"But Jesus was sleeping."
(Matthew 8:23)
There is a story about Jesus sleeping on a boat. A fierce storm comes and Jesus stays asleep. The people on the boat frantically wake him and Jesus tells the storm to stop (which it does).
Can't you imagine an exhausted Jesus awoken from much needed sleep? Not excited to be awake and basically rebukes both his friends and the storm (read the whole thing: Matt. 8:23-27).
There is a lot to contemplate and learn from this story, but one thing that made me chuckle over the last couple of weeks was the human-ness of Jesus. He needed sleep and he was so tired that he could sleep through anything. I think I know that exhaustion - with a baby having a cold, then teething then getting her 6 month shots, I've been awake multiple times each night for about a month now. I really do think that I could sleep through a horrible storm - in fact, it may be easier to sleep through a fierce storm than through the cries and screams of my little girl :-).
But this story made me realize afresh my own error in not taking seriously the human-ness of Jesus. Jesus is fully God and fully man and that is so difficult to wrap my brain around (haven't yet and probably never fully will). There are times when I and others seem to glorify the apostle Paul as the way we should live life, as the model for what it means to follow Jesus. This isn't bad to do, but I think it is wrong if we consciously or subconsciously discount Jesus' life and the way he lived because he is God. It is as if I brush off his words and his examples saying "but that's just Jesus" or thinking "surely what Jesus meant by his words was _____." I read about Jesus and seem to forget that He is the one I want to emulate, not someone who was/is deeply affected by Jesus. Again, I pray "Jesus, I am desperate for YOU."
