Article January 2, 1954 Issue

WATCH

MAX DUNAWAY

When Christ Jesus summoned three of his followers to accompany him in the garden of Gethsemane on the night before his crucifixion, he gave them a simple but important command (Matt.26:38): "Watch with me." Certainly Jesus had every right to expect them to obey, for they had but a little while before affirmed their undying allegiance to him.

Yet when he returned to them, after going apart to pray, he found them last asleep. To Peter, who had protested his allegiance most vehemently of all, Jesus said (Matt. 26:40, 41): "Could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." That "the flesh is weak" was subsequently evidenced by this disciple's repeated denial that he even knew Jesus.

Why did Peter thus deny his Master? Was it mere fear for his own bodily safety? No, for he had drawn his sword in defense of Jesus when hopelessly outnumbered by the Master's enemies. Perhaps Peter's denial of his Master was not so much the result of cowardice as of a failure to cope with the subtle error that had caused him and his companions to sleep when Jesus had asked them to watch.

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