How to Work Like Jesus
Scripture: Matthew
11:28-30 (The Message)
“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. Walk with me and work
with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay
anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to
live freely and lightly.”
Devotion:
Today’s scripture is one of my favorites.
I tend to take things too seriously and I need God to invite me to a place of
rest and recovery. That place is not necessarily a place of rest and relaxation
and ease that we are called to here. God calls all of us to work under his
supervision. If we do that, God is saying that we will learn a new way of
working. A place in which we will be able to maintain a constant awareness of
God’s presence with us as we work.
In today’s society we praise those
who spend massive amounts of time and energy into their jobs. Whether it is the
CEO of large company whose job duties demand 80+ hour work weeks, or the top
tier athlete who spends endless hours perfecting their technique and increasing
their strength and agility. We admire and seek to emulate their dedication to
their craft whatever it may be. We work ourselves to the point of exhaustion and
push our minds and bodies to perform at peak levels. Sometimes to the detriment
of our mental and/or physical health.
In this passage. Jesus is not
recommending that we do this to ourselves. Jesus claims that there is a better
way. Jesus was not opposed to hard work. His days. as they are portrayed in the
New Testament were busy with teaching and healing. He almost always had a crowd
around him waiting for him to teach with a good word or see him perform a
miracle. However, the gospel writers portray Jesus as frequently withdrawing
from the crowds to a lonely place to pray and spend time with his Father.
Yet as hard as Jesus worked, he
never seemed to be in a hurry. We should consider the stories in the New Testament
such as Matthew chapter 9 where we see Jesus on his way to raise a girl from
the dead but stops to heal a woman who touches his robes. Another time Jesus was
walking down the road when he saw a man in a tree waiting to see him pass by.
He stopped and invited himself to dinner at the man’s house that night. And as
a result, Jesus changed the man’s life forever. (Luke 19:1-10)
There are many stories of Jesus
using what we would consider interruptions to teach or to heal. Even from the cross
Jesus was working. Jesus gave the care of his mother Mary to his disciple John,
and he welcomed one of the two criminals who were hanging from the cross to be
with him in paradise because of that criminals nascent faith. If Jesus can work
when he is dying how much more should we seek to work for him while we are living.
Prayer:
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