Find your rest in Jesus
“So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:28)
There are any number of religious topics which can spark rather intense discussion. One of those is the concept of what day to worship on, what should or shouldn’t be part of worship, what kind of music should be involved in worship and other related subjects. Maybe you’ve noticed how some people like to take the way they handle things with worship and make themselves look better or more holy than other people.
In the Old Testament, God laid out very clear rules and laws on what worship was to consist of and look like. In the New Testament age, God has given us much more freedom as he has basically given us the guideline of “worship me” and no real parameters for the type of worship format, music, etc.
At the time Jesus lived, there was a group of supposed religious leaders known as the Pharisees. They had their own set of man-made rules that covered things like how much to give as an offering, what you could and couldn’t do on the day of worship and other similar rules. These rules were not at all about helping people come closer to God or grow in their faith. They were all about allowing people to make themselves look or seem more holy in eyes of others.
That is the background to our Bible verse for this week. The Pharisees had made some very clear rules about what they considered to be “work” on the Sabbath. They thought that had caught Jesus’s disciples doing something wrong when they saw them grabbing a handful of grain and rubbing it between their hands to get rid of the chaff and have something to eat.
Jesus first of all responded “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.” (Mark 2:27.) In other words, the Sabbath Day or the day/time when we worship was set aside by God for us to give us rest and relief from sin. God did not set aside the time and/or day for worship as an opportunity for human beings to put their own spin or rules on it to make it all about themselves.
So as you take everything above into consideration, ask yourself if your worship is all about Jesus or if it becomes about you, what you want and what you think.
An illustration to really help us consider and understand this. Imagine that you are on a long trip and have been driving for 10 hours during a day. You are relieved to see a sign which tells you that a mile ahead there is a rest area. You eagerly look forward to being able to pull off the highway, get out of the car, stretch and relax a little bit. Do you concern yourself with which side of the rest area cars can park on versus where trucks are supposed to park? Do you bother yourself with which side of the rest area shelter the men’s rest room is on as opposed to the side where the women’s rest room in? Those questions/scenarios might seem strange or even a little bit ridiculous. But that is exactly the point. The rest area was made to give you a place to rest, not for you to have place to make your own rules or set up your own kingdom.
Every one of us needs times and places of rest as we go through our lives and this world.
Find your rest in Jesus and the peace he gives you in his Word.
Don’t rob yourself or anyone else of that rest by being concerned about unnecessary, petty or useless rules.