Jesus Chilling Series

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