The story is told of two woodsmen. One woodsman challenged the other woodsman to an all-day wood-chopping contest. The challenger worked hard all day long, pausing only for a brief lunch. On the other hand, the challengee took several breaks during the course of the day and also took a leisurely lunch.

Well, the end came to the all-day wood chopping contest and the challenger was surprised (and annoyed) to find out that the challengee had cut more wood than he! So, the challenger said, "You cut more wood than I did, even though I worked longer."

To which the challengee responded, "What you did not realize is that I was sharpening my ax, every time I sat down to rest." J

Rest is vital. Rest is imperative, if we are to be affective. In our text for today, Jesus offers two kinds of rest. He offers physical rest and He also offers spiritual rest.

As we look at the first few verses of our text, we see the physical rest that Jesus offers to His disciples.

They come back to Jesus and are eager to report on all of the things that they had done and taught. Just prior to this, Jesus had sent out the twelve disciples. And while they were out, they were teaching, they were healing, and they were anointing. They were excited to tell Jesus what they had done, and what they had taught.

But their souls were also heavy, because John the Baptist, a dear friend of theirs had been beheaded, on account of a foolish promise that Herod had made.

Jesus, therefore, offers the disciples physical rest. He says to them,

"Come with me

by yourselves

to a quiet place

and get some rest."

As we apply this to ourselves today, we see that we also are in need of physical rest for our bodies.

We can start by looking at the perfect example of our Heavenly Father. After God had finished creating the world, in six days, the scriptures tell us in Genesis, chapter 2, verses two and three, "By the seventh day God had finished the work He had been doing, so on the seventh day He rested from all of His work. And, God blessed the seventh day, and made it holy because on it He rested from all of the work of creating that He had done."

Here we have an example of our Heavenly Father, who does not even have a physical body, and yet He rested after His work of creation.

Now He asks us to spend some of our day, and some part of our week, also finding rest for our physical bodies, as well.

Shortly after I came here to Holy Cross, I was reminded (by a member) that we are human beings, and not "human doings." What a good reminder this is that we are not always to be doing something. There are times when it is ok for us to just be, and to be at rest, finding rest for our physical bodies.

Our text for today falls at the height of the vacation season, (and I will clarify that by saying the height of the vacation season, north of the equator).

As we look around us this morning we see that many of our brothers and sisters in Christ are finding rest for their bodies. But, while rest for our bodies is vital and imperative, the devil wants us to think that while we are resting our physical bodies, time away from God is also needed, as well.

Not only does Jesus offer us to take physical rest, but Jesus also desires for us to find spiritual rest, as well.

Back in Martin Luther’s day people wondered about this. They knew that they needed physical rest for their bodies, but they didn’t think that it was wrong to also spend time away from God and His Word. Martin Luther told them that when you do that, you are not resting from God, rather you are despising God. And so, Martin Luther, in his catechism wrote up a question and answer that says this.

How do we despise God’s Word and preaching?

We despise God’s Word and preaching by not rightly using the Bible and Sacraments (that is baptism and the Lord’s Supper) or by neglecting divine worship for such reasons as, laziness, amusements and unnecessary work.

How is it that we can find rest spiritually in Jesus, without despising God and His Word? There we go right to scripture and the catechism for the answer. In the Ten Commandments, God says,

"You shall keep the Day of Rest holy."

To which Martin Luther responded and answered,

"What does this mean?"

We should fear and love God so that we do not despise preaching and its Word, but hold it sacred, and gladly hear and learn it.

Now, this from the man, Martin Luther, who felt he needed to spend five hours in prayer, each day, five hours of spiritual rest each day in order to accomplish the physical things in his life that he needed to accomplish.

The scriptures also tell us,

"Let us not give up meeting together…

and let us encourage one another in all the more,

as we see the day approaching."

Finally, scripture says,

"I rejoiced

when they said onto me,

‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’"

It is in worship that we are fed and taught. It is there that we are nourished and strengthened in our faith to believe in Jesus as our Savior.

After Jesus offered physical rest to His disciples, He offered spiritual rest to the disciples and also to all the people who had come and gathered with them. Jesus noticed that they were like sheep without a shepherd. His heart went out to them. He had compassion on them, because He knew that they were lost and He knew that they needed spiritual rest. And so what is it that Jesus does? Jesus began teaching them many things.

Physical rest is vital. Physical rest is imperative. It is important for us, during the day, during the week, during the year, to take time to give physical rest to our bodies. But, we know that physical rest will never be perfect. Those earthly vacations that we take will never be perfect. Mosquitoes may be too plentiful. The fish may be too few. The weather may not be just perfect.

But, Jesus offers perfect rest. The perfect rest that Jesus offers is eternal life with Him in Heaven. As Jesus taught the people many things, so also each and every week here at Holy Cross we are reminded of how that perfect rest is given to us.

That perfect rest is given to us,

as Jesus left the riches of Heaven,

as He became our brother,

as He was conceived and born,

as He lived, and suffered, and died.

And at the cross, Jesus took all of your sin and all of my sin, (even those times, when we despise God’s Word), and He paid for all of them, in full. Jesus has now given unto you that perfect rest of eternal life with Him in Heaven.

Last week I was with our high school youth, at the Lutheran Youth Association Convention, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Before I left, (we left on a Wednesday), I had to say good-bye to a dear friend, Irv Ziegler. I knew it was going to be the last time that I would see him on this earth, because Irv had stopped receiving dialysis and I knew he would pass away, before we returned.

Irv is a wonderful example of someone who came for spiritual rest. Each and every Sunday, (even if he had just come out of the hospital, even if he had just left the nursing home, even if he needed to ride on his scooter, or take a cab), Irv was here. Irv loved finding rest in God’s Word. Irv loved finding that rest in the body and blood of Christ, which was given to him for the forgiveness of all of his sin. Today we rejoice because Irv now has that perfect rest of eternal life, with his Savior.

Back to those two woodsmen. The challenger was annoyed and surprised when the challengee had cut more wood than he. To which the challengee responded, "What you did not realize is that I was sharpening my ax, when I was resting."

May we not only take the time to rest our physical bodies, but also take the time to rest our spiritual bodies, to sharpen our souls with God’s Word, so that we may be fed and nourished, so that we may be strengthened in faith in Jesus as our Savior, so that one day, we too, can have that perfect rest with Him in Heaven, for all eternity. God grant this unto you, for Jesus, our Savior’s sake.

Amen.