His 'Rest' Has Changed the Rest

By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. (1 John 3:16 ESV) During this Easter season here at International Lutheran Church, we are reading through the first letter of John to the churches in Asia Minor and witnessing just how God’s love is revealed to us in Jesus.

Genesis tells us that God created the heavens and the earth in six days and on the seventh day He rested from all His work (Genesis 2:1-3). This does not mean God was tired after all His work but rather that He set aside this day and made it holy. In laying this day aside, God thereby sanctified this day for renewal and refreshing. This action to rest and sanctify the Sabbath day is part of God’s design of all life. Even before the Fall and the curse upon all things brought on by our disobedience, and the consequential exhaustion of work, God had already made the pattern to know Him in His rest. This Sabbath, or rest, was the very pattern that set us aside and made us holy as God is holy as we rested in Him.

The Apostle John in both his gospel as well as his letter to the churches witnessed this rest being revealed in the person of Jesus Christ the Son of God. John remembers how Jesus identified Himself as the Good Shepherd by saying that He “lays down His life for the sheep” (John 10:11). Right after healing the man born blind on the Sabbath (John 9), Jesus explains His actions as those of the Good Shepherd. These words of Jesus stating how He would lay aside His life, literally lay it down, is naturally understood as dying. It is no wonder that His words were a cause for division. In fact, many people said he was insane (John 10:19-20). But Jesus says He has the authority to both lay down and take up His life. This is how we will know that He is the Good Shepherd as He does not run from the coming doom and destruction, but instead breaks the power of sin and death for us and removes its “fangs.” No longer can Satan, the world, or our own flesh overcome us because we have One who fights for us and has already overcome! Jesus’ resurrection means that death does not have the last word – instead He does and His word is life and forgiveness.

This laying aside, or laying down, is exactly what Jesus does on the cross for you and me. This is why John uses this image to encourage the church and how Jesus’ death and resurrection speak to God’s love for us all. Jesus lays down and rests for you and me that our rest would be restored and we would no longer suffer the eternal death and destruction that we deserve. He lays down so that we would be raised and lifted up in His rising again. This is why the resurrection is so central to our faith and belief. Without the resurrection, there is no good news, no good shepherd, no rescue, and no rest. But Christ is risen! He does not sleep in death any longer but stands to raise us up and put us on His very shoulders. As His back bore the cross for you and me, so now His life lifts us from our grave of death and sin.

In Him we are raised that we would lay aside our lives for one another. His rest changes “the rest,” our rest! We are now in Him living and bearing one another in love as He bore us. We do this not with our strength or ability but with the Spirit He now gives us. His power to lift up and restore is at work in you and me as we forgive just as we have been forgiven. We care and love our sisters and brothers not in words only, but with the very things we do. The acts of kindness and the words of encouragement become the very means through which He touches the lives of others today as they see Him alive in you and me. The love of God is revealed in the Son of God, Jesus, who laid down His life for us and all people that we would be brought back into a right relationship with Him and one another. His is the rest that changes all the rest!

Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!

Pastor Carl