"Prayer: Called to Pray" 2-25-24

Overview

Called to Pray

Scripture nowhere commands us to close our eyes or fold our hands when we pray—but it does, repeatedly, call us to pray. The Gospels show Jesus Himself constantly at prayer: after His baptism Luke 3:21, withdrawing to deserted places Luke 5:16, spending nights in prayer on the mountain Luke 6:12, and praying alone with His disciples nearby Luke 9:18. It was His custom. So when He led the disciples out to the Mount of Olives in Luke 22:39–46, prayer was where He went—and where He told them to go.

The Garden: A Call, a Prayer, a Lack

Three movements stand out in the Gethsemane account. First, the call: "Pray that you may not enter into temptation." With the cross looming, Jesus warned the disciples that the trauma ahead could shake their faith—an echo of the petition "lead us not into temptation" in the Lord's Prayer. As Luther reminds us in the Small Catechism, God tempts no one to sin; we pray that the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh would not lead us into false belief, despair, or other great shame.

Second, the prayer: "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Yet, not my will but yours be done." The "cup" is the Old Testament image of God's judgment on sin (cf. Isaiah's prophecies of the cup of wrath)—a cup Christ alone would drink for us. His anguish was so intense that His sweat became like drops of blood. Yet His prayer is the model: bold petition, then full submission to the Father's will.

Third, the lack: the very disciples called to pray were sleeping from grief. The ones nearest to Jesus personified prayerlessness in the moment they most needed to pray.

Do We See a Resemblance?

It is fair to ask whether we see ourselves in those sleeping disciples. Are our eyes heavy toward prayer? Does grief paralyze us? Do we treat prayer as transactional—expecting God to deliver on our terms, and drifting away when He doesn't? Do we shrug, "He'll do what He wants anyway"? Scripture calls us higher: "pray without ceasing" 1 Thessalonians 5:17; "in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God" Philippians 4:6; "devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving" Colossians 4:2.

Freed to Pray

When Luther's barber, Peter Beskendorf, asked him how to pray, Luther wrote a forty-page letter showing how he prayed Scripture itself, lifting petitions straight from the verses, and giving thanks to God for His "infinite compassion, which caused him unbidden, unsought, and unmerited to seek to be a Father to me." That is our posture too. Because Christ has borne our sin, shed His blood, emptied the tomb, and claimed us in baptism, we are freed to pray. Freed from thinking we must pray long enough, intensely enough, or with enough people to twist God's arm. Freed from the lie that we must change His mind. Freed to submit to His will as beloved children of a gracious Father. And amazingly, He even uses our prayers as part of how He carries out His will—inspiring the prayer, hearing it, and answering according to His good purpose.

The disciples slept. May we, eyes open or closed, be a people at prayer.

Transcript

You open your Bibles, please, with me to Luke the 22nd chapter for our study this morning 3s

if you're using a Pew Edition of Holy Scripture that will be on page 75 in the New Testament. 9s

Luke the 22nd chapter for our time of study today. 15s

I was blessed growing up that many of my elementary school years were in a Lutheran school 20s

that was associated. 29s

That was a ministry of the congregation that we were a part of. 30s

And every day we would end the day the same way. 36s

Every single ending of every single day we would say the Lord's prayer. 40s

The teacher would stand us all up and she would say, now I want everyone to bow their heads, 47s

close their eyes and then the prayer would begin. 54s

I'm not sure why I did it, but there was something in me that felt I needed to go on a 60s

reconnaissance mission at that day. 66s

And so I looked to see if anyone would open their eyes during the prayer. 70s

All was going well until about halfway through the prayer. 80s

And a girl in the row that was right next to me, she opened up her eyes and kept them open 85s

until the amen of the prayer. 94s

When the prayer ended like a ferrisacical rocked my hand went up. 99s

And I said, teacher, she complete with a point. 107s

She didn't have her eyes closed. 115s

They were open. 119s

The teacher looked at me calmly, smiled, and said, David. 124s

How did you know? 136s

We've heard over the years haven't we that when we pray we should close our eyes. 142s

It's a way of saying to block out all of the distractions around us. 147s

We've heard to fold our hands as a way to keep us from doing something when we should be praying. 152s

Is there any scripture that tells us that we have to have our eyes closed and our hands folded when we pray? 160s

Absolutely not. 171s

But what scripture does call us to? 174s

What it does call us to? 177s

Is to pray? 181s

Pray. 183s

Aile Barry said that if you take all of the times that Jesus either taught about prayer, encouraged prayer was praying and you put a check mark next to them in your Bible, you would have a lot of check marks. 186s

For example, in Luke the third chapter we read, now when all the people were baptized and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was open. 203s

Luke 5 tells us, but he would withdraw to deserted places and pray. 217s

Luke 6. 223s

Now during those days he went out to the mountain to pray and he spent the night in prayer to God. 224s

Luke 9. 232s

Once when Jesus was praying alone with only the disciples near him, Luke 11, he was praying in the certain place. 233s

Example after example, after example, we see in Holy Scripture and also in our text for today, Jesus at prayer. 244s

Luke 21 tells us, every day he was teaching in the temple and at night he would go out and spend the night on the Mount of allows as it was called at the foot. 258s

Of the Mount of allows is the garden of Gassimony. 273s

No wonder then, our text for today tells us in verse 39, he went out, he came out and went as was his custom to the Mount of allows and the disciples. 280s

Follow them. 298s

Then comes the call to pray. 300s

Verse 40, 303s

When he reached the place he said to them, pray that you may not come into the time of trial or can also be translated the time of temptation. 305s

What Jesus is talking about here. 316s

The cross looms so very close now. 319s

And the disciples are going to know of the horrific death of Christ. 323s

Jesus is calling them to pray so that they will not abandon the faith. 331s

It's a very similar petition to the Lord's prayer. 339s

When Jesus says, lead us not into temptation. 342s

He calls us to pray that Luther is helpful here. 345s

Luther says in the small catacusum, God tempts no one to sin. 348s

But we ask in this prayer that the devil, the world and our sinful self will not lead us into false belief, despair and other great and shameful things. 352s

Jesus was concerned that they would abandon the faith because of the events that loomed on the horizon and he's telling them. 364s

Telling them. 374s

We go on. Verse 41, after the call, now we hear the prayer of our Lord. 376s

Then he withdrew from them about a stone's throw, nailed down and prayed. 385s

That stone's so there, that's instructive. 392s

What is that about 30 yards? 394s

So that means then that the disciples were close enough that they would be able to hear Jesus. 397s

We go on. 403s

Then he withdrew from them about a stone's throw away, nailed down and prayed. 406s

Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. 411s

Now we've studied in the Isaiah class. 417s

We've studied that old testament imagery there with regards to the cup. 419s

The cup is the judgment and suffering that comes with regard to sin. 423s

We saw an Isaiah. 429s

How is the act of judgment upon the people they had to drink the cup of the Babylonian captivity? 431s

As Jerusalem was flattened in their lead away in Babylonian captivity, 439s

now the cup here is reference to the cup that Jesus Christ is going to drink of God's judgment upon sin. 444s

God's wrath upon sin. 451s

Verse 42, he says, Father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me, 455s

but then notice what he says. 460s

Yet not my will but yours be done. 462s

There is the model for prayer, the model of submission. 468s

Now my will, yours be done, yours. 476s

Verse 42, for a 43, then an angel from heaven appeared to him and gave him strength. 482s

That's the Father's grace, isn't it? 489s

In his anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like drops of blood falling down on the ground. 492s

You look at that and you say, all right, is that a simile because the word like is there, correct? 504s

Is that a simile? 510s

That Jesus was setting, was sweating so profusely that the sweat was pouring down him in a thickened state, like it was blood or. 513s

Is this an actual medical condition that doctors still talk about it today? 525s

Of where someone can be in such emotional anguish and emotional strain that the capillaries will break, 530s

and one can bleed down. 536s

Is it the thickness of the sweat? 541s

Is it a simile here? 543s

That like the thickness of blood or is it actual blood? 545s

We can't tell from the text, but what we do know is the incredible depth and anguish that Jesus was in as he prayed. 549s

Can you imagine the recoiling? 563s

He must have had. He knew the cross was coming for this reason. He had come. 566s

But can he imagine the recoiling he would have had as the cross draws closer. 570s

And God in the flesh is going to bear sin. 577s

The spotless lamb of God, the sinless lamb of God is going to bear the sin of the world. 581s

And it's weight, can you imagine the recoiling of the thought of God in the flesh bearing sin? 590s

And there he is in the garden in his anguish with the sweat or the blood pouring off of him. 605s

And what are the disciples doing? 615s

Verse 45. 623s

When he got up from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping because of grief. 628s

And he said to them, why are you sleeping? 640s

Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial. 644s

When you look at the parallels and remember the parallels, it's the same story in other gospel accounts. 655s

When you look at the parallels in Matthew and Mark, we know that the three disciples here are Peter, James and John. 663s

So that tells us then that when they came to the garden, the rest of the disciples, they must have stopped. 676s

Perhaps at the gate and the Bible tells us that Jesus took his inner circle, Peter, James and John with him. 682s

So when Jesus is addressing the situation of sleeping, he's addressing the three here. 690s

We can tell that from the parallels and the parallels also tell us that Luke's version is condensed because the other parallels tell us that Jesus raised the question of why the disciples were sleeping. 696s

He raised it three times with them. 711s

Pick up falling back asleep and he raises it three times. 716s

We know from the parallels that Peter and James and John, their eyes were heavy. 725s

We know from the Luke and account that they were sleeping because of grief. 731s

Here's the point. 739s

These were ones that were called to pray and yet they had a lack of prayer. 742s

The very ones called to pray, personified a lack of prayer. 755s

In the sermon series resemblance throughout this lenton season into Holy Week and into Easter where we're holding up various stories. 768s

And using the mirror here, it's entitled resemblance here. 781s

We're looking at the stories and say, do we see a resemblance between those and the stories? 785s

And perhaps us? 791s

When it comes to our prayer, instead of that disciplined life of prayer, 796s

can our eyes just be heavy and we would just prefer sleep? 807s

When it comes to our prayer, can we be in those times of grief? 814s

When we're paralyzed to pray because of the depth of the grief? 820s

In our own lives, can we look at prayer as being that which is transactional? 828s

So we look at God and we expect certain things from him and when God doesn't deliver in accordance with our will, 833s

we doesn't deliver then in accordance with our will, we just kind of occupy ourselves with some else. 841s

We look at our own lives of prayer instead of submitting to his will. 849s

Can we just be tempted to say, he's going to do whatever he wants anyway? 860s

So what difference does it make? 869s

If we're honest, if we're really honest, 874s

do we see any resemblance? 881s

First us, Lonyans, the fifth chapter, it tells us, pray without ceasing. 889s

Flippians' forces, do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, 896s

let your requests be made known to God. 905s

Colossians' four tells us, devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with thanksgiving. 909s

Do we see resemblance? 920s

With the disciples, his name was Peter Beskendorf. 924s

He was Martin Luther's barber. 936s

Luther called him a master barber. 939s

And one day, Luther's barber turned to him and said, 942s

Dr. Luther, how do you pray? 946s

How do you pray? 949s

And in typical Luther-esque fashion, Luther wrote him a 40-page letter of how he prayed. 951s

The gist of it is Luther would use scripture. 960s

He would just go through scripture and he would lift his prayers right out of the verses. 965s

It's a glorious, glorious way to pray. 970s

And embedded in those 40 pages to his barber. 975s

Luther wrote about giving thanks to God and he wrote this. 979s

I give thanks to God for his infinite compassion, which caused him unbidden, unsought, 983s

and unmarited to seek to be a father to me. 991s

A lost person, and to adopt, comfort, protect, help, and strengthen me in every need. 996s

So much of Luther's prayer was thanksgiving. 1009s

Thanksgiving. 1014s

Just same for us, right? 1017s

We are thankful people for the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the good news with regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. 1019s

That Jesus is born all of our sin, all of it on the cross. 1029s

His shed blood has affected redemption. 1034s

We've been purchased back. 1038s

We have been reconciled unto God. 1040s

The two is empty. The sacrifice has been accepted. 1042s

God calls us his own in the waters of baptism. 1047s

He claims us and grests us. 1052s

We know of the incredible grace and love that God has for us, 1057s

and this very God who has redeemed us and reconciled us and called us his own. 1063s

He frees us. 1073s

He frees us to pray. 1076s

He frees us from thinking. 1081s

Well, if I just pray longer, if I just pray with more intensity, 1085s

if I just get more and more people to join me in the prayer, 1091s

if I can get the quota just right, 1094s

then God who is sitting on the throne sideways, 1097s

not looking at me. 1102s

Well, then finally be moved because I've done it all right. 1104s

And God will finally be moved and quote unquote, 1108s

I can get my breaks through. 1112s

No God frees us from all of that. 1116s

He frees us. 1120s

He frees us. 1127s

From thinking that we have to change his mind. 1128s

He frees us from that. 1135s

And we can submit to his will whatever it is because we know. 1138s

He's our Father. 1147s

And we can come to Him in all boldness and confidence to Christ. 1149s

We don't have to convince Him. 1156s

We can buy His grace submit. 1160s

He frees us is He. 1165s

And amazingly, He frees us. 1169s

The so often times be part of the process of how He lives out His will. 1173s

Calling us to pray and inspiring the prayer in us. 1181s

So that is He hears the prayer. 1187s

He then responds with His will. 1191s

See, that's not praying to change His mind. 1194s

It's a gracious God saying, 1197s

I'm going to inspire you and empower you. 1200s

I'm going to form your prayer. 1203s

And then that prayer I use as I hear it. 1206s

And I live out my will. 1211s

It's amazing God. 1213s

Who does that? 1216s

He just, this peace us. 1219s

He frees us. 1225s

The disciples were asleep. 1230s

May we be a people at prayer. 1236s

With eyes closed or open. 1245s