Sermonette: Jesus prays

Recently, I was studying Jesus’ use of prayer and I came across a very intriguing verse that I’ve probably read a million times, but never noticed before: Luke 6:12.

“One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” (NIV)

Now what makes this verse significant to me is the context. Luke is perfectly clear that the very morning after Jesus’ marathon prayer he selected his 12 disciples. Prior to this, there was probably a small crowd following Jesus around, but afterward there was “the 12” and everyone else. After this selection of 12 Jewish men, the dynamic changes, as Jesus continues teaching to everyone, but his priority is clearly upon making sure his "apostles" understand. Which makes sense because after Jesus died, the weight of spreading the Gospel fell squarely upon the shoulders of these 12 men. If they didn’t get it, or misunderstood something, then the Gospel would be doomed. Eventually, all the apostles (except Judas) would scatter across the world spreading the Gospel, and setting the church up for the explosive growth that it witnessed early on. The selection of these 12 guys all the way back in Luke 6 is extremely pivotal. Picking the wrong guy was not an option.

So what did Jesus do to make sure he got the right ones? He prayed; but not just any prayer. No, Luke records that Jesus prayed for an entire night. I could be wrong, but I couldn’t think of any other time that Jesus prayed this long. The very next thing Jesus does is select his disciples; therefore I can’t help but assume that the theme of Jesus’ prayer was which men he should select. Jesus has this huge choice to make, and so he prays. And prays. And prays some more.

This bothered me. For a while, I couldn’t put a finger on why it bothered me. Now, though, I believe that the reason it bothers me is because it so foreign. I mean, who does this? When was the last time you heard of someone praying all through the night? Personally, I have never done this, nor have I even heard of someone praying like this; and as a pastor, I know some really good Christians. So, if Jesus demonstrates this level of intensity of prayer that I’m not familiar (or comfortable?) with; then I can think of only two responses. Either I’m not surrendering to God enough of my decisions, or I’m not doing anything worthwhile enough to warrant that kind of prayer. I base these two conclusions on the fact that Jesus could easily have picked His guys without asking God. It seems like he called them all by name before officially choosing his 12. Also, this is only time Jesus prays all night. He prays all the time of varying lengths, but only when he’s choosing his successors and betrayer does Jesus literally choose to pray alone rather than sleep.

Someone else might read this passage and see something completely different, but personally, when I read Luke 6:9, I realize that I need to pray more. Not only pray for the sake of praying, but to give Him more authority in my life. Jesus wanted to make absolutely sure that these 12 men were the ones God wanted. I suppose that if God wanted to pick Jesus’ disciples, He probably wants a say in what I preach, how I preach it, and basically how I carry out my life.

Not only this, though, because I wonder, if I put myself out there for God more often, maybe prayer would feel more necessary. If you were you go bungee jumping, you would want a helmet. If one day you won a sweepstakes and got to race Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s car in an official NASCAR race, you’d want to make absolutely sure that the harness was properly functioning and fitted to you. So I wonder if I were actually willing to do whatever God wanted (as Jesus was), maybe prayer would come more naturally. If Jesus were to pick even a single wrong disciple, who knows what would have happened. Maybe there would have been a split if the wrong guy wanted to do it differently. Maybe he would have succeeded in preventing the priests from taking Jesus. Maybe the wrong guy would have declared holy war on the Jews for killing Jesus. The possibilities are endless. The implications of what Jesus was doing were massive. Surely that was why Jesus felt a massive prayer session was necessary. Helmets and seatbelts are annoying and cumbersome, until you realize you truly have the possibility of dying. Maybe prayer is cumbersome to me, because I’m not willing to put myself in a place where I truly will only survive if God is actively supporting me.