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Commentary on "Stress""
Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, January 8, 2011 - Introduction
Overview
This lesson begins with the memory verse Matthew 11:28:
“’Come unto me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.’”
After the text is an introduction to the subject of stress which points out that major life events have stress values that have a cumulative effect on a person when many of them happen within a short period of time. Accumulated stress becomes a health hazard, increasing one’s risk for illness and ultimately pushing one toward a crisis. The lesson ends with the idea that Jesus showed “by precept and example” how to remedy stress by seeking God at a quiet time and place.
“If we allow Him,” the lesson concludes, “the Lord will help us deal with the pressures that are such an inevitable part of life here.”
Observations
The memory text for this week’s lesson is ironic in that this text immediately precedes one of Jesus’ most comprehensive and revealing discussions about the Sabbath. In Matthew 12 the Pharisees take Jesus to task for breaking the Sabbath by plucking grain and eating it. Jesus responds by recounting how David and His men ate the shewbread, an act which was against the Lord’s law, since they were not priests. Moreover, Jesus points out that the Pharisees swear the gold on the temple, but, He said,
“Something greater than the temple is here” (Matt. 12:6).
Jesus concluded by saying,
“For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” (Matt. 12:8).
In this passage Jesus is claiming to be greater than the temple, which housed the presence of God in Israel. Moreover, He was claiming authority to interpret the law and the Sabbath. He was greater than the Sabbath, not an earthly lord assigned the job of overseeing something bigger than Himself, like the queen is “lord” over England.
The memory text, Matthew 11:28, is directly juxtaposed to His declaration of His sovereignty over the Sabbath. Jesus is telling the Pharisees to come to Him for rest; the Sabbath was always representing the rest we have when we allow Jesus to do all the work for our salvation. It is He, not the Sabbath, which gives us rest. The rest of the Sabbath was a shadow of the rest we find in Jesus (Col 2:16-17). He Himself is the reality of the rest we need; when we are in Him, we no longer have to worry about our eternal future or about our lives. He now has control over them.
Stress
Stress, to be sure, is inevitable. When a person is born again, however, when he trusts in Jesus’ shed blood for his salvation and submits to Him as Lord of his life, he finds true rest. The angst of having to meet one’s long-term goals, or planning for the future, of managing one’s difficult relationships and fears for survival and success—these no longer have to dominate our lives.
When we are made alive in Jesus with the Holy Spirit bringing our dead spirits to life, we become able to surrender our anxieties and problems to Him. He gives us His mind and wisdom and He gives us faith and trust so we can allow Him to direct our plans and futures. We are no longer in charge of everything.
The Lord Jesus is already in the future; the stresses and crises of life are not a surprise to Him. When we surrender our fears and worries to Him and allow Him to direct the outcomes, we experience deep rest and freedom from anxiety.
Being a Christ-follower does not relieve us of stressors. In fact, they may increase. Jesus said that He brings not peace but a sword, dividing relationships between family members and triggering persecution from the unbelievers. Jesus’ life became increasingly more stressful as time went on. The apostle Paul suffered unbelievable difficulty: shipwreck, danger from robbers, rivers, from the Jews, from the Gentiles, danger in the city, in the wilderness, at sea, and danger from false brothers. He was repeatedly imprisoned, eventually dying in prison for the sake of the gospel of Christ.
The Bible never counsels us on “lifestyle as stress-management”. Jesus’ time with the Father was not about stress management. Rather, His times of prayer and meditation were for the sake of nurturing His Spirit with the truth and presence of the Father. His habit of praying, sometimes all night, would not be considered a modern method of stress management; indeed, most North Americans would consider a night of lost sleep to be a stressor.
Stress management is a physical matter that ignores the spiritual reality of immersing ourselves in the truth of God’s word and the comfort of His presence. Our spirits made alive by the Holy Spirit are the objects of spiritual oppression and subtle temptation. Our need for time in Truth is not about stress management; it’s about spiritual protection and strengthening.
The Bible never gives us permission to “take care of ourselves”, to take time off or to take vacations. These things are good, but they are not the antidotes to life’s stresses. Only intentional time with the Lord Jesus, meeting Him in His word and in prayer, relieves our anxiety. Vacations and “me-time” will never relieve our stress.
Christ-followers are to expect lives of demands and stress, but these things are to be for the sake of the gospel, not for the sake of being materially successful.
The Lord Jesus doesn’t just help us deal with pressures. He asks us to surrender our pressures to Him, allowing Him to remove things from our lives that are not for His purposes, and equipping us for His work which He will bring to us when we are His (Eph. 2:10). Jesus asks us to give up our “rights” to what fills our lives and creates our identities. When we surrender all that we love and desire to Him, allowing Him to take from us what is not His desire for us, He gives us Himself and His peace and provision in ways we cannot experience them when we cling to what we “know”.
True stress relief is accepting Jesus’ finished work on our behalf and resting in His presence. Our salvation is secure when we believe and trust in Him, and even though our lives may rate high on the scale of stress values, we will experience peace and rest.
Time away is not the true antidote to stress; trusting the Lord Jesus is.
Conclusion
- Matthew 11:28 introduces Jesus as the Source of Sabbath rest, as He explains in Matthew 12.
- The stresses of our lives are not a surprise to God; He is already in the future and knows how He wants to redeem those situations for His glory.
- Stress management is largely a spiritual matter; only when we have surrendered our lives and the outcomes of our situations to Him will we have relief from anxiety and be able to be at peace as we walk through our lives.
- Trusting in the Lord Jesus is the only antidote to stress.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised January 7, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 3
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 3
