We pause and catch our breathe in the story of Jesus and in our week. The toll of the events before: the emotion of the death and raising of Lazarus and cleansing the Temple, the energy required to confront the leading religious leaders of his day and preach to the masses. The anticipation of what was yet to be: looking forward to his own death, and greater still, his “becoming sin for us.” These things weighed heavily on Jesus and he needed rest.
So…Jesus stopped. All around him activity was taking place. Jerusalem was a-bustle with preparations for the Passover. People from all over the Roman Empire were converging on the city for this significant festival. There was buying and selling. There was the ordinary pressure of daily life and the extraordinary pressure of a holiday (which never goes quite smoothly and always carries additional expectations). And there was Judas and the Sanhedrin plotting and scheming. The world was busy, but Jesus rested.
We believe that Jesus is our Savior; dying and rising again to offer us forgiveness and eternal, righteous life. We also believe that Jesus is our Example; showing us how to live in an intimate trusting relationship with God the Father. Let’s focus on this latter for a moment. Our right now, as we approach Resurrection Sunday, 2020, is shaped in a context of COVID-19, economic pressures, constantly rubbing shoulders with our loved ones (or being separated from our loved ones), disrupted routines, not to mention all the other challenges we would be facing without the Coronavirus. Let’s follow the example of our Master and heed the words of the Psalmist with renewed urgency, “Be still and know that I am God!”
What does it look like for you, today, to not merely be still, but to be still with the purpose of knowing that God is indeed God? To rest, not in the physical sense of sleeping (though you may need that too!), but in the spiritual sense of offering your deepest trust to God in this time of uncertainty? We can rest because God says, “I will be exalted in the earth!”
Grace and Peace, Pastor Jeff