Asleep on the job

"Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter." Matt 26:40

I am not a great tv watcher, especially when it comes to reality tv shows. However, in recent weeks I have become interested in a show called "Great British Chef", where some of the best chefs in the UK were competing to cook one of the four courses to be served to Prince Charles and one hundred others at a banquet.

The final programme was the banquet itself and the four chefs who had previously cooked their dishes for four judges now had to replicate it for 100 people. The day proved a real problem for some for various reasons but, in the end they made it through. One of the reasons was because the four chefs who had previously been competitors worked as a team to ensure that each of them got their dishes out even though seemingly insurmountable problems came up along the way.

On their own they couldn't have achieved their goal. It would have been a disaster.

When Jesus and his disciples headed to Gethsemane it would have been fair to assume that Jesus could have expected that group of men to offer the support that he needed at that time. But, unlike the chefs who all pulled together at a time of crisis, the disciples offered Jesus nothing. They fell asleep. It must have been a real disappointment to Jesus that at his time of greatest need his most devoted followers didn't discern the gravity of the situation and fell asleep leaving Jesus to cope alone.

Being able to discern when people need help is not always easy. We don't all have the ability to see past the outward appearance to the inner core of turmoil. But sometimes it is not so much a matter of lack of ability but more a habit of not looking beyond our own circumstances to see what should be obvious to us.

God has created us to work together, to help each other when circumstances are such that individually, no matter how talented we are, we can't do it alone.

I hope that I am not found to be asleep when my friends most need me be to be alert and helping them through their problems.