Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. Mark 1:35
“Living on a planet of free will and rebellion, Jesus often must have felt “not at home.” At such times He went aside and prayed, as if to breathe pure air from a life-support system that would give him the strength to continue living on a polluted planet. Yet He did not always get formulaic answers to His prayers. Luke reports that He prayed all night before choosing the twelve disciples—even so, the group included a traitor. In Gethsemane He prayed at first that the cup of suffering be taken from Him, but of course it was not. That scene in the garden shows a man desperately “not at home,” yet resisting all temptations toward supernatural rescue.
For me, one scene in the Gospels brings together the “at home” and “not at home” nature of Jesus. A storm blew up on the Sea of Galilee, nearly capsizing the boat in which Jesus lay sleeping. He stood up and yelled into the wind and spray, “Quiet! Be still!” The disciples shrank back in terror. What kind of person could shout to the weather as if correcting an unruly child? The display of power in the midst of a storm helped convince the disciples that Jesus was unlike any other man.
Yet it also hints at the depths of incarnation. “God is vulnerable,” said the philosopher Jacques Maritain. Jesus had, after all, fallen asleep from sheer fatigue. Moreover, the Son of God was, but for this one instance of miracle, one of its victims: the Creator of rain clouds was rained on, the Maker of stars got hot and sweaty under the Palestine sun. Jesus subjected himself to natural laws even when, at some level, they went against His desires (“If it is possible, may this cup be taken from me”). He would live, and die, by the rules of earth.”
Philip Yancey (b. 1949) in The Jesus I Never Knew: Revealing What 2,000 Years of History Have Covered Up (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996) 90-91. I am enjoying this modern classic book. I hope you are too.
Generous living, giving, serving, and loving is hard. We live on a planet like Jesus where a lot of the time, things do not go as we expect. Fear of the what ifs can limit or even hinder our generosity.
What if I lose my job? What if that deal falls through? What if I get sick and cannot work? What if? What if? What if? I cannot rebuke the wind and waves when they toss me about. I have to hold on for dear life.
Having spent the last five days by Bear Creek, praying earnestly and vulnerably on three walks a day, I am thankful for prayer as the life-support system modeled by Jesus and available to each of us.
Jesus could not have done God’s will without prayer. We cannot make the contributions in life that God wants us to make without prayer. Let us “at home” and “not at home” with Jesus, fearlessly relying on our good Father.