We've got a complicated relationship with work. We want to find fulfillment and value in life...but we also need to pay the bills. For most of us, it means finding a balance between what we enjoy and what doesn't drive us crazy (but anything can make us a little crazy...right?).

So work is a little complicated.

Work actually begins at the very beginning. It's part of Adam's life as he is tasked to take care of things...the proper word is to "steward." Work changed after sin came into this world, and it quit being fulfilling and turned into...well...work. Later on God drew a people to Himself and one of the ways there were tasked to set themselves apart as holy was to stop working one day a week. It was called "Sabbath" and it was not only supposed to be a day to refuel and rest, but also a way to say "I believe God has this so under control I don't need to worry about losing a day of work" and it worked. Kinda. As humans tend to do, we got a little picky about this day.

One Sabbath day as Jesus was walking through some grainfields, his disciples began breaking off heads of grain to eat. But the Pharisees said to Jesus, "Look, why are they breaking the law by harvesting grain on the Sabbath?"

Jesus said to them, "Haven't you ever read in the Scriptures what David did when he and his companions were hungry? He went into the house of God (during the days when Abiathar was high priest) and broke the law by eating the sacred loaves of bread that only the priests are allowed to eat. He also gave some to his companions."

Then Jesus said to them, "The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!"

Jesus went into the synagogue again and noticed a man with a deformed hand.Since it was the Sabbath, Jesus' enemies watched him closely. If he healed the man's hand, they planned to accuse him of working on the Sabbath.

Jesus said to the man with the deformed hand, "Come and stand in front of everyone." Then he turned to his critics and asked, "Does the law permit good deeds on the Sabbath, or is it a day for doing evil? Is this a day to save life or to destroy it?" But they wouldn't answer him.

He looked around at them angrily and was deeply saddened by their hard hearts. Then he said to the man, "Hold out your hand." So the man held out his hand, and it was restored! At once the Pharisees went away and met with the supporters of Herod to plot how to kill Jesus. Mark 2:23-3:6

Jesus tended to get people a little worried about His manner of Sabbath keeping. He was not necessarily concerned with false following, but instead of creating the type of life the Sabbath was originally intended to envision. The story the religious leaders insisted on wasn't one of holiness and rest, but one of restriction and judgement. It was about as far away from the theme of trust that Sabbath originally intended.

The way we rest tells a story about the way we trust.

So what does it mean to look back on this labor day and think about how we rest. Do we rest with trust or do we rest with anxiety? Is our resting even resting...or are we just trying to convince ourselves we have done it? Let's talk this Sunday.