In the morning, while it was still very dark, he got up and went out to a deserted place, and there he prayed.

Does this not show the great need Jesus had for solitary intimacy with the Father?  Or are we scandalized at the idea of Jesus wanting to be alone with the one he loves most: his Father, and so we cast it in a different light - he was merely seeking a respite from the pressing demands of the crowd.  But Jesus often sought deep solitude.  In fact does not intimacy require solitude?  It most certainly presupposes it.  Can a man and wife be intimate except as apart from the crowd?  And is solitary intimacy a phenomenon of this life only?  Will there be no need for 'time apart with God' in heaven, or will we be so integrated as to enjoy perfectly his intimacy in our soul at the same time we are giving public worship?

The prayer of Jesus in Gethsemane (Matthew 26.36-46) seems to offer further insight into the balance of needing the company of others as well as solitude with God.  Note that Jesus took only the disciples into the garden.  Of those he took his closest companions - Peter, James and John - and went still further in with just them.  Then he continued further still alone.  This seems to speak of the gradations of solitude even in the midst of intimate companions.  Jesus repeated this three times: back to check on his disciples, back into aloneness.