Simon, are you asleep?

[AI translation] I would now like to pick out just this one sentence from the story of the agony in the Garden of Goethe and put it before us all. I do not want to speak of the superhuman suffering, the hellish torment and death of Jesus, but of this single, painful question, full of so much love: 'Simon, are you asleep? Let us try to understand the message of God in this simple question before us today. Let us try to accept with honest sincerity that yes, we are: I am and you are the recipient! Let us put our own name in place of Simon's and so try to hear the question: are you X, or Y or Z, here in the church, asleep? Let's not say no right away! Let's not rush the answer! Let us think together about what this question means, and only then give an answer to it within ourselves!Jesus would have expected Simon not to sleep right now, even if he was tired! He asked him and the other disciples to pray with him now, to pray with him now, to pray with him now, because they could not help him in any other way. At least stay awake while He was suffering, agonizing, struggling, fighting the most difficult battle of His life against the great enemy, Satan and death. He is suffering for them! Let those for whose sake, for whose benefit this great struggle is being fought, at least do so much as to stand by Him with their interest, their prayer, their love. And behold, Peter is asleep, and the others are asleep! Jesus was hurt! He was doing his redemptive work, and his people were asleep.
And today he continues to do his redemptive work in the same way - and are you not asleep? The Lord fought that battle there in the Garden of Gethsemane, victoriously, but it is on the basis of that victory that He continues today His invisible, great struggle to save human souls, to extend His victory over human lives. The Word of God sometimes gives us a glimpse of this gigantic struggle. Is it not rather that he should turn from his way and live?" (Ezk 18,23) God is torn, as it were, with himself: he does not wish the death of the sinner, no, by no means! He wants the opposite! The apostle Peter expresses it: "He does not will that some should perish, but that all should come to repentance." (2Pt 3,9) So God wants to save everyone, not just some, privileged people, but everyone! Even those who do not want it, who do not know anything about this divine will! And if this is God's will, then it is obvious that he does everything in the way he does in order to bring about this will. God so moves events, so directs the destinies of men, that this saving will of his may be accomplished. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) Look at the awesome work God is doing in this world today with His judgment and grace! A whole world is in labor, a work of God. And where are you, believer, and where is the Christian Church in all this? Simon, are you asleep? Oh, how dreadful, are you asleep? Or are you not asleep?
And now again, let us not be hasty in answering, let us not say that we are not asleep, for we are here with the Lord in His house, listening to what He says! There may be many who are asleep, but we are here! Should not those who are doing something else instead of listening to the Word be shaken from their sleep? Is this not a question for those who are still in abundance in our congregation alone, such as the Reformed woman who, just yesterday, was found to have lived nearby for twenty years and did not even know that there was a Reformed church in Torocko Square? Isn't it her and people like her who should be screaming into their souls: man, are you asleep?! No, brothers! Because you can sleep not only away from there, but also here, in the church. Peter was not far from the Lord when he slept. They were not a stone's throw apart, Jesus' anguished words, his groanings were heard, and there, a few steps away, he was asleep! So you can sleep in the immediate vicinity of Jesus! Hearing the most precious words - one can fall asleep! One can sleep as a witness of the most terrible events! So let us not hide from it, let us not continue to address it, the question is for us: Simon, are you asleep? And Peter was not even alone, but with the other disciples. Alone, it happens even sooner to a weary man that he is oppressed by sleep. But he was in a community where they could look after each other so as not to fall asleep! And instead they all fell asleep! So you can sleep in a community of disciples. Just because someone is not alone, lonely, disconnected from the church community, is no guarantee that they are really awake and alert! For behold, a whole community, a whole congregation can sleep! Brothers and sisters, are we not all asleep? Oh that it were not my voice speaking, but Jesus were now asking our souls, "Simon, are you asleep?" Obviously, it is sleep in the spiritual sense.
But what does it mean to sleep spiritually? Some guidance in this regard is given by the fact that Jesus here calls Peter by his old name, Simon, as Peter was called before he met Jesus. Peter was the new name Jesus gave him. So Jesus does not say, Peter, are you asleep? It's Simon! There is something symbolic in this, that is, that spiritual sleep means that the old has overcome the new, the old man has come forward and has taken the place of the new. So when the old man, the old nature of a born-again man comes out again, we say that he is asleep! So he sleeps who was once awake! There was Peter before, and now there is Simon again: he who was before. Where has Peter gone, where has all the love, the flame, the joy, the peace, the whole, precious, new life that Jesus gave in an encounter? Was it even true that you loved the Lord, heard his voice, would lay down your life for him, had every thought for him - or was it not true? And yet it was a great joy when Simon became Peter, Saul Paul, and you became a redeemed new man! Is it possible that now all is turning back again? Can Peter become Simon again? Well, this reversal, this relapse, is spiritual sleep! The sleeping man does not know what is happening around him, he does not see clearly, he does not live in the real world, but only dreams: either he conjures up deceptive dream images from the past, or he weaves colourful dreams of the future from fantasy threads - he does not live in this world: he dreams. Therefore the sleeping man is of no use. But while physical sleep is a gathering of strength, spiritual sleep is a waste of strength, a weakening, a relapse, a sinking! "Simon, are you asleep?" Well, is not the Lord speaking to you?
Jesus goes on to say, "Could you not watch for one hour?" It really would have been no great achievement! One hour is all you can stand! It's really not nice of Peter not to have taken the strain! - Well, can you take care for an hour? Let's put it this way: to be with Jesus very intensely for an hour? Can you sometimes take time at home to listen to the Word of God? Isn't it the case that many times weeks go by without you being able to spend a single hour awake to the Word of God? How you have rejoiced in the Bible, how many precious messages God has given you! You felt infinitely rich, for rich is God your Father, Who daily supplies you with His gifts! How good it was to be with Him in long, blessed silences! And now? One of the surest signs of spiritual sleep is what Jesus says: Could you not watch for an hour? How strange the man is: Peter wanted to fight, to die for Jesus. He spoke big words: Even if everyone denies you, I won't! I am ready to go with you to prison and to death! Yes, that was Peter's heroism just a few hours before. He wanted to do many great things for Jesus, but he couldn't spend an hour awake with him! When a man imagines how good it would suit him now to make a heroic stand for Jesus, he diligently encourages others to do so! But he is not able to spend one hour with Him in inner suffering.
At last year's evangelisation we held a prayer service. Then we saw how difficult it is to watch and struggle in prayer for an hour. Tonight the evangelization begins as advertised. Has anyone struggled in prayer for it? Is there anyone who will be able to pray for the souls, for the evangelizer, really struggling, fighting, as one who knows that he is now taking part in Christ's great battle against Satan? At the end of this new time of grace, will he not again say, Lord, "You could not watch for an hour? Brothers and sisters, sleep is very similar to death. Especially spiritual sleep! There is also a sleep from which there is no waking. Sleep so deep that it is useless to shake him, he will never wake up again, he will fall asleep into death! Is there any awakening for us? Peter did not wake up by himself, Jesus came to him and woke him up. But in fact, he really woke up when he saw the suffering face of Jesus, his mocked being, there in the courtyard of the high priest. When his eyes met the eyes of the suffering Jesus. He began to wake up when he repented, when he wept bitterly! Such an occasion the Lord is preparing for us now in the evangelization that begins today! He wants to shake up every sleeping Simon, he wants to reveal his sufferings to us, he wants to look at us with his gentle eyes so that we may awaken to repentance!
"Simon, are you asleep?" How do you answer this question? Can you say with me, Yes, Lord! But come, shake me also out of my stupor, out of my deep, deadly sleep! He who can answer so honestly is already in a state of awakening! Let us pray with the words of our song:
In my spiritual trials, Jesus, be with me,
Let not my life falter from you.
Fear if it hurts or gain haunts me,
Let me not be parted from you for anything.
If the charms of this world beckon me,
It offers me great deceitful vices:
Set before my eyes thy sufferings,
Thy holy cross crowned with blood.
(Canto 338, verses 1-2)
Amen
Date: 11 May 1952.