"He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”" Matthew 26:37-38
It’s not a complicated request that Jesus makes of three of his closest friends, when he takes them with him deeper into the garden of Gethsemane. He simply says, ‘Stay here and keep watch with me’.
Jesus was overwhelmed with sorrow Matthew says, even to the point of death – that’s not an exaggeration on his part. Jesus’ sorrow at the thought of being separated from his Father and having his anger burn against him, was very nearly too much to bear in his mortal body. His heart-soul was so troubled, that his heart-organ could have given out at that very moment.
It's in this condition that Jesus asks James, and John, and Peter to stay put and keep watch. He himself is going to go further into the garden alone, but he wants them to keep watch and he will be keeping watch too. That’s why he says, ‘keep watch with me’.
What does he mean? Maybe he anticipates the soldiers who are on their way to arrest him having been tipped off by Judas. After all, Jesus had already prophesied at the meal table that one of them was going to betray him. Is that what he means here?
Predicting his arrest, is he asking the disciples to watch out for the soldiers along with him?
It's not. We know that because of what he says when he returns after praying alone. Matthew says, ‘He returned to the disciples and found them sleeping’ – the opposite of watching. ‘“Couldn’t you keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”’.
Jesus is not concerned with side stepping his enemies – they are coming for him, and he knows it full-well. His concern is with the flesh.
The flesh, he knows, is so so weak. Weak enough, so that, even though the human spirit may be totally willing, the weakness of the human flesh may convince the human will to act contrary to its conviction.
What would that look like for Jesus? It would look like side-stepping the cross. Which, we know he could have done easily because, when the soldiers come to arrest him – just 10 verses later – and Peter draws his sword and cuts the ear of the high priest off, Jesus’ response is, ’Do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?’ – that’s no less than 72,000 angels!
Weak flesh in Jesus could produce that kind of power in Jesus – if he wasn’t watchful and prayerful.
When your soul is sorrowful to the point of death, that must be a temptation unlike any we could ever know or have ever known. Is it any wonder Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses? He was tempted as we are – and as we will never know!
But Jesus, as always, is concerned not only for himself. Of course, had he called on the legions of angels available to him, and not gone to the cross, then multitudes would have perished in their sins who haven’t and won’t perish, because he didn’t give in to the weakness of the flesh.
But that’s not what I’m talking about. What I mean is, Jesus is concerned that the disciples might fall prey to temptation too. What would that look like for them?
It would look like exactly what happened. Jesus is dumbfounded that, at the hour of his greatest need, his friends cannot keep watch with him for one hour. All three of them are found sleeping on three separate occasions when he returns from praying alone.
His counsel to them is, ‘do not rest; be alert; be alive; and pray’. They were tired, and they fell asleep, and they didn’t pray. And then, when the soldiers came and arrested Jesus, they could not do what they needed to do, but only what their weak flesh told them to do.
Instead of resisting the temptation to abandon their friend Jesus, they all, to a man, deserted him. Even Peter, who had said, ‘even all fall away, Lord; I will not’ fell away - only able, at best, to follow at a distance before denying Jesus three times. All because they did not watch and pray. They slept.
Peter would later say this, ‘Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude’. So, we might say, as we come to the table, we come to arm ourselves with the attitude of our suffering saviour in Gethsemane.
What attitude does Peter have in mind? He goes on like this, ‘The end of all things is near. Therefore, be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray’.
Peter wants us to be like Jesus in the garden not like him in the garden. The reason he wants us to pray is because, just like the end of things was near for him in the garden – namely Jesus was about to be arrested and put to death – so the end of all things is near for us.
Jesus is returning soon, and he expects to find all his people alert, awake, watching and praying so that they don’t fall asleep under the spell of this world and be found not to be ready!
I’ll finish with the way Jesus put it because it’s so earnest, ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come…If he comes suddenly, do not let him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch!’
Let the table remind us this morning to be watchful in prayer like Jesus was. Let him be our example.
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