Sleepy Eyes

After Jesus prayed (in Matthew 26), knowing he was facing death, asking his disciples to stay and watch with him, he then returned and saw that they had all fallen asleep.  How maddening and disappointing!

Have you ever asked a friend to pray about a serious need, or even offered to pray for a friend yourself, and then realized you forgot?  Or your friend forgot?  It stings, doesn’t it, to realize that you promised to pray and then completely forgot.  And the need was so great!

Jesus must have been heartbroken to realize his friends fell asleep in his darkest hour, when he needed their support the most.  He made this statement in verse 41b “…The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”  And he told them to pray.  In fact, he came back three times, telling them to pray, but finding them sleeping.

If I’m wide awake, I can kneel to pray and all of a sudden sleepiness overcomes me.

But prayer is effective.  Prayer is obedience to what Jesus tells us to do. Prayers are heard by God. And prayers are necessary in order to live this life on earth.  And yet, we fall asleep.

Sounds hopeless, doesn’t it?

Every time I read this story of Jesus’ friends falling asleep when he needed them the most, it makes me cry. 

But we cannot be hopeless.  Jesus came to die and conquer the death that rules over us so that we can awaken our sleepy selves  and be empowered with the same power that raised him from the dead.

That’s not hopelessness…that’s victory.