(Rough draft)
In September, Jesus and the twelve apostles headed into the hills and set up camp on Mt. Gilboa located on the borders of Samaria and the Decapolis. The Decapolis, by the way, is the name for a league, a semi-political group, of ten ancient Greek cities and the land between Philadelphia to the south, and Damascus to the north. Our crew spent this month alone, and Jesus used the time to teach them more of the finer truths of the kingdom.
Jesus knew that they were all about to enter the final chapter of his life and trials on Earth, and there were several reasons he secluded the crew for a time. First, by this time the Jewish leaders were in an uproar about Jesus and hostile to anything to do with him or the apostles. Second, Herod Antipas still had John locked up in prison. Herod didn’t know what to do about John, whether he should kill him or let him go, and he suspected that John and Jesus were working together in some way. These two reasons made the situation dangerous for Jesus and the twelve to work out in the open. And there was a third reason: the tension between the apostles and John’s disciples had gotten to the breaking point and was being made worse every day as more and more people became involved.
Jesus also didn’t know what was going to happen to John, and he didn’t want his actions to in any way embarrass John or make his life in prison any harder. So, until Herod either made the decision to kill John or to let him go so he could join Jesus in the work, Jesus decided to hang out and prepare the apostles for the trials ahead, and to keep quiet whatever work they did do in the Decapolis cities.
The Gilboa Camp
The twelve apostles were each becoming more devoted to Jesus and more committed to their work with every passing day. But that doesn’t mean they understood his teachings. None of them was really clear on who Jesus was, or why he had come to Earth. Their loyalty, in other words, was personal not intellectual.
Jesus told the apostles that they were keeping to themselves on Mt. Gilboa for three reasons. First, to make sure that they understood his teachings and had faith in the gospel of the kingdom, second, to give the Jewish leaders time to calm down, and third, to wait until Herod made a decision on what to do with John the Baptist.
While they were all hanging out in their camp on Gilboa, Jesus told the apostles a lot about his childhood and what had happened on Mt. Hermon. He also told them a little bit about what happened during his forty days in the hills right after his baptism by John, and he made it a point to tell them not to tell anybody else about that until after he was gone.
The apostles worked hard during September to make sense of everything they’d been taught up to that point. This was a restful time, and they hung out and chatted and recalled a lot of the memories they’ve had with Jesus since being called to service. Somehow, they all sensed that this was going to be their last chance to rest until events played out to the end.
The apostles realized that the next time they went out to preach, that it was going to be their final effort to teach the people about the coming kingdom of God, even though not one of them really knew what that kingdom would be like. John and Andrew thought that the kingdom had already come, while Peter and James were still waiting for it. Nathaniel and Thomas had no problem saying they didn’t know if the kingdom had come or not, the twins didn’t even realize there was a question about it, Judas didn’t say anything, and Matthew, Philip, and Simon kept going back and forth on what they thought.
A lot of times during this month, Jesus would go off by himself to pray and talk to God. Sometimes he took Peter, James, and John along with him. But to be clear, at this point in Jesus’ life – after being baptized by John and spending those forty days in the Perean hills – we really can’t call what Jesus was doing either prayer or worship, but we can say that these were periods of one-on-one contact with God our Father.
The focus of Jesus’ teachings throughout September was prayer and worship. One afternoon three weeks into their stay on Gilboa and after they’d spent several days discussing what it meant to worship God, Thomas jumped in and asked Jesus to teach them how to pray.
John had taught his followers a prayer of salvation, a prayer for them to be saved in the coming kingdom, and although Jesus never told anyone not to use John’s prayer the apostles all knew that Jesus didn’t approve of people repeating the same things over and over without them having any real meaning. But still, the people were always asking them how they should pray, and the twelve wanted to know what they should tell them. It was mostly because of this need to have something to give the people that Jesus eventually agreed to teach them a suggestive form of prayer.
The Talk about Prayer
Jesus began by telling the apostles that John’s simple type of prayer, which was, ‘O Father, cleanse us from sin, show us your glory, reveal your love, and let your spirit sanctify our hearts forevermore, Amen!’, was given to them so they’d have something to give to the masses of people, not so they’d have some formal prayer to express their own souls to God.
Jesus taught them that true prayer is a sincere reaching upward to heaven in a way that leads the person to meaningful worship. Prayer is the direct personal attempt by the soul to talk as a son to his father, and when written under the influence of the spirit it enhances one’s spiritual progress.
Jesus said that, “Prayer is the breath of the soul and should lead you to be persistent in trying to know the Father’s will. If you have a neighbor, and you go to his house at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread because a buddy of mine traveling through town has come to see me, and I don’t have any food to feed him. And if your neighbor tells you it’s late and the kids are in bed and to go away and yet you keep knocking on the door trying to convince him to give you food, he’ll eventually get up and give it to you. Not because he likes you, but because you’re a pest to get you to go away. So, if human persistence can get you what you want from an unfriendly person, imagine what spiritual persistence will get you with a friendly Father in heaven.
Again, I’m telling you, Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For every one who asks, receives; he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, the door of salvation will be opened.
Those of you who are fathers don’t give your kids whatever they ask for; instead, you don’t hesitate to use your wisdom as an adult to give them what they need, rather than what they want. In other words, if you guys are mortal and finite and yet still know how to respond wisely to the childish things your kids ask for and you know the many things to give them instead, imagine how much more our Father will bless you for your spiritual prayers. Men should always pray and not become discouraged.”
Going on, Jesus said, “Let me tell you the story of a certain judge who lived in a wicked city. This judge didn’t fear God and he didn’t have respect for men. Now, there was a needy widow in that city who kept coming to this unfair judge, saying, ‘Protect me from the person hurting me.’ For a long time, he ignored her, but eventually he thought to himself, ‘Even though I don’t fear God or care about men, I’m going to give this woman what she wants before she wears me out with her constant nagging. I keep repeating this idea, Jesus said, to encourage you to keep praying but not to think that your wants, if not in line with God’s will, will change him.
Your persistence in praying isn’t to win favor with God. Its purpose is to bring your attitude in line with God’s will, and to increase your soul’s ability to receive divine impulses. But when most people pray, they exercise little faith. Genuine faith removes mountains of material difficulty that might be in the way of spiritual progress.”
The Believer’s Prayer
But the apostles weren’t satisfied with Jesus’ answer. They wanted an actual prayer that they could teach to the new disciples. After listening to what Jesus had to say about prayer, James Zebedee said, “Very well, Master, but we don’t want a prayer for ourselves but for the newer believers who are always asking us to teach them the right way to pray to the Father in heaven.”
Jesus said, “Okay, if you still want that type of prayer, I’ll give you the one that I taught my brothers and sisters in Nazareth.”
Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come; your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our bread for tomorrow;
Refresh our souls with the water of life.
And forgive us every one our debts
As we also have forgiven our debtors.
Save us in temptation, deliver us from evil,
And increasingly make us perfect like yourself.”
It’s not strange that the apostles wanted Jesus to teach them a model prayer for believers. John the Baptist had taught his followers several prayers and all other great teachers before them had made up prayers for their pupils. The Jews had some twenty-five or thirty set prayers which they recited in the synagogues and even on the street corners. The twelve were all hard pressed to know how to answer the masses when they wanted to be taught how to pray just like John had taught his disciples.
And furthermore, Jesus was really against anyone praying in public. Up to this point the twelve had only actually heard him pray a few times. But they did see him spend entire nights doing something like prayer or worship, and they were really curious to know what he was doing. Jesus taught his apostles to always to pray in secret; to go off by themselves in the quiet of nature or to go in their rooms and shut the doors.
In the years since Jesus time with us, people have modified his family’s prayer. Now, many people finish it with, “in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” And at some point in history two lines were lost in copying, and someone added the following clause, “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forevermore.”
Jesus never taught a formal personal prayer, only group, family, or social prayers. He gave the apostles the prayer in collective form like the family had prayed at home in Nazareth, and he never even volunteered to do that.
Jesus taught his apostles that to be effective prayer must be five things: First, it has to be unselfish; not just for oneself. Second, the person has to believe; the prayer has to come from faith. Third, the person must be sincere; the prayer has to express honesty in one’s heart. Fourth, it has to be intelligent; according to light. And fifth, the person has to trust in and be in submission to the Father’s wisdom.
When Jesus spent whole nights on the mountain praying, it was mostly for his disciples, especially for the twelve apostles. The Master prayed very little for himself, even though he was often in contact with our Father in heaven.
Bob