“Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.”Matthew 24:42 ESV
Reflection: why does the Lord have to remind His followers to “stay awake”?
Have you asked yourself the question – What is actually “the world“? And, if so, you probably had a follow up question – How does “the world” work? A number of years ago, a new trend of thinking became popular, some referring to this as an “awakening”, or something similar to that. This movement has led to the new term “conspiracy theory”, often used to deflect or minimize an idea, and therefore prevent people from looking further into it. But for many, the “cat’s out of the bag” on many things, so to speak. Many books have been written, even movies made such as “the matrix”, trying to describe what we experience in the world as an illusion, in a way, that our experiences are in a way manufactured. That “the world” controls what we hear and see, what we therefore think. There are certainly many events we can study and see why some have come to such conclusions. Because, if we think honesty for just a moment about ourselves, we are easily distracted, easily manipulated and can therefore be misled.
Now, you might be one that says about yourself “I can tell the difference between what is true, and what is fake”. How? What do you base your “truth” on? What you see? Read? Been told by reliable people? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ, He challenges His followers to “stay awake”, as we can see in the focus verse today. Why would He say that, and awake from what? In fact, the Bible is full of all kinds of references to stay awake, to be alert, not to slumber and to not fall sleep; both in the Old Testament and the New Testament. Paul wrote to the followers in Rome “Besides this you know the time, that the hour has come for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed.” Romans 13:11 ESV. Interesting, right?
Jesus also spoke extensively about being awake and staying awake. Clearly the awake state here is about being spiritual awake, about being prepared and ready for His coming. He was obviously very concerned about this, as we can read an extensive account of his concerns in Matthew chapters 24-25. Let’s read a small section. If these chapters are very familiar to you, I suggest to focus on finding how many references Jesus makes of being awake, alert, unaware or slumbering, asleep, etc.
“For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into.” Matthew 24:37-43 ESV
Since Jesus so often warns us to wake up, and “stay awake”, there must be things of this world that can make us “fall asleep”, spiritually speaking? He mentions a few here, “they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage,” which sounds all like normal life to most of us, right? Can life itself make us fall asleep spiritually? There is a deeper point here, that the focus and worries of this life in the world will dominate us, and cause us to fall asleep spiritually. Lose focus on what actually matters. Jesus says in the parable of the seed and the sower. “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”Matthew 13:22 ESV.
Are you awake and alert, spiritually speaking? Or are you letting this world consume you?
In these days, which one can argue look a lot like what Jesus told us about would come in the last days, we must wake up and stay awake. Stay alert. There is a lot going on right now that can take our attention. That can even lead us astray. Take some time with the Lord today. I recommend reading all of Matthew chapters 24 and 25, in one sitting, to better understand what Jesus is trying to tell us, and to warn us about, so that we can be ready for His coming. “Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:44 ESV