AN UNPREACHED SERMON (204)
I’m one of those annoying people who when my head hits the pillow, I am out like a light. The answer to anyone who asks about how I sleep has been the same for years: “Like a log”. But judging by the state of the duvet and the position of my body sprawled across the bed, I obviously haven’t lain there all night like an immoveable felled tree. A good night’s sleep rejuvenates every organ in the body, especially allowing the brain to organise, categorise and file way all that has taken place throughout the day now ended.
As usual, there is a reason for my thinking along these lines, because this week I have received final instructions about my upcoming hip replacement operation at Murrayfield. Who knows where the proverbial “sleeping log” is going to find itself rolling to on the operating table. But of this I am sure: “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety” (Psalm 4:8 ESV). Like everything else to do with our peace of mind, security and well-being, the Word of God provides calming re-assurance just when it is needed.
This was a lesson the Apostle Peter learned the hard way, and it took him quite a while to find the same level of trust as the Psalmist promised. On three occasions we find Peter fast asleep, but each one is different and charts his progress towards an absolute dependence on the God who “neither slumbers nor sleeps” (Psalm 121:3, 4). Because our God never sleeps, we can! The Bible’s great theological truths always have a practical bearing on our lives. Let’s take a look at Peter as he tries to get some sleep.
THE SLEEP OF IMMATURE EXPERIENCE (Luke 9:32).
Having clambered up the mountain along with James and John as they accompanied Jesus, we cannot blame any of them for feeling drowsy. Only Luke’s gospel mentions this detail, but we are meant to infer that the tiredness led to sleepiness and then all three heads began to droop. They were overcome with drowsiness. The detail makes a very important point, especially if you notice where Luke fits it in to the incident. They had missed out on the main topic of the conversation Jesus had had with Elijah and Moses about Christ’s departure (His exodus, v31). They see the vision of glory only as it “withdraws from them” (v32, 33). At this stage in his understanding Peter had not grasped that the only way to glory is by way of the Cross. But there can be no experience of God’s glory that bypasses the way of the cross.
THE SLEEP OF NEGLIGENT FAILURE (Mark 14:37).
Peter is again with James and John, but it is Peter who is personally addressed. And this time the scene is anything but a mountain top experience of glory. If Jesus needed human support anywhere, it was in the Garden of Gethsemane. Again, there is the mitigating factor of them having been up all night, but surely all that had been shared by Christ at the Last Supper should have alerted them to the solemn significance of what Christ was about to undergo? This is the same Peter who only a short time ago had boasted that no matter what they others did, he would never desert Jesus (Mark 14:29) and if it came to the worst, he would rather die than deny Jesus (Mark 14:31). Had all that just been a dream? Like Rip van Winkle, who had slept through the American revolution only to awaken and find himself without a king? Peter was passionate about his devotion to Christ, but at times fell far short of his commitment. His words didn’t always match his practice.
THE SLEEP OF UNQUESTIONING TRUST (Acts 12:6).
This time Peter is on his own, apart from those guarding him. And we find him fast asleep again. Facing certain death on the next day at the hands of Herod, “Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries before the door were guarding the prison”. How is it possible to fall into a deep sleep in a situation like that? The Peter who languishes in Herod’s jail is a quite different man from what he had been. No longer impulsive and making promises he could not keep, he has been so transformed by the Holy Spirit that he can safely lie down in His cell knowing that whatever happens, God knows what He is doing.
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