Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’
Mark 4:36-38 NIVUK
My daughter came home quite frustrated and upset one day. She had planned to go to the theatre with some friends in the city, but her train hadn’t made it and had to turn back. You might be surprised when I tell you what had stopped this great big train, weighing hundreds of tons:
Wet leaves.
Maybe you’re wondering how wet leaves can possibly stop a huge train. The answer is quite simple.
They fall off trees. They land on the tracks. If there are enough of them, they reduce the friction between the train wheels and the track, which affects grip and makes it harder for those huge, heavy trains to accelerate and decelerate – start and stop. This means that you can be sitting in a huge, hundred-ton train that is skidding into or out of a station.
Not safe.
You might be wondering why I started this meditation by taking about wet leaves. Well, the thing we are going to talk about now is a bit like wet leaves, in that it seems so innocent, but can cause huge problems.
That is: a pillow.
Yes, a pillow.
A soft, comfortable pillow – or a hard one, if you have back issues.
It’s not the pillow itself that is the problem. It’s more what it represents.
You see, the pillow here is symbolic of rest. Rest can deviate us from our purpose.
You might agree with that. You might quote me this proverb:
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.
Proverbs 6:9-11 NIVUK
I went past the field of a sluggard, past the vineyard of someone who has no sense; thorns had come up everywhere, the ground was covered with weeds, and the stone wall was in ruins. I applied my heart to what I observed and learned a lesson from what I saw: 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.
Proverbs 24:30-34 NIVUK
And you would be quite right.
And there’s this verse:
For even when we were with you, we gave you this rule: ‘The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.’
2 Thessalonians 3:10 NIVUK
Again, I'm with you.
But it’s possible this can be taken too far.
I have met Christian workers who have taken this to extremes.
Like the youth worker who boasted he never took a holiday, before his health suffered and he needed a two year break to recover.
Or the workaholic Christian mission organisation leader who burned through a personal assistant every six months because he was so demanding.
Or numerous Christian families where the parents are involved in the work of the Lord but have no time for their own families and wonder why they stray.
I have to be brutally honest: I have yet to meet a Christian of any variety who gets this right.
We are simply unable to balance work and rest.
I have met several who are quite happy to sit on their behind and collect money from the state or gullible believers – that’s wrong. The Bible is clear about that.
I have met far more who work their fingers to the bone and end up exhausted and burned out. I myself have been in this category. Twice.
Yet in these verses something happens that should shock us to the core. Jesus ministers. He preaches. He teaches. He heals. He is out on front of hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. He is dealing with the pressure of being popular and famous at a time when this could be perceived as being a threat to the powers-that-be. And then He does something that jars us.
He gets into a boat. He curls up with a pillow under His head. And then He falls asleep.
Remarkable.
But why do people fall asleep?
The answer is simple, but profound: they fall asleep because they are tired.
So what can we understand from this?
Jesus slept because Jesus was tired.
Our wonderful Lord Jesus: the Word become Flesh (John 1:14), God Incarnate, fully God yet fully man (Philippians 2:7-8), got tired and fell asleep.
And this is the only occasion when there is any reference to Jesus sleeping. But what a profound one!
Maybe you think this is just one-off; that the Biblical principle is to work ourselves into an early grave.
Let me present to you a few Scriptures that profoundly disagree with that:
The Lord replied, ‘My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.’
Exodus 33:14 NIVUK
Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labour in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat – for he grants sleep to those he loves.
Psalms 127:1-2 NIVUK
So let us understand this straight. God’s purpose is to lead His people into a place where they can rest in faith that He will provide for them. If He is not in our midst, working with us to build our house (our family) then nothing we do will bring that rest into being – no matter the overtime or the toil or the stress.
This is not just the focus of a few verses. The very creation of the Sabbath by God was not for rules but for rest (Genesis 2:2-3, c.f. Hebrews 4:9-11). When God gave manna from heaven, the Israelites were commanded to collect double on the sixth day so they could rest on the seventh (Exodus 16:22-30) and had to trust God that it would be enough.
I think as Christians we have often got our focus entirely wrong. For generations we have focused on the rules of the Sabbath – what we should and should not do – and not on the rest: on the principle of taking one day in seven to stop work and take a break.
And this is where things get even more complicated. As Jesus pointed out, the priests on duty in the Temple actually desecrate the Sabbath (Matthew 12:5). Why is this? Because while everyone else is resting and bringing their sacrifice, the priests are violating the rules of the Sabbath by doing work on it for which they are reimbursed.
In other words, while our congregations rest, anyone performing a duty on church on a Sunday is not.
So the question arises: when do they rest? When do they get back their one day in seven?
And when they take it, does their congregation respect it and allow them to rest?
To rest without work is an act of laziness. To work without rest is an act of faithlessness. But to rest after work, that is an act of faith: an act of faith which recognises that our bodies are frail and cannot provide for ourselves 24/7, but God can.
Let me provide you with a word of warning. We were not in a good financial situation when I was growing up, so my dad worked very hard to get us out of it. When he got a job with the local railway company, he distinguished himself by learning multiple roles and being willing to fill in across all of them. He also accepted pretty much every shift that was offered to him. There were occasions when he would return home at ten or eleven o’clock at night, get a phone call at four in the morning the next day and head back into work – with overtime negotiated, of course.
While I was in Romania, I got a call. My dad was seriously ill with cancer. I came home. Two weeks later he died. He was forty-eight years old.
He didn’t know at the time, but later scientific research found a previously unknown cause of cancer: over-work, and shift work in particular.
My dad had accidentally worked himself into an early grave.
If you think about it, it is kind of obvious. If you work without seeing the sunlight for months on end, it adversely affects your circadian rhythms – you don’t sleep properly or at the right times. You don’t eat at regular intervals and you don’t eat properly – you're too tired to make nutritious food for yourself.
That will never end well.
Jesus got tired. Jesus needed to sleep.
Who are you to believe you are any different?
So take a break. Take a holiday. Relax. You are entitled to it. Don’t believe the lie that you need to work yourself into an early grave, for any cause.
Take a rest, Christian. Jesus did.
Questions
1. Why is important that Jesus got tired and fell asleep? What does this mean for us?
2. Have you ever over-worked? What happened?
3. How can you keep your work and rest in balance?
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