"sleeping from sorrow"

This morning as I drove to work I was listening to the gospel of Luke on my audio bible and I heard this verse, “When He rose from prayer, He came to the disciples and found them sleeping from sorrow”, and the word “sorrow” struck me for the first time. In the garden of Gethsemane before Jesus was arrested, He went off alone to pray and when He returned He found the disciples sleeping. Jesus used the words “sleeping from sorrow”. That’s not something you hear every day, is it? So, why were they sleeping from sorrow? And who were they sorrowful for?

The first question is rather obvious, they were sorrowful because the Lord had just told them he was going away and that He would suffer and die a terrible death. He also told them that they would all scatter like a covey of quail when he was arrested….. which they did.

The second question is a little more difficult. Who were they sorrowful for? Was it Jesus or themselves?

I think the key lies in the word sleeping. Jesus told them they needed to be in prayer and not sleeping. In prayer not just for Him, but for their very life, because they were fixing to enter into a conflict they never bargained for. But asleep they were nonetheless. You see, for the disciples things were not turning out the way they wanted. When they signed on to this band of brothers, they thought God’s Kingdom had come and the hard part was already over. But now all of a sudden things had changed for the worse. They felt helplessly tired.

Jesus’ hour was at hand……was there never a time more important than now to be in prayer? The scriptures say they could not even watch one hour as Jesus prayed. To sleep at such a time seems to say they were sorrowful for themselves. If that sounds too hard, it’s really not. I can understand this, because I can relate to such a sleep.

I too, like the disciples, find myself sleeping from sorrow when things get really bad. When I’m really tired and all of a sudden my health or job is threatened, sleep can become like a fix to me like a fix is to a junky. At this point as I write this some of Paul’s words echo in my mind, “O wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” When we truly see ourselves for what we really are, depraved to our very core, our eyes are open to the need for a savior.

The answer will always be the same and will never change, Jesus will always be there for us. He will give us the power to live above our circumstance, and show us that there is always a way of escape for those that trust in Him…….that is the promise of God. - Gary