J. Oswald Sanders
The Matchless Teacher
With strong crying and tears (Heb 5:7, KJV).
Our most wonderful lesson and our greatest inspiration in the holy art of prayer come from Him who not only spoke as never man spoke, but prayed as never man prayed. It is Luke who especially captures for us the teaching and habits of prayer in the life of our Lord.
We are inclined to think, are we not, that the human needs of our Lord were less real and pressing than our own, and that somehow His human nature was aided and sustained by His divine nature in a way that ours cannot be. Consequently, it is easy to feel that His need of prayer was surely not so desperate as ours.
But a moment’s thought will correct this misconception. Did His deity lessen the intensity of His anguish in the Garden of Gethsemane? Did it banish His hunger or dispel His weariness? The whole testimony of the gospels leads to the view that His deity in one way affected the reality of His human nature. The only difference is that He did no sin. His prayers were as real and intense as those of any other man.
This will be born out by a study of His prayer life, and it is suggested that the reader make this a special study. So completely did He renounce the independent exercise of His divine powers and perogatives that, like the weakest of His followers, He became dependent on His Father for all. Just as we do, He received His daily and hourly needs through the modium of prayer.
Why need He pray, who held by filial right,
O’er all the world alike of thought and sense,
The fullness of his Sire’s omnipotence?
Why crave in prayer what was his own by might?
Vain is the question, — Christ was man in need,
And being man his duty was to pray.
The son of God confess’d the human need,
And doubtless ask’d a blessing every day.
Nor ceases yet for sinful man to plead,
Nor will, till heaven and earth shall pass away. HARTLEY COLERIDGE
WHERE DID HE PRAY?
He prayed in solitude. If “prayer is the Christian’s vital breath, the Christian’s native air,” it was no less so to his Lord. It was the natural atmosphere of His life. Whenever possible, He sought solitude so that He could commune with His Father. It has been remarked that there are three kinds of solitude — the solitude of time, the solitude of peace, and the solitude of spirit. Jesus experienced all of these.
Robert E. Speer notes that one of His two prayers of deepest power was offered before midnight at the Temple gates (John 17), the other just after midnight in Gethsemane (Matt 26:36). He used to spend whole nights in prayer (Luke 6:12), and would rise to pay long before sunrises (Mark 1:35).
He also chose secluded places so that He, sometimes with His disciples, could pray undisturbed. The mountains, the desert, a garden were His favorite haunts (Matt 14:13; Mark 6:46; Luke 5:16; 6:12; John 18:2).
Even in the midst of crowds He experienced a solitude of spirit. Consider the paradoxical statement of Luke 9:18: “And it came about that while He was praying alone, the disciples were with Him.” He apparently possessed such powers of concentration and abstraction that He did not allow even the presence of His friends to disturb the solitude of His spirit. His longest recorded prayer was prayed in the presence of others (John 17).
He prayed in different attitudes. While posture is secondary to attitude of spirit, it is instructive to note that at times Jesus prayed when standing, just where He happened to be at the moment (Matt 14:19; John 11:41). At another time He knelt (Luke 22:41). On yet another occasion He fell on His face (Matt 26:39). We might well ask: “If the Son of God got down upon His knees and at times fell on His face before God, what attitude should we ordinary mortals assume as we enter the divine presence?”
He prayed in secret. Much of His prayer life was concealed even from His intimates. His own practice was reflected in His command to His disciples: “When you pray, go into your inner room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in secret” (Matt 6:6). Shut in with God, shut out from all else. He taught them that secret pray brought open reward. “Thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee” (v 6, KJV). Near the close of His ministry, these poignant words occur: “And everyone went to his home. But Jesus when to the Mount of Olives” (John 7:53-8:1) — probably to spend the night in secret vigil.
How oft He sought the mountain top, and
knelt upon its crest,
To pray, and lay His weary Head upon
His Father’s breast.
Before He called the Twelve to Him, He prayed
all night alone,
And when they began to dawn, He chose
them for His own.
WHEN DID HE PRAY?
He prayed in the morning, at the gateway of the day (Mark 1:35). He prayed in the evening, when the day’s work was over (Mark 6:46).
Great crises were preceded by prayer. It was “while He was praying” at His baptism that heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on Him (Luke 3:21-22). This was the watershed of His life and ministry, for He was identifying Himself with the godly remnant of the apostate nation.
He prayed in the hour of His popularity, the time when so many are swept off their feet. When great crowds were thronging Him, “He Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Luke 5:16). The glamour of popular approval never carried Him away, for He was fortified by prayer.
His selection of the twelve apostles, a seemingly unimportant yet in reality epoch-making event in world history, was made only after a night of prayer (Luke 6:12-13). To them He was to commit the responsibility of carrying His Gospel to the ends of the earth.
It was after a special time of prayer that he opened His heart to His disciples and shared with them the dread fact of His approaching suffering and death (Luke 9:18, 21-22).
It was while He was in the act of prayer that the majestic transfiguration scene was enacted, when “the appearance of His face became different, and His clothing became white and gleaming,” and the approving and authenticating voice of the Father was heard (Luke 9:29, 35). Prayer was the cause, transfiguration was the effect. Is there a lesson here for us?
Great achievements were preceded by prayer. Many of His miracles followed prayer: the feeding of the four thousand (Matt 15:36); the feeding of the five thousand (John 6:11); walking on the water (Matt 14:23-33); the raising of Lazarus (John 11:41-42); the healing of the insane boy (Mark 9:14-29). Each of these miracles was linked with the prayer that preceded it, and this is probably true of His other miracles.
Great achievements were followed by prayer. When confronted with great crises or with demanding tasks, we turn instinctively to prayer. But once the crisis is over, the task achieved, we tend to lean again on our own abilities or wisdom. Jesus guarded against this evil by following such occasions with prayer, and we would do well to imitate our divine Exemplar. After what had been perhaps one of His most successful days, instead of courting the popularity of the crowd, He dismissed them and sought solitude for prayer (Matt 14:23).
Great pressure of work was a call to prayer. Our Lord’s life was exceptionally busy. He worked under constant pressure. At times He had no leisure even for meals (Mark 6:31). But whatever the pressure, He made sure that prayer did not become a casualty. To Him it was a call to devote extra time to prayer (Mark 1:32-35; Luke 5:15-1; John 6:15).
Great sorrows were faced with prayer. The Man of sorrows suffered deeply at the hands of His own people. Added to this was the disappointment of His intimate followers’ chronic lack of insight and understanding. But the darkest abyss was being forsaken by His Father when Jesus assumed the sins of the whole world. For this He fortified Himself in prayer (Matt 26:36-46).
He died praying. The hour and suffering of death were powerless to quench the habit of a lifetime. His last utterance was one of trustful prayer (Luke 23:46).
HOW DID HE PRAY
A large field may be seen through a small chink in the fence. While it is true that only a small segment of our Lord’s life is preserved for us in the gospels, what is recorded by inspiration of the Spirit has been carefully selected and may be regarded as representative. His recorded prayers, therefore, afford a rich insight into His heart and provide much material for emulation.
His Father’s glory was His consuming passion. He summarized His life’s work in seven words: “I have glorified thee on the earth” (John 17:4, KJV). This was the focus of His prayer life. He secured God’s glory by completing the task entrusted to Him.
Thanksgiving was intermingled with worship and petition. Adoring thankfulness constantly welled up in His heart. Whether He was walking in bright sunlight or in dark shadow, He did not forget thanksgiving.
Confession of sin found no place in His devotional life, as it must ours. This was because there was never any consciousness of defilement or sense of distance from His Father. On the contrary, He asserted, “I always do the things that are pleasing to Him” (John 8:29). No occasion for confession ever arose.
Communion with His Father bulked large in His prayers, whereas petition for personal needs occupied only a minor place. Amid earth’s pollution, He pined for the celestial air. His high-priestly prayer recorded in John 17 is an example of communion with God at its highest.
Intercession also held an important place, and included the interests and spiritual advancement of His disciples. His prayer for Peter opens a wonderful life of truth: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you [plural, ‘you all’] like wheat; but I have prayed for you [singular]” (Luke 22:31-32). He prayed for His enemies, even for those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34).
His prayers were invariably answered, “I knew that Thou hearest Me always,” was His testimony (John 11:42). This assurance rested on the fact that He knew He always prayed in line with the will of God.
From the gospel records it seems clear that of all His excellencies of character, it was His prayerfulness that most impressed His apostles.
“The Lord Jesus is still praying,” wrote S. D. Gordon. “Thirty years of living; thirty years of serving; one tremendous act of dying; nineteen hundred years of prayer. What an emphasis on prayer!”1
PRAYER
Blessed Lord, in lowly adoration I would bow before Thee. Thy whole redemption work has now passed into prayer: all that now occupies Thee in maintaining and dispensing what Thou didst purchase with Thy blood is only prayer. Thou ever livest to pray. And because we are, and abide in Thee, direct access to the Father is always open, our life can be one of unceasing prayer, and the answer to our prayer is sure. ANONYMOUS
QUESTIONS
- Write down definite ways in which it is possible for you to follow the example of the Master in prayer.
- Since Jesus was never out of touch with His Father, why do you think He found prayer so necessary?
Notes
D. F. and L. Harvey, Kneeling We Triumph (Blackburn, England: M.O.V.E. Press, 1971), p 11
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