Agony In The Garden

In noticing that Jesus was awake while the disciples slept in Gethsemane, we should also consider that — as we sleep — Jesus Himself is in the most fervent prayer with the Father. The heavenly messengers — the Angels — are working overtime while we rest.

Then He came to His disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners.
Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.
[Matthew 26:45-46 NKJV]

Jesus needs His disciples to sleep, to rest and recover, so that He can speak to the deepest parts of us. He knows that the purpose of sleep is that we are prepared; strengthened for what is ahead. We cannot merely sit meekly doing nothing. He speaks to us, ‘Rise, let us be going.’

He gives us the free will choice of going with Him; joining Him wherever it will lead, but with the caveat, ‘See, My betrayer is at hand.’ It is not the easy road. The choice is clear, either go with Him to and through the Cross to new life — resurrection life — or go with the betrayer and side with the sinners. ‘Choose whom you will serve’; that is the reality of the agony in Gethsemane.

Gethsemane is ‘the oil press’, where the anointing of the Holy Spirit is worked in us, concentrated by His prayer to keep us following Him. Only by travelling that way with Him do see the glory, or we can turn back to the darkness we knew before.

Jesus already knows your answer, but His prayer is always that you turn your eyes upon Him.

The joy of Jesus was the absolute Self-surrender and Self-sacrifice of Himself to the will of His Father, the joy of doing exactly what the Father sent Him to do, and He prays that His disciples may have this same joy fulfilled in themselves.
[from ‘Bringing Sons Into Glory’]