As the struggling Christian I am, prayer is the one endeavor of the faith I seem able to stay focused on. The command of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 to “pray without ceasing,” is the one command I tend to lean on most. I simply cannot carry on through this life without asking God for help. I have a saying about myself. I’m either praying or sinning. I believe there is a great lesson here. Pray more; sin less.
This morning in chapter 26 of the
Gospel of Matthew, I come to one of my favorite narratives of Jesus. Jesus is
near the end of His earthly ministry and knows that soon, he will face the
ultimate reason He came to the earth. He is about to go through the ordeal of
arrest, trial, and then death, yes, even death on a cross. But His death will
be unlike any other death in history. Embedded within His death will be the
payment for all sin. He will face something He has never known. He will be separated
from His Father for the first time in all of eternity, for the deepest level of
eternal punishment is separation from God. He will pay the cost of my sin. And
in the Garden of Gethsemane, we see the agony of His suffering made manifest in
His humanity. What does He do with this distress? He goes to the Father in
prayer.
Matthew 26:36-44
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.
Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to his disciples, “Sit here, while I go over there and pray.” And taking with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.” And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, he went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.
As one who loves prayer as I do, there is a great lesson in
this for me. There is a principle of prayer here that we all can gain from. As
Christians, we know we are to be a people who deny themselves. We know we are supposed
to surrender our lives to God as we follow Jesus. But the fact is, we are still
living in our fleshly desires. In this story, we see that God knows we are yet
dust, that we are a work in progress. He does not mind when we ask Him for the
things we desire, even when that are not His desire for us.
First of we see that Jesus, like us, in His humanity wanted
the comfort of His friends to share in His distress. Yet, they, like all of us,
failed Him in their flesh. They were worn out and could not even watch with Him
one hour. Jesus rebukes them but doesn’t let that deter His prayer. Sometimes
those around us will fail us in our need for emotional support. In our most
difficult of nights, we cam still go to our Father. He never sleeps. He is
already there for us when we pray.
The main lesson here I find this morning though is one that
we need to take hold of. God is not a magical genie who is bound to answer our
prayers just as we ask. Jesus, in His humanity, asked that if an
angel from heaven, strengthening him.”
The lesson here is that we can go to God with any request
and He hears us. Jesus prayed and asked for something three times and that
prayer was for a different way for this to go down. Three times Jesus in His
humanity asked for this cup to pass Him by, while in His deity Jesus knew that
He had to face the cross. So even though Jesus asked for one thing, He put the
answer in the hands of God as He prayed “Your will be done.”
Whatever we face each day, we have a God who hears us and
even when our Father knows that the answer will be no to our prayer, He
comforts us, and He strengthens us as we pray. This should change our lives. We
should pray without ceasing, making our requests known to God, but then resting
comfortably in faith, that it is His will that must be done.
Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Let us become a
people of prayer. Let us become a people of faith. Let us become a people of
God.
possible this cup, this method of paying the price of all
sin, be taken away. Three times Jesus makes this plea as He prays in great
sorrow and agony. Luke
in his Gospel adds more detail to the distress Jesus was in saying that “being
in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of
blood falling down to the ground.” This is some serious prayer.
Luke also added another informative word in Luke 22:43 which
says, “And there appeared to him
No comments:
Post a Comment