Abstract
When Matthew, Mark and Luke all recount the same episode in the life of Jesus or the same piece of Jesus’ teaching, as they often do, it’s tempting to think that they always express themselves in the same way as each other. Sometimes they do but, equally, sometimes when they tell of the same event or teaching, there are slight and subtle differences in what they emphasise or recount, and it is in those differences that we can see what is crucial to each Gospel writer.
One of the places where this happens is in the account of Jesus’ baptism, which occurs in all three of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. But the accounts are each slightly different! They all tell of John the Baptist’s ministry, and of Jesus being baptized in the Jordan, and the heavens opening and the Spirit descending upon Jesus as a dove, and a heavenly voice saying, ‘You are (or ‘this is’) my son, my beloved, in whom I am well-pleased.’ But otherwise the details vary considerably. Luke actually removes John before Jesus is baptized—so who baptizes Jesus? Is it John after all? Or the crowd? Or someone else? Or does Jesus baptize himself? Matthew and Mark have the baptism performed by the Baptizer.
In Matthew and Mark, the Spirit descends and the voice comes from heaven as Jesus is coming up out of the water, having been baptized. In Luke, however, these things happen while Jesus is praying after he has been baptized. Matthew and Mark have nothing about Jesus praying at his baptism, only Luke, as we’ve heard in our Gospel passage today.
We aren’t told the manner or the content of Jesus’ prayer, only that he was praying when the Spirit and the voice came. Was he standing, sitting, or kneeling? Did he have his hands together, or were his arms outstretched? Were his eyes open or closed? Did he use a Psalm and some of the prayers from the synagogue service, or did he pray completely extempore? Did he make use of the ACTS mnemonic, and Adore, Confess, give Thanks, offer Supplications? Did he head off somewhere private on his own, or was he in the midst of the crowds as he prayed? We simply do not know the answers to any of these questions.
We do know that Jesus’ prayer life is important for Luke, for he refers to Jesus praying far more often than the other Gospel writers do, and often does so at places where the other Gospel writers don’t mention it, as is the case with Jesus’ Baptism. So, in Luke, Jesus goes out to a mountain to spend the whole night in prayer to God before he chooses the Twelve (6:12). After the feeding of the five thousand, he is said to be praying alone, but with the disciples with him (9:18), before he questions them about who the crowds say he is. He again goes up a mountain to pray, and while he is praying the Transfiguration happens (9:28–29). He is in prayer immediately before he is asked by the disciples to teach them to pray and gives them the ‘Lord’s Prayer’ (11:1). But in each of these cases, just as with the Baptism, we aren’t told the manner or the content of Jesus’ prayer, only that he did pray.
It is only when we get to Gethsemane that we are told something of how Jesus prayed and what he prayed (22:41–44), for he is described as withdrawing from the disciples, kneeling down and saying, ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done.’ Jesus is also described as being in such agony as he prayed that his sweat was like ‘drops of blood falling down to the ground.’
And, then, on the Cross itself, Jesus prays, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,’ and, at the point of his death, ‘Father, into your hands I commit my spirit,’ quoting Psalm 31 (Luke 23:34, 46).
While we don’t have much indication of how Jesus prayed or what Jesus prayed, we can see the effect that praying has on Jesus, in Luke’s depiction. It is as he prays that he receives the Holy Spirit, and is affirmed by the Father as the Beloved Son. It is as he prays that he discerns who are to be his closest companions and co-workers. It is as he prays that he becomes equipped to broach with the disciples the nature of his identity. It is as he prays that he is transformed, transfigured. It is as he prays that he works out what to teach his followers. It is as he prays that he is strengthened to do the will of his Father. It is in prayer that he becomes able to forgive others and to commend himself at death to God. It is in prayer that he knows God to be his Father.
And it seems to me that Luke wants us to learn from the example of Jesus, and to take our own prayer lives as seriously he takes Jesus’ prayer life. If we do take our own prayer lives seriously, then I believe we will find the effects that praying had on Jesus will happen to us, too, and that we will see change, in us and around us. We will receive anew the Holy Spirit (though not bodily as a dove, I am quite sure!). We will receive afresh that affirmation from God that we are his beloved children, with whom he is well-pleased. We will be able to work out more easily what we should say or do. We will be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ. We will be strengthened to do the Father’s will and to forgive. We will come to know more clearly God as Father.
And the very paucity of description of how Jesus actually prayed is, I believe, significant. It’s almost as if Luke is saying that the actual manner of Jesus’ prayer—and ours—both its method and its content, is of less importance than the actual fact that he did—and we do—pray. There is no one right way of praying. We have to pray as we can, not as we can’t. We have to work out the best way of praying for us personally, the best way for us to spend quality time in our Father’s presence. The where, the how and the what of praying can vary from one person to the next, for we are all different from each other. We can stand up, sit down, or kneel. We can close our eyes and put our hands together, or we can stand up, stretch out our hands heavenwards and keep our eyes open. We can go somewhere very private indeed or we can be with others as we pray. We can use ACTS or a Daily Office Book or be extempore or repeat the ‘Jesus Prayer’ over and over. It doesn’t actually matter—as long as the way you pray is the right way for you.
And as long as you do pray and that your prayer is genuine. While it is true, as a wise Bishop said to me once, that we have to fit our spirituality around our lives, not our lives around our spirituality, we must be wary of making excuses for not praying. Another wise person also once said to me, ‘If you’re too busy to pray, you’re too busy.’ Or, more flippantly, as someone once said, ‘If it’s good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me.’ Jesus certainly seemed to need to pray frequently, and surely we can’t think we’re better than him!
So we must pray and pray in our own way. And when we do, we will find all sorts of things begin to happen to us and around us that did not when we didn’t, just as Jesus did, at his Baptism, through his ministry, in Gethsemane, and on the Cross.