Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation

 

 Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:

'I will strike the Shepherd,

And the sheep will be scattered.'

"But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee."  Peter said to Him, "Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be."  Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times."  But he spoke more vehemently, "If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!"  And they all said likewise.

Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray."  And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed.  Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.  Stay here and watch."  He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.  And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.  Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."  Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you sleeping?  Could you not watch one hour?  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words.  And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.  Then He came the third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?  It is enough!  The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going.  See, My betrayer is at hand."

 

- Mark 14:27–42 

 

Yesterday we read that on the first day of Unleavened Bread, when they killed the Passover lamb, His disciples said to Him, "Where do You want us to go and prepare, that You may eat the Passover?"  And He sent out two of His disciples and said to them, "Go into the city, and a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him.  Wherever he goes in, say to the master of the house, 'The Teacher says, "Where is the guest room in which I may eat the Passover with My disciples?"'  Then he will show you a large upper room, furnished and prepared; there make ready for us."  So His disciples went out, and came into the city, and found it just as He had said to them; and they prepared the Passover.  In the evening He came with the twelve.  Now as they sat and ate, Jesus said, "Assuredly, I say to you, one of you who eats with Me will betray Me."  And they began to be sorrowful, and to say to Him one by one, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  And another said, "Is it I?"  He answered and said to them, "It is one of the twelve, who dips with Me in the dish.  The Son of Man indeed goes just as it is written of Him, but woe to that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed!  It would have been good for that man if he had never been born."  And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, blessed it and broke it, and gave it to them and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  Then He took the cup, and when He had given thanks He gave it to them, and they all drank from it.  And He said to them, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many.  Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new in the kingdom of God."  And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.

 

 Then Jesus said to them, "All of you will be made to stumble because of Me this night, for it is written:  'I will strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered.'  But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee."  Peter said to Him, "Even if all are made to stumble, yet I will not be."  Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times."  But he spoke more vehemently, "If I have to die with You, I will not deny You!"  And they all said likewise.  Jesus quotes from the prophecy of Zechariah 13:7.  Speaking also prophetically, He tells Peter that, despite Peter's vehement assurances to the contrary, "today, even this night, before the rooster crows twice, you will deny Me three times."

 

Then they came to a place which was named Gethsemane; and He said to His disciples, "Sit here while I pray."  And He took Peter, James, and John with Him, and He began to be troubled and deeply distressed.  Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.  Stay here and watch."  Gethsemane means "oil press."  It is an orchard of olive trees at the foot of the Mount of Olives.  My study Bible comments that Christ intentionally came to the place known to His betrayer Judas, one of His disciples (see John 18:2).  This shows that He was going to His Passion willingly and voluntarily.  It reveals Christ went to find Judas rather than Judas finding Christ.  Taken together in this context, we understand Christ is fully aware of this night as the beginning of His Passion, His way to betrayal and the Cross.  Hence He is troubled and deeply distressed, and His fully human identity is revealed in His words and His need for His closest disciples (Peter, James, and John), the ones of greatest faith.  There is no doubt that the sorrow in His soul is also connected to His concerns about His flock, what they will undergo, how they will respond, and how they will fare without Him in the flesh as their Protector and Leader.

He went a little farther, and fell on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from Him.  And He said, "Abba, Father, all things are possible for You.  Take this cup away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will, but what You will."    Abba in Aramaic is the familiar form for Father, my study Bible says.  It is equivalent to "Papa," and indicates Christ's intimacy with God the Father.  This cup is a reference to Christ's impending death, my study Bible explains.  According to His divine nature, Jesus goes to His death.  But as a man, He wishes He could avoid it -- for it is the mark of humanity to abhor death.   He prays to the Father, "Take this cup away from Me," showing His human nature; "nevertheless, not what I will but what You will."  He is without sin and completely subjects and unites His human will to the Father's divine will.  

 

Then He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "Simon, are you sleeping?  Could you not watch one hour?  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  Again He went away and prayed, and spoke the same words.  And when He returned, He found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy; and they did not know what to answer Him.  Then He came the third time and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?  It is enough!  The hour has come; behold, the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going.  See, My betrayer is at hand."  Jesus tells the disciples, "Watch and pray."  These are also the bywords He has given to all of us for the period in which we live, while we await His Second Coming (see this reading).   My study Bible calls this phrase the key to Christian spirituality and our struggle against temptation.  It says that by this, the Lord's human soul is strengthened, and He faces death with divine courage.  In contrast to the vigilance of Jesus, the disciples are sleeping.  Since body and soul are united, my study Bible says, the spirit is paralyzed by a lethargic body.  A willing spirit recognizes the weakness of the flesh, and struggles against its weakness, relying on God's presence and power.  

Jesus goes toward His death as a hero, in a heroic way.  This is not to say that He is a kind of conventional conquering hero -- one who slays His enemies in front of Him and dominates everybody.  On the contrary, He is prepared to go to His death on the Cross as a kind of victim.  That is, a victim of the plots of the religious leadership and their manipulation of the people, because He gets in the way of their power and positions.  But, on the other hand, a victim is not one with the power that Christ has, the miraculous powers witnessed throughout His ministry, or His compelling power to speak which subdued and daunted even the police in the temple who came to arrest Him (see John 7:45-46).  We also know of Jesus' testimony to the power of prayer (see Mark 11:23), and we certainly know the power of the Son to pray to the Father ("Do you think that I cannot now pray to My Father, and He will provide Me with more than twelve legions of angels?" - Matthew 26:53).  No, this is not at all a victim, except to the eyes of those who know nothing about the Christ and His identity as Son and the compelling nature of His character, leadership, and popular ministry.  He only looks like a victim to the eyes of those for whom strictly material appearances have meaning without depth of any kind.  Christ faces death for one reason only:  out of loyalty to the Father's will, and because He knows that this is the way to defeat death for human beings, the final enemy, and to destroy the "prince of this world" who holds human beings in a kind of slavery.  That is the power of the Cross, and there is so much more that His Passion, death, and Resurrection holds for us.  This is the ultimate power of God to transfigure and transform life for human beings, and the one way to salvation.  Because the one thing that God will not do is to compel us to love God.  Our choices are still our own.  Coercion will not save anybody; only repentance can work in the heart.  It is the devil who enslaves and compels and manipulates, not our loving God.  So Jesus goes to the Cross as a hero who faces sacrifice for the sake of all:  in yesterday's reading (above) Jesus says, "This is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many" (for many is an Aramaic expression meaning "for all").  He tells His disciples to "Watch and pray" and so we should remember these words in Gethsemane.  For Jesus' earthly and human soul is in anguish, but nevertheless He subjects His human will to the divine.  He gives us a model of love.  This is the love of a man who walks into battle against the odds because it is the one way others have a chance of being saved, or of a mother who endures all manner  of hardship to care for her children.  It is not the way that sees only prosperity as the reward for good behavior or a simplistic and materialistic sense of the good life to which all are entitled.  This is the heroism of those who understand that we don't live in a perfect world, and there are times when we need to stand up to a crowd, or be humiliated for the sake of those whom we love, or even to take one on the chin for the team.  Life is not just a set of simplistic material values but involves a deeper sense of honor and ultimately of love that is the real treasure without which our souls seem empty.  Christ's heroism is the heroism of the One who cares for us and seeks to nurture and protect us, even to the point of dying for us.  And we watch His example and honor Him by taking His word to heart:  we must watch and pray with Him, even as He goes to His betrayal.  As human beings, we know His agony and we know His torment, the human loathing and terror of death and the terrible anticipation of extreme suffering.  We also will face betrayal in life, and friends who stumble, and who sleep when we need them, and we know the struggle against the weakness of flesh.  Let us watch and pray with Him, for our Lord has descended into this world to face suffering and death with us, to liberate us through His love and compassion and sacrifice for us, and He leaves us with the gift of His word.