After praying at length, Jesus returns and finds the three apostles sleeping. He says to Peter: “Could you not so much as keep on the watch for one hour with me? Keep on the watch and pray continually, so that you may not enter into temptation.” Jesus realizes that the apostles too have been under stress, and it is late. He adds: “The spirit, of course, is eager, but the flesh is weak.”​—Matthew 26:40, 41.

On returning, he once again finds the three apostles asleep, when they should have been praying that they not enter into temptation. When Jesus speaks to them, they do “not know what to answer him.” (Mark 14:40)

When Jesus returns the third time to his apostles, he again finds them sleeping. “At such a time as this,” he says, “you are sleeping and resting!