Time Lost

Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

I used to think I could solve all the world’s problems with time on my tractor; the solitude of it or long solo car trips are something I value and enjoy. I just returned from an 800 mile day trip to visit one of my closest friends. We had the best time, and other than trying to pack two years of life into an afternoon, it was like nothing had changed. We talked a lot about the busyness of life and the importance of a Sabbath rest. You can feel the hectic pace of the area; I spent time revealing the hectic pace of my own life on the way home. It was a painful self-evaluation as I looked at where my time was spent, and where my time lacked. I did come home with a vow to change and improve in the area of my family, both my wife and my boys. We do not get back the time lost in those we love.

Jesus was addressing the burden of religion here in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus was addressing the inability to keep the law, the inability to perform the law to it’s perfect requirement of religion. The law pointed to our need for a Savior, but the law bent towards a religion that based our salvation on our works; if you want to get to heaven, this is what you must do. Sadly many outside of Christianity believe the Bible is a book of rules, what to do and what not to do. The Bible clearly states sins and consequences of it, but the Bible is the story of God’s plan to get you to an eternal paradise. An eternal paradise that will surpass your wildest dreams. Heaven is a word that none compares; heaven is a place without sin, and your mind cannot comprehend it because it is limited by sin. The religions and any works based blend of it produce the burden that Jesus is offering to free you from.

When you keep reading in Matthew, you find where Jesus and his disciples walked through the grain fields one Sabbath picking the heads off the wheat because they were hungry. Jesus had just spoken about the binds of religion, and then he gave the example. Matthew 12:1 At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. And His disciples were hungry, and began to pluck heads of grain and to eat. 2 And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to Him, “Look, Your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath!” Jesus rebuked the religious leaders telling them the unimaginable. 6 Yet I say to you that in this place there is One greater than the temple. 7 But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” Jesus had said he was greater than the temple, and Lord over the Sabbath. Verse seven had been quoted from Hosea 6:6, where the prophet had told Israel that God desired a relationship with them based from their love for him; a heartfelt relationship of reverent awe, not the one built on the religious duties of sacrifices and such of the day. They were fulfilling their duties, but living in sin and outside of a love for God.

Your life for your short time here is preparation for the next eternal one. Your life here is measure by your heart for God and your investment in eternal things. Your life here is measured by the gospel and how you live through it. How do you share the hope of Jesus Christ? How do you invest in your family, friends, and those God puts in your circle of influence? How is he made known through your life? Are you bound in religious duty such as the Pharisees? Are you not taking time to rest from work and life to invest in those closest to you? You do not get your time back from that lost with those we love. Take some solitude, and pray for God to let you look at your life as he does; from the outside in.