Insightful Musings on theScriptures

by

Raymond P. Sparre
Northwest University class of '67

Hello again, dear ones.

I had earlier planned to do a portable mill job today. But the guy called to say that the weather report was predicting a lot of rain. So far, it hasn’t rained a drop. We’ve rescheduled the job for tomorrow.

I was still in the shower when a dump truck arrived bearing a bunch of logs to drop. I had to scramble. It became a taxing job to get the logs to release from the bed. Among other things, I’ll be crafting a 4’x10’ dining table from the big fir logs.

The composition below turned out to be another long one. And it may be a little more trivial than vital and devotional. I guess you can decide.

Blessings on you and yours.

Love, Dad/Ray.

Let’s consider some facts preceding this setting of Jesus with His disciples on the Mount of Olives on the night of His betrayal and arrest. Jesus had already spoken to them about His suffering and death—so they had to be at least disappointed that things weren’t playing out the way they envisioned a conquering Messiah should be presented. He had already announced Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial. He even talked about their arming themselves with a sword. And when He performed the traditional Passover Feast ceremony, He said stuff that was shocking and disturbing—“This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me” (v. 19)—and, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you” (v. 20). They had to sense that some big bad hard times were in the making. Besides all this, it was now night time after a long busy day. It stands to reason, therefore, that the disciples were just plain tired. I can easily identify with that. Verse 45 adds that they were “exhausted from sorrow.” So why wouldn’t they be falling asleep?!? Why would Jesus reprimand them for yielding to something so natural and understandable? Is falling asleep to be equated with falling into temptation? If so, I’m in trouble.

Twice Jesus delivers a very similar instruction. But the two instances are not exactly the same. I’m reading only from the NIV where Jesus first speaks after they arrive at their special garden spot—“Pray that you will not fall into temptation” (v. 40). Later, when He finds His disciples sleeping, He says, “Why are you sleeping?...Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation” (v. 46). The first instance sounds like they were to pray and request God’s help in order to avoid falling into temptation. The second seems to carry the idea that praying is a required deterrent to falling into temptation. I suppose both are valid.

If we were to address the matter of posture while praying, we could draw from the implication of Jesus’ words that kneeling with head bowed and eyes closed is kind of a dumb way to pray, especially when one is already tired, because it’s so typically automatic to fall asleep in that position. He said, “Get up and pray…” Perhaps a benefit of that is that you’re not likely to fall asleep while you’re standing, and if you do, you’ll probably wake yourself up after the fall and learn not to do it quite that way again. (Smile) All I know is that for me personally, my best and most focused talking with God is while I’m jogging. (Perhaps I’ll attach a little amusing poem on the topic of prayer posturing.)

To be sure, Jesus instructed His disciples to specifically pray that they would not be led into temptation. I often paraphrase that part of the LORD’S PRAYER outline something like this: “Lord, help me to learn the lessons of life you have for me by wisdom and seeking you rather than requiring a lot of unnecessary failure as tools of training.”

Let me end with what I believe is a meaningful quip I heard years ago: “Prayer is not so much something you do as it is something you are.” It’s the outflow of a HEART AFTER GOD.