The Story of the World – Part 2

I must admit that I found this week’s chapters particularly difficult as I was constantly being reminded that I am guilty of many of the things mentioned by Dr Keller. Chapter 4, “The Rest”, begins with a passage from Mark 2:23-28. Jesus and his disciples are walking through the grain fields picking at the grain as they walk. As always the Pharisees are watching Jesus closely and are quick to pass judgement in verse 24; “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath”.

Dr Keller then quotes from Mark 3:1-6. Jesus is sat in the synagogue with his disciples and a man with a shrivelled hand comes to him for healing. Guess what? The Pharisees are watching him once again to see if he will heal on the Sabbath. I love what Jesus says in verse 4 ; “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?”. This must have completely stumped the Pharisees and knocked them off their seats! I mean how do you answer that? Dr Keller says this;

“Why does Jesus become angry with the religious leaders? Because the Sabbath is about restoring the diminished. It’s about replenishing the drained. It’s about repairing the broken.” (p.38)

The Pharisees are anxious and insecure about the regulations they themselves have added to the Sabbath. They are self obsessed. Why? Because they are religious.

So, where do we find rest? In Jesus. When Jesus said “I am Lord of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28) he was saying “I am rest!” There is no rest in religion; just anxiety and insecurity.

As a married man, I find that I often do things that upset or disappoint my wife (believe it or not!). I spend the day trying to make it up to my wife even after she’s already forgiven me and moved on. I want to show her just how desperately sorry I am and I miss the point. She has already forgiven me and she never stopped loving me. I thought that if I didn’t spend the rest of the day making it up to her, she’d leave the house and never come back! Is that just me?

We can also behave this way towards God. We forget that Jesus is the one who went to the cross, he is the one who has taken our punishment, he is the one who rose from the grave, bringing us into new life with him. Instead we try to gain forgiveness through our own self-righteousness. How does this end? In rest? Are we satisfied? No, we never find rest and we never find satisfaction. Dr Keller then mentions something amazing about the creation story and the story of the cross. On the seventh day when God rested, he looked at his work and said “It is good”. The trouble is, we can’t do that, as all our own efforts to please God always end in absolute anxiety and insecurity. On the cross, Jesus cried out; “It is finished” (John 19:30). His work on the cross for us is done. And it is good. So now we get to rest. We rest in the one who said “I am rest”. We look at the work of Jesus on the cross and we DON’T say “I am good, look at me”. We DO say, “look at my Saviour, look how good he is”.

And we rest.

Finally, in chapter 5, “The Power”, God’s ‘rest’ is with us everywhere we go. In the bad times when there are storms, we rely on the fact that in Jesus there is rest. Dr Keller goes on to say that the storms that come into our lives are there because God has allowed them for our good. We may not understand why they are there, just as the disciples didn’t understand why Jesus was asleep on the boat when the storm was raging all around them (Mark 4:35-38), but we do know this; Jesus has the power to calm the storm and Jesus is also our rest during the storm. We know that He loves us not because we are good looking or worthy to be loved, but because he is good.

Dr Keller puts it like this; “If Jesus is God, then he’s got to be great enough to have some reason to let you go through things you don’t understand”. (p. 54) Rest in this; He loves you because He loves you. And everything that comes into your life has passed through his hands first, because he has a plan.

Andy Smith.

This post is part of a series of posts that will take place in the run up to Easter, recording various Firwood members’ reflections as they read through Timothy Keller’s ‘King’s Cross’. Please feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments below. For more information, click here