Blessed Sabbath Rest
Luke 23:54 – It was the day of preparation and the Sabbath was beginning. 55 – The women who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid in it. 56 – Then they returned and prepared aromatic spices and perfumes. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandment.
The last picture of Jesus the women had in their minds was of how His body laid in the tomb. So still and silent. The storm of trial, persecution and violence was over for Jesus and they had no time to give Him a proper burial complete with spices and perfumes since the Sabbath hours were beginning. They would rest and then return.
The commandment gave the women a reason to rest. Without the commandment they probably would have kept on exhausting themselves with grief and activity. Jesus had a beautiful way of presenting the commandments. He had a beautiful way of living the commandments. At least they could meditate on all that Jesus had done and then return and resume caring for His body when the Sabbath was over. With their last image of Jesus firmly implanted in their minds they rested.
The commandment to keep the Sabbath gives us a reason to rest. Resting is not laziness. Resting gives us time to specially meditate on all Jesus has done for us too. What image of Jesus do we have implanted in our mind? Spending Sabbath time with Jesus in Bible study, prayer, and worship with believers takes our attention away from ourselves and the stresses of life and places it upon Him.
Today is Friday, preparation day. The women were busy following and witnessing the work of Jesus giving His life for the world and they were to spend Friday’s final moments preparing spices and perfumes before resting. Let’s finish up the work of our week today and then rest in Jesus according to the commandment. We need the blessed Sabbath rest. We can pick up where we left off when the Sabbath is over. The awesome thing about resting in Jesus on the Sabbath is that when the Sabbath hours end and we resume our work, we’ll find things will not be as we left it. The women certainly didn’t. They found Jesus risen!
May we find the risen Jesus in our Sabbath rest and discover fresh power to take on the challenges of the coming week.
May God bless you!
Where two are gathered 