You might think a discussion on the Lord’s Prayer should begin with the Lord’s Prayer, but to understand Jesus’ teaching on prayer I think we need to start a few verses prior to the words “Our Father…” The Gospels provide two occasions when Jesus spoke about the Lord’s Prayer to his disciples. One was during the famous Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew, and the other during an otherwise unremarkable day in the life of Jesus and his disciples as found in Luke. It is with Luke’s unremarkable day that I wish to start.
Luke 11:1 begins with the words, “Now Jesus was praying in a certain place.” It’s tempting to pass over these words on our way to the actual prayer, but the fact that Jesus was praying should cause us to stop and think.
Jesus—sinless Jesus; the second person of the Trinity, God himself, the image of the Father, the Word become flesh—prayed. To whom is Jesus praying? Why did Jesus need to pray? These seem like simple questions, but the answers are worth mulling over before we go any further.
The first question is answered in the first words of The Lord’s Prayer, “Our Father…” Jesus prayed to the Father. Jesus, the Son, while on earth and in the flesh, maintained communication with the Father; he sought the Father out in times of stress (Mark 6:46), before making a decision about the 12 disciples (Luke 6:12), when eating (Luke 9:16), and when struggling to subjugate his flesh to the will of the Father (Matthew 26:36-46). I find his words while in the Garden of Gethsemane the most telling about why Jesus prayed to the Father. He said to Peter and the other disciples, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:41) I’ve often been told Jesus said these words because the disciples were having trouble staying awake when Jesus prayed, and that may be correct. But I think the more accurate meaning of those words is that Jesus was indicating to the disciples the sort of battle he was waging; Jesus was asking the Father if there was any other way to avoid the upcoming crucifixion. I almost see those words not as a statement made to the disciples but as words he nearly muttered on his way back to praying for the third time. In that dark night, Jesus, the Son of God, longed to avoid the crucifixion and inevitable moment when the Father would forsake him; he was caught in a battle between his flesh and his spirit—and he needed the Father’s help.
Jesus prayed to the Father because, even though he was perfect, he still needed the Father’s help, guidance, and sustaining power. But, despite the truth of this answer to the first two questions, it doesn’t tell the entire story. There is a third question that needs to be asked; How did the Father help Jesus in his time of need?
Luke 11:13 provides the answer. Jesus tells the disciples, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Jesus says that the Father sends the Holy Spirit to those who ask for the Father’s help; this included Jesus. The Father answered his Son in Gethsemane by sending the Holy Spirit to strengthen him during his time of turmoil.
In Gethsemane, Jesus prayed to the Father as the crucifixion approached, but he also prayed to the Father on uneventful days like the one in Luke 11. If, then, Jesus prayed to the Father on uneventful days as well as during times of trial, shouldn’t it be obvious that we, humans full of sin, should also pray to the Father on a daily basis, not only during times of trials? This might in fact be exactly what Paul meant when he wrote in I Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray without ceasing.”
Let this be an encouragement to us to follow in Jesus’ footsteps. I wonder, can you fill in the following blank with your name for every unremarkable day as well as those days filled with trouble? “Now __________ was praying in a certain place.”
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