God’s Image Study • Genesis • Sabbath Study
Hebrews connects entering God’s rest with hearing, faith, and obedience. Jesus’s words and actions give us another part of the examination: rest offered to the burdened, and release accomplished on the Sabbath.
What does that reveal about the purpose of rest?
The Son invites us to learn
Before inviting the weary to come to him, Jesus identifies the Father as the One who has entrusted all things to him. He also speaks of revealing the Father.
Then comes the invitation:
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
— Matthew 11:28, LSB
Jesus continues by calling people to take his yoke and learn from him. Rest appears together with instruction, gentleness, and humility. Read Matthew 11:25–30.
The invitation preserves a relationship: come, learn, and follow under his direction. Rest does not require us to become our own source of understanding.
This belongs alongside our Born Again Study, where we examined receiving life and guidance from God.
A woman bound for eighteen years
Luke 13 describes Jesus teaching in a synagogue on the Sabbath. A woman had suffered from a disabling spirit for eighteen years and could not straighten herself.
Jesus sees her, calls her forward, and declares her release. After he lays his hands upon her, she stands upright and glorifies God. Read Luke 13:10–13.
Notice the movement:
Bound → called → released → standing upright → glorifying God.
Her restoration occurs on the Sabbath.
The objection and Jesus’s answer
The synagogue official objects to healing on that day, directing people to seek it during the six working days.
Jesus answers by pointing to the practice of untying an animal on the Sabbath to give it water. He then identifies the woman as a daughter of Abraham whom Satan had bound and asks whether she ought to be released on the Sabbath. Read Luke 13:14–17.
His response makes release central to the discussion. The Sabbath becomes the occasion for freedom from a long-standing burden.
The Sabbath was made for man
In another Sabbath dispute, Jesus explains:
“The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.”
— Mark 2:27, LSB
He then identifies the Son of Man as Lord even of the Sabbath. The surrounding account concerns hungry disciples and the challenge made against their actions. Read Mark 2:23–28.
These passages require us to consider the people whom the Sabbath serves. Hunger, suffering, and bondage matter within Jesus’s explanation.
Rest includes restoration
Placed alongside the creation account and Hebrews, these encounters deepen our examination. We have seen completed work, provision received, a call to enter, and now release from bondage.
Jesus’s healing activity is presented as appropriate to the Sabbath. It helps us understand why rest cannot be reduced to the absence of every action.
The woman’s response also matters: she glorifies God. We will retain that detail as we continue examining restoration, recognition, and Glory.
For now, we can ask: Does my understanding of rest allow me to recognize God’s work when it brings freedom and restoration? Am I willing to learn from Jesus’s explanation when it challenges my expectations?
Threads to Follow
Doing good on the Sabbath: Examine Matthew 12:9–13.
The Father’s continuing work: Keep John 5:16–21 alongside the healing accounts.
Restoration and response: Preserve the woman’s release and glorifying God without overlooking either part of the sequence.
The books were opened…
🌿 By Maria Emilia
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