I’m away on a brief vacation this week (I set this up to send before I left). I can sure use some time off – like everyone, I’ve worked and worried hard this year. I can tell when my creativity becomes stunted that I need to let my brain and spirit unplug for a bit.
If I think I need a vacation, imagine how much Jesus needed some rest time! He had been preaching and healing and traveling and disputing and training, never in the same spot for more than a day, it seems. And now he arrives in Tyre, on the coast, and he just wants some time apart. It’s his Garbo moment, “I vant to be alone!” But it’s not to be.
From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet.
It’s great to read that Jesus sought these times to rest and recharge, for it reminds us that he was human, and it gives us permission to recognize our limits as well. And, of course, he was also the God who ordained a day of rest in every seven; if we would only live into that promise, we might not even need vacations.
It’s also helpful to learn that Jesus was interrupted at his rest. The demands of the world do not subside just because we take some time out. The woman who came and found him had business she felt was much more pressing than his need to rest. And, though his initial response appears surly, in the end he agrees with her: her need, and her faith, were worthy of his attention.
When we’re on vacation we put down our regular work, our regular tasks, sometimes even our regular landscape, and seek to be renewed in the space that opens up. But we do not cease to be servants of the Living God, engaged in God’s mission of restoration and wholeness. We may find ourselves presented with needs in the people around us. We may fall into some interior, spiritual work we’ve neglected in our busyness, or find ourselves dealing with issues in our families or relationships. We may be surprised at how God wants to work through us in our time away.
There will be some ministry on my holiday, and I plan to be alert to opportunities, but not seek them out. I might find, as Jesus did, that the mission of God can find us in despite our best intentions to stay apart. Then we have to trust that God will give us the R&R we need in some other way.
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