If there is any one thing that distinguishes my generation and
later generations, like the Gen-xers, it is that we have totally
different attitudes about work and play. We are light years
apart about what we expect from work or what we want from
play. People born before and during the World War II years
were schooled in a strong work ethic. Those of us of a
certain age do not think that work is something you do to
make a living. We think that work is life. We of our
generation are not comfortable unless we are working on
something that keeps us busy. We were schooled in a
vigorous work ethic.
But the next generations see themselves in a different way.
You “whippersnappers” do not work because work is a good
thing in itself. You work because you want to express
yourself. You work because you have a statement to make.
So if you can tell the world who you are without breaking a
sweat, you will be perfectly happy to do so. I know a young
man, one of these Internet workers who sold his stock at
just the right time, before the bubble burst. He will never
actually have to work again. He quit his job to live off his
windfall. I predicted he would get tired of relaxing and would
soon want to go back to work again. I said, nobody will feel
satisfied just traveling and having a fun time; you will want to
work again. Guess what? Wrong, wrong, wrong. It hasn’t
happened. There is that generational difference. I would
work even if I didn’t have to. He is quite content with doing
his own thing and not working. I will come to my dying day
saying, “Not yet, Lord; I have a few more jobs to finish.” He
will come to his dying moment saying, “Okay, Lord; heaven is
one of the few places I haven’t checked out. Let’s go.”
A pastor friend of mine told me what a hard time he is having
with several young assistant pastors his church has tried to
hire. He says that they do not want to hear about the job;
they want to know how many weeks off they get, they expect
to work only nine to five, no night meetings. And one of
them even wanted to know if there was some way that he
could work in the ministry and still have Sundays off! Well,
said my friend, after a series of conflicts with these people,
one of his young disasters said, “Pastor, you would be a lot
less uptight if you would take more time off for yourself.” My
friend exploded, “I could take some time off for myself if I
could get anybody to help me around here.”
It’s a generational thing. Some people live to work, and
others work to live. Some people take time off when they
can squeeze it in, and others manage to squeeze in a little
work between vacations. It’s a generational thing. It’s also a
personality thing. And it is also a spiritual thing. It’s a
spiritual thing because unless and until we learn how to
manage the balance between work and play, we will find little
satisfaction in our own lives and we will be of little value to
others. It’s a spiritual thing, when and how and why you rest.
To use the vernacular, how you chill is a spiritual issue.
Can I talk with you about Jesus chilling? Jesus chilled.
Jesus backed down from His busy schedule. Jesus broke
away from the job. And when and how and why Jesus
chilled will teach us much we need to know about ourselves.
Let’s watch Jesus chilling.
I
First, when did Jesus chill? When did He rest? He rested
when He realized that He had been through a very
demanding time. Nobody had to tell Him to shut down. He
just knew it. And it was not just being physically tired. He
knew when He was emotionally worn out. He knew when He
was dangerously depleted.
The passage we read today comes right after the story of the
feeding of the five thousand. Jesus had just dealt with this
immense problem of all those hungry people who wouldn’t go
home until they got something to eat, and He had come up
with an answer. He had taken a measly five loaves and a
paltry two fish, had blessed them, and had made them go
around.
Now you might think that miracle working was just a part of
Jesus’ thing, no big deal. Maybe so. But my imagination
runs wild at the picture of Jesus having to organize this
mess. The Bible says that He told His disciples to make
everybody sit down in groups of hundreds and fifties. Let me
tell you, getting the attention of five thousand people or five
hundred or even five to get them settled is no mean task.
Nobody takes orders, especially from the preacher. And let
me tell you something else, even getting the twelve disciples
to follow instructions was no picnic. Can’t you just imagine
it? “No, Peter, you just deal with one hundred like everybody
else. You’re not pope yet.” “James and John, get out there.
You can’t just sit up here at my right hand and my left hand;
get moving.” “Simon the Zealot, no, man, just get them to sit
down; no marches, no sit-ins against the Romans, not now.”
“Okay, Thomas, so you doubt this will work. Can you trust
me, just this once?” Not easy to get this thing organized.
And then at the end they had all the scraps to clean up. Now
that is tough too. Have you ever noticed that everybody is
ready to come to a party, and some are ready to fix it and
serve it, but nobody – I mean nobody – wants to stay around
and clean up?! “Great fish, Jesus; got to get your recipe --
but I have to go now”. “Loved your pita bread – let’s do
lunch again sometime. Bye!” Be honest, now, how many of
you have gone to a dinner or a reception in the church hall
and have hurried out when somebody started making noises
about cleaning up? We hate it, don’t we? So Jesus had to
organize the cleanup crew. And, oh man, if it was anything
like Takoma, they had both a bread basket committee and a
fish bowl committee and the two groups spent the rest of the
afternoon arguing about how the job should be done! “Your
fish bowls are bigger than our bread baskets.” “Hey, if I were
on the bread basket committee, I would leave some crusts
out for the birds.” Sigh!
So was Jesus tired? Yes! Emotionally drained! And did He
know it? Yes He did. It says, “Immediately he made his
disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other
side.” He was so out of there! And why not? When you
know you are exhausted, say so, act on it, do what you have
to do, and let go of the need to justify yourself by your busy-
ness.
When to chill? When the demands have been heavy, even if
they were not physical demands. When the pull of the
people on your energies has been so unrelenting that if you
do not replenish yourself, you will have nothing left to give.
When to chill? When to rest? When to get away from those
who ask and ask and ask some more? For me, I know that
when I begin to obsess on getting done what must be done,
when I can’t see anything but do, do, do, no matter who I
have to run over to get there – that is the time I need to put it
all in a basket, lest I become a basket case myself. That is
the time I need to retreat. I need to chill.
Jesus chilling: when He knew that the drain from those
around had Him dangerously depleted.
II
But just as important as when to chill is how to chill. What do
you do to get away? What can you do to replenish yourself?
Some of us park in front of the TV; others bend elbows at the
bar; still others go out to some club and howl. My way is to
listen to music or to read the comic strips. My wife says she
cannot believe a grown man spends time with the funnies.
Well, it’s one way to chill, one way to wind down for a few
moments.
But if we look at Jesus chilling we discover another way.
Jesus chilled by going to His private place of prayer and
lingering there with God. Jesus chilled by sending everybody
else home – He put the disciples out in the boat and sent all
the people home, and went up on the mountain to pray. And
when He did, it filled Him. It re-created Him. It gave Him a
new sense of His world. When Jesus chilled, He prayed, but
His prayer did not make Him a stained-glass window zombie.
It energized Him, it gave Him perspective, it gave Him the
freedom to deal with others in the right way. In the right way.
Watch this closely. Jesus went up to the mountain to pray.
That evening the disciples’ boat was out on the sea, and the
wind was fierce. Jesus saw that they were having a tough
time of it. That was the evening. But look what the Bible
says: he came out towards them, early in the morning,
walking on the sea. Early in the morning! He let them sweat
and strain all night long, while He rested and prayed!
Hey, what about priorities here? What would we do? If we
saw our buddies out in the deep waters struggling, we might
utter a quick, “O Lord, help” prayer, and then we would wade
in, up to our gills, to save them. Why? Why would we be in
such a rush to intervene? Because we think we have to
respond to anything anybody wants us to do, or else they will
be displeased. They might think that we’re not on our toes.
So when they want us we think we have to jump. We have a
need to be needed, and it’s almost, “Oh, look, my buddies
are in trouble; great, now I have a chance to be a hero.” Our
issue is that we let everybody claim us and pull us, but we
haven’t prayed it through.
But Jesus just chilled. Jesus let them struggle all night long,
on their own. Jesus prayed. No doubt He prayed for them.
No doubt He prayed for many other things as well. But
prayer gave Jesus a perspective on what to do, what to do
now and what to do later. What to do Himself and what to let
others do for themselves. Is it possible that Jesus let his
buddies struggle all night long with their bouncing little craft
so that they would learn to trust the God who wanted to
empower them to help themselves? So that they would learn
that you cannot always just lean back and let somebody else
pick you up from your blunders?
Stay with me on this. Jesus chilling. How’s this for chilling
out? Here He is, walking on the water, and the Bible says,
“He intended to pass them by.” He intended to pass them
by. He had not planned to get involved in their mess.
Now I don’t know about this walking on the water thing. I
sure would like to see what that looks like. I kind of get the
picture of a Jesus so energized by His night of prayer, so
lifted up and so refreshed, that He was rushing on His way to
be about the Father’s business. He knew where He was
going and what He was doing and was on the way to get it
done. My unsanctified, unholy imagination has Jesus sort of
like Wiley Coyote in those Roadrunner cartoons – so intent
on getting to that pesky bird that he runs right off high cliffs
and over deep seas and only later discovers there isn’t
anything under his feet! Whoosh!
Well, you’ll probably want to forget I ever said that, but think
about this. Jesus was so refreshed, so energized, so
focused, so intentional, that He had a plan, but it did not
include stopping off to help those fumbling disciples. It just
wasn’t on His to-do list. He hadn’t plugged it into His Palm
Pilot. But when they cried out in terror, because Jesus had
chilled out in prayer, He was able to set His plan aside and
get in the boat to help. The Jesus who had chilled out got a
perspective on what was really important, set aside His own
agenda, and was ready to help His friends in need.
Oh, what a lesson we need to learn! What a struggle I have
at this point! I start each day with my list of things to do, and,
come hell or high water, I am going to do them, even if it
means I may have to walk on water or step over you to get it
done. Woe betide the person who happens in and says, “I
need help”. Something in me resists, because I have not
prayed my way through my priorities. Sorry about the church
member who calls and says, “Will you visit me today?”,
because I so easily make an idol out of what I had planned to
do, what I want to accomplish. Supposedly it’s all for Jesus,
you understand? Supposedly it’s all about the church and
the Kingdom, right? Except that it’s not. It’s about my
making the things happen that I want to see happen. It’s
about my anxiety for being thrown off my course and having
to look at God’s agenda.
Just this week as I entered the office and started to unfold
my day, one of you came to the door and said you had
something to give the church, but you needed my help to
bring it in and set it up. And I got all flustered and anxious
and pronounced my inability to stop doing what I was doing.
I probably hurt my brother, and I am sorry indeed. I’ve
already sent a note of apology. But when Jesus chilled, He
left his own plans and responded to God’s agenda. We are
so unlike Jesus. Jesus chills and thus has time, ample time,
anxiety-free time, to respond to those around Him. We,
because we do not maintain ourselves in prayer, because we
do not let the Spirit organize us, because we do not chill, we
are anxious, we are compulsive, we are self-serving, and we
become hurtful.
So how did Jesus chill? By staying in touch with God and
then discerning the difference between what was a real need
and what was merely a need to be needed.
III
That’s the when and the how. When did Jesus chill? When
He knew He was dangerously depleted. How did Jesus
chill? By prayer that helped Him discern what was really
important. So now, why did Jesus chill? For what purpose
did He stop and rest? Is there a result when we rest and
relax and take our time? Why did Jesus chill?
Jesus chilled out because He intended to be the center of
healing and hope for others. Jesus chilled out because He
knew it would equip Him to be that steady, calm, certain,
healing presence in the midst of others’ pain.
When the little boat with Jesus and His disciples crossed
over to the other side of the lake, people began to rush
around. They brought in everybody with a sickness,
everybody with a problem, everybody who needed help. It
was such a crush of people that some of them just asked if
they could so much as touch the hem of his garment. You
know how it goes, when the telemarketer says, “I will only
take two minutes of your time” or when your wife says, “I just
need a little help this afternoon” or when your husband says,
“We don’t ever seem to talk any more.” People always need
more than they let on. People need more than the hem of
the garment, but they are afraid to ask for it. They don’t
want to be rejected. We send them hostile messages.
Ah, but this Jesus. This chilling Jesus. This rested, prayed-
up, replenished, complete Jesus. With perfect calm; with
total self-control; with a wonderful sense of who He is, all
who touched Him were healed. This Jesus, this chilled-out
Jesus, this together Jesus knows exactly why He is here,
knows thoroughly what His life purpose is, knows who His
God is. Jesus knows. Knows Himself, knows His purpose,
knows His God, knows Himself. And Jesus chilling, equips
Himself for God’s purpose.
If we would follow Jesus, we’d better discover, as He did,
why we are here. If we be like Jesus, we’d better figure out,
as He did, what God wants us to do and what God wants us
not to do. If we would be anything like Jesus, we’d do well to
focus on that vast throng of humanity, all around us, who
need to be healed, and who are both our responsibility and
our opportunity. No one will bring the message of salvation
to your family like you will. No one will reshape this
neighborhood like those who live here. No one will heal the
wounded spirits in this church like those of us who day by
day walk calmly, quietly, and hopefully where others are
rushing around, trying to get their sicknesses healed. It will
only happen if we chill. If we know our limits, if we stay in
fellowship with our God, if we seek God’s power for others’
needs.
If we would follow Jesus, we need to be like Jesus chilling.
Chilling when? When His emotional strength was
dangerously depleted. Chilling how? In prayer that focused
Him on what to do and what not to do. And chilling why? So
that in His quiet confidence He could heal and heal and heal
some more. Jesus chilling. You and I chilling – so secure,
so refreshed, so settled. So ready that we can be, like
Jesus, a place of hope and healing.
“O Sabbath rest by Galilee, o calm of hills above; where Jesus knelt
to share with Thee the silence of eternity interpreted by love.
Drop thy still dews of quietness, Till all our strivings cease; Take
from our souls the strain and stress, and let our ordered lives
confess The beauty of thy peace.”
