From the Editors October 21, 2013 Issue

Watch and pray? Or sleep on?

The Editors

“Couldn’t you three keep awake with me for a single hour? Watch and pray, all of you, that you may not have to face temptation. Your spirit is willing, but human nature is weak” (Matthew 26:40, 41, J. B. Phillips, The New Testament in Modern English). This was the plea Jesus made to his disciples as he faced the most daunting event of his earthly career. He begged them a second time to watch and pray. They still didn’t. When he went to them the third time, the King James Version of the Bible says he said to them, “Sleep on now, and take your rest” (Matthew 26:45). And, without their watchfulness and prayer, he moved on through his arrest, beatings, crucifixion, and the resurrection, deserted by most of them. 

Do we really want to sleep on—stay in the deadening material sense of existence?

In this moving incident, was Jesus first pointing out to the disciples what they needed most in order to face the events of his upcoming crucifixion? And then was he realizing that even if they failed to take his advice to watch and pray—yielding to sleep instead of being watchful—they would still learn (even if in a more difficult way) what they needed to know to progress spiritually? That their sleepiness and inaction at this crucial hour might have slowed down but could not stop their spiritual progress? We can only imagine that had they watched and prayed with him, how different their experience might have been. At the very least they might not have run away when he most needed their prayerful, vigilant support.

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