Readings: Hebrews 4:14-5:10 and Matthew 26:36-46
We have been looking at various prayers in Scripture that we might learn more about prayer. Yet we cannot afford to model our lives uncritically upon Abraham or Moses or David. All of these men have great faults as well as being great men of God. How can we be sure that they set us a good example in the matter of prayer?
In the last of these studies I want us to look at Jesus at prayer and for us to learn from him. Christians are disciples or followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are to learn from Christ and to live as he lived. Jesus sets us an example in the matter of prayer, an example against which we have also to judge the prayer life of every other man of God in Scripture.
One of the reasons why Christ became man was that he might show us how we ought to live. Of course, this is not the only reason why Christ became man: he also came into the world to save sinners, and apart from his saving work his example would be of no use to us at all, it would only condemn us. Nevertheless, we must not allow the truth that Christ is Saviour from making us blind to the fact that he is our example.
The Bible teaches us that in Jesus we have nothing less than the Son of God become man. He lived a perfect human life. He is the last Adam, the man who succeeded where the first Adam failed. As such he sets us an example of human life as it was meant to be lived and as we ought to live it. This is true of the prayer life of Jesus just as it is true of his moral actions,
When we turn to the Gospels we find that Jesus taught a great deal about prayer. If you turn to the 'Sermon on the Mount' you remember how Jesus criticised the prayers of the Jewish leaders of his day: they prayed to show off before others. Jesus shows us how we should pray and gives us a pattern prayer in what we call 'The Lord's Prayer,' Later in that same sermon Jesus reminds his disciples that they have a heavenly Father who cares about them. Firstly, this means that they are not to be anxious about anything. Secondly, this means that they are ask their Father for those things that they need, and he will grant them,
Or think of how Jesus told parables about prayer. He told a parable about the Pharisee and tax collector at prayer to show us that we should pray with a humble spirit and not boast of what we are before God. On two occasions he told parables to teach us that we should be persistent and earnest in prayer rather than giving up quickly when our prayers do not seem to be answered – the parables of the unjust judge and the friend at midnight. And so we could go on. The gospels are full of Jesus' teaching about prayer,
But talking is one thing, doing is another. Surely each one of us who is a Christian has to admit that we find it far easier to read about prayer than to pray, far easier to discuss the life of prayer than to live it out. Jesus did not just teach about prayer, he prayed. Concerning the Pharisees, Jesus once had to tell the crowds to take note of what they teach but not to follow their example. There was no such disagreement in the life of our Lord. He practised what he preached, giving us not only instructions to be followed but also a life to be imitated.
More than that, there was and is something wonderful and attractive to the Christian in the prayer life of our Lord. When the first disciples saw Jesus at prayer, they wanted to pray like that and asked him to teach them to pray (Luke 31:1). When we look at the prayer life of our Lord, we should want to pray as he prayed and should plead with him that, by his Spirit, he might teach us to pray as he prayed.
We are dealing here with part of the mystery of the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible tells us that though he was God yet he became man and was made like us in every way except for sin. Jesus was fully human, and this is seen in that he spent time in prayer.
Jesus prayed for the same reasons we pray. Jesus' humanity involved him in certain limitations. His knowledge was limited, but unlike us, he was completely aware of the limits of his knowledge. He spoke on one occasion of how he did not know the day of his second coming (Mark 13:32). As a child he grew up like any other human child, learning language and many other things by experience, in much the same manner as we do (Luke 2:52). His strength was limited: he knew what it was to get tired and weary. Moreover, he knew what it was to suffer temptation and to be under attack by Satan. These things are all part of the mystery of Jesus' human life. His human life was real, and so his prayer life was real.
Prayer had the same significance in the life of our Lord as it has in our lives. It was through prayer that he lived in communion with his heavenly Father. Surely this was one of the reasons why the disciples saw something so wonderfully attractive in the prayer life of our Lord: here they saw something of the wonderful intimacy between the Father and the Son, and they wanted to share in this intimacy. Jesus spoke often of how he had come only to do the Father's will: his whole life was one of obedience to the Father, Prayer formed a vital part of Jesus' life as he sought to know the will of his Father and to do it, The prayer life of Jesus lays down an example for us to follow.
Look at one or two references. We read in Mark 1:35-37 that the day after Jesus had been busily occupied in healing the sick, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed, 'Everyone is looking for you!'" We read of something similar in Luke 5:15,16, "Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed." Or again, in Luke 6:12, "One of those days Jesus went out into the hills to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” And lastly, after Jesus had fed the 5,000 we read in Matthew 14:22,23, "Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. After he had dismissed them, he went up into the hills by himself to pray.”
From these scriptures (and there are many others) we learn that Jesus needed time for prayer and that he made time for prayer. Note four things:
i) Jesus refused to let the demands of others upon his time rob him of prayer. He knew that if he was to minister to others he needed to spend time in prayer for himself. Therefore he made the time. He got up early or prayed all night not because there is anything specially virtuous about praying at such times, but in order to escape the demands of others. He made time.
ii) Jesus spent time regularly in prayer, as Luke 5:16 makes plain. He did not just pray from time to time, prayer was part of his lifestyle.
iii) Jesus regularly spent hours in prayer. Jesus did not make do with a few moments here or a few minutes there, he regularly spent hours in prayer to God.
iv) Jesus spent time alone in prayer. We also read of Jesus praying with his disciples yet often we read of him praying alone.
In all of these things, Jesus calls upon us to follow his example. It was said of Luther that he had so much business to get through each day that he could not manage without devoting two or three of the best hours of his time each day to prayer. We must be careful not to fall into the trap of thinking that there is something especially virtuous about long prayers. Nevertheless, prayer ought to have a place of priority in the Christian life. We ought to spend time in prayer daily (Luke 11:3). And we ought not to neglect private prayer (Matthew 6:6). Praying with our families or with other Christians is good and valuable, but we ought not to neglect private prayer for which we have both the command and the example of Christ. There are many deep needs and longings of our hearts which we cannot share with anyone else but which we need to bring constantly before the Lord.
In Luke 3:21,22 we read, "When all the people were being baptised, Jesus was baptised too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove." Jesus' baptism marked the beginning of his earthly ministry. It would seem, in context, that Jesus was praying for himself and for the work that the Father had given him to do. In a real sense, the descent of the Spirit was an answer to Jesus' prayer as he is equipped for the work before him.
In Luke 6:12,13 where we read of Jesus spending a night alone in prayer it is immediately before he chooses the 12 who are to be his special companions. Again, in context, it seems that Jesus was praying for guidance and wisdom for the decision ahead of him.
In these things too, Jesus is an example to us, We need to seek the strength and equipping from God for the work that he has called each of us to do. We need to commit our days to him. We need wisdom and guidance for the decisions which lie ahead of us. If Jesus needed to spend time in prayer on these issues, how much more do we?
But it is perhaps supremely as he approaches his death that we see Jesus praying for strength to do the work given to him. In Matthew 26:36-46 we read of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knew that the cross lay before him and he knew all that that meant. He knew that this was the very reason why he had come into the world, and yet he was filled with sorrow and anguish at the thought of what he must suffer, In that garden he wrestled with God in prayer. Longing to avoid the cross and yet knowing that he must face it, he seeks strength and comfort from God to face the coming ordeal.
We do not have to face a situation like that of our Saviour. We may have to suffer for our faith – though if we are honest, we suffer scarcely at all – but our sufferings are not like his. Yet there are many times when we know what God's will is for us but we do not want to do it. Indeed, knowing God's will is an easy matter compared with the business of doing it. When we are faced with such situations we need to remember the example of the Lord Jesus and turn to prayer. We need to admit to God that we know what we ought to do but that we would rather not do it. Then we need to continue to wrestle with God in prayer until we get up ready to do his will for his sake. Do we know what it is to wrestle with God in prayer in this way? Perhaps we fail so often to do what we should because we have failed to pray for the needed strength to do it.
Jesus' prayers were first and foremost God-centred prayers. We see this in his prayer in Gethsemane where his repeated theme is, "may your will be done." We see this also in the wonderful prayer of our Lord Jesus recorded for us in John 17 where the opening words of the prayer are a plea for God to glorify himself in and through the work of his Son. Jesus' prayers were God-centred.
But secondly. Jesus' prayers were full of concern for others. Again, note this truth from John 17 where we read, "I pray for them for those you have given me" (v.9); "Protect them by the power of your name" (v.11); "My prayer is … that you may protect them from the power of the evil one" (v.15); "Sanctify them by the truth" (v.17); "Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am" (v.24). Jesus prayer, even when facing the cross, is full of concern for others.
And this remains the concern of Jesus even when on the cross. We read of how he was crucified. Having been stripped, beaten and mocked he was taken out to a hillside where his hands were nailed to the cross. This was a particularly cruel form of death, a slow, lingering and extremely painful death. But even there we read of how he prayed for the very people who put him to death, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." (Luke 23:34). Can you imagine this situation? If anyone ever had cause to think of themselves and of the injustice which they were suffering it was Jesus at that time. But Jesus prays for his persecutors.
In this also, Jesus sets us an example, Jesus taught us that we should pray for others and that we should pray for those who persecute us or who do us wrong (Luke 7:27,28). Jesus practised what he preached and he calls us to follow him. Stephen followed the example of Christ in that he too prayed for those who wrongly put him to death (Acts 7:60).
All of this may seem quite outside of our experience, for we do not suffer persecution, Ah yes, but we do easily fall into the sin of self-pity. When we face circumstances which we do not like or trials which we feel we do not deserve how soon we fall prey to self-pity. How easy it is for our prayers at such times to become full of self-pity: "Lord! Why did you let this happen to me?" or, "Lord! What have I done to deserve this?", or "Lord! why don't you treat me the way I want to be treated and let me float to heaven on careless beds of ease?" Self-pity is not only ugly and sinful, it is also destructive of a true spirit of prayer. Like our Lord, our prayers are to be God-centred and full of concern for others.
We return to something we spoke of at the beginning. Jesus is more than an example to us, he is also a Saviour. This means that he has come to do for us what we could never do for ourselves, and this applies to the matter of prayer as much as to every other aspect of the Christian life. In closing, I want to remind you that Jesus does more than set us an example of how we should pray – though he does that, as we have seen – he prays for use
Jesus is now at the right hand of the Father in heaven and he is there praying for us. He is the one who has made it possible for sinful men and women to come into the presence of a holy God. Your prayers cannot save you, only Christ, his life, his death, his risen power, his prayers at the Father's right hand – only he can save you. We read in Hebrews 7:24,25, "Because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them." Are you trusting in him and in his works and his prayers or in your own?
Jesus is the one who continues to pray for his people and it is because he prays for us that we who are his are kept from falling. We are kept by his power, through his prayers and not our own (compare John 17:15 and 24 and Luke 22:32). We dare not make our assurance depend upon the quantity or quality of our own prayers, it rests upon the knowledge that he who died for us and is risen for us, now prays for us. Jesus is more than an example, he is our representative and our Saviour,
Nevertheless, Christ's presence in heaven, praying for us, is our great encouragement to spend time in prayer as he did and as he still does (Hebrews 4:14-5:10).
Peter Misselbrook