John 5:17 – Work and Rest

“My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” –  John 5:17

In this verse Jesus does two things that outraged the Jewish leaders who accused Him and sought to kill Him. By calling God His Father, He declared that He was equal to God, (John 5:18). And by defending His work of healing on the Sabbath, He declared that He is Lord of the Sabbath (Luke 6:1-11). Jesus did not come to please the Jewish leaders; He came to save mankind, and He had work to do.

When God commands us to, “Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work,…” He is commanding us both to work and to rest (Ex. 20:8-10). In creation He reveals our daily need for rest, and in doing so He tells us “Yes, there is work to do, but you are not able to do it all. Go to sleep and rise again tomorrow to continue in your labor.” By His design, when someone does not practice this daily requirement to rest, they find the limits to what they can do quite quickly. Whether that limit is found by falling asleep by no choice of their own, or like the extreme distance runner their body begins to break, and no matter who you are, if you run long enough your body will collapse. In realizing our limits and acknowledging them before God, we take our rightful place before Him. We are not God and He did not intend for us to be, so He reminds us of this truth daily. God’s design is good, and that includes His daily and weekly design for rest.

But this designed need for rest is not a renunciation of our call to do good and it is certainly not prioritized over our call to work. God made our bodies capable of thriving on less than a third of our 24hour day committed to rest and He commands one in seven days be committed to rest. In these ratios we see that God’s priority is for man to work. In our need for rest, He reminds us of our standing before Him, and through His design He renews our strength so we can rise to work again. When we allow God’s design for our rest to be overridden by our desire to rest, God’s Word helps us find the proper balance, “How long will you lie there, you sluggard? When will you get up from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest-and poverty will come on you like a thief and scarcity like an armed man,” (Prov. 6:9-11). When we rest when God calls us to work, God says the result is poverty and scarcity, applying both to our finances and spiritual well-being.

Jesus did not come to please mankind; He came to save mankind. He did not fear the persecution of the Jewish leaders and He did not seek their approval. Jesus came because He was sent by the Father with a job to do. His time for rest would come, but His work was not yet finished. We too have been given work to do, and we should commit that work to the Lord and rest knowing it is He who is control.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, thank you for including us in Your work and for giving us purpose, and thank you for allowing and commanding us to rest in Your green pastures.