After declaring in Matthew 26:36 that He and His Father are One, why would Jesus pray to God?
Jesus was expressing that although though He has a human form, He also has the same divine nature as God the Father when He declared that He and His Father are One (John 10:30). Paul makes this quite plain in Philippians 2:5-8. Christ Jesus, who is God by nature, did not view equality with God as something that could be attained. Instead, He humbled Himself by adopting the role of a servant and being formed in the image of a human. And after being discovered to be a man, He submitted to death, even dying on a cross, and humbled himself.
They are also distinct
It is crucial to realize that even while Jesus and the Father are One, they are nevertheless separate individuals, which is why they can be referred to as separate persons in Philippians 2:5-8. In other words, although though the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are unique individuals, they are all part of the same God. Because the Father and Jesus are two different people, they are able to communicate with one another and even pray. When Jesus prays to His Father in the garden of Gethsemane, we witness this.
Relationship of love
The relationship between Jesus and God is a relationship of love. We know this from what God said about Him at His baptism: “As Jesus was coming up out of the water, He saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on Him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven: “You are my Son, whom I love; with You I am well pleased” (Mark 1: 10-11), and at the transfiguration: “…a bright cloud enveloped them, and a voice from the cloud said, ‘This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!’” (Matthew 17:5). Just as people who love each other communicate with each other, it was natural for Jesus to be communicating with, that is, praying to God the Father.
Jesus found prayer to be so natural since He is One with the Father. Luke 11:1 tells us that after witnessing Jesus pray, the disciples desired to pray in the same way. We have Jesus dwelling inside of us via the Holy Spirit, thus according to 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we should “pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for that is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
