II. The lethargic indolence of his Disciples —
It might have been supposed that they, at such a season as this, would have been particularly wakeful and earnest in prayer —
[Their Lord had counselled them to employ this time in prayer, not only in interceding for him, but in imploring strength for themselves, that they might be able to sustain the trials which were now coming fast upon them. But they were so overpowered with sleep, that notwithstanding they were again and again wakened by their Lord, they were no sooner left to themselves than they fell asleep again. " Not a single hour could they watch with their Lord," notwithstanding all their recent protestations and professions. The fact was that they were " overcome with sorrow," which, in some cases, when it is exceeding deep, operates as a blow, that, for a season, only stuns and stupifies. The whole of our Lord's late conversations with them respecting his approaching sufferings and death had altogether oppressed their minds, so that they were no longer able to exercise their faculties as the occasion required. " Their spirits were willing ; but their flesh was weak."]
This ill-timed somnolency added yet further to the sufferings of their Lord —
[He did indeed administer reproof to them with the utmost tenderness, and even apologize for them, as he afterwards did for his very murderers. But to be so neglected by them in this his last extremity, and to behold them so indifferent about him, and so careless about themselves, after all the exhortations he had given them, must have occasioned him the most poignant grief; and still the more, when he saw that the time for prayer was now lost, and that the traitor, with his armed bands, was at hand, to deliver him up into the power of his blood-thirsty enemies.
We are told indeed, that " they knew not what to answer himq." And well might they be confounded, when they saw
i Mark xiv. 40.