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 arrest Him 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 something they could excuse as after-eating drowsiness or the results of being sleep-deprived.  Jesus’ rebuke tells us otherwise.

For what were they to “keep watch?” The word carries the idea of staying alert, not falling asleep or being distracted. They should have known from Jesus’ earlier statement 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)

They were to be alert to temptation just as Jesus was praying, and they also should submit to the Father’s will and not to their human impulses to fight. He wasn’t teaching them to pray nor was He praying for them. He was praying for Himself! Going to the cross was not going to be a cakewalk for the incarnate Jesus 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. 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 as the prophet Isaiah pictured:

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)

Jesus did not want the disciples to miss the fulfillment of this prophecy in order that they could later testify to the facts. A time was coming when they would realize God’s amazing plan in what was about to happen: Jesus’ crucifixion. In fact, on the Day of Pentecost, Peter boldly proclaimed God’s will to the people in Jerusalem:

This 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 He 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 be alert faithfully, 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.