Mark 14:37-38

‘And he comes and finds them sleeping and says to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not watch one hour. Watch and pray that you enter not into testing. The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.”

The battle within Him went on for an hour, and then He returned to the three who were with Him. We are not told why He did so. Perhaps He sought comfort from their presence and their prayers. Possibly He hoped for the sustaining strength of their vigil with Him. But instead He found them asleep. Even His closest friends were failing Him at the hour of His greatest need. They had not, of course, slept the whole hour. They had watched, and prayed, and waited, and then gradually been taken over by sleep, because they did not understand His sense of urgency. That the sleep was partially blameworthy comes out in the question. But it was the sleep of total exhaustion, possible to them because they were not awake to the urgency of the hour. The adrenalin was not flowing. The rebuke was therefore not strong. And His concern was for what it would mean for them rather than for Himself.

‘Simon.' Jesus' regular way of addressing Peter (Matthew 16:17; Matthew 17:25; Luke 22:31; John 21:15; contrast Luke 22:34). But although He addressed Peter He was speaking to them all.

‘Could you not watch one hour?' Rebuke is unquestionably there. And also incredulity. He was so fully aware of the forces that they were facing that He found it difficult to comprehend the carelessness of His disciples in not being aware of them, for He had warned them of them beforehand (Luke 22:31). But He had not yet finished His praying or received His final answer from His Father. Thus His return at this point demonstrated either that He was checking whether the three were fulfilling their responsibility, for their own sake, or that in His humanness He felt the need for prayerful companionship. Or both. In the agony of His praying He had not forgotten them and their needs.

‘Watch and pray that you do not enter into testing.' The plural indicates that He now specifically switched His attention to all three. This rebuke was so like Jesus. His concern was not because they had failed Him but because they were failing themselves. He had taught them to pray, “Do not lead us into testing” (Matthew 6:13). And never had there been a time more than this when such a prayer was needed. He had warned Simon that Satan had desired to have him in order to test him out (Luke 22:31). He had warned him that he would deny Him three times in a short space of time (Mark 14:30; Luke 22:34). How earnestly then he should have been praying. And yet neither he nor the others could stay awake and pray. Had Peter done so what followed for him might not have happened.

‘Testing (peirasmos).' Testing so severe that it cannot be overcome. That is what the Christian should seek God's help to avoid. That is what the disciples were to seek to avoid. But their failure meant that they were not ready when the test came. It is those who pray continually before the test comes who will be able to overcome. When it comes it is too late to start praying (compare Mark 9:29).

‘The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.' The idea of the ‘willing spirit' is taken from Psalms 51:12, where it is linked with ‘the Holy Spirit' (Psalms 51:11) and a ‘steadfast spirit' (Psalms 51:10). But because they failed to pray the Holy Spirit could not strengthen them and their spirits would not prove steadfast. Thus the flesh, which spoke of human physical weakness and concern only with the material, triumphed.

But fortunately for them it would lead to a ‘broken spirit' and a broken and contrite heart (Psalms 51:17) and they would find a way back. He was reminding them that, as with David in his sin, there was a way back.