Maundy Thursday 9.30pm

Thursday
9:30pm   

The silence is broken

Then he came to his disciples and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘So, could you not stay awake with me one hour? Stay awake and pray that you may not come into this time of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.’  Again, he went away for the second time and prayed, ‘My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.’   Again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words.  Then he came to the disciples and said to them ‘Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? See, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Get up, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand’. (Matthew 26: 40-46)

They were exhausted, it was too much.  They looked up – through the trees they would see the light of approaching torches and they could hear the noise of a crowd, the noise of a mob.  They had been called to fish for people but now they were being hunted like animals and they did not know what or who to expect.