“Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest.   – Matthew 11:28, The Message

Imagine with me for a moment that you are the Son of God (stay with me), and you have just been baptized by John in the river Jordan, and you know this is it, the launch of your public ministry. You have been anointed by the Spirit of God to “preach good news to the poor, to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, and to set the oppressed free.” In short, your mission is the redemption of the world, and yes there is a bit of a time crunch.  Now, what goes on the google calendar and what gets cut?

Fourteen times in the gospels we are told of Jesus going away somewhere to a quiet place for prayer: Nine times on his own, five times with his disciples.

The question is, Why? Why would God incarnate dedicate so much of his precious time to prayer retreats? After all, isn’t Jesus praying to God, and at the same time isn’t Jesus himself God? If so, might we not save some of that precious time, cut out the redundancy in the system and get down to the real work of healing and preaching and casting out demons?

When Americans use the phrase, “the rest of life” we almost always are referring to the time remaining in the future between the present moment and our inevitable death. Cute slogans like “make the rest of your life the best of your life” encapsulate the sentiment. Life is a limited resource you possess, rest is something you achieve in the future.

Hebrews ch 4 is a powerful witness to an altogether different approach to the relationship between life and rest; one where life is eternal and rest is a gift to be received in the present. This vision culminates in verse seven with “God set another time for entering his rest. That time is today.”

In Genesis we are told that God made humanity, and the next day he rested. Meaning that the first day of human life took place on an unearned day of rest, made possible by the work of God. Life itself has been designed from creation, through redemption to new creation, to be a covenantal dance between work and rest: Covenantal because our rest and our work are both ways we enact our trust in the power and goodness of God’s work and rest in the world.

Sound familiar? That is because there is a deep bond between the biblical concept of rest, and that of grace. Eugene Peterson captures this in the second half of his translation:

“Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace.”

Jesus’ carved out time for prayer retreat because he knew that rest was not merely the result of fruitful labor, but the foundation for it. His invitation to us all is to enter, today, into the rest of Life. 

If you have a few moments, I encourage you to take three more minutes and listen to this song by Taya called Get Away with Me.

“You have made us for yourself O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” – St Augustine