Yeah for Friday! Unless you have to be at your job this weekend, it’s time away from the work place and work people.
The ancient philosopher Seneca wrote to a man named Lucilius. "You asked what I think ought to be especially avoided. The crowd! You'll never safely entrust yourself to a crowd. I never come out with the character I took in. Any peace that I had gained for myself is upset." (Letter 7)
15 centuries later another thinker, Martin Chemnitz, offered a positive view about getting upset by the crowd. "Many people in all ages have given great approval to the solitary life ... (but) in the Second Table (of the Ten Commandments) not even one word calls attention to the solitary life. God has carefully established the various duties in which individuals in mutual love serve other individuals, share their tasks, and bear together the common burdens of their entire life.... No greater praise for man's life in society can be imagined than that God by so many glorious and marvelous testimonies on Mt. Sinai, gave the entire Second Table of the Law dealing with the duties of our common life together." (Loci Theologici, II)
“For everything there is a season,” times to rest and times to go back to work (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Our Lord knew the press of the crowd. “When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him. And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him.” (Mark 3:8-9) Plunging into people and their problems is the good work of the Second Table, works God has appointed His people to do. The fact that there is always more work than time is a reminder of the supremacy of God’s grace in Jesus over our works. “Come to me all who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
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