Moral matters Essay

PRAYER is the center for Jesus. Religion has two aspects: On the one hand it maintains certain standards of conduct, on the other it affirms certain beliefs about the ultimate nature of the universe. It is prayer which connects the two. Without it the one of these would be ethics, and the other would be theology. Prayer makes them elements in religion. In prayer the individual brings together God, life’s ideal values, and himself. It is evident from the gospels that Jesus believed in prayer, told men to pray, and prayed himself. Mark narrates how early in the morning before others are about he withdraws to the desert to pray (Mark 1:35). Late in the evening after teaching the multitudes all day he goes into a mountain to pray (Mark 6:46). The hours before the arrest are spent in prayer. Luke is particularly interested in the prayers of Jesus, and adds to Mark’s account various other references. At the time of the baptism, when the heavens opened and he saw the vision, he was praying (Mark 14:32). When the multitudes crowded upon him after the healing of the leper, â€Å"he withdrew into the deserts and prayed (Luke 3:21). † Before choosing the Twelve, and before he asked the disciples what they thought of himself, he was in prayer (Luke 5:16). The Transfiguration occurred when he was at prayer (Luke 6:12, 9:18). The request of the disciples, â€Å"Lord, teach us to pray,† was made at the close of one of his periods of prayer (Luke 9:28). Some of these may be editorial additions in order to provide settings for sayings or incidents where the actual occasion had been forgotten, but there can be no doubt that they represent an authentic record of the practice of Jesus. One notices immediately several facts about these acts of prayer. In the first place, a considerable number of them occur at times of decision and crisis. Important junctures and turning points in Jesus’ career were approached after long periods of silent meditation and prayer. In the second place, one notes that prayer was for Jesus a refreshing and invigorating experience. From the turmoil, confusion, and fatigue of dealing with the multitudes he sought refuge in withdrawals for quiet prayer. His words to his disciples show what these retreats meant to himself. â€Å"Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place and rest awhile,† he said when they returned telling of their strenuous campaign through the cities and villages of Galilee (Guignebert 67). Such experiences of rest, reflection, and prayer Jesus himself had found necessary in order to carry on the spiritually and emotionally exhausting undertaking in which he was engaged. Such a practice of prayer throws valuable light on Jesus’ own religion. In spite of his clarity of mind and intuitive understanding of religious and moral matters, in spite too of his independence and the authority with which he taught, it is evident that Jesus had no sense of religious self-sufficiency and personal adequacy. His intuitive moral judgments and his consciousness of authority to proclaim God’s will were rather the results of these hours in which he sought to ascertain the purposes of God and to be led by him. If one should ask what Jesus taught about prayer, it must be answered that he gave very little definite teaching. There were certain things he said about it, but he gave no set rules or systematic directions for prayer. To him it was an intensely personal thing, and never to be reduced to form or ritual. Professor Bundy, speaking of Jesus’ retreats for the purpose of prayer, remarks that there was no regularity about these retreats. â€Å"They were in no sense a part of a prayer system. For Jesus prayer was not a traditional religious exercise to be engaged in and observed at certain set hours, but the spontaneous impromptu practice of an intense personal piety. † Indeed one learns more about prayer as Jesus practiced it from his own prayers recorded in the gospels than from any instructions he gave about praying. By putting together precept and practice one can learn something of his conception of prayer and the objects for which he thought men should pray (Taylor 145-50). First and foremost should be placed the fact that Jesus repeatedly and in the strongest possible language urged his hearers to pray. â€Å"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask for a loaf, will he give him a stone; or if he ask for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? † (Matt. 7: 11) On other occasions he was even more emphatic. â€Å"If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,† he said in extreme illustration, â€Å"ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. † By such words he tried to impress upon his hearers that God gives heed to prayer. For he knew that the reason men do not pray is that they do not believe that anything will be accomplished by it. God does hear and answer the prayer of faith. To Jesus prayer was not a process of autosuggestion or a devotional ritual with subjective values, but an actual source of power for accomplishment (Pannenberg 267)