Matthew 26:41

“Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Jesus, knowing how very important it is for them, tells them that they must not only ‘watch' but must also ‘pray'. Testing lies ahead for them, testing of a supreme kind (see Luke 22:31), and He longs that they may be saved from it. Even in the midst of His own agony His heart reaches out to His disciples, and He is aware how great their need is to engage in prayer. His tenderness is also revealed in that He recognises the vain struggles that they have made as they have fought to stay awake. He knew that the cause of their failure did not lie in their lack of spirit, it arose because of the weakness of the flesh, and because in their humanness they were facing forces that they were unable to counter.

The spirit is that part of a man which is the very centre of his self-awareness (1 Corinthians 2:11) and can be illuminated by the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:14). It is the Godward part of man (‘the image and likeness of God'), and here clearly includes the determined spiritual heart and will. The flesh is the wholly human and animal aspect of man with all its physical weaknesses and proneness to self-interest and lack of interest in spiritual things, and lack of will towards anything that is good. It is controlled by fleshly weaknesses and fleshly desires (not all necessarily sinful) and wants nothing but to satisfy them. We may surmise that the weakness of their flesh here was partly due to the activity of Satan (who had desired to have Peter - Luke 22:31; compare Ephesians 6:12). Only such pressure would help to explain why men like these could not keep awake in spite of their determination. Indeed much that happened on that night can only be explained in terms of his activity. He was trying every trick he knew. He probably actually thought that he had a chance of winning. He had failed to see what he was up against. He still could not bring himself to the certainty that God had emptied Himself to this extent and had really become this seemingly weak and frail man.

The contrasts here must not be overlooked. There was only One present Whose spirit was strong enough to take Him through the physical and spiritual perils of that night. Even these brave men whom He had spent so much time in training could not cope with them. There was only One, Who in His aloneness had to represent the whole of mankind, Who was able to stand firm against the spiritual powers of darkness. Other men would one day finally overcome what man had once fallen prey to in a previous Garden, because One was here Whose spirit was strong enough to do so in this situation, in order that He might become a life-giving spirit (see 1 Corinthians 15:45), the One Who bore not the image of earth but the image of Heaven (1 Corinthians 15:49). The seed thought to all this is found here. One Man on Whom the whole world now depended.