Jesus had asked for their company in His hardest hour. He told them, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me" (Matthew 26:38). When He came back from praying, they were asleep. He spoke to Peter, though the "ye" is plural and includes all three. Barnes says the reproof was given to Peter particularly on account of "his warm professions, his rash zeal, and his self-confidence." Earlier that night, Peter had promised to die with Jesus (Matthew 26:35). Barnes draws the lesson: if Peter could not keep awake one hour, "how little probability was there that he would adhere to him in all the trials" ahead. The question is a rebuke, but its key words are "with me."

Matthew records no answer from Peter. Jesus went on: "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). He went away to pray a second time and came back to find them "asleep again: for their eyes were heavy" (Matthew 26:43). Mark adds, "neither wist they what to answer him" (Mark 14:40). After the third prayer Jesus said, "Rise, let us be going: behold, he is at hand that doth betray me" (Matthew 26:46).

Gethsemane was a place across the brook Cedron, which John calls a garden, where Jesus often went with His disciples (John 18:1-2). The KJV's opening "What" translates the Greek houtos, "so" or "thus," which is why the ESV begins, "So, could you not..." The verb "could ye" (ischysate) is plural.

Luke says Jesus found them "sleeping for sorrow" (Luke 22:45). Barnes quotes the physician Dr. Rush: "There is another symptom of grief, which is not often noticed, and that is profound sleep." Gill agrees that "the chief reason of their sleepiness was their sorrow," and that it "did not arise from a secure, lazy, indolent frame of spirit."

Here we see Jesus fully human. He was "sorrowful and very heavy" (Matthew 26:37) and wanted His friends near. Yet He kept going back to His Father: "not as I will, but as thou wilt" (Matthew 26:39). Matthew Henry draws a lesson from His prayer: "It should be more our care to get troubles sanctified, and our hearts satisfied under them, than to get them taken away."

Jesus' rebuke is honest but tender. Barnes reads their sleep as "proof of their great attachment, and their deep sympathy in his sorrows," not indifference. Jesus named the real problem: "the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak" (Matthew 26:41). His warning came true that very night, when all the disciples fled (Matthew 26:56) and Peter denied Him (Matthew 26:69-75). But Jesus had already promised, "after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee" (Matthew 26:32).