³⁸Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me”… ⁴⁰And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? ⁴¹ Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”… ⁴³Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy… ⁴⁵Then He came to the 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. ⁴⁶Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

Incautious behavior, inattentiveness to Jesus’ struggle in prayer, and general spiritual inactivity contrast with Judas’ active, well-planned and executed betrayal about to take place. Like a thief in the night, Judas came leading a posse of Jesus’ enemies to steal Him away and bring Him to trial, while the so-called faithful disciples fell asleep on their Master. The Lord had charged them to be alert, but they took no heed; they did not prepare for what would happen. Sleeping at such an eventful moment wasn’t excusable as after-eating drowsiness, as we see from Jesus’ response to them. There is no evidence of their being sleep-deprived. Three times the Lord sternly spoke to them, either instructing them to “keep watch” with Him or rebuking them for sleeping on the job.

For what were they to watch? The word carries with it the idea of staying alert, not falling asleep or being distracted. They should have known from Jesus’ earlier statement that evening that trouble was coming:

“You will all fall away because of Me this night, for it is written, ‘I will strike down the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered.’” (Matt. 26:31)

Jesus wasn’t talking about being prepared for an ambush. No, they were to stay alert in prayer along with Jesus (vs. 38). We suggest that they were to be alert to temptation just as Jesus was praying, that they also would submit to the Father’s will and not to their human impulses to fight. He wasn’t teaching them to pray or praying for them. He was praying for Himself! Going to the cross was not going to be a cakewalk for the incarnate Christ.

We will shortly ask the question, how could this incarnate God-man pray as He did, and then do it three times, to have the “cup” removed from Him? But for now, we simply note that the failure of His disciples was not unexpected. It was going to get worse; they would go beyond sleeping when they should have been alert; they would abandon Him! Jesus could have left them asleep and gone by Himself to surrender to Judas and the authorities, but He didn’t. The Lord wanted His eleven disciples to see Him in the word picture Isaiah painted:

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, so He did not open His mouth. (Isa. 53:7)

The disciples were to not miss this fulfillment of prophecy, so they could later testify to the facts. But a time was coming when they would realize God’s will in what was about to happen, Jesus’ crucifixion. Peter, on the day of Pentecost, boldly proclaimed God’s will to the people in Jerusalem:

[T]his Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death. (Acts 2:23)

Our Lord Jesus Christ is not deterred from accomplishing His will, despite our failures, doubts, and disobedience. We may regret that, at times, we are not spiritually alert and make decisions without consulting God in prayer; however, He is not limited in what He wants to accomplish. We may struggle with our failures, but God does not. His warnings and chastisements are not because He thinks of us as failures; otherwise, we would all be consigned to the dungeon of spiritual defeat. The Lord knows our spiritual shortcomings even before we act in ways outside of His will, yet we can be assured His will is not impeded. The apostle John wrote about what he learned: “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13).

Therefore, just as Jesus commanded His disciples in the midst of their failure to faithfully be alert, He says to them and to us, “Get up, let us be going.” He still wants us with Him in the mission to reach the world, regardless of how often we may fail.

Lord, hearing that You are faithful even when I am not, motivates me not to wallow in my guilt, but to walk more faithfully with You. Help me embrace Your will even when it is difficult to accept.