"A great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, 'Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?'"
Matthew 26:40-43
"He came to the
disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, 'So, could you not
watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation.
The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' Again, for the second time,
he went away and prayed, 'My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it,
your will be done.' And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes
were heavy."In these two situations the roles of the disciples and Jesus are swapped completely. In the first passage the disciples were afraid of dying in the boat due to the 'great windstorm' while Jesus was sleeping peacefully. Then in the garden of Gethsemane it was the disciples who couldn't stay awake and Jesus who was afraid. These cases are particularly interesting because sleep is the opposite of fear, fear keeps us awake at night, while sleep displays trust and peace. The disciples were afraid of the physical elements, of the forces that could kill them, of things that they had no power over. Jesus was afraid of bearing God's wrath for us, of the spiritual forces, of things that he had to do. Our focus should be like Jesus's, the physical forces of this universe can only harm us while we are alive but we should "fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell" Matthew 10:28. We too should fear our judgment but because Jesus bore that condemnation we can rejoice as well. Let this motivate us to live our lives with an eternal perspective, one where we trust God so completely that we sleep through even the fiercest storm just like we trust him with our salvation.
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