“At that time Jesus went up a hill to pray and spent the whole night there praying to God.” (Lk 6:12)

“At that time Jesus went up a hill to pray and spent the whole night there praying to God.” (Lk 6:12) 

Today’s Passage: Lk 6:12-19

Meditation: In one of my youth bible classes, some months back, one boy had a question as to why Jesus should pray. He quoted then some bible passages and of them one was the above passage. We are praying to God for our different needs and petitions. Being God, does Jesus need anything from God the father? It is a genuine question. Isn’t it? Yes, question is really genuine and therefore, it needs a genuine answer. Two things are to be considered here; first, what all things he did by himself being God and second, for Jesus what was really prayer. If at all it was not needed for Jesus, he received baptism from John the Baptist, (Mt 3:14) he had always the nature of God still of his own free will he gave up all he had, and took the nature of a servant, (Phil 2:6, 7) and again, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. (Heb 4:15) Therefore, the question as to whether Jesus needs prayer/anything from God being God may be answered only when we understand the meaning of his incarnation, his mission on earth etc. The second part may be answered if we understand the meaning of Jesus’ prayer. The whole spirit of the question revolves actually round the understanding of prayer. For us prayer may be placing some of our petitions before God or even asking some pardon for our sins and offences. But for Jesus prayer was mostly giving thanks and praise to God the father (Mt 11:25; Jn 11:41, 42), interceding for others, especially for his disciples – already believed and yet to believe. (Lk 23:34; Jn 17) Of course, he prayed a prayer petition in the garden of Gethsemane. (Lk 22:42) And all these dimensions we get from Lord’s Prayer. Like Jesus let us come to our God either to praise, give thanks, for intercession, or petitions; certainly, as human beings for asking pardon. 

              

 Prayer:    Lord God, we thank you and praise you for your daily eternal bread. St. Teresa will say prayer is like a conversation between friends. Lord Jesus you have called us your friends, not servants. Even then, we don’t have that freedom to share with you whatever we feel and experience in our day to day life. Lord, teach us to pray, so that we may have good relationship with you and our brethren. Amen!

Greetings:       Take courage! God is with you! Have a nice and blissful Tuesday…