The subject of rest fascinates Religious Leaders.
Sort of like frog gigging fascinates boys.

Religious Leaders, unlike truly godly leaders, “will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly” (2 Tim. 3:5 NLT).

They will also tend to obsess over any matter that God legislates, and the God of the Bible did indeed legislate rest. In fact, he included it as Number 4 on his Top 10 To-do (and Do-not-do) List. He commanded a day of rest weekly and called it “Sabbath,” meaning, appropriately enough, “Stop!”

This legislation has both delighted and annoyed Religious Leaders through the centuries.

It has delighted them because it presents them with a rule. And rules, woven together just so, create comfy religious security blankets.

Rules set boundaries for behavior. Knowing these boundaries, Religious Leaders can act accordingly, or appear to do so, and thus assure their status as RLs. They can also use their rank to manipulate the boundaries to their liking, while preaching their skewed rules as the word of God.

This rule has annoyed RLs because it isn’t specific enough. God said, “You shall not do any work” on the Sabbath. Spotlighting this command, ancient Religious Leaders wondered, “What, exactly, qualifies a thing as work?”

Then, they set out to answer their own question. Over time, the answers accumulated. The specifics mounted up. Accordingly, the parameters for “rest” kept tightening. People were told, for example, the exact distance they could walk without “working.”

Thus armed with tedious and heavy rules, RLs led the way in the increasingly tiresome task of resting. Of course, even they couldn’t keep all their own rules. Yet, highly skilled in self-deception and image control, they strained out gnats, swallowed camels – and looked with contempt on people who weren’t religious enough to do the same.

But then a man came along who did not play by their rules. Normally, this would have been No Big Deal to the RLs. They would just have disdained the man, along with all the other sinners – except for two things: (1) People were following him. (2) He claimed to be God.

The Religious Leaders were sure his claim to be God couldn’t be true, because this man was definitely not religious. He had no papers from any accredited seminary. He had not come to them, seeking approval and “covering.” And he did things on the Sabbath that, in their minds, fell most certainly under the category of Work. He made sick people well, for heaven’s sake.

To top it off, the silly crowds followed him. People they had dominated and looked down upon flocked after a person who openly rebuked the RLs and dismissed their rules. That infuriated them. It terrified them. It threatened them to the core.

Such behavior could not be tolerated. Nor could the person so behaving.

Guys out “frog gigging” hunt with a pitchfork-shaped spear, typically at night. They spotlight a frog, then spear it.

Sort of like religion kills Sabbath. Sort of like it tried to exterminate the Lord of the Sabbath.

Ah, but the Religious Leaders who orchestrated Jesus’ crucifixion did not know: He is the resurrection and the life. What lives in him may be snuffed out and buried, yet it will still rise up.

There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God. (Heb. 4:9)

The key to entering this rest is to learn from the Religious Leaders’ example – no, not follow it; learn from it. The only rules that create healthy boundaries are the rules God himself makes. Any rules we add become, not boundaries, but bonds.

To learn what it means to “Stop!” we must beware of any one-size-fits-all formula, or even a these-are-the-steps-I-must-take formula. The God who calls for rest tailor-makes the parameters and personally teaches us what they are.

Today where you live, religiosity still slaughters Sabbath by the very way it tries to keep it. But when people desperate for rest leave the comfort of religious exhaustion and stumble toward God himself, Sabbath remains – and the Lord of Real Rest revives them.

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The original version of this post was published May 23, 2016. This revised version appears as Chapter 3 in the updated edition of Return to Your Rest: A Spirit-to-spirit Journey.

Image by johnnpas from Pixabay

See also

• The world in church clothing
• The blessing of rest
• Time out – God’s call to rest
• Posts in the series, Psalm 23 – Song of Rest