Sleepy
They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.” He took Peter James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour?”
Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
Returning a third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Mark 14:23-33, 37, 39-42
This same event is told in Matthew 26 in almost the same words. The point is clearly the same. Jesus is suffering the worst night of his life. He asks his three nearest and dearest, Peter, John and James, to come with him to pray. They go along, I’m sure with the best of intentions. They plan on praying along with him, keeping vigil, right up until they fall asleep.
In the verses just before the Gethsemane verses we read about the Last Supper. There is a lot of food and wine. The guys in this story are well fed and maybe just a little less than sober. They are at the very least quite relaxed. They sit in the quiet stillness of the night and most likely begin to pray. They have no idea of the seriousness of the situation. Soon flesh takes over and they are out. We read these accounts and think, “How could they fall asleep?” We are astounded because we know the whole story. We know what is in front of suffering Jesus. They did not. It is hard for us to believe that they let the pleasures of food, wine and sleep come before their dedication to Jesus! But ask yourself this question, how different are you from those three?
Too often in life Jesus asks us to keep watch with him, to pray alongside of him or serve in some capacity and we say yes but then we fall asleep; maybe not literally but in some sense, we drop the ball, fail to remain faithful. We look at the apostles and we say their stomachs were full and their minds were dull and those things kept them from serving Jesus. How often are our stomachs full or minds dull from too much world?
There are so many things that keep us from serving God or doing what we know we should be doing. Television, telephones, shopping, eating, playing, even working all get in the way. We say yes, Lord we will go with you, stay awake with you but something else beckons and we answer forgetting our first love.
Like the apostles before us we need to stay awake, keep watch and pray. We need to turn down the distractions of this world to focus on the next. We need to avoid getting too well fed, too dull or too tired to be of any use to God. There is an acronym used in 12 step programs, HALT. The people trying to break an addiction are to avoid becoming hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Perhaps we need to come up with an acronym to help us avoid becoming complacent, focused on all the wrong things and quite frankly, lazy. God instructs His people to pray as much today as He did that night in the Garden and truly we must stay awake.
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Simon,” he said to Peter, “are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour?”
Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
Returning a third time, he said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!” Mark 14:23-33, 37, 39-42
This same event is told in Matthew 26 in almost the same words. The point is clearly the same. Jesus is suffering the worst night of his life. He asks his three nearest and dearest, Peter, John and James, to come with him to pray. They go along, I’m sure with the best of intentions. They plan on praying along with him, keeping vigil, right up until they fall asleep.
In the verses just before the Gethsemane verses we read about the Last Supper. There is a lot of food and wine. The guys in this story are well fed and maybe just a little less than sober. They are at the very least quite relaxed. They sit in the quiet stillness of the night and most likely begin to pray. They have no idea of the seriousness of the situation. Soon flesh takes over and they are out. We read these accounts and think, “How could they fall asleep?” We are astounded because we know the whole story. We know what is in front of suffering Jesus. They did not. It is hard for us to believe that they let the pleasures of food, wine and sleep come before their dedication to Jesus! But ask yourself this question, how different are you from those three?
Too often in life Jesus asks us to keep watch with him, to pray alongside of him or serve in some capacity and we say yes but then we fall asleep; maybe not literally but in some sense, we drop the ball, fail to remain faithful. We look at the apostles and we say their stomachs were full and their minds were dull and those things kept them from serving Jesus. How often are our stomachs full or minds dull from too much world?
There are so many things that keep us from serving God or doing what we know we should be doing. Television, telephones, shopping, eating, playing, even working all get in the way. We say yes, Lord we will go with you, stay awake with you but something else beckons and we answer forgetting our first love.
Like the apostles before us we need to stay awake, keep watch and pray. We need to turn down the distractions of this world to focus on the next. We need to avoid getting too well fed, too dull or too tired to be of any use to God. There is an acronym used in 12 step programs, HALT. The people trying to break an addiction are to avoid becoming hungry, angry, lonely or tired. Perhaps we need to come up with an acronym to help us avoid becoming complacent, focused on all the wrong things and quite frankly, lazy. God instructs His people to pray as much today as He did that night in the Garden and truly we must stay awake.
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