“Our hearts are restless…” —Augustine of Hippo
Today, rest is either a
or a
.
28 “Come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take up my yoke and learn from me, because I am lowly and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. —Matthew 11:28-29 CSB
“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.” —Matthew 11:28-29 MSG
Rest is possible through the person of
and we experience His rest through the practice of
.
Exodus 20:1-17
“The first three commandments concern themselves with our relationship with God. The last six have to do with our dealings with each other. We cannot steal from, lie to, or kill God, but we can do these things to one another. The Fourth Commandment is the longest and most inclusive of all ten. Its placement is not by accident. The first three commandments are about God; the last six are about humanity. The fourth acts as a fulcrum. It is a bridge between the two sections.” —Matthew Sleeth, 24/6
Should Christians still practice Sabbath?
“My central claim is that we can become like Christ by doing one thing—by following him in the overall style of life he chose for himself. If we have faith in Christ, we must believe that he knows how to live. We can, through faith and grace, become like Christ by practicing the types of activities he engaged in, by arranging our whole lives around the activities he himself practiced in order to remain constantly at home in the fellowship of his Father.” —Dallas Willard
Deuteronomy 5:12-15
Sabbath rest is a form of resistance against the system of death.
Those who live by the death system: –are bound to dishonor parents and all nonproductive kin; –are bound to engage in killing violence, because the others are a threat; –are bound to reduce sexual interaction to exploitative commodity; –are bound to usurp from others if it is something they want; –are bound to engage in distortion and euphemism to gain advantage; –are bound to be committed to acquisitiveness. —Walter Brueggemann, Sabbath as Resistance
Sabbath is an invitation to the way of
in a world of
.
You
Different Ways to Rest:
Do you find yourself resisting the Sabbath? You very well may. I certainly did. At their core, most Western people are deeply pragmatic. We will do something if it is practical and the result happens immediately. We rarely do things simply because God has invited us to do them. But the Sabbath is one of those things that we must enter into in obedience and the results of which will come down the road… Instead of thinking in terms of production, the day becomes about presence. —AJ Swoboda, Subversive Sabbath
“You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in You.” —Augustine of Hippo
Access this week’s practice at formedbyJesus.com/sabbath