By Gustav Krös
09/05/2025
In Matthew 26:36-56, we read the account of Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane and then being arrested. We see that as His crucifixion was drawing near, the intensity of the spiritual battle raging around Him was increasing, and He knew He had to engage in the battle by praying. The spiritual battle turns out to have been so severe that He says in verse 38: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
This is not a statement that we would have associated with Jesus before this moment in time. He comes across as truly being vulnerable, and maybe this is the reason why He only asked Peter, James and John to come with Him and see Him in this state. These three disciples had been His closest confidants during His ministry time, and He invites them in this intimate moment to support Him when He needs it most.
As He prays, we gain deeper insight into the severity of the spiritual battle that is raging when He prays the well-known words in verse 39: “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Jesus is standing on the threshold of accomplishing the very reason He came to earth, and yet the spiritual onslaught from the devil is so intense that He asks, “if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” Due to Him ultimately following through and drinking the cup, that was actually due to each one of us, we never have to experience anything remotely close to what He was experiencing during that time.
After praying for an hour, He returns to His three closest friends, whom He asked to support Him during the most testing time of His earthly ministry, and He finds them sleeping.
I can’t imagine what Jesus must have felt in this moment, or how the disciples—and more specifically Peter—must have felt when He asked them: “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” (verse 40). Despite their failings, He encourages them again to be alert and focussed on the reality in which they are finding themselves, and to pray into it. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak,” He tells them (verse 41).
Then Jesus goes and prays a second time. When He returns, He finds them sleeping again, but this time He doesn’t even bother waking them up—He just turns around and goes to pray for a third time.
When He returns, He wakes up His disciples as Judas arrives with the crowd to arrest Him.
Within the moment of Jesus being arrested, Peter draws his sword (John 18:10) and cuts off a man’s ear.
Leading up to this moment, Jesus urged Peter to join Him in fighting the spiritual battle that was raging, but he slept—and now he ends up wanting to fight a physical battle instead.
Jesus reprimands Peter by telling him to put his sword back in its place, and then He goes on to tell him, “But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (verse 54). Then in verse 56, He concludes by saying, “But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.”
Jesus makes a clear correlation: if the disciples understood the Scriptures, they would have understood the reality of the situation they found themselves in. Knowing and understanding Scripture was pertinent to understanding the spiritual battle and how to engage in it within that setting—but it remains true for us today.
If Peter had prayed and knew the Scriptures, then the Lord would have revealed to him what was happening, and he would have been able to support Jesus through it, instead of trying to fight a physical battle. But unfortunately, he—together with James and John—did not watch, and they did not pray, and thus they failed to apply the Scriptures to the events happening around them and ended up doing the wrong thing.
These unfortunate events end in verse 56 with the words: “Then all the disciples deserted him and fled.”
How sad is it that the disciples found themselves at the right place (next to Jesus), at the right time (when He needed them most), but they ended up doing the wrong thing, because they failed to understand Scripture and failed to understand the spiritual battle.
It is now easy for us, with all the context we have, to judge the disciples’ actions, but we need to ask ourselves: how often do we fail to watch and pray—and as a result allow the devil to tempt us into fighting physical battles instead of spiritual ones?
How many times do we end up doing the wrong thing, or do we find ourselves in the wrong position, because we allow the devil to deceive us by focusing on the physical instead of the spiritual?
That is why it’s key to keep watch, as Jesus asked His disciples to do. In order to do this, we firstly need to be mindful that there’s a spiritual battle raging around us (Ephesians 6:12). Alongside this, we need to be mindful of what’s physically happening around us, and we need to know Scripture. Then, when we pray about the events happening around us, the Holy Spirit can reveal to us the spiritual reality behind these physical events we are witnessing.
With everything happening in the world today, we would be wise to learn from the disciples’ mistake. May we therefore continue to watch and pray, and make sure we find ourselves at the right place, at the right time, doing the right thing.
