Could you not keep watch for one hour?
Mark 14:34,37,38
And He said to them, “My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death; remain here and keep watch.” …And He came and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, “Simon, are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Keep watching and praying that you may not come into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Jesus had warned His disciples. “You will all fall away, because it is written, ‘I will strike down the Shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered’” (Mark 14:27, quoting Zechariah 13:7). It was Peter “the Rock” who had boasted, “Even though all may fall away, yet I will not” (Mark 14:29). Jesus predicted Peter’s eventual three-fold denial before the cock’s second crow (14:30). I suspect that Peter never forgot the shame of that exchange and his behavior that night.
All Jesus asked them to do was to stay with Him.
“Remain here with Me and keep watch.”
When Jesus returned to Peter, James and John the first time, He said to Peter, "Simon are you sleeping? Could you not keep watch for one hour?" (14:37). It is possibly a coincidence. But perhaps it was something Peter distinctly remembered as he recounted this story to his young brother Mark, the gospel writer (1 Peter 5:13). Jesus didn’t call His disciple by the spiritual name he had been given, “Petros: the Rock.” He called him by his birth name “Simon.”
The disciple was not behaving like a rock. Strong spirit perhaps. But weak flesh.
Jesus was distressed, troubled, “deeply grieved to the point of death.” What He wanted from His three closest friends was their company. “Remain here (menō, abide, dwell, continue, endure). Keep watch” (grēgoreō, be awake, pay attention, be vigilant).
Be with Me. Stay with Me.
There is plenty of debate these days about sympathy and empathy.
We can never know exactly what another person is feeling, particularly those whose life experience is different than our own. But that doesn’t give us a bye. “I can’t really know how you are feeling, and I don’t want to ruin my good mood, so I will just try to convince you that you shouldn’t feel that way!”
At very least, with sympathy we acknowledge that another is feeling.
And with empathy, we join them there. Humble spirit. Common flesh.
After Jesus’ arrest, Peter followed the crowd at a distance, “Right into the courtyard of the high priest” where he was sitting with the household servants by the fire (Mark 14:54). Peter may have fallen asleep in the garden. He may have misunderstood and ignored Jesus’ predictions of His impending death.
But at least now he was awake. He was courageously alone.
And He was as close to Jesus as he was able to be.
“Refine them as silver is refined and test them as gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say ‘They are My people.’ And they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God’” (Zechariah 13:9).
