2 July 2018 - not leaving out the rest

Today's Readings (Audio)

A scribe approached and said to him,
"Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go."

The scribe, it seems, is hoping for a destination, a place with less struggle and more rest than the rest of the world. Jesus tells this man that such rest can't be his priority if he is to follow him.

Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."

The scribe is too focused on an imagined destination. He needs to focus on Jesus. 

So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God (see Hebrews 4:9).

There is rest for God's people. It is not simply in the Kingdom, but it begins here

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience (see Hebrews 4:11).

It is a rest that can only be experienced while wearing that yoke of Jesus, which is easy, and by bearing his burden, which is light. It is a rest we only know when we do not run from the way of the cross. The place is rest is only found in Christ himself. It is not a matter of following him as a guide to a destination and then parting ways. He himself must be our resting place. In turn he wants each of us to allow him to rest in us.

Jesus must be our first priority. If he were merely a great prophet like Elijah he would allow us, like Elisha, to bury our dead first. But Jesus alone, because he is God, takes precedence even over family bonds. Not that we are often forced to chose. But if that choice must be made, it must be made for him.

We need to follow Jesus. It seems a little extreme. But when we remember our own poverty apart from him we see that the rest the world offers is falsely advertised.

Because they sell the just man for silver,
and the poor man for a pair of sandals.
They trample the heads of the weak
into the dust of the earth,
and force the lowly out of the way.

We see the world devouring widows, orphans, and immigrants. Families are redefined and torn apart. Unborn children are killed because we place money over human life. All of this is how the world tells us we can achieve rest. Suddenly the cross doesn't sound so foolish. The cross condemns all sin. It calls us beyond our own efforts to solve the problem.

for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his (see Hebrews 4:10).

When did Jesus cease to work as God did ceased to work in creation? He did so on the cross when he said, "It is finished", and commended his Spirit into the hands of his Father. It is only in so doing that rest can be found.

He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.