Tuesday, March
7, 2017
While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a
loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep
reverence for God. Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience
from the things he suffered. Hebrews
4:7-8(NLT)
In the Gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus, whenever he
prayed, big stuff happened! People were
healed, changed, cleansed of demonic possession, and even raised from the
dead. The writer to the Hebrews
underscores that, claiming that the prayers and pleadings of Jesus were heard
by God. You cannot help but notice the
writer calls the prayers and pleadings loud,
and with tears. Jesus was no whispering prayer warrior.
But the tears sound like Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane, and the loud
cry reminds us of the great shout on the cross just
as Christ gives up His spirit. Neither
of those times of suffering appears (on the surface) to be prayers that were
answered. In Gethsemane the prayer of
Jesus was for the Father to save him from the cup of suffering. On the cross his shouted prayer was Tetelestai
– it
is finished, the prayer of an accomplished mission.
So…were Jesus’ prayers of release from suffering, and completing his
mission by bringing in the Kingdom of God answered…or was the Hebrew writer
wrong? Did God hear AND answer Jesus’
prayers…or not?
We know Jesus had to plow through the agony of Gethsemane, and God did
not “rescue” Jesus from suffering death on the cross; Scripture tells us he sweat
great drops of blood in that time of prayer for our souls, and he died,
stone-cold dead!
So…were the prayers of God the Son ignored by God the Father? Was Jesus’ suffering and death a matter of
unanswered prayer? It probably appeared
that way at least to Peter who was ready to give up all this religious stuff
and head back to his fishing nets.
The explanation of this (and so much more) is found in the drama
surrounding the resurrection of Lazarus, who had died and was buried. Jesus showed up four days later and told them
to roll away the stone covering the tomb:
So they rolled the stone
aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven
and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out
loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe
you sent me.” John 11:41-42(NLT)
From the mouth of Jesus we hear that God the Father always hears his
prayers. And we also hear from Christ
that, for the sake of our faith,
sometimes he suffered through some things so we can see and be made stronger by
His obedience.
In Jesus’ agonizing prayer and shout from the cross, he was not trying to
awaken God to his own needs; the Christ was identifying with what we are, fragile,
afraid and dependent, so that we can see through the experience of our
suffering, that obedience, even in the face of pain, is Godly and worthwhile.
It’s
a tough road, this school of suffering and unanswered prayer. But in heaven’s perspective, it isn’t
unanswered prayer at all; it’s God answering the way God chooses is best.
For You Today
Some suffering is unavoidable. Some suffering in your life is going to be a
blessing in somebody else’s life.
NOTES
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