Mark 14:32-42 In Gethsemane Jesus prayed long enough
for the disciples to fall asleep - so few words for such a long time!
How Jesus prayed
We live in a wordy age. Some estimate that there are roughly a million words in the English language. The unabridged Webster’s Third New International Dictionary includes some 470,000 entries. Thousands of new words like e-mail and Internet enter the language each year.
Not only is the number of words increasing, we also are exposed to these words at a faster pace. Since Johannes Gutenberg’s movable-type printing enabled mass production of books in the 15th century, there has been an ever-increasing presence of words in the world. In 2004 the number of books published per year in the United States alone approached 175,000. Consider also the computer screen and its estimated 29.7 billion Web pages.
No matter how we count them, it’s clear we live in a vast and expanding sea of words. So when it comes to praying, how should we navigate between the Scylla and Charybdis of total silence and endless chatter?
Let words be few
Jesus clearly warns against praying with “many words” in Matthew 6:7–8: “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”
No matter how vast our vocabulary, and no matter how grandiloquent our poetry or rhetoric, God is not impressed by polylogia (“many words”) or “empty phrases.” Since God already knows what we need before we ask, prayer can never serve to inform God of anything. As Ecclesiastes 5:2 advises: “Let your words be few.”
Like the disciples in Luke 11:1, we must look to Jesus to learn to pray properly. We know that Jesus taught his disciples about prayer (Matthew 6:9–13; Luke 11:2–4), and gave the Lord’s Prayer as a model. Jesus also prayed himself. What can we learn from observing how he prayed?
Let prayer be long
Mark 14:32–42 makes us privy to a very difficult, private moment in Jesus’ life. In Gethsemane he instructs his disciples to sit down while he takes Peter, James and John, his inner circle, with him to pray. What is often overlooked about this most excruciating of prayer scenes in the Bible is what Jesus prays and for how long.
As short as the Lord’s Prayer is, Jesus’ prayer of agony is shorter still: “Abba, Father, for you all things are possible; remove this cup from me; yet, not what I want, but what you want” (14:36). Jesus prays for about an hour (v. 37) — so few words for such a long time! Jesus then returns to the three disciples only to find them sleeping—precisely what he told them not to do (v. 34).
Jesus again goes away to continue praying, “saying the same words”
(v. 39). When he returns the second and third times, his closest friends are again found sleeping. This means Jesus prayed at least long enough for all three to fall asleep. Again, so few words for such a long time!
The inability of Peter, James and John to stay awake throughout Jesus’ time of prayer portrays them as less than stellar disciples. Their failure is tragic, given that these three were the closest to Jesus among the 12 disciples. They always rank first in lists of Jesus’ disciples (Matthew 10:2–4; Mark 3:16–19; Luke 6:14–16; Acts 1:13). In Mark these three are the only ones Jesus takes with him when he restores Jairus’s daughter to life (5:37); they accompany him up the mountain to witness his transfiguration (9:2); and the three (with Andrew) converse privately with Jesus about the end of the world (13:3).
Their failure to stay alert long enough to pray with Jesus in his hour of anguish foreshadows the further collapse of discipleship when Peter, the premiere disciple, denies Jesus three times (14:66–72). At the same time, this story gives us a gracious glimpse of Jesus’ last prayer, which exemplifies for all his followers the proper way to commune with God and to cultivate a life of discipleship.
Are we too wordy in our prayers? Are we in too much of a hurry? Should we devote more time to silence when we pray? Should we be more alert?
Jesus’ instructions and example comprise this elegant lesson on how to pray: Let prayer be long; let words be few. Amen. |
