The Wading Pool

“Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “What?  Could you not watch with Me one hour?” Matthew 26:40

The night before He was crucified, Jesus went to the garden to pray.  In a moment that so deeply shows His human nature, Jesus asks His closest three friends to sit and pray with Him.  In this dark hour the Son of God, Who would soon be ministered to by the very angels of heaven (Luke 22:43), requests the presence of three fishermen.

And they fell asleep.

Can you relate?

I can.  Right now, I can barely hold my eyes open.  How many days are like this for us?  For them?  How many times have you reached the end of the day, cracked open your Bible to spend time with the Lord, or simply begun to pray, only to find yourself staring at the back of your eyelids?  The disciples were certainly exhausted after a long night celebrating Passover.  They were no doubt troubled by the state of the Lord at this time, yet the “weak” body gave way to its weariness, in spite of their willing spirits.

But you know what I love?  Jesus, though He roused them once upon finding them asleep, but the next time, He simply let them slumber.  No doubt He knew they would be sleepless soon enough.

So Jesus spent the night alone in prayer, just like He would be alone before false judges, and alone as He hung between heaven and earth on Friday.  Tonight, alone, He would pray to the Father for another way, and yet not force His own will.  Tonight, He would be alone so that we would never have to be.

“And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Amen.