“Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives” (Luke 22:39 NLT).
On the night that Jesus would be betrayed, He went out “as usual” to the Mount of Olives to pray. On this unusual evening, Jesus followed His usual habit: He prayed on the mountain. And His disciples followed Him. Yet, rather than praying, they slept. For they were exhausted with grief.
The disciples were accustomed to Jesus withdrawing to “lonely places to pray” (Luke 5:16). For this was His practice everywhere He went. And they knew He especially loved praying on the Mount of Olives, where He could see the entirety of Jerusalem and its Temple from the Mount’s greater elevation, yet still be hidden from the crowds.
Judas Iscariot knew where Jesus would be. His habit of praying on the Mount of Olives was well known to the betrayer. For he had been there with Him many times before. Yet this dark night, he came not to pray with Jesus, but to betray Him with a kiss, while thirty pieces of silver jingled in his pocket.
Have you learned to follow Christ’s habit of prayer, following Him so often that it becomes “usual?” And when you seek to follow Him in prayer, have you felt the temptation to either fall sleep or to let you mind wander to worldly things, like money and possessions? Yet as we grow in the discipline of praying with Jesus, we learn to stay awake and pray with Him, overcoming our physical exhaustion and temptation to sin.
PRAYER: Dear Father, our spirit is willing but our flesh is weak. Teach us to pray as Jesus did. Lead us to follow Him up the Mount to pray “as usual.” Strengthen us to stay awake and not to give in to temptation, but to focus on His voice as we pray with Him. Father, help us to learn to follow Christ’s habit of prayer. In Jesus’ name, amen.