Mark 14:38 38Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
When Jesus returned from his first round of prayer, he found his three leading disciples sleeping and gave these powerful words. This verse summarizes so much of what is recorded in Mark’s Gospel and deserves a close look and reflection. Jesus repeats his key commands of watching and praying. Watching means to be ready and expectant, being observant for what will come next. The disciples did the opposite and fell asleep. Their physical flesh was weak because of their exhaustion. When we are tired or stressed physically, we become weak spiritually and more vulnerable to temptation. Peter had already shown his self-confidence by stating that he would never deny Jesus. All the other gathered disciples echoed his claim. Yet, here they all were asleep at the most challenging moments Jesus faced.
Jesus urges Peter, James, and John to pray. Watching relies on human decision and will power. Prayer taps into divine resources. Prayer feeds the spirit. The disciples were experiencing a spiritual test. The word temptation (peirasmon) can also mean a test. Testing often comes about because of a temptation to compromise our convictions or step beyond the boundary of God’s laws. Every temptation provides a choice to us of whether to follow God’s will and seek God’s help or to rely on our own weak and faulty thinking and desires influenced by the lure of the fallen world.
The disciples were experiencing the battle we all face between the flesh and the spirit. The spirit (pneuma) in this verse represents the inclinations God puts within us to seek him and his kingdom. Deep within our thinking, we have a sense of a reality that is not physical. This awareness is more than psychological or human imagination but is spiritual. The spirit is at the heart of our being where we commune with God and made decisions that determine our values and behaviors. We may make a decision in our minds to act a certain way, but our physical bodies sometimes cannot cope with that decision. The specific case of the disciples being physically tired is one of the best examples of this struggle, but temptation can come in many ways. Our spirit may seek to follow God’s will, but our flesh calls out for attention and may lull us to apathy to what matters most.
Jesus taught his disciples in the “Lord’s Prayer” to ask the Father to rescue them from temptation. In the case of Peter, James, and John, and the others who are not specifically mentioned here but also likely asleep, they failed to support Jesus and also to prepare themselves for the trials ahead of them. The greatest reason all the disciples fled and Peter denied Jesus three times was because they did not pray and seek God’s will and power for what lay ahead. Jesus did pray through until he was fully convinced that the cross was the path he must take and that the Father would not leave him by himself to face suffering and the cruel death that awaited him. Jesus gives the perfect example of the victory of the spirit over the flesh.
For older posts, click here.