In the book of Luke 15, there is a story about a prodigal son. By his disobedience unto his father, his own rest and his father’s rest were lost. The prodigal son got his portion of the inheritance in advance and left his father’s house. Despite his confidence in the moment of leaving the father, he squandered all the property in reckless living. Then, the prodigal realized that his rest was broken. When he couldn’t even get pods that pigs were eating, he realized how happy he was, living with his father at home.
Meanwhile, the father was waiting for the prodigal son because he knew that his son would waste all the property and come back after suffering. How anxious and nervous the father would have been! The father enjoyed the rest when his son was at home, but the father’s rest was also broken because of the son’s disobedience. The son’s disobedience took away the rest from both himself and the father.
Likewise, the disobedience of humans breaks the rest of God and humans completely. Since the wage of sin is death, our rest is broken when we disobey God. God cannot rest because he should watch over us who lost rest. In the household, when children listen to their parents and obey well, both parents and children can rest. Otherwise, when children do not obey their parents, the entire household’s rest are broken.
Then, how can we restore the rest that once was lost, the God and human’s rest? We should obey the will of the Father that aims to save humans by His Son, Jesus Christ. In other words, Jesus took all of mankind's sin on his body, nailed on the cross, and shed all His blood. After that, he rose again and redeemed all of our sin. By these, Jesus restored the rest of God. He made a way for us, the believers, to get into God’s rest.
Pastor Seok-Jeon Yoon
Extracted from Yonsei Newspaper #709
