Real Rest
John 5:1-18 is about rest. It is a passage that centers around an encounter between Jesus, an invalid man, and a group of Jews. As the story goes, Jesus heals this man with only a word, and does so on the Sabbath, the day of rest. The timing of this miracle proves to be quite controversial in the eyes of the Jews (v. 10). To understand why this is significant we must consider the significance of the Sabbath.
In Genesis 2:1-3, God instituted the day of rest and invited his image bearers, Adam and Eve, to join him. God created man and woman to share in his rest; that is, to know and enjoy life with Him. However, Adam and Eve sinned and rejected God’s rest. Moving forward under the weight of sin human hearts and bodies now grow tired and weary being cut off from God’s rest. Rest would prove to be illusive, but that would not keep men and women from trying to find it. The invalid and the Jews are examples of the two ways we try to find rest: escape and optimize.
When Jesus meets the invalid man he is lying beside a pool hoping, at just the right moment, to roll into its healing waters. Think about the man’s plight. For thirty-years he had been an invalid. Surely he was physically and emotionally exhausted by the restraints this put on his life. All he wants is a renewed and rejuvenated body. He thinks, “If I can just escape into the magical water then I will be able to rest from my troubles!” So, the invalid tries to rest by escaping, but the Jews hope to rest by optimizing.
After Jesus heals the invalid he commands the rejuvenated man to “pick up your bed, and walk,” and he does! This fact draws the ire of the Jews who believe this is in conflict with the Sabbath codes. After delivering Israel from slavery to Egypt, God again brought the Sabbath front of mind for his people with rules and regulations for its observance. As the years went by Rabbinic tradition tried to optimize the Sabbath with additional laws and codes of their own. That’s the perspective of the Jews in John 5. In their minds, optimized rules and regulations are the key to rest. We probably do not look for rest in a magical pool outside the city gates or in an optimizing rabbinic tradition, but we do try to rejuvenate ourselves by escaping and optimizing our lives.
When our bodies and hearts are weary escape and optimize are our go to renewal strategies. Some of us think that an escape to the beach or the mountains will provide the R-and-R we need. “After a trip to our favorite get away we will be good as new,” we tell ourselves. A number of us hope that optimizing our to-do lists, calendars, and paycheck routines will finally give rest to our restless hearts. Unfortunately, like so many of us have discovered, we have escaped and optimized but our bodies and hearts are still so tired. Here, we need the words of Augustine of Hippo who said, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”
When Jesus healed the invalid he revealed to us that He is true rest; the giver of real rest. Jesus is God incarnate come to bring real rest to the restless. By his death and resurrection he has undone sins curse and invited us into the endless day of rest. Through faith in him we can begin to experience the renewing and rejuvenating effects of life with God, then on the final day we will enter the New Creation where bodies and hearts never tire in life with God just as its meant to be.
