In our text, Jesus took the disciples to the garden of Gethsemane to pray. He needed their help. He needed their encouragement. He needed them to stand with him. He was looking for their support as He struggled with the questions of his flesh. Yet in this crucial hour, those that He counted on the most failed him. After all that He had done for them in the years of His ministry, this is how they say thanks. This was not their finest hour. In His grace, he allowed for their failure. He expected more than they had done. The text indicates that He was shocked by their behavior. They were not able to watch with Him for an hour. None of us would blame Jesus if He had dismissed them in disgust. It would have been easy for Him to lose His temper and tell them off. But in that hour, Jesus was tender and gentle. The disciples deserved harsh judgement, but Jesus did something quite different. He made allowance for their weakness. He saved them that night from something that could have easily destroyed them. Jesus speaks something to them that all of us need to hear even today: The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Each of us desires to do better than we are. For some it is too easy to forget the time when we have failed when we encounter someone who has failed us. In the garden the Lord spoke a wonderful truth: We are all imperfect. Even the best of us are flawed. Jesus allowed for their failures. There will always be defects in humans. The church must be a place where people can get over their failures. There is a love of God that can transform us into the man or woman that God said we could become. Jesus made an allowance that night. Do we make allowances for people in our life? Do we allow a margin for error?