Mark 14:41 And he comes the third time, and said to them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold… 1. The first thought suggested by this text is that the Son of Man may even now be betrayed into the hands of sinners. Men are apt to imagine that had they lived in the time of Christ they would not thus and thus have treated Him. But they who despise Him unseen would have spurned Him to His face. The enemies of Christ's Church are the enemies of Christ. Even in our own day Christ may be betrayed. He may be betrayed by His own disciples. The disposition to surrender Him to enemies may still exist; a disposition to secure the favour of the world at His expense. In this sense, for example, it may well be said that the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners when the truth respecting Him is given up to errorists, or cavillers, or infidels; when His divinity is called in question; when His eternal Sonship is degraded or denied; when the sinless perfection of His human nature is tainted by the breath of dubious speculation; when His atonement is disfigured or perverted; when the value of His cross and bloody passion is depreciated; when His place in the system of free grace is taken from Him and bestowed on something else. To mention one other example; Christ is betrayed into the hands of sinners when His gospel is perverted; His example dishonoured; and Himself represented as the Minister of sin. O Christian! have you ever thought that every inconsistent and unworthy act of yours is one step towards be. fraying Him whom you profess to love? 2. Another thought which I suggest is, that when the cause of Christ is about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners, His disciples are to watch unto prayer, lest they enter into temptation. 3. Another thought, and that a melancholy one, is, that when Christ's disciples are thus left to watch, whilst He is interceding with the Father, they too often fall asleep. Some, in the touching language of the gospel, may be "sleeping for sorrow." But oh! how many others sleep for sloth and spiritual indifference. It is no time to sleep. The Church, Christ's weeping bride, and the dying souls of men are at your pillow, shrieking in your ears, like the shipmaster in the ears of Jonah, "What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise; call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not." 4. But, alas! this warning voice is often heard in vain. Amidst a world lying in wickedness, amidst the untold miseries produced by sin, amidst the fierce attacks of open enemies on the Son of Man, His friends, His chosen friends, sleep on. And that sleep would prove to be the sleep of death, if we had not an High Priest who can be touched with the sense of our infirmities, and when He sees us thus asleep, comes near and arouses us. There may be some before me now, who, though sincere believers, have been overcome by sleep. Your senses and your intellects may be awake, your conscience has its fitful starts and intervals of wakefulness when scared out of its slumbers by terrific dreams. But your affections are asleep. You hear the gospel, but it is like the drowsy lull of distant waters, making sleep more sound; you see its light, but with your eyelids closed, and so subdued is its splendour that it only soothes the sense and deepens its repose. If this is your experience, I appeal to you, and ask you whether, even in this dreamy state, you have not felt the gentle hand of Christ at times upon you. Has not your house been visited by sickness? But it is not only in personal afflictions that the Saviour rouses you. Have you not felt His hand in public trials? Have you not felt it in the trials of the Church? Have you had no signal mercies since you fell asleep? Besides the voice of personal afflictions, and of public trials, and of private mercies, there is a voice in public mercies too. But when our Lord had for the third time fallen prostrate and arisen, when He came a third time to His friends, and found them sleeping, He no longer expostulated; He no longer asked whether they could not watch with Him one hour. There is something far more awful in this mild but significant permission to sleep on, than in all the invectives or reproofs He could have uttered. "Sleep on henceforth, and take your rest." That this may not prove to be indeed the case, we must arise and call upon our God; we must come up to the help of the Lord against the mighty. But, oh! remember, that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. When the presumptuous Simon was at last aroused, and saw his Master's danger, he thought to atone by violence for past neglect. And many a modern Simon does the same. When once aroused they draw the sword of fiery fanaticism. But is there no danger from an opposite direction? Is it any consolation that the sword is in its scabbard, if the bearers of the sword are fast asleep instead of watching? (J. A. Alexander, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. |
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