What is rest in Christ? Sabbath, or something else?

31"Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.32So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place."

I recently attended a Bible study in Waynesboro where these two verses were the focus of the study. The earlier sections of chapter 6 were referenced for context, where the disciples had gone out with the power of Christ, casting out demons, healing the sick, and doing a bunch of other wacky stuff. So it comes to this point in chapter 6, and many of us would love to stop at verse 32. Unfortunatle, you MUST read on verse 52 which reads: "52for they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened."

As I read through this, questions were being asked, and a bunch of conversation was being had about the Sabbath, and rest, and other typical discussions on Christians being overly busy and how we need to find ways to "be" with Christ. Unfortunately, it seems this misses the heart of the passage and creates a dichotomy between these times of "being" and every other point of life. Why can't we learn to embrace every moment as a time of "being" with Christ? And ultimately, What does Mark 6 have to do with this?

So early on in Mark 6, Jesus sends out the twelve with his power to do miracles and cast out demons (which is crazy work). He tells them to only take one tunic, one staff, one pair of sandals, no food and, no money. Jesus is not sending them out on an easy mission. He gives them his power but takes away any creature comforts they may want. In the interlude of verses 14-28, John the Baptist gets beheaded, which would be a painful reminder of the seriousness of their mission, as well as an emotionally exhausting excursion back together from their mission. Next, in verse 31, Jesus calls them to rest. This sounds really nice until you keep reading. They try and get away, but Jesus then makes them work to feed the 5000 (even though they don't want to). Next, in verse 45, Jesus gets some time alone, and makes the disciples get in the boat to go ahead to Bethsada (hopefully for that rest that he had commanded). In verse 47, Jesus sees the helpless disciples flailing about in the boat during a storm, and walks out to them, on the water mind you, and calms the storm and saves the day again.

In my mind, the most important part of this whole section comes in verse 52. Their hearts were hardened, for they had not understood about the loaves. I started putting together the picture of a story being told by Mark, which starts in verse 30, and ends in verse 52. Jesus calls them to rest, but his actions and subsequent calls do not give the disciples any kind of traditional rest. Jesus, by feeding 5000 people and by calming the storm showed clearly that he was not talking about the Sabbath rest that some Christians idolize, some use as an excuse to be lazy, and others take as a serious reminder of all that has been provided for them. Jesus was talking about the rest that comes when a full reliance on his power is lived out through every action. Jesus intentionally gave the disciples tasks that they could not humanly do (feeding 5000 and rowing across the lake in a storm) so that they would have to "rest" and rely completely on the strength of Christ, the Rock of Ages. They as verse 52, did not understand. Jesus gave them two clear moments to rest in His might, and they continued to try to do this of their own volition.

Mark 6 in my reading is in no way about Sabbath rest, but about our utter reliance on Christ, both in the initial act of obedience and the "long obedience in the same direction" (to pull from Eugene Peterson). Sometimes I wonder if Christians focus so much on the quiet times with Christ that they forget about the rest of life with Christ. Sure, I want to be able to chill with Christ, but I want to be able to have him with me every day, doing what is not humanly possible, be it in Autocad, or as a staff assistant at UVA, then I will have entered the full Sabbath rest of the life of Christ woven with mine.