And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.
All Commentaries on Matthew 26:44 Go To Matthew 26
John Chrysostom
AD 407
He “finds them sleeping,” both because it was a late hour of the night, and their eyes were heavy with sorrow.
But as they had all said the same, He charges them all with weakness; they had chosen to die with Christ, and yet could not even watch with Him.
That He prays for this a second and a third time, comes of the feelings belonging to human frailty, through which also He feared death, thus giving assurance that He was truly made man. For in Scripture when any thing is repeated a second and third time, that is the greatest proof of its truth and reality; as, for example, when Joseph says to Pharaoh, “And for that thousawedst it twice, it is proof of the thing being established by God.”
