The Prayer Life of Jesus – Jumping for Joy

The Prayer Life of Jesus – Jumping for Joy.

“Tremendous power is released through the passionate, heartfelt prayer of a righteous man!” (James 5:16).

The Lord Jesus always was and still continues to be the ultimate prayer warrior. He prayed to the Father even before He was born (Hebrews 10:5-7), and He kept praying until the moment of His ascension (Luke 24:50-53). But He didn’t stop praying when His work on earth was done, for He continues to intercede for us at the right hand of the Father as we read this! (Hebrews 7:25). His ministry was largely a prayer ministry in the sense of prayer being the foundation for everything He did. He prayed for saints and sinners, privately and publicly, with His face to the ground and His head up facing the heavens. He prayed in grief and He prayed in gratitude, while exhausted and while full of energy. Jesus prayed with His dying breath and He prayed after He rose from the dead. He prayed before major decisions and during dramatic miracles. He prayed spontaneously and He prayed in words prepared thousands of years before Him. He prayed short, one-sentence prayers (John 12:28), and He prayed in at least one long prayer that seemed to encompass just about everything (John 17). Jesus developed a lifestyle of prayer that was common to observant Jews, but nonetheless uncommon in its intimacy with the Father.

Jewish Lifestyle. Being born and raised in an observant and orthodox Jewish household, Jesus was immersed from Day One on earth in prayer, in the centrality of prayer to one’s life and faith. Observant Jews practiced formal prayers frequently during the day, and spontaneous prayers throughout each day. They would pray the Sh’ma twice a day, the primary statement of faith for all biblical Jews, starting with its first line, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might…” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9). Then there’s the Amidah, a series of 18 sacred benedictions that each Jewish father would recite at home twice a day, or perhaps each rabbi in the local synagogue. The Psalms were memorized and on the lips of all believing Jews, as were other classic prayers from the Hebrew Bible, most notably Aaron’s Priestly Blessing in Numbers 6:24-26, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face towards you and give you peace.”  But by no means were the Jews content with all those formal prayers each day. The rabbis taught each Jew to offer up sincere blessings for just about everything in the course of each day, as many as a hundred blessings, giving God praise and thanks for every common blessing enjoyed. There were blessings for practically every conceivable grace and event, from successfully going to the bathroom, to waking up each morning, to the blessing of being able to retire at the end of the day. These formal prayers and the more informal blessings developed a habit of prayer in each earnest Jewish believer, and made sure that God was seen as the main reference point all day for everyone in the faith. The Jewish prayers were constant reminders of God’s grace and goodness, and made sure that each Jewish home and synagogue were cultures of prayer. Jesus was shaped and directed and nurtured in this Jewish prayer life, and since He was a faithful Jew, prayer was certainly second nature to Him throughout His time on earth.

Inner Dialogue. Few mysteries in the faith are less likely to be understood than the union between the Father and the Son. Their level of intimate, eternal communion is well beyond our grasp. “The Father is in me, and I am in the Father.” (John 17:21). The prayer life of Jesus has everything to do with their intimacy. Somehow, the Father and the Son were inside each other in Spirit. So when Jesus prayed to the Father, He was spiritually looking inward to the Father’s presence. Jesus was speaking to the Father in a secret place within Himself where the Father dwelled. The prayer life of Christ was an inner dialogue between Father and Son, a private conversation of two divine Beings who love each other. Jesus said that He would not even take a step without the direction from the Father, He wouldn’t say a word without the Father’s approval. Jesus placed Himself completely at His Father’s disposal, such was the level of trust between the Father and the Son. Certainly, Jesus was the perfect example of one who “prayed without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:16-17). Jesus’ prayer was conscious and deliberate, and it was also subconscious and intuitive. Jesus walked prayerfully every second of every day, out of devotion to the Father.

“In that same hour, Jesus rejoiced greatly (agalliao) in the Holy Spirit and said, ‘I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have concealed these things relating to salvation from the wise and learned, and revealed them to babes (nepiois). Yes, Father, for such was Your gracious will and good pleasure.” (Luke 10:21, also Matthew 11:25-26).

“Nepiois” (Greek for ‘babes‘): In this context, little children in the faith; immature in Christ; inexperienced, unenlightened, unsophisticated, insignificant; those innocent ones who receive the gospel in simple faith and trust, with no ulterior motives; the unassuming ones who are usually unappreciated in the world but nonetheless are honored by God for their humble receptivity.

“Agalliao” (Greek for ‘excessive rejoicing’): Jump for joy; leap in deep gladness; exult with exuberance; skip with delight; joy multiplied; physically express one’s worship to God. To realize that Jews in general were not shy about expressing themselves physically while in worship or in celebration should give us more sedate Gentiles pause. It is delightful to imagine Jesus jumping and skipping and leaping in joy before the Father.

Jesus literally jumped for joy when the seventy appointed missionaries returned from their journeys. Jesus received them with excessive joy, and He also exulted in the sweet irony of the Father’s wisdom in granting the mysteries of salvation to those who are often overlooked and would not be considered worthy of them.  Jesus was overjoyed that the Father finds such pleasure in giving privileges to the underprivileged. There are three more passages in the New Testament that use the particular term “agalliao” for “rejoice.’   To know that this word means jump for joy and skip around with delight adds a lot of personality and delight to these passages:

(1.)  Mother Mary Jumped for Joy.  After her cousin Elizabeth exulted in Mary’s supernatural pregnancy, Mary was overjoyed as she exclaimed, “My soul magnifies and extols the Lord, and my spirit rejoices (apalliao) in God my Savior!” (Luke 1:46-47).

(2.)  Unborn Baby John the Baptist Jumps for Joy in His Mother’s Womb. When the pregnant Elizabeth approaches her pregnant cousin Mary, look at what happens!  “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud cry, and then exclaimed, Blessed above all other women are you, Mary! And favored of God is the Fruit of your womb! And how have I deserved that this honor should be granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me! For listen, the instant the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb jumped for joy (apallaio)!” (Luke 1:42-44).

(3.)  The Healed Man Jumped for Joy in the Temple. In the Temple, no less! “Then Peter took hold of the man’s right hand with a firm grip and raised him up. And at once his feet and ankle bones became strong and steady. And leaping forth he stood and began to walk, and he went into the Temple with Peter and John, walking and leaping and praising God (apallaio)!” (Acts 3:7-8).

The Backstory. Why was Jesus so overjoyed that He was jumping and skipping with gladness? The return of the seventy (72) brought Him much joy, and here’s the backstory to His celebration.

“The Lord now chose seventy (or seventy-two) other disciples and sent them ahead in pairs to all the towns and places He planned to visit… When the seventy disciples returned, they joyfully reported to Him, ‘Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!” (read Luke 10:1-21).

What. Jesus commissioned seventy disciples to go to far-flung towns that are in Jesus’ travel plans. He wants them to prepare these towns for His coming. Jesus is planning on visiting these towns and villages soon, and He wants them prepared for His arrival and His ministry.

When. Roughly midway through the three-year public ministry of Jesus.

Where. Distant and neighboring towns and villages throughout Israel.

Who. Jesus personally selected seventy followers of His who were not a part of His original twelve. These believers have been with Him long enough to be familiar with His teachings, His mission, His ways of doing things. They have heard His parables, witnessed His miracles, and observed Him as He ministered for a year and a half to everyone from the religious elite to the religious outcasts. These seventy were sent in pairs to cities around Judea, no doubt, and they were in many ways like babes in the woods. He even said He was sending them out like lambs in the midst of wolves. These seventy disciples were somewhat prepared, but they were not mature old saints by any means. Evidently, Jesus had confidence in them to be useful to the Kingdom. One doesn’t have to be perfectly wise and experienced to be used by the Lord. Jesus wanted these disciples to learn by experience. All seventy names in the traditional list of names have been declared saints by the Orthodox Church.

Future Saints. There are several interesting names in the traditional list of seventy names. They are all named as early church leaders much later after Pentecost:

• Apollos, “an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures.” (Acts 18:24);
• Aquilla, a tentmaker who “reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks.” (Acts 18:2-4);
• Barnabas, the “son of encouragement” who was a missionary leader in the church (Acts 4:36-37);
• Cleopas, one of the walkers on the road to Emmaus who discussed Scripture with the risen Jesus (Luke 24);
• James, the brother of Jesus, who wrote the book of James in the NT, and was the bishop of the Christian church in Jerusalem;
• Luke, the “beloved physician,” the evangelist who wrote the NT books of Luke and Acts;
• John Mark, the evangelist who traveled on missionary journeys with Paul and Barnabas, and wrote the gospel of Mark;
• Philemon, a Christian leader in Colossae, who became bishop and was later martyred. Paul wrote a letter to Philemon that is included in the NT;
• Stephen, the Archdeacon in Jerusalem who later became the first martyr;
• Timothy, one of the primary coworkers of Paul, who wrote him two letters included in the NT. (Acts 16:1-2);
• Titus, an early church leader who assisted Paul, and was a recipient of Paul’s letter that is included in the NT. He became the bishop of Crete.

Jesus was hugely successful in His early leadership training of these seventy disciples as they all later became Christian leaders throughout the Roman Empire. At the start, though, in the group of seventy missionaries, all of them were in the spirit of Paul’s description in 1 Corinthians 1:26-28: “Remember, dear brothers and sisters, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considered foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. and he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful.” After the return of the seventy, Jesus referred to them as childlike, who didn’t think of themselves as wise and clever (Luke 10:21).

Seventy. Seventy is an important number in the Hebrew Bible. It is the traditional number of Gentile nations in Genesis 10; it is the number of descendants in Jacob’s clan who settled in Egypt (Exodus 1:5); it is the number of Jewish elders in the powerful ruling group the Sanhedrin. Also, according to rabbinic tradition, the coming Messiah was to duplicate some of the works and miracles of Moses. We know about the Lord’s directive to Moses in Numbers 11:16-17: “Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Gather before me seventy men who are recognized as elders and leaders of Israel. Bring them to the Tabernacle to stand there with you. I will come down and talk to you there. I will take some of the Spirit that is upon you, and I will put the Spirit upon them also. They will bear the burden of the people along with you, so you will not have to carry it alone.” Why did Jesus choose seventy for this missionary venture? It could be that Jesus as the Messiah wanted to make a parallel of the seventy elders of Moses with His seventy missionaries.

How. Jesus gave very specific instructions to His seventy missionaries as they traveled from one village to the next. He was very detailed as to how they were to conduct themselves during these visits:

1. Pray for others to join in the work. The harvest is plentiful, and we need more workers. The seventy ambassadors became the answers to their own prayers.
2. Be careful. Be alert. The disciples might be vulnerable to those who reject their presence. They are being sent out like lambs, and there might be the presence of wolves who would antagonize or work against them. Keep your eyes wide open as you experience opposition.
3. Depend on God for the essentials. Don’t bring a purse for traveling money. Don’t bring a knapsack for extra clothing. Don’t even bring an extra pair of sandals.
4. Don’t get distracted from the mission. Don’t loiter, don’t engage in small talk. Don’t worry about the Jewish obligation of long and involved greetings on the road. Keep your eyes on the prize.
5. Be good guests in the homes. Stay in one house instead of hopping from one home to the other, as if you were looking for better accommodations. Accept whatever hospitality is offered. Accept whatever food and drink is offered. Don’t be picky, and be thankful for whatever you are given.
6. Offer a blessing of peace in the homes you enter. The homes will receive that peace if they are open to the Good News and offering you hospitality.
7. Be my working messengers. When a town welcomes you, speak about the Kingdom of God being near, encourage them to repent of their sins, heal the sick and expel the demons. Be my healing presence in the towns that welcome you. Let them know that you represent me. If they accept you, they in fact accept me. If they reject you, they are actually rejecting me. You are my ambassadors.
8. Shake the dust from your sandals if you are not welcomed in a town. This was a standard practice of pious Jews whenever leaving a Gentile town. They are making a statement that they are separating themselves from Gentile practices and influences. Even the very dust of Gentile towns was considered unclean. This was a religious practice intended to keep the Jews pure after interacting with the heathens. The fact that Jesus wanted the disciples to do this act for unwelcome towns implies that those places that reject the Good News are no better than the heathens. If a town rejects you, Jesus is saying, shake the dust, shrug your shoulders, and move on. Leave them to their fate. You are not responsible for them anymore.

Why. It seems that Jesus wanted to build up the faith of these disciples while at the same time spread the Good News of the Kingdom of God. What better way to do that than for Jesus to delegate, to put these younger disciples to work? Jesus exercised good leadership here, as one would expect, by sharing the power and giving responsibilities. Instead of limiting His influence to one particular place, Jesus wanted to multiply His presence and extend His ministry. Jesus knew that if these disciples were going to mature in their gifts, they had to learn by experience. If they were to grow in their abilities and discover their limits, they had to go to work. If they want to have their dignity affirmed, they needed a vote of confidence from Jesus. These disciples would naturally develop a sense of ownership in Jesus’ mission as they took part in it. Jesus wanted them to personally own the mission, to be participants and not mere spectators. Jesus was a master delegator and wise leader. And He still is.

• God seems to do nothing of Himself which He can possibly delegate to His creatures. He commands us to do slowly and blunderingly what He could do perfectly and in the twinkling of an eye. Perhaps we do not fully realize the problem, so to call it, of enabling finite free wills to co-exist with Omnipotence. It seems to involve at every moment almost a sort of divine abdication. We are not mere recipients or spectators. We are either privileged to share in the game or compelled to collaborate in the work. For He allows the muscles, minds, and will of men to cooperate in the execution of His will.” (C. S. Lewis, “The Efficacy of Prayer”).

Success? When the seventy ambassadors returned to Jesus after their prescribed mission, how much success did they experience? What was their report to their boss, the Lord? Luke only records one aspect of the seventy’s report, in Luke 10:17. They rejoiced, they were overjoyed at their success. They exclaimed that even the demons obeyed them when they used the name of Jesus! If they were able to succeed at casting out demons from those who suffered from demonic possession, then certainly they had to have participated in many healings as well. No wonder the seventy were so enthusiastic. They witnessed many spiritual victories operating under the authority of Jesus. No doubt Jesus shared in their joy. But He immediately brought them down to earth. Spiritual accomplishments still are not to be the primary source of joy, Jesus told them. Giftedness and success may lead to pride, so be careful here. After all, Jesus said, pride was the downfall of the extremely gifted angel Satan. I was an eyewitness, I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning! Don’t start getting proud of your spiritual powers. Instead, rejoice first that you are saved, your names are written in heaven. That is the most important miracle of all! Salvation, and your citizenship in heaven, is the most significant factor in your lives. So rejoice first in that!