Jan
31
More and more I find that a satisfying and comforting answer to the question ‘Why pray?’ is the fact that Jesus prayed. The eternal Son of God, agent and sustainer of creation, felt a compelling need to pray!
Last week I took you to Luke 6, where Jesus prayed all night before selecting twelve of his larger group of followers. I asked you to consider how this group of twelve could constitute the answer to any prayer. We would expect the prayer and evaluation to result in an elite team of spiritual commandos fit for the mission. Instead we get a dirty dozen that includes the betrayer Judas, men on the opposite sides of the political spectrum (the Roman sympathizer Matthew and the ultra-right-wing conservative “Zealot” Simon), back-country fishermen (Simon Peter, Andrew, James and John) and others who do or say little that ever merits mention in the Gospels or Acts. More than that, these Twelve regularly disappoint their teacher and master with their cowardice, pettiness, feeble faith and outright stupidity. Yet these are the twelve apostles. Someone has said, ‘Prayer is not a means of removing the unknown and unpredictable elements in life, but rather a way of including the unknown and unpredictable in the outworking of the grace of God in our lives.’
Another of Jesus’ prayers that had an unusual answer is in Luke 22:31-34. The setting is the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus says to Simon Peter:
Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Peter said to him, “Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death.” Jesus said, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow this day, until you deny three times that you know me.”
Simon Peter, with his typical swaggering confidence, declares that he is “all in” with Jesus, whether that means imprisonment or crucifixion. Surprisingly, Jesus says something no one wants to hear: that Peter would deny him three times within a matter of hours. Roosters don’t necessarily wait until the sun comes up to crow. (I learned this on a 1995 mission trip to Kingstown, St. Vincent.)
But more intriguing is Jesus’ statement about Satan demanding to have Simon Peter and sift him like wheat. Why did Jesus allow such a thing? Why not deny Satan’s request: “Get out of here. No way: he’s off limits!” Or how about this: why didn’t Jesus embolden Peter so that he would not wilt and surrender in the testing? Jesus did neither of these things. Instead, he says he prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail.
Here’s something else that’s hard to swallow: Peter’s faith did fail—three times! The incident sounds like the opening chapters of the book of Job. Satan seeks permission to do harm to one of God’s servants; then God, for some strange reason, grants permission, and we all wait to see how the tested servant will respond. This opens some larger questions: why does God sit back while Satan works mischief, while evil regimes oppress the innocent, while hurricanes and floods and fires and tornados devastate, while diseases ravage lives, while a betrayer hands God’s beloved Son over to a murderous enemy?
There is another factor in the story, though—the prayer of Jesus. I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. Over the short run, Peter did fail; in the long run, Peter’s faith did not. Jesus was already coaching Peter up from the failure of the threefold denial—when you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we say, ‘And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” But how will our heavenly Father deliver us from the evil one? At times he removes circumstances that have been the means of enticing us into sin. At times he blunts the desire.
His more normal way, however, is not to keep us vacuum-sealed from evil and temptation and trial. He allows us to experience the seductions of temptation because he wants to engage us in living the Christian life. He wants us to develop godly habits and virtues. He wants us to learn of repentance and restoration. We grow through battle experience, not through reading about battles. Unused muscles atrophy, and likewise spiritual maturity is stunted by inactivity. God wants to develop the skills of resisting the devil so that he will flee from us (cf. Jam 4:7; 1 Pet 5:9). The grace of refinement is more painful, but more purifying than the grace of relief or the grace of release. How remarkable that Jesus prays for us—and even anticipates betrayal, redeeming it as a part of the outworking of his gracious kingdom.
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2 Responses to “Because Jesus prayed: that your faith may not fail”
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well done, Phillip..very thought provoking and pastoral…
I wonder, does Les Nesom know Les Newsom?
Phillip, you’ve been tagged. Go check it out:
http://www.knowtea.com/?p=383