The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 2 — Section 539

'l'hey had heard the Lord speak again and again, clearly and certninly, of hie own approaching death; they had heard of the treachery of one of their own nuruber. They hl\d listened, it must have been in rapt awe-stricken attention, to those wondrous utterances of exhortation! comfo~t, instruction, recorded in St. John's Gospel. Now the three were left alone, in the silence of the night; they were worn out with excite- ment, sorrow, watching; and they slept. It must have been a perturbed sleep, like the deep sleep of Abram, when the horror of great darkness fell upon him, The Lord. came to them; he found them sleeping, just when his holy human nature, sorely tried, needed the affectionate sympathy of human friends. He addressed the one who a short time before had expressed his love so strongly. "What!" he said to Peter," could you not watch with me one hour?" The words imply a lengthened prayer. The evangelist has recorded only the essence, the central petition, of that long prayer of a~ony. The Lord had prayed already for a full hour. They imply too that the Lord, in his perfect humanity, felt some comfort, some stay, in the thought that those earthly friends who were dearest to him were not only near at hand, but awake, watching; as men in extreme sickness, in great suffering, like to feel that those who watch in the sick-chamber are awake, conscious of their state, even though unable to help them. But the good Lord thought not only of himself, as we too often do in sickness; he thought of his disciples. Temptation was close at hand. They needed watchfulness ; they needed prayer. They mast keep all their faculties awake; they must be thought- ful, vigilant, prepared for the hour of danger. And they must pray. True prayer implies the vigorous exercise of all the highest faculties. It is not easy, but often very difficult; it requires effort, thought, sustained attention. It needs the constant a.id of God the Holy Spirit, the great Teacher of prayer. 'l'he apostles needed now all the help of prayer and watchfulness, lest they should enter into temptation. The tempta- tion must come; nay, it was already at hand. But they must pray not to enter into it, not to yield themselves to it, not to enter with their own will and consent into the mare which Satan was laying for them. The mere fact of temptation does not imply sin. 'The Lord himself was tempted. The sin lies in entering into it with our eyes open, with the consent of our will. And the remedy is watchfulness and prayer; e, man cannot enter into temptation in this sense while he prays, if only his prayer is the waking, thoughtful, earnest prayer of faith. "At once to pray and to sin," says Stier, "is impossible. Who could with a wakeful and recollected spirit say unto God, • Not as thou wilt'? Who, when the word of Jesus bids us watch, and the Spirit of .Jesus teaches ns to pray, may answer him and say, • Lord, but I cannot, I am too weak'?" Tb.e Lord adds the reason which makes watchfulness and prayer so neces- sary-the weakness of the flesh. It was weak even in himself, though in him that flesh ~b.icl, he had izraciously assumed tbat he might save us, was without sin; he had come "in the likeness of sinful flesh ; " but in him the flesh was only weak, it was not siuful It was weak; it shrank from pain and death. Even he, in the days of his flesh, offered np prayers and supplications wiLh strong crying and tears, How much more necessary &re prayer and watchfulness for us, whose flesh is not only weak, but also sinful, defiled by many sins? The spirit is willing. In him it was more tha11 willing; it was ready, zealous. It will be so with his saints in proportion l __S the spirit, the highest part of our composite human nature, which was breathed into'lnan by God himseU, realizes its power11 and its privileges, offering up itself to be dwelt in an<l purified by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit of God, and, by means of that gracious indwelling, living in that fellowship which is with God the Father, and with his Sun Jtsus Christ. But with us the spirit is not always willing. 'fhe flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; and, alas! we are not alwnys led by the spirit, but often by that sinful flesh of ours, And even when in some sense the S!Jirit is willing, when "to will is present with me," how often do we find in our hearls that conflict so wonderfully described in Rom. vii., "how to perform that which is good I find not ; " " for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I "I Then what need have we, whose flesh is not only weak, but exceeding sinful, to obey Christ's commandment, to follow Christ's example: " Watch and pray" I (3) The eecc,nd prayer. The Lord found no help in human sympathy; again he sought it in communion with his Father. His second prayer was calmer. The angel, of whom St. Luke tells us, appeared, perhaps, after the first prayer, strengthening him. "He (HJ, xxvr. l-i6,] THE GOSPEL ACCOnDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 545