we are not home yet

Jesus in the garden instructs Peter, James and John three times one simple command: "Keep watch". But prior to this instance, in the last parable Mark records, Jesus says, "What I say to you, I say to all: Watch!"

Emily Dickinson writes:

I many times thought peace had come,
When peace was far away;
As wrecked men deem they sight the land
At centre of the sea,

And struggle slacker, but to prove,
As hopelessly as I,
How many the fictitious shores
Before the harbor lie.

Christians must be careful not to think the job complete. We are not home yet. Therefore, you and I must continue to "keep watch"; this, however, is not an inactive duty. Jesus asks Peter (in the plural), "Could you all not keep watch with me for just one hour? Watch and pray..."

Prayer is not inactivity either. As Rabbi Heschel says, "Prayer takes the mind out of the narrowness of self-interest, and enables us to see the world in the mirror of the holy." When this happens, when we see the world from an aspect void of ego, we will react to injustice, practice redemption, and execute love.

What I say to you, I say to all: [keep] watch!