Jesus was God in the form of man, one and the same with the Father and, moreover, the Father in Heaven knows the hearts and minds of men. So why is it that Jesus went and prayed in private and asked God for what he wanted?

“Abba, Father,” he said, “everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

Mark 14:36

Beyond that, why should Jesus have to ask for anything? He was a great worker of miracles. John calls him the power of Creation manifest in a person, among other superlatives. He surely could have commanded anything he wanted and made it so.

The things we want, indeed even the things we are capable of doing for ourselves are not possible without God’s authority behind them. Jesus was not merely setting an example of prayer but of obedience, even to death.

Ethan Kirl