Sleeping for Sorrow

What this episode covers

You probably recognize the title phrase, “sleeping for sorrow,” describing the disciples falling asleep while Jesus prays in the Garden of Gethsemane. It’s an odd phrase, isn’t it? Matthew and Mark record that the disciples fell asleep because “their eyes were heavy”. We know that feeling, right? Just…can’t…stay…awake… Only Luke tells us that the cause of this overpowering tiredness is sorrow, grief. But he doesn’t say grief over what. Backing up, when Jesus got to the garden, he had asked the disciples to sit while he steps away a short distance to pray. He had taken three of them part of the way with him. Matthew tells us he then began to be “sorrowful”—the same word Luke uses of the disciples—and then he spoke to these three saying he was “exceedingly sorrowful”, the same word again but with a prefix indicating great intensity. Jesus says he has this sorrow “even to death”. The intensity of his grief is so great that it feels like he will die of it! Matthew and Mark record this level of the Lord’s grieving. Luke doesn’t use the same words, but he records that Jesus has great drops of sweat, like drops of blood—on a cold night. I don’t think we can really even imagine.

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