“One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’
He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
“‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. . . .’”
(Luke 11:1-2)
Back in the day, there was a TV police drama named, “Dragnet.” It set the stage for every good cop show after it with its great staccato musical sting, its gripping storylines, its real-to-life actors (Jack Webb as Sergeant Joe Friday) and its great quotes. “The story you are about to see is true. . . .” “This is the city: Los Angeles, California. I work here. I carry a badge.” “The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” “We were working the night watch. . . .” But today, we want to focus on Sergeant Friday’s most famous line: “Just the facts, ma’am, just the facts.”
Martin Luther said, “As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.” If we are looking for just the facts about discipleship, we need to start here. Prayer is essential to our walk with Jesus. Luther said it this way: “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” And yet, if we were honest with ourselves, we would have to admit that very few of us are happy with our prayer lives. We all struggle to pray well, and we all struggle to pray consistently with the heart. Is there a way out of this sludge? Maybe it would help to get back to the facts.
Just the facts #1: Jesus invested himself in prayer.
One of the first things Mark wants us to know about Jesus is that he prayed regularly and often. We read in Mark 1 (35-37): “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and when they found him, they exclaimed: ‘Everyone is looking for you!’” Now, while Simon and company were able to track Jesus down, the implication is that they had a good idea where he was. They weren’t alarmed that Jesus had disappeared. They knew where he was and what he was doing because Jesus regularly went out first thing in the morning and prayed. Now, this should not be too shocking because set-time prayers were urged in ancient Judaism. Scot McKnight writes: “Jesus came of age in a Judaism shaped by a three-times-a-day-we-all-stop-and- pray-together sacred rhythm.” These set-times of prayers allowed the people to reconfigure their lives by reciting some of Israel’s greatest prayers. In other words, Jesus grew up praying at set times during the day. The gospels, however, tell us that Jesus routinely would seek a private place so that he could pray beyond these specific times. And why did he do this? Because Jesus invested his whole life in prayer. Luke 5:16 says, “Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Just the facts #2: Whenever Jesus saw a critical moment approaching, he would devote himself to prayer.
The night before Jesus chose the twelve to be his disciples, he spent the whole night in prayer (Luke 6). It was when Jesus encountered a half-hearted response after healing those who were sick and demon-possessed that he got up early to pray (Mark 1). In Luke 9, we read, “Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, ‘Who do the crowds say I am?’” I’m not sure how Jesus could be praying in private while his disciples were with him, but the point is that at this critical juncture where Jesus is ready to tell his disciples for the first time that he has come to die, he bathed the whole conversation in prayer. And when Jesus felt it was time to reveal his glory to his three closest disciples, he took them to a mountain to pray (Luke 9). And when the disciples were frustrated because they could not heal the demon-possessed boy, Jesus said to them (Mark 9:29), “This kind can come out only by prayer.” And when Jesus needs to prepare himself for the cross, he goes to Gethsemane and prays (Mark 14). At every critical moment in the gospels, we find Jesus praying.
Just the facts #3: Jesus often taught his disciples about the importance of prayer.
Jesus gave his disciples three major parables about prayer. There is the parable of the friend at midnight (Luke 11). There is the parable of the unjust judge (Luke 18). And there is the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax collector. Jesus also taught his disciples about prayer. Matthew 5 tells us not only to love our enemies but to pray for them. Matthew 6 first warns us about praying to manipulate God and then gives us the Lord’s Prayer. Matthew 7 provides encouragement to pray with the three imperatives, ask, seek and knock. Matthew 21 gives us a promise that prayer can move mountains. Matthew 21 gives us a picture of God’s view of prayer when Jesus cleanses the temple so that it can be restored into a house of prayer. Mark 12 is another warning, this time against praying long prayers to look super spiritual. In Luke 10, Jesus implores his followers to pray to the God of the harvest to send out workers. And the Farewell Discourse (John 14-17) is filled with teaching on prayer, including the great promise in John 14:13-14, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” The gospels are saturated with teachings about prayer and how it is through prayer that we remain in Jesus (John 15). In fact, the whole purpose of the parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18) is that we “should always pray and not give up.”
Just the facts #4: When Jesus prayed, it was different.
I was always struck with how the disciples felt compelled to ask Jesus to teach them to pray only after they had listened to Jesus pray (Luke 11:1 says, “One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’”). Without a doubt, Jesus’ intimacy with the father was unique (calling God, “Abba Father”), as was his authenticity and humility (his focus was always on God and his glory and not on his own reputation). And Jesus’ prayers resulted in power, in God’s presence coming near and in a deep awareness of God’s love. When Jesus prayed, it was different. God was present in Jesus’ prayers, and the disciples wanted to experience God in prayer in the same way Jesus did.
Just the facts #5: Jesus gives us the words to pray so that we can pray like him.
Note what Jesus says in response to the disciples’ request to teach them to pray. He says (Luke 11:2), “This, then, is how you should pray.” Scot McKnight draws out the true intent of this verse in his translation: “Whenever you pray, you should recite this prayer.” For many of us, that smacks of ritual performance and vain repetition, but it could also lead us into powerful experiences of worship and remarkable encounters with the living God. It was Bonhoeffer who convinced me of this. He wrote: “But it is a dangerous error, surely very widespread among Christians, to think that the heart can pray by itself. For then we confuse wishes, hopes, sighs, laments, rejoicings–all of which the heart can do by itself–with prayer. And we confuse earth and heaven, man and God. Prayer does not mean simply to pour out one’s heart. It means rather to find the way to God and to speak with him, whether the heart is full or empty. No man can do that by himself. For that, he needs Jesus Christ.” And he concludes that thought with one more telling quote: “If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray.” And what does God want us to pray? God gave his people the Psalms to pray. God gave his people the Shema (Deuteronomy 6) to pray. God gave his people prayers of confession to pray (Hosea 14). God gave his people the greatest commandment to pray (Mt. 22). And here, Jesus gave his people this prayer to pray, saying (Luke 11:2-4): “When you pray, say these words: ‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’”
Just the facts #6: Jesus calls us to follow him in every area of our lives, including how we pray.
In John 10:27, Jesus says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” If we truly want to be Jesus’ sheep, we will follow him in the way he prays. And this means that if we want to be a disciple of Jesus, we need to invest ourselves in the prayers that God has given us, especially the prayer we call, the Lord’s Prayer.
One of my favorite quotes about prayer is from Martin Luther. He wrote: “The fewer the words, the better the prayer.” If only that applied to blog posts, as well.
