Tired Men and Open Eyes

Watch and pray, that you don’t enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41, WEB)

In the garden, Jesus finds his disciples asleep and says to Peter, watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. There is no scolding in it, only a clear eyed understanding of how men are made. Jesus knew these men loved him and meant well, and he also knew that good intentions do not keep a tired body awake. The flesh is weak, and he says it plainly, without contempt, the way a man states a fact he has made his peace with.

Many of our falls happen in exactly this condition, late at night, worn out, defenses down, when the willing spirit has already gone quiet and the weak flesh is running the show. In the morning we cannot believe we did it, because in the morning we are rested and the spirit is loud again. The man who falls at midnight and the man who is ashamed at dawn are the same man at different levels of tiredness, and the tiredness is not a small detail. It is often the whole difference.

Jesus does not tell them to summon more willpower, as if the problem were a lack of trying. He tells them to watch and to pray, to stay alert to the danger and to ask God for what they do not have in themselves. Watching means being honest about your weak hours and refusing to walk into them unguarded, admitting that there are times of day when you are not to be trusted alone with your phone. Praying means owning that you cannot do this on your own strength and asking for help before the eyes grow heavy, not after.

So know your own weak hour. Name it to God tonight, while you are still awake enough to think clearly, and make a plan for it before it arrives. Decide now where you will be and what you will do when you are tired and the house is quiet, so that the weak flesh does not get to make the decision for you.