The Sublime Wilderness
It happened that while Jesus was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NASB
Teach us to pray – Why would the disciples ask such a foolish question? Are we to assume that they didn’t know how to pray? But of course, they did. Prayer was a daily practice among orthodox (and even non-orthodox) Jews in the first century. Prayer was a living part of their cultural memory. Prayer was vital for survival in an occupied world. Then why would they ask? Perhaps the answer is captured by Abraham Heschel.
“The trouble with the prayer book is: it is too great for us, it is too lofty. Since we have failed to introduce our minds to its greatness, our souls are often lost in its sublime wilderness.”[1]
When Yeshua prayed, he engaged the sublime wilderness. We usually don’t. When we observe someone in the sublime wilderness, we know that our prayers are tiny ripples on a deep ocean. We realize our words and feelings barely penetrate the waters. And we want more. The disciples knew how to pray. They just didn’t know how to pray fully. They knew that their attempts to be acknowledged by God were in line with tradition and training. They were familiar with the words. But they floated on the surface of the divine-human encounter. The prophets exhorted them to dive to the depths, but in those deep waters, most men suffocate. Now they were in the presence of a man who could breathe underwater. And they wanted to know how to do that.
How does one deliberately encounter the awe of God and survive? How can we sink into the depths of His compassion, His holiness, His sovereignty and return to the surface? How can we ask—fearfully ask—to brush up against the divine and still live? They observed Yeshua’s engagement with the Father. They felt the power of that encounter. It beckoned them.
Two implications need to be elucidated. The first is about fear. Perhaps our fear prevents us from submerging. We know our unworthiness. We know His holiness. Perhaps we are afraid that we really don’t belong in this realm. And because we fear that we will not survive, we hesitate to embrace the depths. We breathe familiar air and hope that somehow God will understand. He calls, but we won’t answer. The engagement is too overwhelming.
The second implication is not so obvious. It is this: If the disciples considered Yeshua to be YHVH in the flesh, they would never have made this request. If Yeshua is God, then his capacity for prayer is truly beyond all human ability. There is no point in asking for instruction. But the disciples do ask, and the reason they ask is because they see another man, just like them, capable of surviving the depths of encounter. What one man can do, another man can do. So they ask a perfectly understandable human question. It is the same request we can make. “Lord, teach us to pray.”
That means the only thing standing between you and the depths is your fear. What one man can do, another man can do. If you are willing, Yeshua demonstrates that you will survive.
Topical Index: Luke 11:1, prayer, teach
[1] Abraham Heschel, Moral Grandeur and Spiritual Audacity, p. 119.
I think his disciple’s new about deep prayer and crying out. They had David’s psalms( a man after God’s own heart) and the prophets to know prayer was much more than reciting some mantra. In John 21:25 It’s obvious the enormity of what Yeshua did was seen by them ,that we the reader do not see ,but YHWH gave us what we need. Previous and preceding verses give more understanding ,faith an persistence is needed. Now there were miracles and plenty of examples in OT but nothing like this . I guess we should ask the same today , maybe we aren’t getting it either.It seems faith and persistence is needed this is where we lack.
Sorry bad English should be verses that proceed after .Previous and precede same thing oops.
“How does one deliberately encounter the awe of God and survive? How can we sink into the depths of His compassion, His holiness, His sovereignty and return to the surface?”
David gives us the golden standard of a human being: flawed, needy, heart blown apart, and delirious in the mercy and grace of God; persistent to the end in his answer to the pursuit of the Hound of heaven. David resonates on every level. BUT, David does not include US; his is a solitary pursuit. Even when he remembers Israel – his kingdom, no less! – it seems to be an afterthought, perfunctorily added at the end of both his paeans and his praise. David is personable, but remains personal. You might could say his salvation is not inclusive, even if it is exemplary.
Yeshua, however, DOES remember His kingdom in the heart of His prayer. The salvation He models is inclusive; it not only engages all of earth, but all of heaven as well. That short model prayer He offers is a sample of divine weaving; it shows us how love thinks and operates. It is a prayer that can be prayed from the depths of depravity, but is also a prayer that was prayed by the majesty of heaven in full sincerity. It is a prayer that weaves sinful earth and holy heaven back into a seamless web again.
We are to pray OUR Father, not just His: we are not just to acknowledge the holiness of the Name; He demonstrated to us that we are to actively participate in hallowing it. As our Big Brother, He seats us on the throne with Him. This is true two way communication with heaven!
We are not to just passively wait for all we need, as does the rest of creation, but actively, aggressively pursue it, for that positive persistence opens the hand wide enough to receive the fullness heaven stands ready to deliver. “We have not because we ask not.”
This prayer has taught me that we are to act like God, and forgive, too. We are called to demonstrate the highest action love has to offer a broken planet; to participate in disseminating all the power forgiveness unleashes back into the world. Astounding!
The end of the prayer is such an enigma (at least to this Greek-trained mind), for it seems to imply that at least part of the “temptation” and “evil” we experience so passively could have been averted if we had participated UP FRONT in seeking to avert it! We don’t have to just be sitting ducks on the river of time; we are shown that we are expected to take an active hand in how reality comes at us.
Most of all, the inclusivity of that prayer actively engages me in the world around me. As Yeshua included me with His “our”, so I include all else with the same. Prayer is no longer primarily personal: prayer enlists us as active agents, as Yeshua was, of both earth and heaven. “Our” prayer reweaves both back together again. This prayer teaches me that is never ‘just about me’. Halleluah!
True, man knew how to pray.
But no man prayed like this!
It’s God’s insight direct to man. From the Son of God
to the Father and back to us. Yeshua opens us up to the possible.
He unites us all in the willful process of repenting, loving and forgiving.
It’s how the kingdom comes to earth and how His will is done through us.
We’re all in it together, persistently together. The more we press, the closer
we get.
The door is just before us. Knock, and it will be opened.
And having broken free from the chains of Christianity and all of its theology, indoctrination, expectations……it is time to turn and face the Son full in the face and learn from him. It is time to step off the well worn path of Rome.