Watching and praying seem to be the two least favourite activities for most Christians.  All too often, they are replaced by doing and talking.  Yet for Jesus praying while waiting was normal.  All through His ministry He was waiting to die on the cross: all through His ministry He prayed to Father God.  His prayer that night was not a sudden reaction to an unexpected crisis: it was a part of His lifestyle (Hebrews 5:7) - because the cross was in His sights all along, and undoubtedly occupied much of His prayer time in the early mornings (Mark 1:35).

The crucial moment was almost upon Him.  The most important thing He could do was to share all His deepest thoughts and emotions with Father God before communication was severed (Mark 15:34).  We do not know what Jesus prayed but we do know that He was in agony of spirit.  The weight of the sins of the world was pressing on His shoulders: the responsibility of being the Passover Lamb to take away the sins of the world was overwhelming (1 Corinthians 5:7).  But this was not weakness; it was the reality of bearing everything that was utterly abhorrent to Him in His own body (1 Peter 2:24).

Why did He take Peter, James and John along with Him?  Could they make the load any easier?  What help could they be?  Jesus took these men to witness the agony of the Son of God facing the punishment of all the world's sin.  As the apostles who would lead the church in Jerusalem, they needed to know that despite Jesus’ triple prophecy about dying and rising again, this was no religious exercise.  He also needed witnesses to verify the facts of His agony (Deuteronomy 19:15; Acts 1:8).  It was the one and only time when God would become sin, so that believers might receive His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).  And in the persecution to come, no death they might face could ever be so gross, and their Lord would escort them through it (John 21:18-19).

Contrary to the way some Christians think, it is not wrong to have profound emotions, nor wrong to express them.  Jesus was a real man and needed both His heavenly Father and earthly fellowship.  None of us is designed to work in any other way.  Inactivity, except watchfulness and prayer, requires the inner confidence that there is nothing more that can or should be done.  It is the confidence that God is at work and we are witnesses of His powerful actions.  When Jesus excludes all other options, that quiet alertness is a mark of faith - and agitated activity is a mark of unbelief.  The apostles were utterly confident in teaching the embryo church because they had witnessed who Jesus was, what He did and how He suffered for them … and for us.  We too are witnesses of what He has done for us.