sabbath. They turned the Sabbath into work righteousness which burdened people. Jesus had to remind them of the original intent of the Sabbath. The rest of the Sabbath was for people not people giving rest to the Sabbath.
Work righteousness only leads to burnout and exhaustion because we cannot be perfect no matter how hard we try. Even as believers, we still sin daily and cannot be perfect this side of heaven. If we turn going to church into work righteousness, we will not find rest. Church is not about our perfect attendance. Church is not about showing how perfect we are. Church is about rest. Our Sabbath in found only in Jesus and the forgiveness he earned for us on the cross. Only Jesus can lift our burden and give us true rest for our souls. That is the reason why we go to church. This is why we need to go to church as often as possible…not to check off our attendance, but to receive rest in the forgiving heart of our Savior.
Dear Lord of the Sabbath. Help us remember that we are to find our rest in you and your work and not in ourselves. To your name be glory now and forever. Amen!