And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”

And he took with him Peter and James and John, and began to be greatly distressed and troubled. And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.”

And going a little farther, he fell on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”

And he came and found them sleeping, and he said to Peter, “Simon, are you asleep? Could you not watch one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” And again he went away and prayed, saying the same words.

And again he came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were very heavy, and they did not know what to answer him. And he came the third time and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? It is enough; the hour has come. The Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going; see, my betrayer is at hand.”

It is hard for me to focus on lessons for prayer as I approach this text. I am again so struck by the passion and suffering of Christ. I am teaching Romans right now and it is easy in the midst of Paul’s grand theology to lose the personal character of the cross. But in this text it is impossible to miss. You may need to stop and thank God and give praise to Christ who chose to suffer a fate he did not desire so that he could be reconciled to rebellious sinners like us.

The second thing that distracts my attempts to learn from Jesus is the faithlessness of the disciples. I know that failure. How often I have failed to persevere in prayer for a friend. Perhaps it was callousness: I did not care for their need. Perhaps it was faithlessness: I did not believe that my prayer would help. Or perhaps it is weakness.

When I am able to turn to the prayer of Jesus I am struck. His prayer seems so timid and humble.  He addresses God boldly.  He proclaims God’s sovereignty.  He states his true desire.  And then he says, “Yet not what I will, but what you will.”  What a startling prayer.  In the language of some modern prayer teaching, Jesus “names it” but he does not “claim it.”  Is this a pattern that I am meant to follow?  Does this pattern offer a clarifying perspective to the teaching “Whatever you ask in my name….”?  I have more questions than answers.

On the heels of these theological questions, a whole host of personal questions arise.  Can I pray this prayer?  Is my will this submitted to the will of God? What good does it do to share with God the desires of my heart if they must all be sacrificed before God’s will?  I feel like the answers to these questions lurk just our of reach, in the corner of my vision.

I need to pray more.  And as do I will take these questions to God.

on the walk

-Ethan

Today we come to the 12th chapter and Jesus find himself again in conflict with the scribes and Pharisees. This is late in his ministry and by this point, he holds little back.

As he taught, Jesus said, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” Mark 12:38-40

Notice this. When Jesus makes a short list of the sins of the these people he includes long prayers. Are showy prayers really a fit parallel to “devouring widows houses”? I do notice that most of the items in this list are about arrogance and pretense. Certainly prayer could fit in that category. But is their some significance to its placement?

In other Gospels, we see that Jesus offers teaching about this problem in a more direct way to his disciples, (it is from this teaching that we get the phrase “prayer closet”) but this is a public teaching, and it is a bold condemnation of the lifestyle of the Pharisees.

So what I am wondering is whether this is also a bold condemnation of my public prayers. Do I “for a show make lengthy prayers”?

I will admit from the get go, that I think public prayer is a very important and very very difficult part of Christian life. At the beginning of a Bible study I attended as a teen the leader always asked, “Who would like to give words to our shared conversation with God today?” She meant, “Who wanted to pray for the group?” Her words have stuck with me. It think that this is wonderful understanding of public prayer. One person gives words to the common prayer of the community. Sometimes it will be a shared praise or a shared plea, or a shared confession or some combination of these, but in every case, public prayer should be one persons words to express the shared longing of the body.

Even though I know this I forget sometime. I have three common mistakes in my public prayers. (The are in order from least common to most.)

1. I forget to prepare (both mentally and spiritually) and consequently my prayers are self-centered and often showy. I forget that I am wording a prayer on behalf of the gathered community and pray only for my own concerns. Public prayer is not the time for personal confession or personal praise.
2. My prayer is filled with stock phrases and does not respond to the nature of the context and the community that is gathered. This has a lot in common with error one but here the issue isn’t that I am selfish it is just that I haven’t actually thought for two seconds about what this community really does need to say together in this communal conversation with God. This error sometimes leads to me using big fancy words.
3. I forget that this is a prayer at all. By that I mean that I forget that I am supposed to be addressing God and I use the prayer time to address the congregation. Let’s say that I wrap-up my sermon with a prayer. (Just for fun, let’s imagine that I forgot to mention the invitation song and to invite people to come forward.) I might end like this, “Lord let us not forget the three important points we learned from the story of the Good Samaratin. Let us remember to Live like a Samaratin and to Love like a Samaratin and to Let Go like a Samaratin and Lord if their is anyone out there today who needs to respond to this message, I just hope that you would speak to their heart right now and let them know that as we sing Nearer My God to Thee they are welcome to come forward and commit to Live, Love and Let Go just like the Samaratin did. They can come down the aisle and there will be some to meet them, Lord. Thanks God for a great day, Amen.”

Lot’s of us at various occasions need to pray publicly. Public prayer is an important gift to the church. Most of us learned to pray that way. So when I am asked to pray publicly I take that burden seriously. In light of what Jesus says about the Pharisees I take it all the more seriously. I hope that you are as I helped as I have been by this call. When you pray publicly, you give words to the shared prayer of the whole gathered body.

on the walk

-Ethan

Let’s start by looking at the text.

Mark 11:22-25 NIV

Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”

Let’s see it in a different translation. Here is the ESV.

And Jesus answered them, “Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

I included a second translation because I was hoping that maybe it said something different in a different translation. It does not.

I will warn you that I do not plan to do justice to this text. Fortunately, this teaching shows up a in a few forms throughout the gospels, and I promise to do it justice eventually. In this post, I just want to scope out the problem presented by this text because I do think that this text presents a problem and we need to deal with this problem. When the church fails to deal with problem we come across as fools and we set up people for false hope and failed dreams. I am convinced that many who are now far from God have been driven away in part by the churches inability to deal faithfully with the problem presented by this text.

So what is the problem. I am not exactly sure how to phrase it, but the problem is something like this: Prayer does not seem to work that way. If we think that these words should be read literally, then we have a big problem because this doesn’t happen. I am not saying that prayer has no power, but there are too many examples of prayers where clear requests we not granted. Jesus prays not to die. Paul prays for the thorn to be removed. Must I argue that these prayers were not prayed in faith?

In general I find that a prayer theology that is built upon a literal reading of this text and its companions quickly becomes a caricature of Christianity and this caricature will fail us and people will be driven away. I will give one example. There is a web-site out there called something like “Why doesn’t God heal amputees?” He chides Christians, that if we believe prayer can do anything, why don’ we pray for amputees to be healed like we do for cancer victims.

This post is hard for me to publish. I know that it raises more questions than answers. I know that these questions cut to the heart of what we assume we know about prayer. But if we don’t deal with these questions, then we have a problem and our witness to the world is confused and compromised. So for now we pray for wisdom. We will continue to look at the teaching and model of Jesus on prayer. I commit to you that I will not forever avoid these questions, but for now I hope it is enough to ask them.

on the walk

-Ethan

It has a been a few days since the last post in this series, so to remind us and to catch up those who are new, this series is an attempt to looks at Jesus’ teaching and modeling of prayer. In the gospel of Mark we have so far seen Jesus model prayer but not really any direct teaching on prayer. That changes in chapter 11.

In Mark 11, there are two important passages about prayer. In the temple, Jesus reminds those who are gathered that the temple is to be a “house of prayer”. The next story Mark relates includes Jesus dramatic proclamation, “Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” Now this second teaching is the source for so much modern heresy, and so I am eager to delay by a few days addressing this text. Today I will focus on the temple scene. Mark 11:12-19, and the two texts that Jesus quotes: Isaiah 56:1-8 and Jeremiah 7.

This scene is fantastic for so many reasons. But for now I will focus on the contrast that Jesus sets up between the “house of prayer” and the “den of thieves”. I have been taught and have taught to others that Jesus main point was that people should have been praying and instead they were cheating each other. I am sure that this is part of it, but I rather think this is a small sub-point. The reasons I missed the bigger issue is two-fold: I don’t know the Bible very well and I am too lazy to look up the texts that Jesus is quoting. So here is my challenge. If you want to get this text, take a moment to read the following.

Mark 11:12-19

Isaiah 56:1-8

Jeremiah 7(esp. 1-11)

I know that was a lot of reading, but many of Jesus hearers would have known the texts well enough that when he quoted those two memorable phrases they would have remembered the whole text.

I expect that when you read these texts the point of Jesus’ contrast leapt off the page to you. The temple was meant to be a house of prayer for all nations. The whole point of Is. 56 is that God’s people, living righteously in the world, will attract foreigners and eunuchs who will come to the temple and worship and rejoice and serve God and be given an everlasting name. God will gather the outcasts of Israel and even more. God’s people were meant to transform the world around them.
Jesus is preaching in the court of the Gentiles and this court should have been a permanent reminder that the temple of God was for all people and that God was ready to hear the prayers of all the nations. Instead, the opportunity for the Gentiles to worship had been removed by all the commerce in the temple.

In contrast the Jeremiah text describes a period in which, instead of God’s people attracting and influencing the nations, the nations have corrupted God’s people. They are living just as those around them and then return to the temple sure that God will protect them because they have the temple.

No wonder the chief priests and scribes were ready to destroy Jesus after this story.

Mark loves to sandwich stories together and usually the outside story is designed to help us see something about the inside story. Well the outside story in this case has its own complications but it is about fruitlessness. Jesus finds pretty leaves and no fruit.

That is exactly the condemnation he now lays on the Temple worship. I has plenty of leaves (flashy ceremony) but it is not bearing the fruit that Isaiah describes and God intends.

This post has ended up not being much about prayer(or maybe it is). But I think that I am just understanding this text for the very first time and the contrast Jesus is making between those two images “house of prayer” (for all nations/ counter cultural agent of change/ place of ) and “den of thieves” (false refuge for those who have totally capitulated to the prevailing sins and false gods of their culture). This is definitely something that every church and every Christian needs to consider.

on the walk

-Ethan

The next reference to prayer in the gospel of Mark is in chapter 9. Jesus and the three (James, John and Peter) come down from the mountain to find a scene of controversy. The other disciples (who have by this point had successful independent ministries that included exorcisms) have been unsuccessful in their attempts to help a frantic father whose son is possessed.
The man came in faith but now his faith has been shaken and so he asks Jesus “If you can…”

The scene itself is breathtaking. We learn about doubt and faithfulness, and we have another foreshadowing of Jesus death and resurrection. In the narrative there is no prayer.

But prayer is mentioned later when the disciples come to Jesus and ask why they were unable to cast out the demon. Jesus’ response is curious and in some ways troubling, “This kind cannot be driven out by anything but prayer.”

In the context of this post I cannot imagine trying to sort out the implications of the narratives of Mark for understanding demons, I will stick with the implications for prayer and these are confusing enough. The most basic question is to try to figure out what Jesus means. Does he mean that in cases like this a special prayer needs to be said and that this prayer drives out the demon? If so, why is there no mention of Jesus praying in the whole narrative.

Are we to assume that prayer played no part in the disciples previous practice of exorcism? This seems hard to imagine but I am not sure what evidence we have one way or another.

This is clearly a faith story. Jesus comes down that mountian and is apprised of the situation. Jesus laments, “O faithless generation, how long am I to be with you?”

I think that perhaps this line offers an insight into what Jesus is teaching about prayer. The disciples had full trust in one thing: Jesus. When he returned they came to him trusting that he could resolve the crisis. I am reminded of the great old gospel tune that includes the line, “when you turn it all over to Jesus, he shore(sure) will work it out, Oh yes he will.” But by the end of the story Jesus has broadened their focus. It is not about him in the flesh but rather the God whose son he is.

Whatever else we learn from this text ,we learn that prayer is an act of faith and this faith allows us to be a part of the work of God in a way that is not otherwise possible. This whole story reminds us that for some situations, there are no tricks, there are no methods except to wait upon God to act. Prayer, it seems, is a method of holy waiting. In prayer we acknowledge that God’s power and not ours is what is required. Prayer is a statement of faith because in prayer we acknowledge our dependence on God.
Jesus will not always be with them in the body, even as he is not with us. But through prayer, and with God, nothing in impossible.

on the walk

-Ethan

This morning I was reading in Mark looking for prayers and I noticed that he “gives thanks” for the bread and “blesses” the fish as he prepares to feed the 4000. That prompted me to look back and of course he did the same thing when he blessed the food at the feeding of the 5000. So today we will talk about both.

I am interested in how Jesus’ practice of praying before meals (usually called blessing the food and sometimes cal giving thanks) connects with Jewish practice of the day. I may have to look that up. If anyone knows, why don’t you leave a comment.

Without that knowledge I find myself thinking about two things.

The first is some sage advice which my friend and co-worker Eric Olson once gave at a lunch meeting. (I love lunch meetings.) As we began to pray he gave this advice, “And remember, lunch is not time to be catching up on your prayer life.” {For the record he has no memory of this and may deny having said it.} He is right. I have often, when I have forsaken prayer in my life, found myself wanting to somehow reconnect with God while staring at a plate of food. I suppose there is nothing wrong with that, but it shouldn’t end there.

The second thing I think is that praying before a meal is an especially fitting time to pray. As we prepare to eat we are clearly aware that we are not autonomous beings. I read sci-fi and a regular feature of these novels is a power source that can infinitely sustain a robot or some other sentient creature. These beings need nothing outside themselves to exist. Well, I know some people who live like that too. But even for them, throughout the day, they hunger and thirst – they face their own frailty. To thank God in this moment – that God’s creation has provided the means to sustain life another day – is entirely fitting.

on the walk

-Ethan

Let’s get a little context. The twelve have been sent on their first missionary journey and returned. (In the middle we get a flashback about the death of John.) When they return, Jesus suggest that they all could use a break. Their break is interrupted by crowds hungry to be taught and eventually just plain hungry. After some confusion Jesus feeds the 12-16,000. The extra is collected. And as soon as that is done, Jesus sends the disciples across the sea, and he stays behind to dismiss the crowd. Having done that, he goes up the mountain to pray. You can read all this for yourself in Mark 6:30-52.

So far I am just trying to watch. Here is what I see.

1. Jesus goes to pray in solitude again.
2. Jesus prays in the evening at the end of a big day of ministry. (we have already seen him begin a day in prayer)
3. His earlier plans for a day of rest got interrupted but he still catches what solitude he can.
4. In order to secure time in solitude and prayer he dismisses the disciples and the crowds.
5. Most surprisingly to me, I find that in both cases so far Jesus prayer is interrupted by the press of ministry and in both cases he jumps to it. (It makes me wonder did he always just keep praying till something else came up that needed done. I doubt it I guess but it is a curious observation.)

Personally, I have found that ending my day in prayer is easier than beginning it. In part this is because it is always easier for me to stay up a little later than it is is to get up a little earlier. On the other hand my evening prayer can easily turn into, “God I thank you this great day and for my pillow and for fluffy clouds and for …marshmallows ….. and …. {snore}.”

Another thing I think about is how I respond to the conclusion of big ministry event. Do I dismiss my disciples and the crowds so that I can pray? Should I?

And then my thoughts come back to solitude.  In an earlier conversation, Alex Lozada remarked that when Christians today talk about prayer and prayer ministry, we often mean group prayer.  But as I think about scripture, it seems to me that the strong emphasis is on solitary pray.  {Likewise I think that we often focus on prayer as request and this seems out of balance with the scriptural focus as well, but I will withhold that judgment until we see if it is borne out by the text.}

I did not spend this morning in solitude and prayer.  But I will sometime today, find some solitude and talk to God.

on the walk

-Ethan

And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed. And Simon and those who were with him searched for him, and they found him and said to him, “Everyone is looking for you.” And he said to them, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also, for that is why I came out.” And he went throughout all Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.

In case you have forgotten the first chapter of Mark and did not go back and read it like you were told, let me remind you of the context of the this verse in the ministry of Jesus and in the gospel of Mark. Jesus ministry is still in the early stages. But so far in Mark it has felt like a whirlwind of activity. John has preached and Jesus has been baptized. He has been in the wilderness and tempted and he has returned to begin preaching the kingdom in Galilee. He has begun to call disciples and has preached in the synagogues. He has healed, first a couple and then crowds of people. So by verse 35 we are in that period of Jesus early ministry as he shifts from a radical but unknown preacher to a cultural phenomenon that is drawing huge crowds. The crowds are so huge that his ministry is about to change from a town to town strategy to a regional strategy.

That is the location of this event in Jesus ministry. But what about in Mark’s gospel.

We are just 35 verses in to this gospel and he has already covered what the other gospel need 4 or more chapters to cover. Mark’s gospel races along from scene to scene setting the stage. If you were to read it as a story (which is of course how he meant it to be read) and not just as a collection of sermon illustrations, you may find yourself breathless by the time to you get to this point. This breathtaking pace is possible in part because Mark is a merciless editor. There are no non-essential stories in his telling. He wastes no time on sweet niceties. If you are planning a Christmas play look somewhere else. This is story about the kingdom and the cross.

So if this fast paced writer and merciless editor pauses to tells us about Jesus prayer life, then we can be sure of two things. Prayer was important to Mark and to Jesus. Whenever I read a story in Mark, I always ask, is it pivotal or is it exemplary. By this I mean that in such a shortly edited book, the related details either are there because the are essential to the plot or because they are an example of a major part of Jesus ministry.

In this case it isn’t pivotal so it must be the other. It must be that this kind of solitary prayer was a major part of Jesus life. It is clear that in this first chapter Mark is trying to in a whirlwind fashion give us a glimpse at the major elements of Jesus ministry. We get a summary of the marks of his ministry: kingdom proclamation, teaching, exorcism, healing, calling, traveling, and apparently prayer.

So I think that we can safely conclude that prayer was not an afterthought for Jesus. It was a central and defining aspect of his ministry. From a foundation of prayer he is ready to facing the growing challenges of his ministry. In a comment on Luke 5:16 in another setting I wrote: “It is unfathomable that for some reason I persist in thinking that I can faithfully serve God without pursuing prayer and solitude. Every time I read the gospel I am struck again. Jesus prays well and deeply. No wonder he could risk it all and choose God’s will over his own.”

I think that as a disciple and a disciple-maker I have to grow in solitude and prayer and I need to help others around me grow in the same way.

I was listening to a sermon by Andy Stanley on practicing prayer. His first point which he repeated about seven times was that the foundation to a Christ-like prayer life is “time and place.” I think that is probably right.

So the first thing I observe from this story is that Christ had a disciplined prayer life that included solitude. (Not to give away to much but later Jesus will reccomend the same practices to us.)

The second thing I notice is that I am probably too small minded about prayer. I know better but I instinctually turn to prayer when I want power. My prayer life is like a pagan shaman. I am drawn to pray when I want strength or health or wisdom for myself or others. That could not have been Jesus motivation to pray. He had all the power he wanted. He could heal others and read minds, he could create food. So the second thing I notice is that there must be more to pray that asking for things. My tendency to approach prayer as a power negotiation must be missing something.

I plan to get up tomorrow and pray.

on the walk

-Ethan Magness

On an unrelated note, I was talking with a 13 year old kid about a year ago about Ultimate (the sport played with a Frisbee). I saw that he had received a new disc as a present and that packaged with the disc was a DVD about the rules and techniques of ultimate Frisbee. He had watched the DVD several times and was excited to talk to me. I had played in college and he was eager to discuss the finer points of the Ultimate rule book. After a while of talking he asked if I wanted to watch the DVD. I responded by suggesting that we go outside and throw. He was surprised at my suggestion and we went outside. After a few minutes outside it was clear to me that he had spent more time watching the DVD than he had throwing Frisbee.

When it comes to prayer, I am like that kid. I know the rules, I have all the right equipment, but I have not been disciplined in prayer. I have studied much about what a life of prayer could be but I have experienced little.

As in all areas of Christian life there is an opposite error. (One that does not threaten me.) There are some that teach that prayer need not be learned. To many people find themselves using language like, “You don’t need to learn how to pray, just start talking to God and you are praying.” I know that this is not true. If it were true, then Jesus would have told his disciples when they came to him and said, “Teach us to pray.”

However simply because there are things to be taught, this does not mean that teaching is enough. The error to which I am prone is this one. For some reason whenever the inadequacy of my prayer life rises in my consciousness, my first response is to read a book about pray. I don’t need to read another book on prayer. I need to pray.

This is a perfect example of a situation where it is so easy to see the problem in others and be blind to oneself. Those who pray with passion and frequency but not in submission to what Christ has taught about prayer are most likely to insist that teaching and study about prayer is not needed. All that is needed is more prayer. And those like me who have studied prayer much but practiced it little are most likely to suggest more study and forget to actually pray.

In response to this need, I hope to feature as a regular part of this blog a series of posts on “praying with Jesus.” In Jesus we find the perfect balance. He prayed. He prayed a lot. And he taught about prayer.

A friend at Mountain recently asked me to review a book called “With Jesus in the School of Prayer.” I haven’t finished it yet. So far though it is pretty good. (I never agree with everything, including myself.) The theory of the book is wonderful. It simply and carefully considers all that Jesus teaches about prayer.

So by this book I have been inspired and for as long as it takes I want to look through the gospels and consider every text in which Jesus teaches or models prayer. We will study these texts. Seek to learn more about prayer. I I hope that we will then do something with these texts. For my part. I plan to pray.

on the walk

-Ethan