Heb. 5:5-11, The Prayers of Jesus (1)

Heb. 5:7 tells us that Jesus offered up prayers and supplications in the days of His flesh.  This is an aspect of His true humanity.  He was in the weakened state of man, made lower than the angels.  He did not have the sinful nature because that is not essential to humanity.  But he did have the physical weaknesses.  As we have noted, Jesus lived His life in obedience to His Father out of the same provisions available to us: He knew the word, He was filled with the Spirit, and He prayed!  He prayed often.  Let’s review some of those prayers.

·       Matthew 4:1: He set aside 40 days for prayer and fasting in the desert at the beginning of His ministry.  This is a pattern followed by others, such as the Apostle Paul, a pattern of special time with God at the outset of ministry.  Others, like Isaiah (seeing the LORD high and lifted up, Isa. 6), Jeremiah (being commissioned by the LORD, Jer. 1) and Ezekiel (seeing the vision of the wheels, Ezek. 1-2), had special visitation from God to set them on their prophetic path of ministry.

·       Mark 1:35: After one busy day, that went into the evening with many healings, Jesus rose “a long while before daylight” to pray.  And He went out to a solitary or “deserted” place for this.  Again, this is a pattern for us.  There must be times set aside for deep fellowship with our God.  Jesus could also go “spontaneously” to His Father in prayer (John 11:41-42).  We may wonder how the Son knew the will of the Father from day to day.  Note, in the following verses (Mk. 1:36-39). that when the disciples showed up with an idea as to what Jesus should do next, He had another plan.  Time with God can sharpen our focus in serving Him.

·       Luke 6:12: Here is a similar situation, in that Jesus spent all night praying before selecting the Twelve.  If you are wondering what Jesus would do since He didn’t get any sleep that night, note that in Lk. 6:17-49, after choosing His special disciples, He then preached Luke’s “sermon on a level place” (v17).

·       John 17:  We won’t go into detail here as it is a lengthy study and we have done this previously.  But let us remember that this is a truly magnificent prayer.  It is tied to Jesus’ purpose in the incarnation and the New Covenant that would be established after His death and resurrection.  In this prayer He prayed for the Father to return Him to His glory, He prayed for the Twelve, and He prayed for us, for all who would believe in Him through the Apostles.  Therefore, we would say that this prayer, for us, is not a “pattern” for us to follow.  Instead, we hear His prayer and trust God for everything His Son asked for.  There is no greater guarantee of an answered prayer than to know that the Son asked the Father!

We will continue this in our next post.