25 Leaning back against Jesus, he asked him, "Lord, who is it?"
26 Jesus answered, "It is the one to whom I will give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish." Then, dipping the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon.
Reclining upon the Lord Jesus, resting between His shoulders, the beloved disciple is perfectly positioned to ask of the Master who would be the one to betray Him. Those who rest upon the Lord are prone to privy to some of the deepest secrets of His heart. All are invited to rest. His call found in Matthew is not an exclusive one:
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matt 11:28-30 (NIV)
One of my favorite Old Testament verses regarding resting depicts a particularly loved and protected child and is found in Deuteronomy. It is penned by Moses, who Scripture states God spoke to as a friend:
"Let the beloved of the LORD rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the LORD loves rests between his shoulders." Deut 33:12 (NIV)
I can just imagine John’s head resting between Jesus’ shoulders. Rest is very important to God and it is a subject which permeates much of Scripture. God Himself rested on the seventh day making it holy. He commanded man to rest, animals to rest and even the land to rest. We who live in such a frenzied hectic world should take heed of this. We put more and more on our plates filling our hours with work and more work yet getting less and less accomplished. Our dependence lies in our own weak abilities. We seem to be continually striving to drink from the empty cups of our own power ever stuffing our emotions, acceptance, money, positions, etc. into bags with gaping soul holes – always coming up unsatisfied. God’s Word to the Israelites through the prophet Haggai speaks to us as well:
5 Now this is what the LORD Almighty says: "Give careful thought to your ways. 6 You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill. You put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." Hag 1:5-6 (NIV)
It is God’s desire for us to be abiding not striving or struggling. We are always to be looking to Jesus and His present power for He is our very Present Savior. He is our achieving power for service as well as our ground for abundant unchanging joy. Hudson Taylor the great missionary to China wrote to his sister the following truth regarding his discovery of resting on the Lord:
“As to work, mine was never so plentiful, so responsible, or so difficult; but the weight and strain are all gone. The last month or more has been perhaps the happiest of my life, and I long to tell you a little of what the Lord has done for my soul...When the agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy was used to remove the scales from my eyes, and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus as I had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote: ‘But how to get faith strengthened? Not by striving after faith but by resting on the Faithful One.’” Hudson Taylor
Jesus clearly told His disciples – both then and now - that their strength and abilities would be found in abiding in Him – not in our ceaseless striving - yet it seems we so often dismiss His Words relying rather on our own “wisdom” and “power”. The sure Truth remains constant - anything accomplished in a life of eternal value comes only through our abiding in Jesus – through His strength alone:
4 " Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." John 15:4-5 (NIV)
What does remaining or resting look like in a life? How is this intimate relationship with Jesus achieved? Certainly, it must begin with our salvation in Christ, accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord but it was never meant to cease at that point. Our growth – our sanctification – is to continue on throughout our lives. Abiding consists of being in fellowship with Him through His Word, through prayer, and through loving application – obedience - to the Truths shown. It is God’s desire for believers to be conformed to the image of His Son – He being the firstborn among many brothers. That is the path of peace which passes understanding. Paul tells us
29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Romans 8:29 (NIV)
“‘Abiding, not striving or struggling,’” wrote McCarthy, ‘looking off unto Him; trusting Him for present power...This is not new ‘tis new to me...Christ literally all seems to me now the power, the only power for service; the only ground for unchanging joy.’” John McCarthy