“Watch therefore and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.” Luke 21:36
“Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘What? Could you not watch with Me one hour? Watch and pray lest you enter into temptation. The spirit is indeed willing but the flesh is weak.’” Matthew 26: 40–41
We are saying that time is going fast; to me it seems that it is Sunday one day, and suddenly it is Thursday. Where did the time go? Jesus only asked His disciples to watch with Him for one hour. We may say, that is nothing; an hour is very short. What we may not understand is how busy Jesus and the disciples had been that day and how late it was when Jesus asked them to pray with Him for one hour. Have you ever been really tired, so tired, that the only thing that you can think about is to find a place to lay down and sleep? The disciples and Jesus had had a very long day. Earlier in the day Jesus had sent the disciples to find a place where they could prepare for the Passover meal. That same day they had found the place in a miraculous way. Jesus had told them exactly where to go, who they would meet, and what the room would look like. “And He sent Peter and John, ‘Go and prepare the Passover for us that we may eat.’ So they said to Him, ‘Where do You want us to prepare?’ And He said to them, ‘Behold, when you have entered the city, a man will meet you carrying a pitcher of water; follow him into the house which he enters. Then you shall say to the master of the house, “The Teacher says to you, Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?” ‘Then he will show you a large, furnished upper room; there make ready.’ So they went and found it just the way He had said to them and they prepared the Passover.” Luke 22:8–13
They celebrated the Passover and at the same time a new institution was introduced to them by Jesus, something they had never experienced before. They learned about the foot-washing, a new concept for them by which Jesus tried to teach them humility. The character of Judas was revealed. Jesus served the bread and the wine and it was already late in the evening. Now they walked out to the Mount of Olives and to the Garden of Gethsemane, it was approximately 1 mile. This had indeed been a very busy and long day. The whole week had been very, very busy. Do you realize how much had happened in that last week before the crucifixion? In John 12:1 it says, it was six days before the Passover. That means that the first eleven chapters of the Gospel of John covered 3 ½ years. Seven chapters were written about all the events that took place from six days before the Passover until the crucifixion. It all happened in one week. Two chapters are written about the events that took place after the resurrection. The Evangelist Mark uses ten chapters about the ministry of Jesus, up to the last week before the crucifixion and five chapters about the events that took place in the last week before the crucifixion, and one chapter after the crucifixion.
Matthew writes twenty chapters of his Gospel to describe the life of Jesus from before His birth to the last week of His life. Seven chapters were used to describe the events in the last week before His death; one chapter after His resurrection.
In Luke chapter 19 Jesus enters Jerusalem riding on a donkey. This event takes us into the last week of His life. Four chapters are written about the last week. If we add all the chapters in the four Gospels together which speak about the events in the last week before Jesus’ death, there are twenty-three chapters. We can ask the question—did the disciples pay attention to what was happening? If that was not the case, they would not have written twenty-three chapters about it. Do we see what a busy week the disciples and Jesus had before they celebrated the Lord’s Supper? Now they walked one mile to the Garden of Gethsemane. Their bodies were giving up. They were exhausted and now Jesus asked them to pray with Him for one hour, not once, but three times.
We are not living in the last week of the ministry of Jesus. We live in the last days of this world’s history, in a very busy time. If we take a comparison, I wonder how many books were written before the time that we call the time of the end? The time of the end began in 1798, and how many books were written since 1798? I would not be surprised if there were more books written from 1798 until now than during all the years before.
When I went to night school in Norway, in order to learn the Norwegian language the teacher told us that before the year 1900 a minister in Norway was expected to have seven books in his library. In other words, seven books were more books than most people owned at that time. Of course that was if they were able to read.
Today, books are everywhere. Often when people move, hundreds of books are left behind and are either recycled or taken to the landfill.
In order to keep up with the changing technology in our work place and society, we are expected to read all kinds of books and manuals. At the end of the day, we are often exhausted and do not take the time to pray as we should. The devil has figured out how he can make us so busy with the many daily responsibilities that we neglect to communicate with the Lord as we should. For the disciples of Jesus it was important to pray. The Bible says that the devil is angry because he knows that his time is short. Satan was setting a trap for Jesus and the disciples using the religious leaders of the nation and the civil power to destroy the Christian church in its infancy. “And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to destroy her Child as soon as it was born.” Revelation 12:4
So, according to the Bible, the devil is also setting up a trap in the last days of earth’s history, with a combination of false religion and civil power to destroy the remnant church, “those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.” Revelation 14:12. “He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.” Revelation 13: 15–17
Regardless how busy we are, let us take time to pray. Only if we pray like Jesus, will we overcome, like He did. May the Lord help us. Amen.
(All Bible texts quoted are from the New King James Version)
Evald Pedersen