Don’t You Care that We’re Dying? (Matthew 26)

Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he told the disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” Taking along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. He said to them, “I am deeply grieved to the point of death. Remain here and stay awake with me.” Going a little farther, he fell facedown and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.” Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, “So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And he came again and found them sleeping, because they could not keep their eyes open. After leaving them, he went away again and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? See, the time is near. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up; let’s go. See, my betrayer is near” (Mat 26.36–46).

“Stay awake and pray, so that you won’t enter into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” In my last post, I talked about how God provides sleep to bridge the darkness of night and its evils. More than that though, that sleep when done correctly, can heal us and provide us true rest with God. And how, many times, the best thing that you can do when you are tired and worn is to sleep. Matthew 26, however, reveals another, darker side of sleep.

You see, we’re all weak. We all need to sleep. But sometimes, sleep won’t come because we’re scared of what it might bring. Sleep is scary because we know—deep in our hearts—that sleep prefigures death. We see this throughout the Bible, for both good and ill:

• When Lazarus has died, Jesus says he has “fallen asleep” (John 11.11).
• Paul talks about Jesus appearing to over 500 Christians, “most of whom are still alive, but some have fallen asleep” (1 Cor 15.6).
• This is why many are sick and ill among you, and many have fallen asleep (1 Cor 11.30).

Sleep is—as Homer would say—“death’s little brother,” or Edgar Allen Poe called “little slices of death;” sleep is terrifying for those who are scared to die.

To die, to sleep—
To sleep—perchance to dream. Ay, there’s the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause…

Hamlet, Shakespeare, Act III, Scene 1.

Or to quote that great modern philosopher—mid-2000s emo band Brand New’s singer-songwriter—Jesse Lacey in his excellent album, “The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me”:

I not scared to die, I’m a little bit scared of what comes after.

Brand New, Jesus Christ

Those who are scared to die, are often scared to sleep. At least, without worldly assistance. When we are not at peace spiritually, it can be hard to gain peace in sleep. When we know something is wrong with our lives, when there’s something missing, we trade in God’s mission and reward for something else. This is why Proverbs pleads,

My son, do not lose sight of this—keep wisdom and discretion and they will be life for your soul and an adornment for your neck… if you lie down you will not be afraid, when you lie down your sleep will be sweet (Prv 3.21–24).

Or, to look at the contrast by quoting a different song from the same modern philosopher:

I used to sleep without a single stir, cause I was about my father’s work… I used to know the name of every person I kissed, now I made this bed and I can’t fall asleep in it.

Brand New, Millstone

We need sleep; too often we want sleep on our own terms. When our sleep is not ordered and life giving, it no longer acts as that God-given bridge to escape the darkness of night, but becomes instead a destructive spiral into deeper darkness.

Our sleep is not restful, it does not revive, it does not provide rest—it remains something that passes the time, but we still long for its true nature. It becomes—like all other perversions of the Devil—a twisted facsimile of what should be. We turn to drink; we turn to sex; we turn to pornography. This self-medication to cover up the fear of sleep and its induced reliance on it rather than on God, eventually ends in death, is shown throughout the Scriptures:

• I will make them drunk so that they celebrate. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up (Jer 51.39).
• I will make her princes and sages drunk, along with her governors, officials, and warriors. Then they will fall asleep forever and never wake up (Jer 51.57).
• Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you wine drinkers, because of the sweet wine, for it has been taken from your mouth (Joel 1.5).

These all have turned to drink to gain sleep rather than to God. And sleep they will. Forever. Sleep prefigures the death that it ends in. For those who seek sleep by these means, and do so in direct rejection of God, will receive no rest. Revelation reflects:

And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest, day or night, these worshipers of the beast and its image, and whoever receives the mark of its name.

Revelation 14.11

This sort of sleep provides no rest because it is not anchored in the God who rested on the Seventh Day after creating the Garden. And in the Garden, the disciples slept, but it is Jesus—who spent the night in prayer—who is rested when he leaves Gethsemane.

So, why do we sleep? And what do we turn to gain sleep? And are we finding rest when we do sleep? Now, let me clear: I’m not providing medical advice; I’m not talking about people with real sleep disorders or sleep apnea or anything like that—if that’s you then get thee to a physician—but for everyone else: why? With what do you end your day and what do you turn to in order to find sleep? Is it something positive like prayer or mediation, or going for a walk or a run? Or is it something that is aimed to merely distract you: binging just one more show until you’re so exhausted that you finally fall into restless sleep? Doomscrolling Twitter or Reddit or Tiktok? Or is it something more sinister still: alcohol, or drugs, or lust? Because I can promise you this: these may provide sleep, but they will not provide rest. And sometimes our restlessness is nagging reminder and a call from God to turn from our sins and self-reliance and self-medication, to submit and turn to him:

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest (Psa 22.2).

When we pursue self-sufficient, self-made, self-sufficient sleep, we are doomed to failure and will find no rest. We have taken the image of sleep and turned it into an idol that we seek to control. But that isn’t what God wants from any of us.

Next time, we’ll talk about why we need to sleep in the first place, how God does want us to sleep so that we might find true rest, and why it is good for us to sleep in him.

When I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take.

Prayer