Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy.

Matthew 26:43

God, I hate that word. Woke. It gets tossed back and forth between political parties like a deflated beach ball. To some it’s a badge of honor–kind of a pop culture commitment to social justice issues. To others, it’s a symptom of some sort of out of touch delusion. Either way you look at it, it’s another political catchphrase, an attempt to define one group of people over another.

As “woke” as I have sometimes professed to be, I can’t shake the image of Jesus, there in the garden, asking:

“Can’t any of you stay awake?”

A lot of us have learned to talk in our sleep. We utter catchphrases, shallow sound bites, invectives aimed at our brothers and sisters. We repeat what we’ve read on social media, or our news channel of choice. We get stuck listening to the steady lull of our echo chambers.

And yet Jesus is standing over us, hands on his hips.

“Could you not stay awake for one hour?”

He is there, in the garden, as a reminder for me that what’s at stake is more than a battle of ideologies or political priorities. What’s at stake is the care of each precious soul in the world. To become and remain aware of that is an awesome responsibility not to be entertained lightly. I certainly think tackling social justice issues is a big part of that. But there are also ways of promoting personal responsibility and morality that might have a place as well. Discipleship can happen across the political spectrum.

I’ve known committed Christians who bleed blue or bleed red, or green, etc. I would contend that being truly awake to the Kingdom is to recognize that Jesus was willing to bleed love, for all of us. How we respond to that may look different from person to person, but we are called to be, as Paul says, “a holy, living sacrifice” for the world in Jesus’ name.

When I give lip service to or deny the need to be awake to God’s call to discipleship, I risk falling asleep on the job.

Let’s not cheapen our mission

with cheap words.

Have a great week,

Mitch