Jesus Was Sleeping

JESUS WAS SLEEPING

Begin by taking a few breaths and paying attention to the air moving in and out of your lungs and mouth. Notice where you feel tension or discomfort in your body. To the extent you are able, try to relax, let the chair you are sitting in fully support your body, and release the tension as you breathe deeply.

a prayer to open

Here I am, Lord, in my tired, aging, hurting, wondrous body.

Open my heart to you now. You are my High Priest who knows.

Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

Jesus responded, “Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!” Then he got up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly there was a great calm.

The disciples were amazed. “Who is this man?” they asked. “Even the winds and waves obey him!”

Many of us have read this passage a number of times. Our focus, rightly, has likely always been on Jesus’ power to calm the wind and waves. What we often miss in this miraculous scene is that Jesus was sleeping just moments before—through a pretty bad storm. How exhausted must he have been to have curled up on a wooden boat and fallen asleep?

• What do you think Jesus was feeling in his body when he climbed into the boat with his disciples? As best you can, picture him—his body—finding a place to curl up and fall asleep. What do you see?
• Reflect on the reality that God came to be with us in a body that needed sleep and at times grew exhausted. What does this truth reveal to you about his love? What does it reveal about Jesus’ ability to identify with you?
• Reflect on the times you have been exhausted and desperately in need of sleep. How might your experience help you identify with and serve someone you know who is sleep deprived?

Jesus Christ—

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace;

the one through whom and for whom all things were made; and

the one in whom I live and move and have my being—

you became flesh and made your dwelling among us.

And nothing—neither death nor life, angels nor demons, the present nor the future; not any powers, height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation—can separate me from the love of our God, which is in you, Jesus Christ my Lord.