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Jesus in Prayer, Part 5
(This exercise was written by Jason Coker as part of our prayer journey with Ikon Community.)
Today we visit Jesus again in the garden (Matt 26:39-44), only this time we zoom out from his admonition to Peter and view, instead, with the wide lens that gives us a brief peek into his own prayer life:
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”
He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”
When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.
There are three things about Jesus’ prayer that I envy: The first is that he is persistent. Three times he prays the same prayer, urgently petitioning God to give him relief. Frankly, I rarely do more than utter a half-hearted plea.
The second is related to the first: I envy Jesus’ passion. I don’t mean merely his urgency – no doubt if I was convinced of my impending death I would be rather urgent as well – rather, I’m talking about the sense that Jesus really seemed to believe in the nearness of his hearer. We speak differently to people we know are listening, and even more differently when we know a person of means is listening. That is the passion I hear in Jesus’ voice. He knew God was listening and could do something about it. On my bad days I think I may have given up on that.
Lastly, I envy Jesus’ submission. As paradoxical as it might seem, I somehow manage to lack persistence and passion, yet overflow abundantly in obstinacy. Like some dumb animal I just can’t see it any way other than my own.
Like most good things, these three traits aren’t skills that can be taught by instruction, they’re character traits that must be caught by practice. Like the father who said to Jesus, “Lord, I believe! Help my unbelief!”(Mk 9:24) we may need to say, “Lord I pray. Help me to learn to pray!”
Prayer Exercise
This prayer exercise is a bit different because it doesn’t actually involve praying. At least, not at first. Your task this week is to find someone older who you believe has a good prayer life and interview them. It doesn’t have to be formal, they don’t even need to know you’re “interviewing” them. Just find a way to ask them some questions about prayer. What have they learned? Why do they pray? What does it help? Think about the questions you really want to know about prayer, and ask their perspective. Then come back here and share what you learned.Then go pray.