As I said in Sunday’s sermon, Luke emphasizes the prayer life of Jesus more than any other Gospel writer. He showed us in the passage we looked at (Luke 4:42-44) that Jesus drew closer to God the Father, gained direction, and gained strength for his mission through prayer. We emphasized that we should follow his example in this as in everything. After all, as disciples of Jesus, we should emulate him (Luke 6:40; 1 John 2:6). And what is more, Jesus wants us to follow him and become like him (Luke 6:40; 9:23).
This brings up an important question we should ask if we are going to follow his model in prayer: How did Jesus pray?
There are at least five answers we can give.
To begin, Jesus prayed in accordance with Scripture. We know this because his very last words before he died on the cross consisted of a prayer to the Father that quoted Psalm 31:5: “Into your hands I commit my spirit!” The fact that Jesus would both pray and quote Scripture as he did it as the last thing before death shows how much a part of his life communication with the Father was (note that he prayed for his current and future disciples on the night he was betrayed, just before going to the cross! John 17), yet also communication that was according to Scripture. It is because of this, in part, that Jesus calls his disciples to pray in accordance with his Word (John 15:7).
Next, Jesus prayed that God would help him carry out his mission. We know this because of his wrestling with the Father in prayer when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, where he committed himself to do the will of the Father (see Lk. 22:42). This is also apparent from his spending time in prayer at key times during his public ministry (e.g. Luke 4:1-2, 42 [in light of Mk. 1:35]). One of the best ways we know this is by looking at his prayer for his current and future disciples in John 17. Finally, it is seen in how he teaches his disciples to pray. He teaches them to pray for the glory of God, God’s will to be done, and for the kingdom to advance, i.e. to pray for the mission to which God has called them (see Luke 10:2; 11:2-4).
What is more, Jesus did not only ask the Father for what he needed, he also praised and thanked the Father (Mt. 11:25; Lk. 10:21). This is in keeping with the Psalms, that Old Testament book that chronicles the worship life of God’s people (e.g. Psalms 100, 106, 107).
Also, we can say that Jesus prayed about all kinds of things, as is seen in his Garden of Gethsemane prayer (Luke 22:42) and his petition he made to the Father for himself as part of his prayer in John 17 (see verses 1-5).
Finally, what is most remarkable is that Jesus continually prays for all his followers (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). There is little that should give us more comfort than the reality Jesus is continually praying for us. The Scottish pastor and author, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, once wrote: “If I could hear Christ praying for me in the next room, I would not fear a million enemies. Yet distance makes no difference. He is praying for me.”
The life of Jesus shows us he is our Savior, the one who intercedes for us that we might be saved to the uttermost (Heb. 7:25), he is our source, the one through whom we have bold access in prayer to the Father’s throne of grace (Heb. 4:16), and finally he is our standard for how to pray, as we saw above.
Be encouraged Christian, and may we be able to say what King David did: “But I give myself to prayer” (Psalm 109:4).
Joyfully praying through and like Jesus with you!
Tom
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