Thursday • 3/2/2023 •
Week of 1 Lent
This morning’s Scriptures are: Psalm 50; Deuteronomy 9:23—10:5; Hebrews 4:1–10; John 3:16–21
This morning’s Canticles are: following the OT reading, Canticle 8 (“The Song of Moses,” Exodus 15, BCP, p. 85); following the Epistle reading, Canticle 19 (“The Song of the Redeemed,” Revelation 15:3–4, BCP, p. 94)
Welcome to Daily Office Devotions, where every Monday through Friday we consider some aspect of that day’s Scripture readings, as given in the Book of Common Prayer. I’m Reggie Kidd, and I’m grateful to be with you. This is Thursday of the first week of Lent.
A Sabbath Rest Remains
Everybody I know is ready for some rest. Along comes Lent, with its call to take some time and assess the restlessness and weariness in our hearts. Lent bids us realize there’s a drag within ourselves that creates its own kind of readiness for respite. Lent is a season to find our life in Jesus, where restfulness resides. Lent is a season to reflect on what is true tranquility and rest for our souls.
Image: Detail, stained glass, Cathedral Church of St. Luke, Orlando, Florida
“So then, a sabbath rest still remains for the people of God…” — Hebrews 4:9. Only a partial rest awaited the children of Israel at the end of their forty years of wanderings and upon their entrance into the Promised Land. There was a war of conquest to be waged under Joshua. Unfortunately, it would only be partially won. Then, under the Judges, there would be centuries of vacillation between fragile peace and painful oppression by neighbors. Even when David ascends the throne of a united and prosperous kingdom, he composes (according to the writer to the Hebrews) Psalm 95, calling upon God’s people to look for another “day” in which God will provide rest for his people: “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7; Psalm 95:7).
The fact is, as long as sin is in the picture, there is no final rest. And yet, God is actively at work in history to bring about that very rest. That’s what Israel’s sabbath-system pictured, by calling for more than a weekly sabbath. Every year, seven sabbaths after the first fruits, on the fiftieth day, when the harvest was all in, Israel celebrated the end of the year’s labors (Leviticus 23:15–21). Then, every seventh year was to be a year of sabbath rest. And after seven cycles of seven-year sabbaths, the fiftieth year was to be a year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25:1–7). All these sabbath days and sabbath years were intended to provide periods of rest for people as well as for the created order. For their failure to keep these extended and promise-bearing sabbaths, exile comes upon God’s people (see Leviticus 26:34-35; 2 Chronicles 36:21; Jeremiah 25:11-12; 29:10).
With a note of profound hope, the book of Daniel pictures history as opening out on one final and great sabbath of rest when “one like a son of man” would assume all dominion on earth, put an end to sin, … atone for iniquity … and bring in everlasting righteousness” (Daniel 9:20–27). Then, and only then, will begin the everlasting sabbath-rest, when sin and death are no more, and when all of creation enters a new season of life under God’s direct governance. And its culmination takes place in Revelation 21–22, after seven cycles of judgments as described in the Book of Revelation.
For good reason, the writer to the Hebrews holds out the hope that “a sabbath rest remains for the people of God” (Hebrews 4:9). He urges his Jewish Christian readers, weary of their difficulties (persecution, and demands of loyalty from their countrymen), to stay strong, and not lose heart. Christ has claimed them by his blood, and he will bring them all the way into their final rest, when God “once more shakes not only the earth but heaven too” (Hebrews 12:26). And the writer to the Hebrews would urge believers of our day as well, not to let our weariness overwhelm us, but to press further into the grace and the strength of Christ. In the words of the letter itself: “hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope” (Hebrews 3:6).
The good news is that with Christ’s resurrection at Easter, the Lord Jesus stands ready to keep his promise to give rest and respite to all those who are weary and heavy laden (Matthew 11:28). The good news is that with Christ’s resurrection at Easter, not only has he been given all authority over every circumstance that would grind us down, but he has promised his presence with us as we follow him “to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18–20).
Be blessed this day.
Reggie Kidd+