One the most necessary components of rest is contact.
Litters of newborn animals rest in the comfort of their packs. Infants are found resting in the arms of their mothers. Airports are full of loved one finding rest in the embrace of one another before the commencement of a long journey. Husbands and wives find rest in the embrace of their spouse before they say goodnight. Many parents will remember those late nights in which their sick child could find no relief in cough suppressants or pain relievers, but these same children were finally lulled fast to sleep as they lay in the arms of mom or dad. Rest requires contact.
This is a primal aspect of rest. It is a component of rest that has dwelt with us from infancy, and though we often go to great ends to suppress it as adults, it is a component of rest that remains with us still today. Human beings crave contact. We crave human interaction and human touch. We long to be held and to be stabilized by others around us. We long for rest, but we realize that true rest cannot arise without security, and security is not offered apart from the embrace of another. Thus, true rest requires not just any kind of contact, but more specifically it requires secure contact.
This embrace may be gentle and reassuring. It may be compassionate and warm. It may be strong and steadfast, but it will always be a form of touch that breeds the solace necessary to find rest. Contact in and of itself is a neutral force, neither wholly positive nor negative. But when this neutral force is coupled with feelings of safety and security, real rest is possible.
This is precisely the type of rest Jesus desired to offer the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the 23rd chapter of Matthew. In this passage, Jesus stands over the city of Jerusalem overcome with sadness. His deepest desire is to offer rest. He stands ready to provide the secure contact that is needed to find meaningful spiritual rest. It is for this reason that he says in verse 37, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!” Within His touch is the security and safety that provides spiritual renewal and rest. Taking up the analogy of the mother hen, Jesus becomes the safe point of contact that assures rest. We must come in contact with Him if we desire to find meaningful renewal. We must touch Him and the things He loves, and He must touch us with His transformational power.
The image Jesus offered as he stood over the city that day is really an image of the contact he made with humanity as he lay dying on the cross. This image of a hen gathering her brood is a maternal image of protection. Outside forces and storms may bear down on this mother. Disaster may strike at her very heart, but as she gathers her children under her wings, she creates a protective barrier that shields her young from all harm. This image recently came alive to me as I read an apocryphal story of a hen and her chicks in western Canada. As so often happens in the North Woods, a forest fire came blowing through a small town and destroyed everything in it path. After the blaze died down and the embers cooled, one of the farmers in the community went out to assess the damage. Everything was gone: his crops, his land, his livestock, even his hens. As he continued to assess the damage, he came across one of these lonely bird burned to death in the middle of the yard. At first, he was unsure of what he was looking at, but after further inspection he realized that this was the mother hen who had recently given birth to three new chicks. In former days, he loved watched these harmless creatures fumble along behind their mother, completely carefree and naïve. It was such a shame. If this mother hen had not survived the fire, then there was surely no way that these innocent chicks could have survived such a horrific event. But as he continued to prod the deceased animal, he turned the hen over only to discover three chirping baby chicks resting safely in the embrace of their mother’s wings. Their mother had taken on the full force of the storm. She had stood against the fire and was overcome, but through her death her helpless brood of young chicks were saved.
From the cross, as Jesus lay facing the greatest storm of his life, we remember the words He spoke while standing over the city of Jerusalem. Hung between heaven and earth, stretched out between the wrath of God and the sin of the human race, we remember these words. Nailed to a rugged cross, Jesus creates the opportunity for secure contact that we need. He creates a line of contact between God and humanity that had long been severed. In this moment, we remember his words: “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings!” He longs to offer this secure touch, this protective contact. He longs to give us rest from the devastating effects of sin in this world and in our lives. He desires this so much, that like the hen in Western Canada, he is willing to die in the flames to save the lives of His creation.
We human beings need to rest, but we can only find rest in contact with a being that offers ultimate security. That being is Christ. Christ has always promised us rest. He has gone to great lengths to secure that resting place for us. But will we find our position under his wing? You see the end of verse 37 is far more devastating than the beginning. In the beginning, we find Christ’s deep desire to offer humanity a resting place in the security of his embrace, but in the end we find the human refusal to rest. Listen again to Jesus’ words, “How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing.” The rest that comes through secure contact is not a rest that is forced, but rather freely offered to all who come to be touched.
Are you ready to rest?
sib
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