Rest in Jesus

Erika VanHaitsma: Are you ever tempted to think, If this life situation would just change, then I could finally be at peace? Listen to Erin Davis.

Erin Davis: Real rest, the kind of rest that your soul longs for today, has nothing to do with your circumstances. True rest can only ever come from knowing and trusting God. 

Erika: This is The Deep Well with Erin Davis. I’m Erika VanHaitsma.

We usually release The Deep Well in seasons, but today we’ll hear a powerful stand-alone message from Erin about busyness and rest. 

Do you feel like the busyness of life never stops? I know I do! Maybe you feel like you have to stay busy because all these emergencies are constantly happening. Erin knows what that’s like. She’s about to show us how the followers of Jesus knew what that was like as well. They were invited to look to Jesus for true rest, and we can learn this as well.

Erin: It’s time for me to say those favorite words of mine: open your Bibles to Matthew 8. And some other words I say a lot are that every text is part of a context. So when we jump into a new passage of Scripture here on The Deep Well, I always like to take just a little bit of time to get the lay of the land. 

So here in Matthew 8, let’s backtrack a little bit. Jesus had just preached the greatest sermon ever told. We call it the Sermon on the Mount. I’m out to rebrand it. He just preached “the greatest sermon ever told”! That’s recorded in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

So far in Matthew 8, Jesus had cleansed a leper and healed the centurion’s servant. He started to warn the crowds here that He didn’t just come to give them miracles. He was honest from this early-on place in His ministry that following Him was going to cost them something. 

I want to read you Matthew 8:18. It’s going to be an important little nugget as we head into a story that comes after it. Matthew 8:18: 

Now when Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. 

I know we just kind of jumped in there out of nowhere, but what I want you to know is that the idea to get into the boat—the boat we’re going to look at in just a minute—the idea to cross to the other side of the sea was Jesus’ idea. Here’s why that matters. 

Listen to Matthew 8:23–27:

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 

And they went and woke him, saying,”‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”

As you listen to that story . . .I don’t know all of you well, many of you are listening that I don’t know at all, but I have a hunch that you are weary from the storms. What storms? you may wonder. All of them! The storms of life. Relational storms. We all have them. I hope you don’t think you’re the only one. Financial storms. We all have those too. Health storms. Work storms. Cultural storms. Political storms. Family storms. I could go on and on. Some of you might right now be in the middle of a category five life hurricane. Some of you might just be coming out of one. We all face storms. That unifies us. But we all want rest from those storms. We all want shelter from the storms of life.

So I want us to look at this passage again, this maybe familiar, Sunday school story. But I want you to listen to it this time with that thought in mind, that we all have storms, and we all want shelter from those storms. I want to be clear; this actually happened. This is not a fairy tale. All Scripture is God-breathed, and it’s all useful in our lives. But it all has application. So listen to verses 23 and 24 again: “And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold . . .” 

I love that part. No word is wasted in God’s Word. So as Matthew’s writing this account, he adds “and behold,” as if it were a surprise. Wow, a storm came up! Behold, there’s a great storm on the sea! Matthew may have been surprised, but Jesus wasn’t. That’s why I pointed out that it was Jesus’ idea to get in the boat in the first place. Jesus got in the boat. Jesus called the storm. And then Jesus pointed the boat towards the storm. If we finish verse 24, we see that Jesus slept through the storm, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.”

Picture it. You got it? They’re on the Sea of Galilee. These are fishermen. They’re accustomed to rough waters. But this is a swamper. That’s what Scripture calls it. The boat’s being swamped by the waves, and Jesus is in the bottom of the boat asleep. 

Verse 25 tells us, “And they woke him saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing!’”

I don’t know if they said it like that. But they essentially woke him up and said, “This is serious!” Their heart posture must’ve been something like, “We’re not going to make it through this one,” which tells us what kind of storm it was. “Why aren’t you doing something?” 

In our lives this sounds like, “I can’t sleep. I can’t stop thinking about it. I’ve prayed and nothing has happened. I’ve prayed with two or more and nothing has happened. I’ve talked to my pastor about it and nothing has happened.” Something inside of us, even though we probably would never say it out loud, something inside of us is saying, “Wake up, God! I’m drowning down here!”

Verse 26: “And he said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?’ Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.”

He didn’t just rebuke the winds and sea, right? He rebuked the men in the boat. He said this phrase pretty often and it’s almost always directed at the disciples: “O you of little faith.” Why didn’t you trust me? Verse 26 goes on to say, “And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’”

Here’s a good question that this passage should lead us to ask: how could Jesus sleep through that storm? The answer is that real rest, the kind of rest that your soul longs for today, has nothing to do with your circumstances. Jesus could lay down in the bottom of a storm-tossed boat because His disciples were right. The winds were under His authority. The waves were under His authority. They would only get as high as He allowed. And they’d only go as long as He allowed them to swamp that boat. 

Jesus also knew that nothing could ever happen to His friends that could shock Him or frighten Him or take Him by surprise. He knew that because Jesus has more authority unconscious in the bottom of a boat than we do on the day we feel most in control of our lives. 

And here’s the takeaway from the nap-in-the-bottom-of-the-boat story: true rest can only ever come from knowing and trusting God.

I want you to keep that story in your mind, kind of like a postcard from the Sea of Galilee, and we’re going to switch gears. It might feel like a hard right turn, like I don’t know where I’m going, but there’s a point. I want us to look at a woman who I don’t think has gotten a fair shake, Martha. 

All us firstborns do not think Martha has gotten a fair shake. Most of the time when we hear about Martha, we hear about it from that most famous passage in Luke 10:38–42. And just five little verses have had women trying to be a Mary and not a Martha for over two thousand years now. Let’s read it.

“Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village.” Pause. Know your time references here. This happened after Jesus calmed the storm. And what’s interesting to me is that after that storm-settling incident in the boat, the disciples are still with Jesus, even though He kind of freaked them out by calming the sea. 

Why? Why did they stick with Him? Because the disciples had found in Jesus what every single human soul longs for. Peace in the storm . . . and they would never be the same. 

I’ve often heard people say, “Jesus came to set the world upside down,” or “The disciples set the world upside down.” No, they set the world right side up. And as the disciples encountered the storm-calming Savior, they were going to stick with Him to the bitter end because they found the version of peace that you and I and every other person longs for. 

Jesus was becoming more and more famous as we get here to Luke 10. He’d been calling more disciples. He’d been healing people. He’d been teaching parables, and let’s finish that verse 38: 

And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with [cheating on her husband]. (vv. 38–40)

Oh, no, that’s not what it says. I’m glad you’re paying attention. “Martha was distracted with wild living.” Nope. “Martha was distracted with running up credit card debt.” Nuh, uh. Verse 40 tells us, “But Martha was distracted with much serving.” 

Here’s some Erin Davis commentary. I know it from experience that you can do all kinds of things for Jesus and forget to rest in Jesus. And that’s what Martha did. That was her mistake. You know the story. Pick it up at verse 40: 

And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me." But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha." 

Here’s part of why I’ve wanted to teach on this story for a long time. I think we read the wrong tone into Jesus’ voice here. I don’t think Jesus was shaming Martha. Instead, He was inviting her to rest. 

There’s only one person on the planet that can get me to stop moving. I am a woman in perpetual motion, always moving from the next thing to do, the next thing to do, the next thing to do. And my husband, Jason, will occasionally say to me, “Hey, hey Erin, baby, come sit down.” He’s not shaming me. The things I’m doing are important. The dishes actually do have to be done. The laundry does actually need to be folded. But he’s inviting me for a moment in the midst of all that’s going on, to sit beside him. 

I think that we can rightly interpret Jesus’ interaction with Martha here that way. Now, you shouldn't just take my word on it. Not a word is wasted in the Word of God. And the fact that Jesus called Martha’s name twice is not an accident. In Genesis 22, God called Abraham’s name twice when he stopped him from sacrificing his son, Isaac. God said, “Abraham, Abraham!” In Exodus 3 when God spoke to Moses from the burning bush and commissioned him to free the Israelites he said, “Moses, Moses.” And here Jesus said Martha’s name twice. “Martha, Martha.” 

And then He said, 

You are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her. (vv. 41–42)

Jesus was not saying that Mary was better than her sister. And Jesus was not saying that Martha was bad for wanting to serve others. It is Jesus who came not to be served but to serve by His life. We have to look at this and see that He wasn’t shaming Martha for being busy with service. 

Jesus was saying, “Martha, Martha. I see you have a lot on your mind. Come and sit with Me. Rest.” Not forever. The meal needed cooking, and then it would need to be cleaned up. All of us women know that endless cycle. There is either a meal needing to be cooked, a meal needing to be served, or a meal needing to be cleaned up, and starting all over again. People need to eat. People were with Jesus, and they needed to eat. Jesus was in a human body; He needed to eat. But He was saying for a moment, “Martha, Martha. I see you’re troubled with many things. Come and rest.”

Mary in this story gives us a picture of a woman at peace. She sat at her Savior’s feet. She listened to His stories. Martha was squirreling around like a hurricane in there. Mary was asleep in the bottom of the boat. 

Listen to verse 40 one more time: “But Matha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.’”

Martha was distracted by all that needed done, but Martha’s real problem is that she forgot who Jesus was. For maybe just a moment, she thought Jesus was her errand boy. And when we forget who Jesus is, the waves always seem much bigger than they really are. 

So when Jesus spoke to Martha, He was calming a different kind of storm than the storm He calmed in the Sea of Galilee. He was calming the storm inside of her. You know this storm. I think all women do. It is the “do better, try harder, fix it, help everyone, make it all work” storm. And Jesus was saying, “Hey, hey, hey Martha, I’m right here. Sit with me.”

If we are not careful we will live our entire lives like a category five hurricane, meanwhile Jesus is in the eye of the storm saying, “Come, sit with me a while.” We have to live normal lives. There are things we have to do. Scripture doesn’t call us to surrender our lives to Jesus and then just sit there and wait for His return. Your to-do list matters. Your job matters. Your family matters. But Scripture gives us an invitation to rest in the midst of it. 

So many times we read this story and we think, Okay, we’re supposed to be Marys not Marthas, right? Well, Scripture’s not a book about us, and that’s not why the Spirit preserved this story for us. So I don't want you to worry about what Martha’s doing, and I don’t want you to worry about what Mary’s doing. I want you to ask your question, “What is Jesus doing?” And Jesus is inviting His followers to rest. He’s inviting us to sit at His feet as often as we need to, and He wants to remind us who He is. 

Martha learned her lesson. Let me show you. Turn with me to John 11. I know we’re switching gospel writers, but it’s one continuous story. It’s a story in progression. Let’s remind ourselves of the progression. First, Jesus started ministering. Then He intentionally drove His disciples into a storm so that He could show them that He’s the one that calms the storm. Can’t you imagine that memory came back to them years later as they were in the political and religious and social storm of His crucifixion and then the launch of the Church? He showed them His life was a parable. “The winds and waves obey me.” 

And then because His fame was growing, Martha invited Jesus into her home, into her life. You can be a Christian your whole life—this is not a salvation issue—and have no idea how to rest in Jesus. A little later Martha’s brother, Lazarus, died. And she sent word to Jesus to come, and Jesus waited until Lazarus was good and dead. Let’s pick up this continuous story in John 11. I’ll read verses 17–19:

Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother.

You got the picture? Martha was in a different kind of storm. She was in the storm of grief. I’m in one of those storms myself. My beautiful, talented, devoted, Jesus-loving, Erin-loving mom is deep into the throes of Alzheimers. The question everybody asks me often is, “Does she know who you are?” 

Well, I don’t know. She hasn’t known my name or that I’m her daughter for a long time. But most days she smiles when she sees me. She’s dying in one of the most cruel and undignified and traumatic ways a person can die. When it’s a long death like that, there’s not just one grief storm. They happen over and over and over and over. In my mind I’ve been to my mom’s funeral hundreds of times by now because I’ve watched her die all these little deaths before the mercy—and it will be a mercy—of when her body finally succumbs to the disease and she gets to be with Jesus. 

So, I know what it is to be in a storm. I also know how totally out of control I am. I cannot control whether the mom I adore and the one I want to have around as I raise my own kids, I don’t get to control if she gets a cruel neurological disease. I don’t get to control how that disease takes pieces of her a little bit at a time. I don’t get to control that it takes her life. I don’t get to control when it takes her life. At many times in this journey I have felt like Matthew, “Behold! A storm!” 

My mom was not a fearful person, but Alzheimers was not even on her radar. None of us knew to be anxious about her getting sick in her fifties with a neurological disease. None of us knew what we would face at every turn until we’re so often looking at each other and saying, “Ah, behold! A storm! I didn’t expect this, and it’s a swamping storm.” 

There have been many moments when I thought, This is it. I’m not going to make it. My boat’s going to capsize. The waves are too big. But I have learned to say that I serve a God and the winds and waves of this storm obey him. He will decide how tall the waves get, he will decide how long this storm rages. I have learned the hard way that even in the midst of the storm, I can rest in him. Because while I do not know how long this particular storm will last, and I do not know what other storms are going to come into my life, I do know the one who calms the storm.

And Martha knew him too. Let’s pick it up at verse 20: “So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house.” It’s a reversal. Now, I don’t want you to read this and think, This time Martha did the right thing and Mary did the wrong thing. The text doesn’t tell us that. We have no idea why Mary chose to stay back. But we do know that Martha chose to run to her Savior that day. 

In the middle of this grief storm . . . and if you’ve ever been in the grief storm for the loss of a loved one, there’s a lot of things your family’s supposed to do. You’re supposed to plan a funeral, and there's people in your house, and you’re supposed to feed them, and there’s extended family that comes in. You’ve got to find out where they stay. And your guest room is probably full. And so in the midst of all of that, it wasn’t that Martha’s life was suddenly easier. In the middle of this storm Martha said to herself, “I have to get to Jesus.” And Martha and Jesus have a really tender interaction. 

If you’re just listening to this on the podcast, all of us in the room were pretty teary, myself included. So my voice will crack, but we’ll get through it together. 

Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again." Martha said to him, "I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in him, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die." (vv. 21–26)

And then I just have to picture Him looking her right in the eye, maybe cupping her face in his hands, because he said, “Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Beautiful words! 

“Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” (v. 27)

There’s lots we could talk about here, but here’s where I want us to park our thoughts. Martha knew who Jesus was. She knew His character; she called Him Lord. She knew He could’ve saved her brother. She knew that He chose not to. She knew that whatever Jesus asked the Father, the Father would give. She expressed in this interaction a really profound principle about the Trinity that Bible scholars can’t articulate as clearly as she did. And somehow, though Jesus had not yet risen from the dead, and Lazarus had not been raised, Martha knew that a day was coming when her brother would be resurrected. She knew Christ was the Son of God and that He had come into the world in a unique way. 

Now, there was a lot she didn’t understand, and the storm of grief certainly still swirled. You and I know, because we know the story, that He’s minutes away from bringing her brother back from the dead, but she didn’t know that, and she’s still declaring who Jesus is. 

What we find in John 11 is a woman who had settled in her heart who God is. 

Verse 27 she said, “Yes, Lord; I believe.” She had been transformed into a woman who could rest not in her circumstances but in the character and presence of Jesus. When you cannot understand the plans of God, you can rest in the character of God. 

Martha in Luke 10 is like the inside of a washing machine, all worked up and swirly whirly. But Martha in John 11 is what I like to call a still water woman. Of course that’s from Psalm 23, “He leads me beside still waters.” So despite the very real challenges that Martha was facing in this moment, she had learned that she can rest in Him.

Flip with me to Matthew 11. This is really my thesis statement for why I think Jesus was not shaming Martha. He was inviting her to rest. Matthew 11:25–27:

At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will."

It’s important that Jesus was talking about the goodness of his Father before He says this next thing that might be familiar to you. Verse 27, 

All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

He’s giving us the answer to why He could sleep through the storm, because He trusted His Father.

How could Martha have peace even as her brother’s body began to rot? She trusted Jesus. I’ll say it again. True rest has nothing to do with your circumstances. It’s not about how much sleep you get. Your soul, your innermost parts, they need more than a long nap, though you might need a long nap. 

I’m traveling as I teach this, so I’m not in my own bed. I’m staying on a property here connected to our ministry center, and I slept okay last night. But tomorrow I’m going to arrive late to the farm where I live with my family. I’m going to tiptoe up the stairs of our old farmhouse. I’m going to turn to the left where my littles sleep, and I’m going to kiss Judah on his forehead, and I’m going to kiss Ezra on his forehead. I’m going to say as I say every night of their lives as I’m closing their bedroom door, “May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and keep you.” 

And then I’m going to go straight across from their room and I’m going to find my two teenage boys asleep in their beds. They have these huge bodies in these little beds! I’m going to tiptoe over to Noble and I’m going to kiss him on his forehead, and then I’m going to cross the room to Eli and kiss him on his forehead. And as I do every night of their lives, I’m going to close their bedroom door and say, “May the Lord Jesus Christ bless and keep you.” 

And then I’m going to go downstairs and I’m going to slide into bed with the man that I’ve loved for more than twenty-five years. I’m going to find my spot and lay my head on his chest and I’m going to rest. I’m going to really rest, because I will be in the presence of the one who I know will take care of me. That’s the picture of Jesus in the bottom of the boat. 

You can rest, you can really rest—I mean on your insides, anytime, anywhere, because you can be in the presence of Jesus anytime, anywhere, and He is the one that takes care of you. He is the one who will always take care of you. 

After Jesus declared His trust in the Father, that’s when He said these powerful words, verses 28–29, 

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

I don’t think Jesus was shaming Martha because Jesus wanted to give her rest, true rest. And Jesus wants to give you rest in the deepest part of yourself. As you’re listening to this, let me invite you to close your eyes. I want to give you just a few seconds. If you’re listening to the podcast, maybe hit pause. I want to give you just a few seconds to talk to the Lord, and I want you to ask Him if you have any storms.

And you do. I know you do. So with the storm in mind, I want you to listen. What does Jesus say when we are wind whipped? What does Jesus say when we’re battered? What does Jesus say when we’re swamped by the waves of life? 

He doesn’t say, “Figure it out.” He doesn’t say, “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” He doesn’t say, “Try harder.” Jesus says, “Come to me. Come to me.” And why does He want you to come to Him? Is it because He wants to give you a to-do list? Does He want to give you a pep talk? He says, “Come to me, and I will give you rest.”

So here is the invitation from Martha’s life, from Jesus’ work in Martha’s life, from the story we started with: as the storm rages, in your mind and in your heart, lay down beside the One who has everything under His feet. Put your head on His chest and rest.

Erika: I don’t know if you could tell, Erin, but when you were talking I was literally trying not to sob as you were talking about storms and rest, because we are coming up to the year anniversary of my own mother-in-law’s death from ALS, and that was a journey that our family walked through for several years with her. Any death is painful, but there are some types of journeys leading to death that are more painful. 

Erin: For sure.

Erika: That was last year, and then unfortunately the storms have not let up on my family. There are other storms now we are walking through. And just the picture, Erin, that you gave, that Jesus is asleep in the boat, and He understands, and He can still give rest in the midst of the storm—it’s true! It is so true. God is so good. But I know when I was walking through storms, sometimes it feels like Jesus isn’t there.

Erin: Yeah.

Erika: And that he doesn’t see. What would you say to that woman who says, “I feel like I’m in the boat and it’s capsizing and there’s no Jesus!” What would you say to her at this moment?

Erin: I’d say something I’ve said before on The Deep Well that my mentor Tippy has said to me many times, which is, that feelings aren’t facts. And that’s not to say they aren’t real. They are real. That’s not to say that they are something that we should just outright dismiss. But your feelings can be telling you one thing and reality can be telling you something else. Isn’t that faith?

Erika: Right.

Erin: Isn’t that? Everything seems this way. I feel this way. But Jesus has told me that true reality is that He is sovereign, that He will never leave me or forsake me, that He is gathering my tears in a bottle, that there is a day coming when all of this sorrow will end. That can sometimes be a minute-by-minute decision. It doesn’t diminish what’s happening to you. It doesn't mean we slap on a happy face. But we know that what's happening to us is not ultimate, because we can’t rest in things working out the way we think they should. We can’t!

Erika: Right.

Erin: We have enough life under our belts to know they might not. We can’t rest in cultural shifts or any other thing. But we can rest in the character of God. So I would just say to her, of all the things you don’t know, here’s something you can know: Jesus loves you. He is with you. He has a good plan for you. And ultimately—it is an ultimate thing—this isn’t going to last forever. He’s going to redeem this. 

I get that we can want a more tangible comfort, but those things ultimately can’t last very long at all. It’s a training of our minds and hearts, I think.

Erika: Right. It reminds me of a song. Now, I hope I can remember it. My mom used to play it all the time when I was little. “When you can’t see His plan, trust his Heart. When you don’t understand, and you can’t feel His hand, trust His heart.” 

Knowing Jesus better, Erin, as we’ve gotten to know Him through this season of The Deep Well, I feel like I’ve seen the side of Jesus, a humanity to Jesus, that He understands that pain. And so, He’s a Jesus I can turn to in the midst of the storm.

The Deep Well is a production of Revive Our Hearts, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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