We have followed Our Lord's teaching on Prayer as given us in the four gospels. Now let us reverently observe Him in His own praying. Is it not strange that He, the Lord, the Son of God, should have to pray? Is it not said that "the Father loveth the Son and hath given all things into his hands"? (John 3:35.) Did He not Himself say, "I and the Father are one"? (John 10:30.) What need was there for Him to pray? The answer lies in Christ's humanity. When He became man, He took a man's place--and that is the place of dependence on God. It behooves man to look to God for everything, and to obtain all things from God by prayer. God's wisdom must guide Him; God's power must enable and sustain Him, and all He needs and desires must come to Him from God in answer to prayer. This place of perfect dependence on God the Lord Jesus took that, in this as in all other respects, He might be made like unto His brethren.

      The recorded instances of His praying are many. I have counted about twenty-odd of special references: three in Matthew (one more if we reckon Matt. 27:46); three in Mark (to which may be added Mark 15:34); eleven in Luke, where the Man Christ Jesus comes into special view; four in John. And these are only indicative of His praying, not by any means the only instances. So, as a Man, He lived and worked and did all things on a basis of prayer.

      Nevertheless, there was something different and distinctive in His praying. He prayed in the hearing of His disciples, but He never prayed with them. Though truly and really one of us, He never lined Himself up in joint petition with other men. He never said "Our Father" along with His disciples. His was a special and unapproachable relation to God. As on that resurrection-morn He said to Mary Magdalene, "Go unto my brethren and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God" (John 20:17) so He observed this distinction always. We are indeed His brethren, and His Father is our Father also; but we are children of God through Him, and He is the Son of God in His own right and nature. Though He identified Himself with us, there must also be that particular aloofness--as in Israel's journeyings there must always be a distance between the ark and the following people.

      There is also a difference in the character of His petitions. Men ask of God--where the Greek word is "aites," never used of Christ's praying (except by Martha's mistake, John 11:22); but He makes request (the Greek word "erotas," used only of Christ's praying, and [47] in John's gospel only). Nevertheless He prayed fervently, humbly, earnestly, "In the days of his flesh he offered up prayers and supplications, with strong crying and tears . . . and having been heard for his godly fear." (Heb. 5:7.)^* [48]

      Looking over the records of Jesus' prayers, let us mark them briefly.

      When He came forth from the waters of baptism, He was praying. (Luke 3:21.)

      After the busy day (Mark 1:35) "a great while before day"; and when beset by multitudes (Luke 5:16) He prayed.

      Once He prayed all night: before choosing the Twelve (Matt. 14:23; Mark 6:46.)

      At Caesarea Philippi (Luke 9:18).

      At the Transfiguration (Luke 9:28).

      The prayer of thanks in Matt. 11:25; Luke 10:21.

      "At a certain place" (Luke 11:1).

      At the tomb of Lazarus. (John 11:41, 42,)

      A "sentence prayer": "Father, glorify thy Name." (Jn. 12:28.)

      His intercession for Simon Peter (Luke 22:32).

      The great "high-priestly prayer" of John 17.

      The threefold prayer of Gethsemane (Matt. 26:39-44; Luke 22:41-44).

      The prayers on the cross: (1) for those who crucified Him (Luke 23:34), (2) for Himself (Matt. 26:46; Luke 23:46). [49]

      There is much here to think on. It is evident as a Man the Lord Jesus had nothing, and would have nothing (though He could have had)--nothing of His own: all He had of life and power and wisdom he obtained from the Father. In our adoration of Him as the Son of God from heaven, it is hard for us to realize how utterly he emptied Himself (Phil. 2:7) when He became man. The modernistic "Kenosis" theory (so called from the Greek word meaning "to empty") according to which Jesus was a fallible man, limited in knowledge and understanding, is thus shown to be false--for because He had utterly emptied Himself, it follows by that very fact that all He said and did was of the Father. He never spoke from Himself (John 7:16, 18; 12:49, 50). He never acted upon His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him. All His physical and mental powers were exclusively at the Father's disposal. There was never anything of self-will or independent action in all that He "began to do and teach," He had a will of His own--but it was evermore subject to the Father's will. (Matt. 26:39.) Of Him it was written, "A body didst thou prepare for me . . . then said I, Lo I am come, in the volume of the book it is written of me, to do thy will O God" (Heb. 10:5-7). He was in the Father, and the Father in Him. Therefore He was the Father's perfect Messenger and Representative. What He did, God did. What He spoke was God's word. Himself was the Word. He that had seen Him had seen the Father also.

      Such a life may seem to us to be unnatural, even abnormal. That is due to the fact that we have never seen or known a truly normal human life, Jesus was the only normal man--therefore (according to God's intention in man's creation) He bore the perfect Image and Likeness of God.

      All this explains, in so far as we can grasp it, the prayer-life of our Lord. For every crisis, yea, for every step, He pleaded to the Father for wisdom, guidance, and strength. And in this He is the great Example to all God's children. Christians venture forth into the affairs of life, often without a thought of their need of God's guidance and protection. We get ourselves into trouble, and then--yes, then we call upon Him for help and deliverance. And He, being gracious and merciful, helps us out of our predicaments. (Ps. 107.) But how much better is an ounce of prevention than a pound of cure! How much better is a fence around the top of the precipice than the merciful help of the ambulance at the bottom! Looking back over the past we can see that often it was some trifling accidental thing that changed the course and current of our lives. How many know the bitterness of the word, "It might have [50] been." A chance meeting, a small circumstance, almost unnoticed at the time, and everything is different from then on.

      How can we afford to go out a single day without prayer? For we know not what is before. "Keep thou the door of my lips"--said the psalmist; and how we need that protection. And "keep thou my feet"; yea, and my heart, for out of it are the issues of life. And "lead us not into temptation," the Savior taught us to pray. The Lord Jesus prayed and prayed. If He needed to do so, do not we? "None could pray like Him; none could teach like Him." "Lord, teach us to pray!" [51]

[CTOP 47-51]