Matthew 26:40 - Printer Friendly

ESV: And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, "So, could you not watch with me one hour?

NIV: Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. "Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?" he asked Peter.

NASB: And He *came to the disciples and *found them sleeping, and He *said to Peter, 'So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?

CSB: Then he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. He asked Peter, "So, couldn’t you stay awake with me one hour?

NLT: Then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He said to Peter, 'Couldn’t you watch with me even one hour?

KJV: And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour

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

Jesus is overwhelmed by sorrow at the anticipation of what is about to happen to Him. The Gospels depict His anguish beyond human comprehension (Matthew 26:36–38; Mark 14:34; Luke 22:44). Christ will not merely be mocked, beaten, tortured, and killed on a cross in great humiliation. He will bear the wrath of God the Father for the sins of humanity (1 Peter 2:24). He will experience some unfathomable, inexplicable strain in His relationship to the Father during that time (Matthew 27:46).

In this state of mind, He has prayed something shocking in both its honesty and humility. He has expressed His desire that, if possible, that these things would not happen. That's an entirely human, natural response, and means nothing more than that Jesus does not "want" to suffer such horrible things. In almost the same breath, however, Christ declares His absolute commitment to follow the Father's will and not His own (Matthew 26:39).

Now He returns to His three most trusted disciples. He has asked them to watch with Him while He prays. Perhaps He meant for them to watch in the sense of keeping a lookout to protect His privacy and solitude. Perhaps He meant for them to join Him in praying, even at a distance. Or, He might simply have wanted the comfort of their presence.

Instead, Jesus finds all three sleeping. It is very late at night by this point, and the disciples are also likely greatly troubled by the things Jesus has said to them. Luke writes that Jesus found them "sleeping for sorrow" (Luke 22:45). They've also come from the Passover meal and the four cups of wine. None of those serve as an adequate excuse, however. Jesus wakes them and asks, pointedly, if they could not have stayed awake for one hour to watch with Him.

He will ask them to watch and pray once more.

Matthew 26:36–46 follows Jesus and the disciples into a place called Gethsemane, on the Mount of Olives. He takes Peter, James, and John aside from the main group, then prays to God the Father in indescribably intense anguish. He prays a sincere wish that what's about to happen would not be necessary, but entirely submits to the will of God the Father. The disciples cannot stay awake, despite being roused more than once by Christ. Jesus prays three times, before pointing out Judas, the betrayer, who is coming with a crowd to arrest Him. These events are also depicted in Mark 14:32–42 and Luke 22:39–46.

The Jewish religious leaders further their plots to arrest and kill Jesus, finding a willing traitor in Judas Iscariot. A woman anoints Christ with oil during a dinner at Bethany. Next, Jesus and the disciples hold the Passover meal in an upper room where Jesus predicts His arrests and introduces the sacrament of communion. Then Jesus prays in unimaginable agony in the garden of Gethsemane before being betrayed by Judas and captured. The disciples scatter. Before the high priest, Jesus explicitly claims to be divine. They convict Him of blasphemy and sentence Him to death. As this happens, Peter denies knowing Jesus and runs away in shame.

After a long series of teaching (Matthew 24—25), Matthew 26 begins with Jesus saying He will be delivered up for death. Christ is anointed at a dinner in Bethany and Judas agrees to turn Him over to the chief priests. Jesus holds a Passover meal with the disciples, predicts an act of treachery, and introduces the sacrament of communion. He tells the disciples they will run in fear and that Peter will deny Him, which happens just as prophesied. Christ prays in great sorrow in a garden and is then arrested and taken away and unfairly sentenced to death. After this, Jesus will be taken to the Roman governor, where Jewish leadership will press for Him to be executed as an insurgent.

The Gospel of Matthew clearly shows the influence of its writer's background, and his effort to reach a specific audience. Matthew was one of Jesus' twelve disciples, a Jewish man, and a former tax collector. This profession would have required literacy, and Matthew may have transcribed some of Jesus' words as they were spoken. This book is filled with references to the Old Testament, demonstrating to Israel that Jesus is the Promised One. Matthew also includes many references to coins, likely due to his former profession. Matthew records extensive accounts of Jesus' teaching, more than the other three Gospels.