Jesus was often cornered by people who wanted to trap him on his views of the Sabbath. He healed people on the Sabbath, which infuriated his opponents. When his disciples were plucking grain from a field and eating it on the Sabbath, the Pharisees criticized him. Jesus concluded, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath, so the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27-28). In addition to correcting their wrong view of Sabbath, Jesus often spoke about and demonstrated rest (apart from Sabbath rest).
He demonstrated three types of rest–physical (replenishing with food and sleep), relational (often withrew to lonely places to pray to God), and spiritual (those who are weary and heavy laden come to Jesus and he will give rest). Mark 4 is perhaps the most interesting example of Jesus resting that we have. As a huge storm emerged on the Sea of Galilee, Jesus was asleep on a cusion.
He was physically tired and desperately needed rest. His disciples woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re perishing?” (Mark 4:38). Jesus rebuked the wind and then rebuked his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” (vs. 40). Jesus was teaching them to trust God even in the storm. God grants us rest as a gift. We need to have the discipline to rest–physically, relationally, and spiritually.