Matthew 26:36–47 - Keep Watch & Pray

There's only one way to build physical, mental & spiritual strength: Keep watch & pray.

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Gospels: Week 11 — Jesus' Suffering and death

Logos.com

SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... After leaving the Upper Room, Jesus has given His disciples some of the most intense teachings of the Bible as they made their way through the inky blackness of Jerusalem, all while the establishment - the Pharisees and Sadducees - put their plot to kill Jesus in action.

Matthew 26:36–47 (NASB95)

³⁶ Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.”

³⁷ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. ³⁸ Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”

³⁹ And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”

⁴⁰ And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? ⁴¹ Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

⁴² He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, “My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Your will be done.” ⁴³ Again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. ⁴⁴ And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more.

⁴⁵ Then He came to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. ⁴⁶ “Get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!”

⁴⁷ While He was still speaking, behold, Judas, one of the twelve, came up accompanied by a large crowd with swords and clubs, who came from the chief priests and elders of the people.

Heidelberg Catechism

Q&A 44

Q. Why does the Apostles' Creed add, “He descended to hell”?

A. To assure me in times of personal crisis and temptation

that Christ my Lord,

by suffering unspeakable anguish, pain, and terror of soul,

especially on the cross but also earlier,

has delivered me from the anguish and torment of hell.

Summary

Imagine that as you settled in to hear a Sunday sermon, the preacher instructed the congregation to open their Bibles to John 14, but then never announced the particular verses delimiting the day's passage. Instead, after reading all 31 verses of John 14, he went on to read chapters 15, 16 and 17 as well. Then the preacher went back and unpacked the significance of all of the mind blowing doctrines in these extraordinary chapters that detail all that Jesus taught His disciples in His last hours with them. After hours of intense preaching, the chords of the doxology ring out and you can finally get up. How exhausted would you be?

How exhausted would the preacher be?

This is what it would have been like as these twelve men - Jesus and His disciples, minus the one who'd already left to rat them out - entered Gethsemane. Jesus commanded eight of them to sit, while He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (James and John) a little farther into the garden.

As He speaks to them, Matthew writes nothing of Jesus' exhaustion, but only because His other problems were far more pressing. Matthew notes that Jesus began to be grieved and distressed - quite literally, Jesus was racked with crippling anxiety. Jesus Himself confirms and expounds upon Matthew's observations, telling the three that He wasn't just grieved, but that He was deeply grieved, to the point of death.

Jesus' mental stress and grief as He anticipated what lay immediately before Him had crushing physiological effects; in fact, it almost killed Him before He was even arrested.

Yet Jesus three followers - meant to function here in Jesus' final hours more as peers than disciples - fell victim to their own set of physiological challenges: three times, after pleading with them to keep watch and pray, Jesus returns to find them sleeping. Their spirits were willing, but their flesh was weak.

  Dig Deeper  

Had Jesus succumbed to the overwhelming grief and distress, His death would have certainly been tragic, but it would not have been the cup He needed to drink in order to save His people. But at this point, all Jesus could do was to fall on His face and pray.

And it should be no surprise at all for us to see that His three short prayers perfectly exemplify the AAA Prayer Pattern, for after all, it's the way He taught us to pray!

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: My Father;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: not as I will, but as You will;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED: if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me;

But it wasn't possible for the cup to pass. Jesus must drink it, for it was His Father's that all who belonged to Him would be saved by having their sins atoned for with perfectly holy blood, ironically shed by the very hands that deserved it.

Yet Jesus' three prayers did not go unanswered. Jesus entered the garden with His soul deeply grieved and at the point of death. But after praying, Jesus' mental and physical stamina have been strengthened for the task, as opposed to the disciples, who although they got a couple of hours of sleep, would find their strength quickly failing as they fled.

So it's important to read Jesus' final words in the garden in the proper tone of voice. When Jesus called out to the disciples to get up, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand, He's not fearfully calling them to flee. He's purposefully walking toward Judas and the approaching large crowd with swords and clubs.

Jesus was not a victim. Though betrayed, He was not caught. Rather, in one of the greatest displays of physical, mental and spiritual strength ever, He gave Himself up.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that not only would your spirit be willing, but that your flesh would be strengthened to follow Christ;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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