43 Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. 44 And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground.

45 When Jesus rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. 46 “Why are you sleeping?” He asked. “Get up and pray so that you will not enter into temptation.”

REFLECTIONS

Written by Scott Favelle

Why do we pray? It is a question I ask myself from time to time. I know we should do it, and of course there is a relational aspect to it, as it is us talking to our heavenly Father. But we know God knows our needs and everything else before we even ask it (Matthew 6:6-8). Not only that, but since God is sovereign, timeless and all-powerful, all things will progress as he wills, whether we pray or not (Isaiah 46:10). So again: why do we pray?

I think this passage gives us at least one answer, and we can see it in a contrast between Jesus and his disciples.

When I have read about this event in the different Gospel accounts, I have always been struck by the disciples falling asleep. I have suffered from insomnia all my life, so I am always bewildered that they could fall asleep at such a time. But Luke gives us an extra little insight that none of the other accounts do, in that they were “exhausted from sorrow” (v 45). It wasn’t just that they went into a food coma after the big Passover meal. It was because of the sorrow of what was about to happen and what Jesus had just told them (that they would deny him).

Jesus is obviously in sorrow as well – he is in anguish to the point of sweating blood. Jesus has gone off to pray and tells the disciples to do the same. But it seems the disciples don’t pray at all, instead they fall asleep.

In contrast, Jesus does pray, and as he does, an angel appears to strengthen him. I found this interesting, that even though Jesus is the perfect Son of God and God the Son, he was strengthened by an angel! That is, the angel came to restore or reinvigorate him.

So how does help answer my question: Why do we pray? Simply this: in the times of greatest sorrow, Jesus turned to prayer. The outcome of the situation was not what mattered to him (“Yet not My will, but Yours be done”, as we saw yesterday in v. 42), but in prayer Jesus was strengthened.

We pray for our own good. When life is hard, when we are in the pits, God may or may not change our situation, but through prayer he will strengthen us and give us the fortitude to not fall into temptation as we weather the storms of life.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott is a member of our Fairfield Morning congregation.