The first rebuke of Jesus to His sleepy disciples (Mark 14:37-38) should have been enough to jolt them into apology, and a determination to stay awake.  Far from it!  As Jesus returned to pray, the trusted men returned to sleep.  The Master's task was unchanged, and the disciples remained unmoved.  Although He had chosen them to be with Him, they were on different tracks.  In Bible language, "They did not know what to say", meant that they knew that they had no excuse; Jesus was right and they were in the wrong.  But Satan's lies had already been swallowed and they were paralysed.  They could not change their pattern of behaviour.

The reason for sleep is stated very simply, "... their eyes were heavy".  Their spiritually motivated will had given up, and the flesh took over, leaving them open to temptation just as Jesus had predicted.  The first temptation was to ignore Jesus' command to watch Him (paralleling Satan's first temptation in Genesis 3:1 to doubt the authority of God's Word), and to assume that it did not matter.  But Jesus would only have asked them to watch while He prayed in agony if it did matter!  So, for a second time the disciples chose to make up their own mind on whether the Divine Word mattered.  Their conclusion was 'No'.  They were so wrong!

The trainee apostles had no understanding of their future roles as witnesses of Christ's majesty and of His sufferings (Luke 1:2) - to the Early Church (2 Peter 1:16) and down the centuries to us (Acts 1:8).  They could not know what was ahead of them and therefore how they needed to be prepared; but, instead, they disobeyed the Word of Jesus who knew everything.  But Peter eventually learned the lesson.  In 1 Peter 1:13-15, he wrote, “Therefore, with minds that are alert and fully sober, set your hope on the grace to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed at his coming.”

Repeated reinterpretation of Scripture to suit personal circumstances (which is really 'serial disobedience') is exceptionally dangerous.  Not only does it label the offender as having wilful arrogance, it frustrates the purposes of God.  But worse, it opens up a motorway for truckloads of demonic temptations.  Let's not even think of going there.  'Trust and obey', the old hymn says - so let's do it!