The Problem With Sleeping
Mark 14:41 – He came a third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough of that! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. 42 – Get up, let us go. Look! My betrayer is approaching!”
Three times Jesus came to the disciples and found them sleeping. The first time Jesus warned them saying “Stay awake and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” He told them about the danger they were in and what to pray for. The second time it seemed like Jesus asked them: why are you sleeping? because the Bible says “They did not know what to tell him.” When Jesus came the third time it was to wake them up because the betrayal He had predicted earlier at supper was just about to happen. The time that they were to have spent in prayer preparing for this very moment was over. They awoke suddenly and they were not ready.
The problem with sleeping is that if you are suddenly awakened by an emergency there is little to no time to accurately assess what’s going on and it is extremely easy to panic. The disciples awoke to find a far different atmosphere from when they first entered the garden. They were alert and on guard now – but it was too late to collect themselves mentally. It was too late to pray in peace. All they could do now was react in panic. Everything happened so fast that all they could do was run for their lives. The only person who was prepared for the onslaught was Jesus.
With this setting in mind read through the parable of the ten virgins found in Matthew 25. Here are just a few of the verses: Five of the virgins were foolish, and five were wise. When the foolish ones took their lamps, they did not take extra olive oil with them. But the wise ones took flasks of olive oil with their lamps. When the bridegroom was delayed a long time, they all became drowsy and fell asleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Look, the bridegroom is here! Come out to meet him.’ Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. – verses 2-7.
We are all going to be found asleep. The difference between the foolish and wise is that the wise took the time to collect extra flasks of oil. It would not have been so bad for the disciples if Jesus had found them actively praying the first two times and then found them sleeping the third time. What about you and me? How many times will Jesus come and warn us to wake up and pray to prepare for the coming storms? If all we do is sleep, and I’m using the term sleep to refer to all the times we find ourselves distracted from prayer by life, then we will be forcibly awakened when the storms come and we will make the painful discovery that we have no Holy Spirit and we will panic.
Did Jesus wake you up this morning? Then pray. Is something keeping you from sleeping at night? Then pray. Jesus will continue urging you to pray during times of relative calm. Don’t put Him off. He wants you prepared – with your lamps trimmed, burning, and with all the oil you need to carry you through to the end. We are going to sleep – at least let us sleep prepared!
Therefore stay alert, because you do not know the day or the hour. – Matthew 25:13.
Where two are gathered 