Mark 14:37-42 - The hour has come

14:37,38

Jesus then returns to His disciples only to find them sleeping. He addresses Peter remonstrating with him for not managing to watch and pray for even one hour. Jesus tells them again to watch and pray so that they will not fall into temptation. He then says “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak”. In Romans 8 Paul stresses the necessity of living by the Spirit not the flesh. If we rely on our human resources we will always fail, we need to rely on God. This does not mean that we don’t use our own resources, but we use them depending upon God. One might think that it was a little unfair of Jesus to single out Peter. Matthew and Luke give a briefer account of these events, perhaps not wanting to draw attention to Peter’s failing. However, in 1 Peter 1:13 Peter tells us to be alert and ready for action. Jesus knew the disciples would let Him down, but He also knew that Peter would learn from the situation.

14:39,40

Jesus went away to pray again, and to pray the same thing again. When He came back He found that His instructions had been to no avail, the disciples had fallen asleep again. The disciples did not know what to say, they knew they had failed Jesus.

14:41,42

Jesus had presumably gone to pray a third time. There was no change in the disciples, for they were still sleeping. However, Jesus had changed. He had been overwhelmed with sorrow, even to the point of death, but now He was ready for what lay ahead. We do well to consider this, for this is the process that the Son of God went through. He experienced great inner torment, but through prayer to His Father He came to a place of resolution. We may go through times of torment, but God can work in our spirits to enable us to come to a place of resolve. Jesus was now ready to face the battle that lay ahead.