Could You Not Watch With Me One Hour?

Could You Not Watch with Me One Hour?

—Matthew 26:40

For three years Jesus had spent virtually every hour with His small group of disciples. They had listened to Him speak the greatest words of truth and life ever spoken, and they saw Him practice perfectly everything He preached. They had watched Him heal the sick, raise the dead, and walk on water. He had poured Himself into them, preparing them to take His gospel—the news of His sacrificial death, His resurrection, and His total defeat of sin—to the whole world. Now, the midnight hour had finally arrived, and the time to step forward as the perfect Lamb of God had come. Into the darkness of Gethsemane’s garden He took Peter, James, and John. They clearly saw on His face that “He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed” (Matthew 26:37). Jesus even admitted to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me” (v. 38). Jesus, who had already done so much for His disciples, made this simple request in the hour of His greatest need.

Knowing His death was but hours away, Jesus went only a few steps before He dropped to the ground, lay prostrate, and started to pray: “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (v. 39). After a while, Jesus returned to the disciples—and they were sound asleep. Can you believe it?! Asleep . . . and in His greatest hour of need. Then came from Jesus’ mouth this piercing question: “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (v. 40).

Jesus asked this question of Peter, who would one day become the undisputed leader of the Jerusalem church. Jesus asked this question of James, one of the original “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17) and the first of the apostles to meet a martyr’s death. And Jesus asked this question of John, who after pastoring the great church at Ephesus would be exiled on Patmos from where he would write the book of Revelation. Jesus was not only asking them—these men who knew the Scriptures—to pray with Him but also and primarily to ‘‘watch.” His question was, “Could you not watch with Me one hour?” Upon hearing this, the disciples undoubtedly thought of the words of Isaiah, the prophet who spoke of the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem who “shall never hold their peace day or night” (Isaiah 62:6). Seven hundred years earlier Isaiah had spoken of the importance of watching and praying.

A TIME TO WATCH

In the ancient days, watchmen were posted on the city walls twenty-four hours a day. Watching for any trouble, they provided security to the people who worked by day and slept by night. These watchmen also repaired any breech in the walls. They were under divine appointment. God said, “I have set watchmen on your walls, O Jerusalem” (Isaiah 62:6). They had divine assignments. They were to remind the people of the promises of God. They were never to be silent “day or night.”

Likewise, Peter, James, and John had the opportunity to provide Jesus with physical security as well as spiritual security during this hour that He prayed. The disciples could have alerted Jesus to anyone entering Gethsemane, and more importantly, the disciples could have prayed for strength, courage, and peace for their Master and Lord. But the disciples did neither; they slept.

Do you hear and understand the note of astonishment, even disbelief, in Jesus’ voice when He asked His question? First came the exclamation “What!”—“What?! What is this? After all you have seen and heard, after hearing just tonight of the bread and wine, My body and blood, what have you been doing? You couldn’t watch with Me for one single hour?” There are certain times in each of our lives when our watching is far more important than any work we could be doing. Yet even in a season of work, we should always be like the watchmen on the city walls, keeping our eyes open to what is happening around us, our ears open to hearing His voice.

A TIME TO WORK

Reminded of Isaiah’s words, Peter, James, and John would have known that Isaiah was prophesying about the return of the Jewish people from Babylonian captivity. On behalf of the Lord, Isaiah called the Jews to “prepare the way. . . . Build up the highway! Take out the stones, lift up a banner for the peoples!” (Isaiah 62:10). For seventy years Babylon had held God’s people captive, but at the time Isaiah spoke, they were about to leave, about to return to their beloved Holy City. The several-hundred-mile journey would be long, difficult, and dangerous, and once they arrived, hard work would need to begin. Isaiah was calling God’s people to prepare the way, pave the way, and point the way for believers who would come after them, and those three tasks were important to the disciples in Jesus’ day, just as they are to us today.

PREPARE THE WAY

The Jews being freed by the Babylonians to return to Jerusalem would need to prepare the way, literally, for those who would come after them. God’s people were to remove the rubbish, cut down the trees, and push aside the heavy stones in order to build a highway to Jerusalem, their spiritual home. God’s people were to prepare the way home. Why were they instructed to pick up stones? So no one would stumble. There were folks by the thousands who would come after them.

PAVE THE WAY

These faithful were not only to prepare the way, but they were to pave the way as well. Isaiah used the words “build up the highway” (v. 10). The disciples’ forefathers had made the literal way to Jerusalem easier, and now the disciples’ generation was to make the way as easy as possible for those who would come after them. Why pave the way? God’s finally-free people were never going to use that road to Babylon again. They were certainly never going back for a visit or on vacation. They were already on their way home. So why pave the way? Because they were concerned about those people who would come after them. We in the twenty-first century need to be just as concerned about those believers who will follow us. What are we doing to pave the way?

POINT THE WAY

But preparing and paving the way weren’t all the Jews were to do—or what we’re to do today. Those Jews of old were also to point the way, to “lift up a banner for the people” (Isaiah 62:10). The Jews who left Babylon made it much easier for those faithful Jews who would come after them. In the same way, it fell to Peter, James, John, and those early believers to hold high the banner that pointed people in their generation and future generations to saving faith in Jesus, and therefore to heaven.

Similarly, Jesus Himself has prepared the way for us. In fact, He paved the way to eternal life, to the holy and heavenly City of David. And today, as He points the way with a nail-scarred hand, He continues to call people to a saving faith in Him, saying, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

Listen again to the sorrow in Jesus’ question: “Could you not watch with Me for one hour?” Isn’t it time we who name Jesus as our Savior and Lord took seriously this question He asks us? When, in so many places, the heart of the church has turned to stone and the pulpit is simply a dispensary of human thought; when so many of our educational systems are citadels of anti-Christian propaganda and blatant humanism; when the media loudly and persistently calls our children to godless lifestyles; when too many believers are quietly tolerating a dying civilization; and when at least some of us are hearing our Savior ask, “Could you not watch with Me for one hour?”—when all this is happening, isn’t it time for us to watch, to pray, and to cry out to God like Isaiah, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens! That You would come down!” (Isaiah 64:1).

Q & A: “Could you not watch with Me one hour?” Before we are too critical of this slumbering trio, we should remember a couple of things. First, we too have willing spirits but weak flesh when it comes to serving Jesus (Matthew 26:41). Second, Jesus is asking us today to watch, pray, prepare the way, pave the way, and point the way for the people coming after us who need to know Him and the way to eternal life He has provided. Let’s be found faithful. Watch . . . and pray!