Keeping Watch

Keeping Watch

We honor others by our willingness to stand near and remain present through life’s inevitable twists and turns. Keeping watch makes us kin, whether waiting for the sun to rise or the test results to come, for the labor pains to begin or the long-unspoken prayer to be answered.

Jesus, before his arrest and crucifixion, asked his disciples only to stay near him and pray. “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death,” he confessed. “Remain here and keep watch with Me” (Matthew 26:38, NASB). It seemed a small request; a shallow sip compared to the bottomless cup of sin and death that he would swallow. But they could not keep watch for long. Their sorrow and fear fell over them like a heavy fog, and watching soon gave way to slumber.

These events are history. We can’t relive them, but we can read the written account and consider how it was to be invited. Can you imagine the Savior asking, now, for you to watch with him? “Watch and pray while your out-of-work neighbor looks for a job,” he might say. Or “Watch while your child struggles to fit in at his new school.” Or “Sit near that dying loved one. Be a fully present, watchful witness of their precious life and death.”

I can passively sit before a television hour after hour with no purpose in mind. Labor dutifully over a computer until my work is done. But to watch and pray with Jesus? To honor him and others with my presence and attention in whatever circumstance may come? Not enough. Not nearly enough. Jesus doesn’t ask us to right every wrong, free every captive, heal every hurt, win every battle. He will. He only asks us to be loving, faithful witnesses who will hear his invitation and keep watch with him over a small corner of the world he loves. Where will you keep watch with him today?

Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me.”

Matthew 26:36-38, NASB