<p>14:38- see on Acts 20:29,30.</p><p><i>Watch and pray so that you do not fall into temptation- </i>The relationship between prayer and temptation may not simply be that the Holy Spirit will be provided to fortify us against temptation if we pray. If we are in prayer, in the Father's presence, then we are less likely to just give in to temptation. However, the connection between prayer and strength against temptation is proof enough that Bible reading is not the only strength against temptation. So much more help and succour of the Holy Spirit is available (Heb. 4:15,16). The repeated emphasis upon their lack of watching contrasts with the Lord&rsquo;s stress upon the need to watch in the last days, and how lack of watching would lead to condemnation (Mt. 24:42,43; 25:13). Their lack of watching meant they were condemned- and yet they were redeemed by their recognition of their state, as evidenced in the Gospel records. <i>&quot;</i>That you do not fall into<i>&quot; </i>isaddressed to Peter in the singular, and yet the &ldquo;you&rdquo; here is plural. The Lord is telling Peter that he is no different to the rest of the disciples, despite his assertion that even if they all denied the Lord, he would not do so. Peter&rsquo;s sense of spiritual superiority was especially displeasing to the Lord.</p><p>Each statement of the apparently simple model prayer needs careful reflection. The Lord told the disciples in Gethsemane to earnestly pray the simple saying: &ldquo;Pray not to fail in the test&rdquo; (Mt. 26:41 cp. 6:13). The prayer that they could gabble mindlessly must be prayed with intense attention to every phrase. They presumably did pray as directed, but the Lord later warns them: &ldquo;Why do you sleep? Get up and pray, so that you will not enter into temptation&rdquo;. He intended them to keep on praying, as He spent an hour praying the same words; and not just rattle off a few words and think we have done our praying. Just as the tribulation of the last days seems to be conditional upon our faith, so the Lord may imply that entering into the time of trial or testing was avoidable by their prayer and faith. Again we see the final time of tribulation as reflective of the Lord&rsquo;s sufferings, enabling the very last generation to identify with the Lord&rsquo;s death so that they might share in His resurrection.</p><p><i>The spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak</i>- The Lord took a very positive view of his struggling, stuttering followers, especially in the run up to His death. His teaching had throughout emphasized the importance of the heart, and how thought and action are linked. Yet He appears to have made a temporary exception when He generously excused His disciples&rsquo; sleeping in Gethsemane: &ldquo;The spirit mind truly is ready, but the flesh is weak&rdquo; (Mk. 14:38). The theoretical willingness of the mind does not usually excuse fleshly weakness, according to the Lord&rsquo;s teaching. It seems to me that this statement of His, which for me gets harder to interpret the more one ponders it, is simply the Lord&rsquo;s generous, justifying impulse towards His weak followers. And He was feeling like this towards them at the very time when, in symbol and in essence, they had condemned themselves. For He &lsquo;comes&rsquo; to them, finds them asleep, like the sleepy virgins in His recent parable, they were dumbfounded and unable to answer Him, just as the rejected will be at judgment day, and then they fled, as the rejected likewise will (Mk. 14:40,41,51). If these were His generous feelings for them, then&hellip; what comfort it is to know we follow the same Lord. &nbsp;<br />14:40 The disciples&rsquo; sleepiness is excused in the statement &ldquo;for their eyes were heavy&quot; (Mk. 14:40), even though their falling asleep at that time was utterly shameful. Luke&rsquo;s record excuses them by saying they slept for sorrow- which isn&rsquo;t really possible. It&rsquo;s the grace of inspiration covering up for them. Yet He kindly says that their spirit is willing but their flesh was weak (Mk. 14:38); although elsewhere, the Lord rigorously demonstrates that mental attitudes are inevitably reflected in external behaviour, and therefore the difference between flesh and spirit in this sense is minimal.</p><p>The question is whether the Lord is making a general observation about human nature, or whether He is specifically criticizing them for being spiritually weak at that specific time. He could be saying that they underestimated the power of human nature, and needed to pray that they would not enter into the temptation posed by their own flesh, their humanity. This is a clear demonstration of the source of spiritual weakness- our own flesh, rather than any superhuman being. Or it could be that the Lord has in view the specific weakness of the flesh- to disown Him in the face of opposition and the risk of arrest and death.</p><p>The word &quot;weak&quot; is often used about spiritual weakness. Paul describes all of us as having been saved although we were weak, using the same word used about the disciples asleep in Gethsemane (Mt. 26:41 &ldquo;weak&rdquo; = Rom. 5:6 &ldquo;without strength&rdquo;). He saw the evident similarity between them and us, tragically indifferent in practice to the mental agony of our Lord, failing to share His intensity of striving- although we are so willing in spirit to do this. And yet, Paul implies, be better than them. Don't be weak and sleepy as they were when Christ wanted them awake (Mt. 26:40,41 = 1 Thess. 5:6,7). Strive for the imitation of Christ's attitude in the garden (Mt. 26:41 = Eph. 6:18). And yet in Romans 7, a depressed but realistic Paul laments that he fails in this; his description of the losing battle he experienced within him between flesh and spirit is couched in the language of Christ's rebuke to the disciples in Gethsemane (the spirit was willing, but the flesh weak).</p>