Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak

 

 Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there."  And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.  Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.  Stay here and watch with Me."  He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."  Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What?  Could you not watch with Me one hour?  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."  And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.  So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.  Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?  Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going.  See, My betrayer is at hand."

 

- Matthew 26:36-46 

 

On Saturday, we read that as Jesus and the disciples were eating the Passover meal (in the final week of His earthly life), He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body."  Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you.  For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.  But I say to you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom."  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 of the flock will be scattered.'  But after I have been raised, I will go before you to Galilee."  Peter answered and said to Him, "Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble."  Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times."  Peter said to Him, "Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!"  And so said all the disciples. 

 

  Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, "Sit here while I go and pray over there."  And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.  Then He said to them, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.  Stay here and watch with Me."  He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will."  My study Bible comments that this cup refers to Christ's impending death.  It says that according to His divine nature, Jesus willingly goes to His death.  As human being, He wishes He could avoid it, for it is the mark of humanity to abhor death.  He prays if it is possible that it be taken from Him, thus giving abundant proof of His human nature.  Nonetheless, Jesus is without sin and completely subjects and unites His human will to the Father's divine will.  

 

 Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "What?  Could you not watch with Me one hour?  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, "O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done."  And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy.  So He left them, went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.  Then He came to His disciples and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and resting?  Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.  Rise, let us be going.  See, My betrayer is at hand."  My study Bible notes that Jesus' command, Watch and pray, is 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 Christ's vigilance, the disciples sleep.  Since body and soul are united, the spirit is paralyzed by a lethargic body.  A willing spirit, recognizing the weakness of the flesh, struggles against its weakness, relying on the presence and power of God.

 

In some sense, the sleeping of the disciples is symbolic of their own lack of awareness of what is happening.  Perhaps sleep, in this example, can be said to be a form of denial -- as Jesus has already named will be a part of the pattern that is coming (see Saturday's reading, above).  In this case, just as they denied that they could possibly be made to stumble ("Even if all are made to stumble because of You, I will never be made to stumble," said Peter), they are now sleeping and unaware of Christ's great struggle, even though He continually encourages them to watch and pray with Him, even though He's said, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death.  Stay here and watch with Me."  Jesus is their Lord, their Master, their Teacher, the One who has done so many magnificent signs of the presence of the power of God and the Kingdom.  He is the One who will go through all things, and has led them through all things.  But now He is "exceedingly sorrowful, even to death."  We might imagine what an impact this statement might make to those who have come to rely on His leadership and strength through all things.  Jesus says of Peter's failure to watch with Him, ""What?  Could you not watch with Me one hour?  Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.  The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."  Peter is asleep even to his own weakness at this point.  His sleep is, in a sense, an oblivion, a denial of the need to watch and pray, lest he enter into temptation.  In Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells Peter, "Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat."  We are to watch and pray especially at such times of deep distress, sorrow, high emotions such as fear and anger or other great passions, when we are shocked and shaken by what is happening, and our soul is in a kind of upheaval, where the unknown looms and panic is easy.  I have found that this is especially true when death is near, whether that be a loved one or in any other circumstance in which we are somehow involved or with which we are concerned.  These are the times when so many stumble, when we can lapse into our own resources of selfishness, cruelty, short-sightedness, and be asleep to the power of God in our lives and how God would lead us instead.  When we look carefully at the Scriptures, we'll see that Christ's command here is echoed for all of us, and several times, especially the call to alertness, wakefulness, to watch.  This goes along with prayer, for it means mindfulness.  This is the theme of the parables He has given in chapters 24 and 25.  As Jesus faces His greatest test, it is a time of terrible tragedy and trauma.  He knows that His death is a threat to the well-being of His Church, the disciples upon whom the Church will rest, and of course there is so much more to this story.  The paradox of the Cross, and of the nature of evil in the world, of God's seeming failure to eradicate that evil, will be with us always.  In the traumas we face in life and terrible times of struggle both within ourselves and that which we witness in events in our lives and our world, we will face such pressures, tensions, and questions of struggle.  Jesus calls His death the cup He must drink, as He is aware that His way must be that of the Cross.  One cannot imagine the tension and pressures on the human Jesus, the stakes that are as high as the whole width and depth and breadth of the cosmos, of creation itself.  But He has come to save, and this is the way He will do it.  Let us always watch and pray, so that we, also, are aware of what is happening and what we are about.  For there is one who will seek to take advantage of such times to sift us like wheat.  Let us watch and pray as He has taught, and not be asleep to our own real challenges and choices.