By James Stalker
I.
THERE is surely a mystery in the prayers of Jesus. If, as we believe, He was no less than God, how could God pray to God, or what need could there be in His nature for the satisfaction of which He required to pray?
It may be a partial answer to this question to say that all prayer does not consist of petitions arising from' the sense of need. Prayer, indeed, is often spoken of, especially by those who wish to bring it into ridicule, as if it consisted of nothing but a series of demands addressed to God-to give fine weather, or to take away disease, or in some other way to alter our circumstances in accordance with our wishes. But it is not by those who pray that prayer is thus spoken of. In the prayers of those who pray most and best, petitions proper, I venture to say, occupy only an inconsiderable place. Much of prayer expresses the fulness of the soul rather than its emptiness. It is the than its emptiness. It is the overflow of the cup. Prayer at its best is, if one may be allowed the expression, conversation with God, the confidential talk of a child who tells everything to his father. There is a remarkable example of this in the Confessions of St. Augustine. This great book is in the form of a prayer from beginning to end; yet it narrates its author's history and expounds the most important of his opinions. Evidently the good man had got into the habit of doing all his deepest thinking in the form of conversation with God.
If this be what prayer is, it is not difficult to understand how the Eternal Son should have prayed to the Eternal Father, Indeed, it is easy to see that, in this sense, He must have prayed without ceasing.
But this does not altogether clear up the mystery of the prayers of Jesus; for many of them were undoubtedly expressions of the sense of want. "In the days of His flesh, He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in that He feared." (Heb_5:7) How can we explain a statement like this? There is but one explanation of it; and it is His true humanity. It is only by accepting this truth in the fullest sense that we can understand this aspect of His life. Christ was not half a God and half a man, but perfectly God and perfectly man. There are things about Him, and there are statements of His own, to which justice cannot be done without categorically calling Him God. We may hesitate to utter this confession, but the facts, unless we flinch from them, will compel us to make it. On the other hand, there are other things about Him which compel us in the fullest acceptation of the term to call Him a man; and we are not honouring but dishonouring Him if we do not accept this truth also in all its fulness and in all its consequences.
He prayed, then, because He was a man. Humanity even at its best is a feeble and dependent thing; it can never be self-sufficient. Even in Him it was not sufficient for itself, but dependent on God from day to day; and He expressed His sense of dependence by praying. Does this not bring Him very near us? Verily He is our brother, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh.
But there is another lesson in it, and a graver one. Although a man, Jesus was a sinless man. At every stage of development His manhood was perfect. He had no sinful past to weaken the force of present effort. Yet He needed prayer and resorted to it continually. What a commentary on our need of it! If He needed it, being what He was, how must we need it, being what we are.
II.
The life of-prayer is a secret life, and everyone who really loves prayer has habits of it known only to himself. Much of the prayerfulness of Jesus must have lain beyond the observation of even His disciples, and therefore is altogether unrecorded in the Gospels. But some of His habits have been preserved, and they are extremely interesting and instructive.
He liked when about to pray, to escape from the house and from the town, and go away out into the natural solitudes. We read, " He went out and departed unto a solitary place, and there prayed." Elsewhere it is said, " He withdrew Himself into the wilderness, and prayed." He seems to have especially loved mountains as places of prayer. When the statement is anywhere made that He went up to a mountain to pray, commentators try to find out, by examining the vicinity in which He was sojourning at the time, which mountain it was He ascended for this purpose. But in this, I think, they are on the wrong track. In Palestine, as in many parts of Scotland, there is mountain everywhere. A mile or two from any town you are out on it. You have only to quit the houses, cross a few acres of cultivated ground, and your feet are on the turfy pastures, where you can be absolutely alone. Jesus had, if we may so speak, made the discovery that He could obtain this solitude anywhere; and, when He arrived in a town, His first thought was, which was the shortest road to the mountain -just as ordinary travellers inquire where are the most noted sights and which is the best hotel.
There is solitude of time as well as solitude of space. What mountains and wildernesses are to towns and cities, the nighttime and the early morning are to the daytime and the early night. Jesus frequented this solitude too for prayer. We hear of Him continuing the whole night in prayer to God; or it is said that He " rose up a great while before day, and departed into a solitary place to pray."
It may partly have been because, on account of His poverty, He could not easily find solitude in the houses in which He lodged that Jesus cultivated this habit,* and this may give His example a special interest for any whose circumstances expose them to the same difficulty. But it is a discovery, which might immensely enrich us all if we were to realise how easy it is to get into the natural solitudes. There is scarcely a town out of which you cannot escape in a very few minutes and find yourself quite alone on a bit of shore, or on a mountain, or in a pasture or a wood. The town or city may be thundering away quite near, with its imprisoned multitudes bound on the treadmill of its toils or its amusements; but you are out of it and alone with God.
There is more than mere solitude in such a situation to assist prayer. There is a ministry of nature, which soothes the mind and disposes it to devotion. Never did I feel more strongly that in this habit Jesus had laid bare one of the great secrets of life than one day when I climbed all alone a hill above Inveraray and lay on the summit of it, musing through a summer forenoon. On every hand there stretched a solitary world of mountain and moorland; the loch below was gleaming in the sun like a shield of silver; the town was visible at the foot of the hill, and the passengers could be seen moving in the streets, but no sound of its bustle reached so high. The great sky was over all; and God seemed just at hand, waiting to hear every word. It was in spots like this that Jesus prayed.
He prayed, however, in company as well as in solitude. We hear of Him again and again taking two or three of His disciples away to pray with them, and sometimes of Him praying with them all. The Twelve were a kind of family to Him, and He assiduously cultivated family worship. He spoke too of the value of united prayer. " I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of My Father which is in heaven." United prayer acts on the spirit very much in the same way as conversation acts on the mind. Many a man's intellect, when he is alone, is slow in its movements and far from fertile in the production of ideas. But, when it meets with another mind and clashes with it in conversation, it is transformed: it becomes agile and audacious, it burns and coruscates, and brings forth ideas out of its resources which are a surprise even to itself. **
So, where two or three are met together, the prayer of one strikes fire from the soul of another; and the latter in his turn leads the way to nobler heights of devotion. And lo! as their joy increases, there is One in their midst whom they all recognise and cling to. He was there before, but it is only when their hearts begin to burn that they recognise Him; and in a true sense they may be said to bring Him there-"Where two or three are met together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."
III.
The occasions, which call for prayer are innumerable, and it would be vain to attempt to count them. Jesus undoubtedly had, as we have ourselves, new reasons for praying every day; but some of the occasions on which He prayed are specially instructive.
1. We find Him engaged in special prayer just before taking very important steps in life. One of the most important steps He ever took was the selection from among His disciples of the Twelve who were to be His apostles. It was an act on which the whole future of Christianity depended; and what was He doing before it took place? " It came to pass in those days that He went into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God; and, when it was day, He called unto Him His disciples, and of them He chose twelve, whom He also named apostles." It was after this nightlong vigil that He proceeded to the choice, which was to be so momentous for Him and for them and for all the world. There was another day for which, we are told, He made similar preparation. It was that on which He first informed His disciples that He was to suffer and die.
Thus it is evident that, when Jesus had a day of crisis or of difficult duty before Him, He gave Himself specially to prayer. Would it not simplify our difficulties if we attacked them in the same way? It would infinitely increase the intellectual insight with which we try to penetrate a problem and the power of the hand we lay upon duty. The wheels of existence would move far more smoothly and our purposes travel more surely to their aims, if every morning we reviewed beforehand the duties of the day with God. ***
2. Jesus appears to have devoted Himself specially to prayer at times when His life was unusually full of work and excitement. His was a very busy life; there were nearly always " many coming and going " about Him. Sometimes, however, there was such a congestion of thronging objects that He had scarcely time to eat. But even then He found time to pray.
Indeed, these appear to have been with Him seasons of more prolonged prayer than usual. Thus we read: " So much the more went there a fame abroad of Him, and great multitudes came together to hear and to be healed by Him of their infirmities; but He withdrew Himself into the wilderness and prayed."
Many in our day know what this congestion of occupations is: they are swept off their feet with their engagements and can scarcely find time to eat. We make this a reason for not praying; Jesus made it a reason for praying. Is there any doubt, which is the better course? Many of the wisest have in this respect done as Jesus did. When Luther had a specially busy and exciting day, he allowed himself longer time than usual for prayer beforehand. A wise man once said that he was too busy to be in a hurry; he meant that, if he allowed himself to, become hurried, he could not do all that he had to do. There is nothing like prayer for producing this calm self-possession. When the dust of business so fills your room that it threatens to choke you, sprinkle it with the water of prayer, and then you can cleanse it out with comfort and expedition.
3. We find Jesus engaging in special prayer when about to enter into temptation. The greatest scene of prayer in His life is undoubtedly Gethsemane. As we enter that garden after Him, we fear almost to look on the scene-it is so sacred and so passes our understanding; and we tremble as we listen to the prayers rising from the ground where He lies. Never were prayers heard like these. We cannot fathom them; yet much may be learned from them. Let one lesson, however, suffice in the meantime: He prayed on this occasion before entering into temptation; for at the gate of the garden, after the agony was over, He said, " This is your hour and the power of darkness." It was the commencement of His final conflict with the powers of wickedness in earth and hell. But He had equipped Himself for the conflict by the prayer in the garden beforehand, and so He was able to go through all that followed with unruffled dignity and with perfect success. His strength was the strength of prayer.
What an illustration of contrast was presented on that occasion by the weakness of the disciples! For them also the hour and the power of darkness began at the gate of Gethsemane; but it was an hour of disaster and ignominious defeat. Why? Because they were sleeping when they ought to have been praying. " Watch and pray," He had said, bending over their prostrate forms, " lest ye enter into temptation." But they heeded not; and so, when the hour of temptation came, they fell. Alas! their experience has often been ours also. The only armour in which temptation can be successfully met is prayer; and, when the enemy is allowed to come upon us before we have buckled it on, we have not a chance of standing.
4. If any scene of prayer in our Lord's life may compete in interest with this one, it is the last of all. Jesus died praying. His last words were words of prayer. The habit of life was strong in death. It may seem far off; but this event will come to us also. What will our last words be? Who can tell? But would it not be beautiful if our spirit were so steeped in the habit of prayer that the language of prayer came naturally to us at the last? Many have died with Christ's own last words on their lips. Who would not covet them for his own? " Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit."
IV.
If anyone were to go through the life of Christ seeking for answers to His prayers, many of them, I am persuaded, could be found. But I shall at present refer only to two on which the Word itself lays emphasis, and which are specially instructive.
The Transfiguration was an answer to prayer. This is how it is introduced in one of the Gospels: " And it came to pass about an eight days after these sayings, He took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray. And as He prayed, the fashion of His countenance was altered, and His raiment was white and glistering. And, behold, there talked with Him two men, which were Moses and Elias." I do not say that He was praying for this alteration in His countenance and raiment, or even for the privilege of talking with these wise and sympathetic spirits about the work which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. But yet, I say, all this was in answer to the prayer He was offering when it came. There are some who, disbelieving in the direct virtue of prayer to obtain from God what it asks, yet believe in what they call the reflex influence of prayer: they allow it does you good to pray, even if you get nothing directly by it, and even if there is no God to hear you.
This, taken as the whole theory of prayer, is a mockery, as the simplest mind must perceive. But it is none the less true that there is a most blessed reflex influence of prayer. Prayers for goodness and purity in a sense answer themselves; for you cannot pray for these things without in some measure receiving them in the very act. To lift up the soul to God calms and ennobles it. It was this, I imagine, that was the beginning of Christ's transfiguration. The absorption and delight of communion with His Father overspread His very face with beauty and glory; and through this outlet the inner glory leapt forth. In some degree this happens to all who pray, and it may happen in a high degree to those who pray much. Moses, after being forty days in the mount with God, shone with the same kind of light as the disciples saw in their Master on the Holy Mount; and there is a spiritual beauty bestowed in some degree on all God's saints who pray much which is of the same nature and is the most precious of all answers to prayer. Character flows from the wellspring of prayer.
The other answer to prayer given to Jesus to which I desire to call attention took place at His baptism. Here is St. Luke's account of it: " Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Ghost descended like a dove upon Him." It was when He was praying that the Spirit was sent down upon Him, and in all probability it was this, which at the moment He was praying for. He had just left His home in Nazareth to begin His public work; and He was in immediate need of the Holy Spirit to equip Him for His task. It is a forgotten truth that Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost; but it is one most clearly revealed in the Gospels. The human nature of Jesus was from first to last dependent on the Holy Ghost, being thereby made a fit organ for the divine; and it was in the strength of this inspiration that all His work, as preacher, miracle-worker and atoner, was done. ****
And if in any measure our life is to be an imitation of His - if we are to help in carrying on His work in the world or in filling up what is lacking in His sufferings - we must be dependent on the same influence. But how are we to get it? He has told us Himself: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him." Power, like character, comes from the fountain of prayer.
* Many of us may be able to be quite alone in our own homes. Jesus recognised this when He said: " Enter thou, when thou prayest, into thy closet; and, when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father, which is in secret." The essential thing is to have the world shut out and to be alone with God. It is for this reason that we shut our eyes in prayer: it is that our attention, being withdrawn from all sights and sounds without, may be concentrated on the vision and the voices within. We may even so familiarise ourselves with the inward world that we shall acquire the habit of transporting ourselves into it at will at any hour of the day and in any circumstances. Amidst the whirr of machinery, in the bustle of the street, even in the midst of conversation, we may be able mentally to disappear out of time and stand for an instant in eternity face to face with God; and few prayers are more precious than the momentary ejaculations offered in the course of daily occupations. He who has acquired this habit has a strong tower into which he can retreat in every time of need. ** "Certain it is, that whosoever hath his Mind fraught with many Thoughts, his Wits and Understanding do clarify and break up, in the communicating and discoursing with Another: he toasted his Thoughts more easily; he marshalleth them more orderly; he seeth how they look when they are turned into Words; finally, he waxeth wiser than himself, and that more by an Hour's Discourse than by a Day's Meditation."-Bacons Essays, xxvii: Of Friendship.
*** In Nicoll's Life of Jesus Christ, pp. 178-80, an important consideration is added: "Jesus Christ not only prayed before great and decisive acts, but He prayed after them . . .. This teaches us much, which it is easy but fatal to miss. When we have done some great work by immense expenditure of force, we are tempted to say our part is done, --we cannot accomplish more. Many a man desires to end and crown his public life amidst the shoutings of applause for some victory or achievement, lie would retire to boast of it, and live all the rest of his days upon that proud memory. Better it is to pray, -to pray, if it be God's will, for new strength, for new if humbler efforts, and, if that is denied, for blessing on what has been attempted or done. Jesus Christ did not boast, He did not give up, but He recruited Himself for new service by continuing in prayer to God, Another temptation is to pride. We are lifted above the simplicity and humility in which we lived before. Our hearts swell, and we are tempted to think our previous life mean and insignificant. Never are we further from God than when intoxicated by pride. In the pride of their hearts the wicked angels fell, and we may fall too unless we are delivered from their sin. Nothing will avail more effectually to allay and silence our pride than prayer. In communion with our Father our pride is chilled and destroyed, A kindred temptation after great achievements is the temptation to profound depression. When one has done one's utmost, and put forth the whole force of life, one feels completely spent, as if work were over. Men who have preached with power to multitudes of people have told us of the terrible languor, which succeeds a full outburst of the heart. They have told us how they felt as if their life went from them in that supreme effort, and could never be regained. That is natural; and we may learn from Jesus Christ how it is to be met. Let us pray that by prayer and service we may be taught to feel that our well-springs arc in God, and that He who strengthened and filled us for that achievement, which we fear we can never repeat, can gild us, if He will, for new and nobler work."
**** "The Holy Spirit, in a peculiar manner, anointed Him with all those extraordinary powers and gifts which were necessary for the exercise and discharging of His office on the earth. Isa. lxi. I- 'The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek: He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.' It is the prophetical office of Christ, and His discharge thereof in His ministry on the earth, which is intended. And He applies these words unto Himself with respect unto His preaching of the Gospel (Luke iv. 18, 19); for this was that office which He principally attended unto here in the world, as that whereby He instructed men in the nature and use of His other offices...Hereunto was He fitted by this unction of the Spirit, And here, also, is a distinction between the 'Spirit that was the communication of the gifts of that Spirit unto Him...And this collation of extraordinary gifts for the discharge of His prophetical office was at His baptism (Matt. iii. 17). They were not bestowed on the Head of the Church, nor are any gifts of thee same nature in general bestowed on any of His members, but for use, exercise, and improvement. And that they were then collated appears; for -
"1. Then did He receive the visible pledge which confirmed Him in, and testified unto others His calling of God to, the exercise of His office; for then 'the Spirit of God descended like a dove, and lighted upon Him; and, lo, a voice came from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased' (Matt. iii. 16, 17) Hereby was He 'sealed of God the Father' (John vi. 27) in that visible pledge of His vocation, setting the great seal of heaven to His commission. And this also was to be a testimony unto others, that they might own Him in His office, now He had undertaken to discharge it (chapt. I. 33).
"2. He now entered on His public ministry, and wholly gave Himself up unto His work; for before He did only occasionally manifest the presence of God with Him, somewhat to prepare the minds of men to attend unto His ministry, as when He filled them with astonishment at His discourses with the doctors in the Temple (Luke ii, 46, 47). And although it is probably that He might be acted by the Spirit in and unto many such extraordinary actions during His course of a private life, yet the fullness of gifts for His work He received not until the time of His baptism, and therefore before that He gave not Himself up wholly unto His public ministry.
"3. Immediately hereon it is said that He was 'full of the Holy Ghost' (Luke iv. I). Before, He was said to 'wax strong in spirit,' continually filling; but now He is ('full of the Holy Ghost'). He was actually possessed of and furnished with all that fullness of spiritual gifts which were any way needful for Him or useful unto Him, or which human nature is capable of receiving."
OWEN, On the Holy Spirit
