Imitating Christ - Praying as He Did
Let my prayer be set before you like incense; The lifting up of my hands like the evening sacrifice. — Psalms 141:2
Christ, in the days of his flesh, having offered up prayers and petitions with strong crying and tears to him who was able to save him from death, and having been heard for his godly fear. — Hebrews 5:7
Author
Faustino de Jesús Zamora Vargas
Summary: Christ prayed to the Father with compassion, trust, and reverent submission, ready to do His will. His prayer calls us to ask for protection for our brothers and sisters and to seek the unity of the church: one mind in the Spirit to serve others and bear witness, not ecumenical unity. Jesus sends us into the world with the message of redemption; therefore, we should pray for those carrying out that mission and ask for hearts willing to be sent. He also gives us the hope of being with Him and seeing His glory. Let us imitate His prayers as we build one another up, bear with one another, and show His love.
The divine Christ, during his earthly life, prayed to the Father as a man. The man who felt compassion as he looked upon the lost multitude, “like sheep without a shepherd” (Matt 9:36); the man who wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus (John 11:35) and when he saw the city of Jerusalem (Luke 19:41), just days before his death on the cross. He prayed with the conviction that the Father would hear him
, certain that his prayer would be a legacy of love for the disciples who also hear his cry.
The Word who was God (John 1:1) prayed for us, who were given by God to his Son Jesus to be witnesses in the world, to be sent to fulfill his mission. If we wish to see the heart of the God-Man, his human nature, his dreams and longings for his church, his feelings of compassion for the world’s redemption, his reverent fear of the Father, and his desire to glorify him, let us return to John 17, a hymn cried out by God incarnate, a prayer we should imitate. The only recorded prayer of Jesus Christ in “the days of his flesh.”
“Holy Father, keep them in your name, the name you have given me, that they may be one, just as we are one” (John 17:11). Do we pray with reverent submission? Do we ask the Lord to keep our brothers and sisters in his name (protecting them and caring for them zealously)? Do we pray for the unity of the body of Christ, that we may be diligent channels of blessing to others? For the multitude wandering “like sheep without a shepherd”?
Hebrews 5:7 says that Jesus was heard because of his reverent submission. What does this mean for us? A prayer said “in passing” so that God can see we have not forgotten him? No! Rather, it is a fear mingled with love and respect that shows a heart willing to obey the Father’s will, whatever it may be, without conditions. Christ’s prayer to the Father reflects the Lord’s zealous heart, inviting us to serve for the benefit of others. It reminds Christians that the sacrifice we have seen in Jesus on behalf of others is also a way to unite us, to seek spiritual unity, to be of one mind—not in an ecumenical sense, but in a shared embrace of the Spirit so that we may be “salt and light” in a world of darkness. Unity is vital for the church if we want to turn the world upside down with the message of salvation.
One plea of Jesus to consider in his prayer: “As you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:18). Again and again, the gospel message of redemption and eternal life is heard on the Redeemer’s lips; he has sent us into the world. It was not the pastor or the local missions board, but Jesus who, in his desire to glorify the Father, pleads with him to care for us and bless us in the mission. The world of the first century and the world of the twenty-first century have much in common. Christianity was born in the first century amid ideologies and philosophies that expressed differing views about God—or gods—and Christ entered history at the very moment history needed him, to begin establishing order and to embody the one true God. That is why he “was sent,” and likewise he sends us today into a world that continues to boast of offering a whole assortment of gods for every taste, color, and nation. Does this not seem a good reason to imitate Christ, to pray for the missionary who was moved upon reading Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, and to pray that the Lord will give us a heart passionate about “being sent”?
A hope for you and me: “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, so that they may see my glory, the glory you have given me; for you loved me before the foundation of the world.” (John 17:24). (Emphasis mine.) We will be where he is, by his grace and for his glory. Jesus’ prayer, as he was about to suffer the torment of the cross and suffer for our sins unto death, had one purpose: the Father’s glory. Through Christ we have been sanctified in the truth of his Son (John 17:17): His word is truth. Brothers and sisters, I invite you to pray for the same reasons Christ did and to imitate him in pleading with God, as we build one another up, bear with one another, and show the world the love for which he gave himself.
God bless you!