Lessons from the GardenSample

Eagerness vs. weakness

When Jesus returns from His time with the Father, He finds Peter, James, and John fast asleep. But notice that in waking them, the person He speaks to is Peter.

I truly believe that this part of the story is connected to the earlier incident at the end of supper when Jesus tells Peter that he will deny Him … three times … before daybreak. Peter, in his usual style, over-reacted and told Jesus that in no uncertain terms He was mistaken. There’s no way he would deny Jesus!

This moment now with Peter is a profound teaching moment.

Jesus rebukes him, as well as James and John, for not staying awake for even one hour at such a crucial moment. A moment when Jesus needed them.

But the next statement, in the form of a command, drives directly to the heart of Peter’s problem. It’s a problem you and I also share with Peter because it’s part of our nature.

“Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

Let me start with the second part of Jesus’ statement, “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.” This is a truth that Peter needed to hear and understand, but also one meant for you and me.

The verb for “willing” actually denotes an attitude of eagerness. Jesus knows Peter is an enthusiastic, ignitable personality, with a truly eager spirit. But he has a blind spot. And that’s his understanding of just how weak his flesh really is.

Peter would eagerly defend Jesus, even cutting off the right ear of one of the high priest’s servants as they tried to arrest Jesus (see John 18:10). But then he would give into his flesh – his fear – in just a few hours when he would deny Christ three consecutive times.

The antidote?

What Jesus was doing. Being awake and alert, staying in the game by spending time with the Father.

How many times in our own lives have we had this eager spiritual commitment only to fall flat on our faces? If your life is anything like mine, it is loaded with moments when my flesh has overcome my spiritual eagerness.

The stuff of our flesh – fear, worry, jealousy, spite, self-centeredness, impatience, anger, to name a few – can so quickly overtake us. And undermine our very best intentions.

Jesus’ point is that in our eagerness to please God, we must be mindful that our flesh is too weak to succeed on its own. And it is only in His presence and our submission to Him that we are transformed.

If you take nothing else from this passage, heed the warning of Jesus, which is a potent spiritual truth:

“The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”