Matthew 26:38, 40, 43 — Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour? And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.
There are times when we need to stay awake — but we just can’t do it! I guess this thought came on me today as I have returned to work after the Christmas vacation.When that happens, we have to revert to our “working” sleep schedule: To bed at 10:00 and up at 5:30 during the week. One of the few times my beloved Myra gets even a little tetchy is when I start to drop off before bedtime!
There are times when we need to be awake. We find ourselves dealing with conflicting forces. One is our ability to endure, another is the expectation (ours or somebody else’s). Another is the importance of the situation.
I have often wondered what the failure of the three disciples in the garden teaches us. One way to look at it is as a purely human drama. A man, at the end of his tether, asks his friends to support Him. The friends, exhausted by the drama of the previous few days, simply can’t deliver. In the end, as Jesus Himself said, “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”.
There’s another way of looking at it. What happens in the garden is yet one more element in the spiritual battle Jesus must fight. There is an inexorable process marching Jesus to the cross, to the place where He is absolutely alone, where the agonized cry — “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?” — is torn from His Lips. His family are not with Him. Now His favorite disciples are cracking. Soon they will all be gone. Jesus is driven to the tenderest of rebukes — “what, could you not watch with me one hour?”, but then to recognize, perhaps, that these men that he has labored over for three years are still not ready — cannot be ready until they go through their lesser crisis as He goes through His supreme crisis.
So, too, it is with all of us. There are times when we are beyond our limits. We want to endure, we want to meet the expectations, we know how important the situation is — but we are beyond our limits. What can we do? There is a time when we must surrender our pride, and confess our weakness. Perhaps this is the lesson, in the end, that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” taught him, for what did God tell him? ” My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”(2 Corinthians)
I’m not sure I’ve really managed to express what I mean today. I know I haven’t got far enough into the questions of the sleepy disciples. I’d welcome insights from others!