NOVEMBER 23 THE JESUS QUESTIONS JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?” (Matthew 26:40)

 NOVEMBER 23  THE JESUS QUESTIONS  JQ#32 “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40)

LIVING FOR JESUS - Daily Prayer    

JESUS, Lord and my Redeemer, what is man (?), and certainly, what am I (?) that the Son of God would suffer and die the cruelest death, and to offer Himself as the Passover Lamb to deliver the undeserving?!?! Lord, I plead as did the thief on the cross: “Lord, remember me [now that] You [have] come into Your kingdom!” (Luke 23:42)    AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus  has just made His Crucifixion personal with this Question He asked as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane after eating the Passover with His disciples. Judas has left the group to betray Jesus to the chief priests, Peter has sworn to die defending Jesus, and the other 10 disciples had followed Jesus to the Garden and Jesus has told them to “Sit here…” while He went to pray but Jesus left them with a serious command: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” (Matthew 26:38) 

So the disciples knew this was a critical time and yet they fell victim to the world because it was late and they were tired so even though Jesus had just commanded them to “watch with Me” that they fell asleep and Matthew records: “Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping…” (Matthew 26:40) It is at this point that we all find ourselves guilty of not watching and we know we are guilty as we answer Jesus when He asks us as He catches us sleeping instead of “watching” with Him — “What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?”  (Matthew 26:40) —It was after Jesus asked this direct personal Question that Jesus then made it clear that we were putting our souls in danger when He said immediately: “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) 

Jesus never asks a Question, and especially when He has made the Question a personal one, without leaving us with a Truth of God that if we apply it to our daily lives we will be blessed. Jesus does not leave anything to “interpretation” because He makes it simple and plain, or as Pastor Steve says, “Put the cookies on the bottom shelf so everyone can get to them!”  Jesus simply commanded us to “Watch and pray…” which is within everyone’s capabilities and Jesus gave us some helpful incentives because if we “Watch and pray…” as He commands us then the problem of us falling victim to the “flesh” and entering into the “temptation” of the world will be averted. 

The Lesson we should learn is that God intends for mankind to “enter into His labors with Him” and to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. 

God could have made us robots without the ability to “fall into temptation” but instead God gave us freewill and commands us to “Watch and pray” with Him and it is through “obedience” to His Word that our weak flesh will be strengthened and we will have the strength to pull others from the pit. Jesus confirms the importance of being “obedient” to the Father: “Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.’” (Matthew 26:42) 

This passage makes me think about the song “Trust And Obey” and Jesus makes it clear that “there is no other way” — so when we think about the Garden of Gethsemane we should think of it as another “Great Commission” — “Watch and Pray”!!!