Luke's closing words to the passion narrative appear at first as an incidental announcement of minor significance. The disciples rested on the Sabbath – after all, it was the normal and customary thing to do. But these words begin to speak much more to us when we recall that this was the final Sabbath of the Old Testament, the Sabbath at the dawn of the new, eternal Sabbath. With the coming of this Sabbath, the law is fulfilled, the old is passing, and the new has come. The day before, Friday, had ended with Christ's words, "It is finished," which signified the close of an age, the end of the divine wrestling to the day of redemption. Now He has the victory! So all ends in rest, the rest of the church in harmony with divine rest, the rest of God on the last Sabbath.

It is also noteworthy that Luke brings the passion episode to a close this way. Luke is the evangelist who repeatedly points to the plan and counsel of God, and calls us to see the unfolding of the events in this light, compare Luke 7:30, 24:36, 44; Acts 2:23; 3:18; etc. In the midst of the frantic and hellish tempo of Good Friday, God Himself was working to have His counsel fulfilled on the Sabbath. Just as the chief priests wanted to be rid of the Lord Jesus by the Sabbath, so God in heaven led all things to the completion of our redemption on this Sabbath. The church comes to rest; the law is fulfilled; heaven and earth are united in newfound harmony, the harmony of divine rest.

In marked contrast to this simple statement concerning the disciples, the activity of the chief priests and Pharisees stand out as a picture of total unrest Matthew. 27:62 ff, describes how the chief priests and Pharisees gathered before Pilate in order to obtain a guard. They thought that they were rid of the Lord Jesus, but they simply could not shake Him off! Their Sabbath-day gathering is the center of unrest, and the events that follow on the first day of the week only compound the matters for them. We see that in the circle of those who believed in the Lord Jesus, that is, in the circle of those who accepted Christ as the fulfillment of the law, the Sabbath day is kept – to the glory of God, and in line with His own work. But in the circle of unbelief, the circle of those who sought to preserve the law and its institutions from the "onslaughts" of the new Teacher of Nazareth, there the Sabbath is broken.

So we see the effects of the cross begin to work immediately. The antithesis drawn by the cross takes immediate effect; in the church gathered by the Lord, the law is maintained; in the false assembly – the assembly that had now become false through its rejection of the Messiah – the law is trampled. Here, the time of delay has passed the day of decision has come. The chief priests made their choice, and hardened themselves in it. So we see them as victims of unrest – the unrest of divine judgment. The disciples followed their Master, even in the face of the hostility of the Jews, and they become recipients of divine rest. The church – without knowing it – shares in the final Sabbath of the Old Testament the rest of God Himself.

Here eternal lines are drawn, and from this point on we see God’s counsel fulfilled according to this basic division. Luke describes it all for us in the book of Acts: how the Jews, in rejecting the Messiah sent by God, bring nothing but eternal unrest and condemnation upon themselves; yet how this rejection is at the same time God's raison d’être for bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. Notwithstanding all his attacks, Satan cannot thwart this glorious work of God.

So we see the sun rising on the church more and more. On the first day already, the church shares God's rest. Even in their ignorance they are caught up in God's counsel, part of His glorious work. The law is fulfilled, but they keep it as it was meant to be kept – in simple faith and trust. So the Lord also rewards them. The very next day He appears to them, and makes them partakers and participants of the new and eternal Sabbath. Their last Old Testament Sabbath was a bridge to the new Sabbath, the first day of the week! The end of the Old Testament rest is in itself the dawn and breakthrough of the new and abiding rest, the final eternal Sabbath from above, the Sabbath which we also may share every time we meet together on the first day of the week to remember the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

So we see eternal lines drawn for us as well: eternal rest among the people of God; eternal unrest among those who in hostility and unbelief turn against Him. Still today God goes forward, in these last days, to usher in the fullness of the final rest. Still today He comes with His call of grace and eternal rest which can only be found by gathering to Him, drawing near to Him in Christ the, Saviour. But we must not delay, for the Day draws near! Then what we now share as foretaste will appear before our eyes in the fullness of rest with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. And all those who reject Him will be lost in eternal, complete and unrelenting unrest and turmoil.

Let us therefore strive to enter that rest …Hebrews. 4:11