The night that Jesus was going to be betrayed by Judas, He went out with the rest of His disciples to a place that He often went to for prayer. Luke 22:39-46 says, "Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. On reaching the place, He said to them, 'Pray that you will not fall into temptation.' He withdrew about a stone's throw beyond them, knelt down, and prayed, 'Father, if You are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.' An angel from Heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 'Why are you sleeping?' He asked them. 'Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.'"
Jesus knew this night that He was going to be betrayed. Imagine the stress that was on His shoulders. He knew that all of His friends were going to abandon Him, His close friend would betray Him, He would be beaten to the point where even His own mother could not recognize Him, and He would have to take the cup of wrath that was created by every sin that has ever existed and ever will exist. He was probably not feeling too happy about the situation that He was going to go through. He was so distressed that He went into hematidrosis, which is a rare but serious medical condition that occurs when a person is under great distress and the blood and water in their body mix and the person actually sweats blood. These types of conditions are only reached during events as stressful as war and unexpected death penalty sentences. It is a sign of stress beyond stress.
An interesting piece of this is verses 44-45, "And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. When He rose from prayer and went back to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow." Both Jesus and the disciples were going through difficult times. The disciples were filled with sorrow, and Jesus was in distress. Here is the big difference between the two: Jesus chose to pray and the disciples chose to sleep. Why is this important?
Jesus is setting an example. He says, in verse 46, "'Why are you sleeping?' He asked them. 'Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.'" When Jesus prayed, an angel from God came and gave Him the strength to do what He needed to do. When the disciples slept, they acted in violence when the guards came to arrest Jesus and they fled from His side. They were not following God's will!
When we come under stressful situations, we should not sleep. We should be up and praying! Jesus gives us a perfect example through His life. When something goes wrong and you feel stressed out, do not sleep it off: pray through it. If the situation gets more stressful, be like Jesus and pray even more earnestly. Prayer should be our first response, not sleep. It is easy to say, "I've had a long day, let me go to bed before I think of all of the bills that I have to pay and how little money I have to pay for it," or "I've had such a long day with my marriage going wrong, I just need to crawl into bed." We should be praying, not going to bed! Sleeping won't fix the problems, but God can! We must follow the example of Jesus and pray when things get hard. Do not sleep under distress, but pray instead.
-D
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