Mark 14:37 Commentary and Bible Study

‘And he cometh, and findeth them sleeping’, Luke adds, ‘for sorrow.’ That was a significant feature. They were so sorry. Sorry for him that he had to suffer? Sorry for Christ? No, at what seemed like the failure of his ministry. As some of them later said: ‘We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel’ (Luke 24:21). They were sorry because what they imagined would happen wasn’t going to happen: that Christ would resist arrest and set up an earthly kingdom. They loved him; they believed in him; they understood he was Messiah; they understood he would take away the sins of the world, but they didn't fully understand it. They clung to their own ideas: that it would be an earthly deliverance too, an earthly deliverance of the Jewish state. Sorrow filled their hearts, because it was all coming to an end, they thought. They would soon learn; they would understand his mission. Later their minds would be set free, and they would be overwhelmed at his wisdom and what he had accomplished. They be his servants to the point of martyrdom, many of them, but at this point self-confidence bought them down. Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour?’ Peter in particular is addressed, because it is he who has claimed that he will never be offended at the Lord. He has been warned of a coming trial, and the danger is fast approaching, and he urgently needs to pray to withstand the temptation, but he is sleeping. That was an hour’s anguish and prayer for Christ, but Peter and the other two, James and John, evidently hadn’t prayed. It was now late at night, and they had fallen asleep.