When the Savior Slept
“And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.”
Matthew 8:24 NASBS
The physical exhaustion of Christ’s ministry, though He was fully God, displays His true and full humanity. He labored in the fields of this world, straining every sinew, every fiber, and every muscle of His body. He poured out His life in perfect obedience to His Father in heaven, ultimately offering Himself as the spotless sacrifice for sinners.
In the verse above, Jesus had just finished the Sermon on the Mount and had been ministering intensely in Capernaum—cleansing a leper, healing the centurion’s servant, and restoring Peter’s mother-in-law. Large crowds were pressing in around Him. Seeing the growing multitude, Jesus gave orders to depart to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. For a moment, He withdrew from the physical demands of preaching and serving. So they pushed out onto the sea and the Scriptures tell us, “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep.”
The Word of God gives us profound insight into the true humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though fully God and yet fully man, we see that the afflictions and demands of this life brought real physical weariness to His body. We see the Lord, for a brief moment, laying His head upon the wooden surface of a fishing boat. Here we behold the weakness of true humanity—and the strength of perfect trust. Jesus slept because the boat was in His Father’s hands. He rested in sovereign confidence.
At the outset of His ministry, after forty days in the wilderness being tempted by Satan, we see Him strengthened by angels. At the end of His earthly ministry, we see Him in Gethsemane crying out to His Father, His sweat becoming like drops of blood as He agonized in prayer and submitted Himself to the cross. Jesus left nothing undone. He loved the helpless. He encouraged the fainthearted. He healed the suffering. And in the greatest act of love, He gave His life on the cross for sinners such as you and me.
Concerning this, the author of Hebrews writes: “In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.”
Jesus did not become morally perfect—He was always without sin—but through suffering He was perfected in His role as our High Priest and Redeemer. He came down from heaven not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. In the final moments of His earthly life, as His breath was leaving His body, He declared, “It is finished,” and then, “Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.” His death and resurrection were not a tragic end but the triumphant fulfillment of His mission, drawing to Himself all who come in faith and repentance.
Beloved of God, the life of Jesus Christ sets before us the example of what a true servant of God should aspire to be—humble, obedient, tireless in love, yet resting fully in the sovereign will of the Father. From His labors in Galilee to the fulfillment of His death upon the cross, His work echoes into eternity.
May the Lord’s physical exertions bring deep conviction to all whom He has called to serve in this world. As followers of Christ, we have been commissioned to go into all the world and proclaim the love of God in Christ—to make disciples, calling all people to repentance and teaching them to obey everything Jesus has commanded. This is no small task; it is a divine commission.
God has placed His children strategically where He desires them to be. The question is: are we committed to the calling He has given us? Do we long to see His glory revealed in our sphere of influence? Do we labor to know His Word with all the energy which He mightily works within us—crying, “O Lord, that I may know You, be used by You, and become a vessel through which You rescue many from destruction”?
Beloved, let not the fleeting pleasures of sin, the attractions of earthly amusements, or the alluring smiles of a perishing world keep you from the mission field God has placed before you. May the Lord open the eyes of your heart to see the bloody cross and the empty tomb, and may this compel you to spend and be spent for the sake of the Gospel, loving all people as He first loved us.