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2. Fulfilment in Christ transforms prayer
a. Christ comes as Lord to receive prayer
Prayer addresses the personal God, the Lord who reveals himself to his chosen people as the God of hesed, devoting himself to the redemption of his own. Through the history of his dealings with his people, God promised to come to them that they might know him, and that he might be made known to the ends of the earth. The message of the gospel is that the Lord has come (Luke 2:10, 11). That for which the true Israel prayed has come to pass. The Holy One conceived by Mary through the power of the Spirit is the Son of God (Luke 1:35). He is Immanuel, God with us (Mt. 1:23). It is he who shall save his people from their sins (Mt. 1:21). John serves as a herald to prepare the way of the Lord. God promised to come himself, marching through the desert in the final Exodus deliverance of his people (Isa. 40:3). John the Baptist takes up the prophecy of Isaiah and announces the coming of the Lord, the One whose shoelace he is not worthy to tie (Mt. 3:1-3, 11, 12). The angels announce the birth of him who is not simply the Lord's Anointed; he is the anointed Lord (Luke 2:26, 11 ASV mg.). The Gospel of John announces the coming into the world of him who is the Light of the nations. The Word was with God, God's eternal Fellow; the Word was God, God's own Self (John 1:1-4).
It is the glory of the Holy One of God that is revealed in the ministry of Jesus Christ (John 6:69). He comes to reveal by word and deed who he is, and to call sinners to put their trust in him. He hears the petitions of the sick and afflicted, and shows his glory by power that gives sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, strength to the paralysed, life to the dead (Luke 7:22; Isa. 35:4, 5). Yet these miracles are but signs of the deity of the One who has power on earth to forgive sins (Mt. 9:2; Mark 2:5, 10). The sinful woman worships at his feet: she loves much because she has been forgiven much (Luke 7:47-50). The devils know him and fear the judgment that is his to bring (Luke 8:28). He commands the fish of the sea and stills the storm, walking on the waters with the authority of the Creator (Mt. 14:22-33; Ps. 77:16-19; Isa. 43:15f.; Job 9:8; 38:16, 17). Moses and Elijah, the great servants of the Lord of the old covenant cannot compare with him (Luke 9:30, 31). The glory that they experienced in their day on the mount of God's revelation now appears again. They are permitted to stand with Jesus in the Mount of Transfiguration. The cloud again covers the Mount. But the shining of glory began not in the cloud, but in the face of Jesus. He it is who is transfigured to reveal the glory that was his before the foundation of the world (John 17:5).
On the Mount of Transfiguration Moses and Elijah speak with Jesus about his 'exodus' to be accomplished at Jerusalem (Luke 9:31). These two great praying prophets, men who had effectively interceded with God, now speak of the mystery of God's salvation. Jesus came in answer to the prayers they offered long ago. He came to do what they could never do: to accomplish that salvation. He came to manifest the presence of God in human flesh; but had that been his only mission, he would have had to come as Judge. Rather, he came in the inexpressible hesed of God to take the place of sinners on the cross. God was seeking worshippers, and to redeem them he gave his only Son. The 'lifting up' of Jesus on the cross and in his resurrection and ascension completely transformed the meaning and practice of prayer. Prayer was ever a response to the initiative of God's saving grace. But never had the eternal depths of that grace appeared until Christ came and was lifted up on the cross. Prayer had reached out to the personal God; prayer could only claim his promise, his covenant grace. But now God made his covenant anew in the fulfilment of all his promises. What assurance, what boldness, yet what penitent confession must mark the prayer of those who look to the cross of Jesus Christ and to the throne of his exaltation!
b. Christ comes as Servant to offer prayer
Christ is the Lord, at whose feet sinners fall in supplication. Yet he is also the Servant of God. As the incarnate Saviour he fulfils both sides of the covenant. He is the Lord of the covenant and comes to gather and claim his scattered sheep (Mt. 9:36; Luke 12:32; John 10:27-29). But he is also the Servant of the covenant. If the blessings of the covenant of grace are to be ours, they must be given to us by the rightful heir of all the promises of God. Only Jesus Christ is the righteous Servant of the Lord; only he fulfils the calling of the true Israel (Rom. 15:8, 9; Isa. 49:3). On the one hand, his prayer stands in the line marked out in the Old Testament. The pleas of God's righteous servant come from his lips. He not only sings and quotes the Psalms, he fulfils them. On the cross, his cry of dereliction is not merely a citation from Psalm 22, it is the realisation and fulfilment of that prophetic lament. As Moses, the shepherd of Israel, prayed for the flock that he led through the wilderness, so does Jesus, the Good Shepherd pray for the sheep that the Father has given him. But on the other hand, in fulfilling the role of the praying Servant of the Lord, Jesus transforms it. His prayers are unique, for he who is the Son of Mary is also the Son of God. His prayer is to the Father, his Father, whom as the divine Son he alone knows (Mt. 11:27). He who cried out to the Father in the tears and strong crying of his human nature was the unique Son of God. He could pray with the confidence that he was accomplishing his Father's will; he knew that his Father always heard his prayers (John 11:41 ,42). In the mystery of the incarnation the divine Person, the Son of God, cried 'Abba' to the Father in whose bosom he was and continued to be from all eternity (Mark 14:36).
Wonderfully, the human nature of Jesus found full expression in his prayers. At every crisis of his ministry he spent hours in prayer. He prayed as he was baptised (Luke 3:21); he prayed before he chose the twelve disciples to be with him (Luke 6:12). After he fed the five thousand, he sent away his disciples, dismissed the multitudes, and went up into a mountain to pray alone (Mark 6:46; Mt. 14:23). The crowds would have marched him to Jerusalem to crown him as their political Messiah. But he came to do his Father's will: he would go to Jerusalem not to wield the spear and bring the judgment, but to receive the spear thrust and bear the judgment. He knew the crowds would leave him; he was already praying for Peter, that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:32). Before he elicited Peter's confession, Jesus prayed (Luke 9:18); he was in prayer on the mountain when he was transfigured (Luke 9:28). He prayed as he raised Lazarus from the dead (John 11:41, 42). In the garden of Gethsemane he endured an agony of prayer, for there he took the cup of abandonment that he must drink in the place of those who deserved the wrath of God (Isa. 51:17, 22; Mt. 26:36-44; Mark 14:35, 39; Luke 22:41, 45). Before his death he prayed to the Father for those the Father had given him, and for the others who would believe through their word (John 17). On the cross where he cried in forsakenness, he committed his spirit to the Father (Mt. 27:46; Mark 15:34; Luke 23:46).
Jesus was not ashamed to call us brethren; he prayed in the midst of the worshipping congregation on earth, and continues to praise the Father in the festival assembly of heaven (Heb. 2:11, 12; 12:24). It was his custom to attend the services of the synagogue (Luke 4: 16); he may well have observed the customary three hours of prayer; [28] he cleansed the temple as the house of prayer for all nations (Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46). His example in prayer led the disciples to ask, 'Lord, teach us to pray' (Luke 11:1). They did not join him, however, in his lonely vigils in the desert or on the mountains (Mark 1:35; 6:46; Luke 5:16; 6:12; Mt. 14:23). When he asked Peter, James, and John to watch in prayer with him in Gethsemane, they slept in exhaustion. Not until the risen Lord sent his Spirit from heaven did his disciples begin to pray with a fervency modelled on their Master's.
Jesus addresses the Father in familiar forms of prayer. He gives thanks, blesses God, offers petitions, and submits himself to the Father's will. He blesses others in the Father's name. But all these forms of prayer are remarkably altered and deepened on the lips of Jesus. His thanksgiving praises the Father for the wonder of his electing love: that he has hidden these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them to babes (Mt. 11:25; Luke 10:21). Jesus rejoices in the sovereign mercy of the Father's will. His petitions are to the same end. As the hour of the crucifixion draws near, he will not pray the great Old Testament prayer for deliverance: 'Father, save me from this hour!' Rather, he prays, 'Father, glorify thy name!' The coming hour brings the purpose for which he has come into the world. He shrinks back in horror from what that means: separation from his Father. In Gethsemane he asks that, if it be possible, the cup be taken away. But he will not ask for twelve legions of angels to deliver him in flaming judgment (Mt. 26:53). His prayer remains, 'Yet not my will, but yours be done' (Luke 22:42).
Submission to the Father's will, joy in the Father's plan, zeal for the Father's glory: the prayers of Jesus are the prayers of the Son who lifts up the name of his Father and accomplishes on earth the work the Father has given him. Along with his devotion to the Father runs the depth of his intimacy with the Father. The name 'Abba' used by Jesus was colloquial Aramaic; it was familiar, the language of both immature and mature children. [29] Jesus addresses the living God with the intimacy of a little child speaking to his father. The Son knows God as Father, and as Father he reveals him to his disciples. The holy name of God in the new covenant is 'Father', for Jesus opens the relationship that puts that name on our lips.
3. Christ's teaching renews prayer
a. Prayer to the Father
Jesus taught his disciples to pray, 'Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name'. What immense brevity! Jesus had rebuked the lengthy eloquence of the Pharisees and the endless chanting of the heathen. Repeating 'OM' a thousand times may induce a change of consciousness, but it does not address the God of heaven. Neither may we convert the prayer Jesus taught into a mantra and mumble a hundred 'paternosters' as steps on a ladder to heaven. It is enough to pray as Jesus taught us.
Dare we pray such a prayer? May we address with such simple boldness 'the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords . . .' (1 Tim. 6:15, 16)? What effrontery is it to call upon the Lord whose holiness so threatens us, and to ask - of all things - that he hallow his own name? But Jesus teaches us to pray, 'Our Father'. The God of heaven, whose name is infinitely holy, is Abba, Father. Those two syllables on the lips of Jesus arch over the history of redemption. The God of heaven is a God of mercy; he has taken the initiative to save his people. The Father demanded of Pharaoh that he let his son go (Exod. 4:23). He led Israel his child through the wilderness (Deut. 32:6; Hos. 11:1, 3). Like a father he grieved over his rebellious son, 'How can I give you up, Ephraim?' (Hos. 11 :8). At the last, he did what his love had purposed from the first. He gave his own beloved Son (Rom. 8:32). The Father's Isaac, his passover Lamb, was offered up in the place of sinners (John 1:29; 1 Pet. 1:17-20; Gen. 22:13, 14). Jesus, the only Son of the Father, is the substitute who died to pay the price of sin and to bring many sons to glory (Heb. 2:10; 1 Pet. 2:24). Jesus puts 'Abba' on the lips of those who trust in him, for he bought their birth-right with his blood.
Jesus, therefore, does not simply offer to us the example of sonship in prayer. He does far more than model loving and intimate trust in the heavenly Father. Rather, he does what only he could do in the perfection of his divine and human sonship. He saves sinners, brings them to the Father, and gives them a new relation that far exceeds the relation in which Adam and Eve were created. Redeemed sinners can come to the Father only in and through his work, but coming in him, they may address the Father by the very name he uses.
Prayer to the Father is prayer in dependence. The father is the progenitor, from whom the life of the child is derived. As we have seen, the Old Testament passages that speak of God as Father emphasise this (Deut. 32:6; Isa. 64:8). Peter blesses 'the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy begat us again into a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ' (1 Pet. 1:3 ASV). Those who pray 'Our Father' are those who have received new life from above. Their Father has created them and given them new life in Christ.
The Father who gave life also sustains it. We pray to him for our daily bread. As Israel was fed with manna in the wilderness, so God meets our needs day by day. Faith confesses that complete dependence on him for physical and spiritual life. Childlike trust lies at the heart of Jesus' teaching about prayer. Our heavenly Father knows our needs; we may trust him. We may come to him with importunity in our most urgent needs, never forgetting; that he cares. Jesus urges persistence in prayer by comparing the holy heavenly Father to an unjust judge, and drawing the powerful a fortiori argument. If even sinners give good gifts to their children, and unjust judges will dispense justice to spare themselves annoyance, how much more, how infinitely much more, may the heavenly Father (who has given us all things) be trusted to hear our prayers and to provide good gifts for those who ask him?
There is adoration in the name 'Father'. The caricature of the father in television comedies ill prepares our culture to understand the term as Jesus uses it. The father was the lord of the patriarchal family, and when God is called 'Father' in the Bible, his Lordship is always in view. Jesus prayed, 'I thank thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth . . .'. It was natural for Jesus, to add the words, 'Thy kingdom come' to the address, 'Our Father'. In the' teaching of Jesus about the kingdom he speaks of God not as King, but as Father. He promised his disciples that he would eat and drink with them in the Father's kingdom (Mt. 26:29). When Jesus comes again in the power of the kingdom, it will be in the glory of the Father (Luke 9:26).
Real prayer can be destroyed by sentimentality. We dare not say, 'Abba, Father' without recognising that the Father is Lord of heaven and earth. Indeed, precisely because he is Lord, he can provide for us. Jesus said of the birds, 'Your heavenly Father feeds them' (Mt. 6:26). The Psalmist is to call to God: 'You are my Father, my God, the Rock my Saviour' (Ps. 89:26). We pray that the name of God as Father be hallowed. This is not a contradiction, or an inappropriate connection. The Father is the holy God, to be approached with awe.
At the same time, there remains the marvellous intimacy of this prayer. 'As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him' (Ps. 103:13). Jesus, who knows the Father, and can reveal him, tells us the story of the father's welcome for the prodigal (Luke 15). He presents the joy of the father in the son who was lost and is found, was dead and is alive. To tell the story, Jesus puts a self-righteous Pharisee in the role of the elder brother: one who does not understand his father's heart of love, and is scandalised by the feast of celebration. The parable points to the contrast with Jesus himself. Jesus told the story to defend his own actions in eating with publicans and sinners. The elder brother would refuse to do that, even in his father's house. But Jesus does it, and goes to the far country, even to the pig-sty to do it. He is the seeking Shepherd of the first parable in the chapter; he is the true elder brother in contrast to the Pharisaical elder brother of the last. All that the Father has is his, and he gives to us the blessings of the Father's feast of welcome. When Jesus teaches us to pray, 'Our Father', he brings us home to heaven's joy.
The bond of God's covenant is deepened in the new covenant. It goes beyond the model of the treaty a sovereign would make with a vassal. The Sovereign, the Lord, is our Father, and his kingdom is a 'fatherdom' (Eph. 3:14,15). The image of kingdom remains, but it is enriched by the image of the family of God.
'Our Father' is therefore also a prayer of assurance, a prayer that pleads the new covenant faithfulness of the Father who gave his only begotten Son. As Paul points out, it is the Spirit of Christ in our hearts who enables us to pray, 'Abba, Father' (Rom. 8:15-17). Christ's Spirit is the Spirit of sonship: first of his, then of ours.
b. The prayer of trust
The prayer addressed to the Father seeks the glory of his name. That petition asks not simply that we may glorify the name of God, but that he may do so. At the last, it is the secret of all prayer. It is the petition that God be God; that the glory of his own Being remain and be continuously intensified. All praise prays exactly this.
But the prayer goes on to ask that God's will be done. His name is to be glorified by the full accomplishment of his own plan for salvation. This was the purpose of the mission of the Son. Jesus came proclaiming the message that John had also brought: the kingdom of God was at hand. God's kingdom does not describe a realm so much as a rule. The kingdom of God shows the power and glory of God. God promised to come and to rule. Those who proclaim the good news cry, 'Your God reigns!' (Isa. 52:7). Jesus came as Lord, and in his coming, the kingdom was already present. His miracles were signs of the power of the kingdom. The devils trembled at the presence of the King of glory. Jesus said, 'But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you' (Mt. 12:28). In his ministry, Jesus brought the power of the kingdom as he accomplished the will of his Father. God's kingdom came with the triumph of Christ over Satan at the cross, with the resurrection victory that carried him to the throne of glory, with the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the church. The kingdom that has come continues to come as the Spirit works with power in the world and as Jesus rules at the Father's right hand. Yet the kingdom is also future. Jesus came once, but he is coming again. The kingdom will come when he comes; this is the great hope of the Christian church. [30] The prayer 'Thy kingdom come' seeks both the advancement of God's kingdom of grace and the coming of his kingdom of glory.
The announcement of the kingdom by John and by Jesus was linked with the preaching of repentance. The Lord himself had come; men and women must prepare to meet God. 'Who can stand when he appears?' (Mal. 3:2). He is the Judge of all the earth. In the coming of Christ, all the nations are called to accountability before God. When Paul preached the gospel at Athens, he spoke of the ignorance of God among the Gentiles and concluded: 'In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead' (Acts 17:30, 31).
The Christ who taught his disciples to pray for forgiveness is the Lord who will judge men in the last day. He did not come to judge men's sins, but to call sinners to repentance. The problem of sin is not simply the guilt we feel, it is the doom we deserve. The Bible condemns every effort to hide sin. When a man tries to live with his guilt, it becomes rottenness in his bones. He must come to the place where he cries out to God, 'Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight' (Ps. 51:4). True religion before God is always the religion of the broken heart. God dwells not only in the high and holy place, but also with the one who has a humble and contrite spirit (Isa. 57:15). God does not hear the prayer of the proud Pharisee thanking God that he is so good, but rather the cry of the wicked tax-collector, beating his breast because he is so bad: 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner' (Luke 18:13).
The glory of the gospel is that forgiveness is to be found with God, forgiveness for sin as a debt. Because God is personal, sin against God is a personal affront; because God is just, sin incurs the penalty of his judgment. God can deal with that sin in both justice and grace. Just as a debt can be cancelled, sin can be forgiven. Jesus not only freed men from the grip of disease and death, he freed them also from the debt of sin: he had the authority to say, 'Your sins are forgiven' (Mt. 9:2, 6). Jesus could forgive sin because he came to bear the penalty of sin. In the person of his Son, the holy God himself paid the price of forgiveness. The Judge bore the judgment. Paul can quote with joy from the Psalmist: 'Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered' (Rom. 4:7, 8; Ps. 32:1, 2).
In Christ, God's beloved Son, 'we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace . . .' (Eph. 1:7). In praying the Lord's Prayer, we must remember who gave us these words!'
'Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.' Forgiveness must issue in forgivingness. The one who knows the reality of God's forgiveness will be ready to forgive others. The comment of Jesus drives this point home: if we do not forgive others, we will not be forgiven (Mt. 6:14, 15). The parable of the unforgiving debtor (Mt. 18:23-35) shows that our forgiving does not merit our being forgiven. Rather, we have been forgiven an enormous debt, one that goes beyond all reckoning, Compared to the debt that God has forgiven us, the debts that we forgive others are like pocket-money. If we refuse to forgive, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times, we show that we cannot claim the forgiveness of God.
The beautiful simplicity and the breath-taking sweep of the Lord's Prayer set it apart. It is distinctive, above all, in its focus on the Father. We first pray that his name be hallowed, his kingdom come, his will be done. Even when the prayer turns to our own needs, it is through and through prayer before the Father in heaven. The bread that we pray for every day is not ours to command or to control. It is God's gift. Indeed, every meal given from the Father's hand is a foretaste of his final provision in the great feast of his kingdom, when his will is done on earth as in heaven. [31] Our cry for forgiveness recognises not only the presence of the Lord, and therefore our sin, but the presence of our Saviour and the remission of sins.
When Christ's disciples pray, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil' we hear yet another petition forged in the presence of the Father. Without the awareness of standing before God, an apostate culture does not seek to escape from temptation. Rather, it builds a society designed to make temptation an everyday convenience, Enticement to sexual sin becomes the standard of advertising, and other lusts for power and pride are equally well provided for. But one who knows the meaning of forgiveness will be aware of the threat of temptation. Only God's mercy can preserve us in the present and deliver us in the future,
There are two great assumptions in this petition: our trust in God and our distrust of ourselves. We pray it because we know that God can control temptation and that God's power directs our lives. The book of Job describes the shield that God puts about his own. Satan can assault Job only as God permits him. At the last, Job is in God's hands, not Satan's. Further, this petition assumes that God can lead us where temptation is. God, of course, cannot be tempted with evil, neither does he tempt anyone in the sense of enticing him into sin (Jas. 1:13, 14). God is not the tempter. Yet God does prove his people. He led Israel in the wilderness with the express purpose of proving them and searching their hearts (Deut. 8:2). They needed to learn that they lived, not by bread alone, but by every word that came from the mouth of the Lord. They lived not only by the word spoken from Sinai, but by the word that directed their march. Day by day they were called to walk in the path God ordered for their lives. When Jesus was led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil, he refused to turn the stones into bread at Satan's suggestion. He quoted the passage from Deuteronomy. In the wilderness where his Father had brought him, Jesus would trust. He lived by the word that directed his life; his Father who gave the manna would provide bread in season. Where Israel rebelled, Jesus obeyed.
Jesus would have his disciples ask the Father so to guide their lives as to shield them from temptation. Included in our petition there is profound self-distrust. No Christian is so strong that he can seek out occasions of temptation. He knows the power of evil, knows that the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking his prey (1 Pet. 5:8). The Christian knows, too, the weakness of his own sinful nature (Gal. 5: 17). When Simon Peter boasted that he would never deny Christ, his pride contained the seed of his denial. But what of God's use of trials to prove us? Is there not trial that purifies us like the fire of a furnace (1 Pet. 1:7)? Surely the Christian must not seek temptation, but can he pray not to be led into it?
It may help us to remember that Jesus, in Gethsemane, prayed that the cup of suffering might pass from him. He commanded his sleeping disciples to 'watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation' (Mt. 26:41). In the Lord's Prayer as in this charge, Jesus may be teaching us to pray for deliverance from temptation as a threat to our life of obedience. This prayer would then claim God's promise that he will not permit us to be tempted beyond our ability to handle it, but will provide a way of escape (1 Cor. 10:13).
It may be, however, that the Lord's Prayer presents us with an even more vivid situation. The petition 'Lead us not into temptation' is paralleled by another: 'Deliver us from evil' (or 'the evil one'). It may be that this last petition of the Lord's Prayer is looking forward to the final onslaught of Satan before Christ comes again. Jesus spoke of tribulation so severe that God must; shorten it if even the elect were to be saved (Mt. 24:21, 22). In any case, deliverance from the power of Satan is part of the burden of this prayer. Through Christ's victory that deliverance is ours. Paul praises God who has delivered us from the power of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son of his love (Col. 1:13). Satan desired to sift Peter as wheat, but Jesus prayed for him that his faith would not fail (Luke 22:31). The Lord is faithful, who guards us from the evil one (2 Thess. 3:3).
c. Prayer in the name of Jesus
As we have seen, the Lord's Prayer is his not only in the sense that he taught it, but also in the sense that he is revealed in it. The Father is his Father; he it is who hallows the Father's name on the cross; the kingdom has come with his coming, and will come with his return; he does the Father's will on earth; he is the bread of heaven; he forgives sins with the authority of the Father; he has endured temptation in our place and keeps us in the hour of trial by his intercession.
Although the Lord's Prayer does not mention the name of Jesus, it is a prayer that reveals the Son as well as the Father. Jesus taught the disciples I that they should ask of the Father in his name (John 14:13, 14; 15:16; 16:23, 24). Prayer among God's people claimed his covenant name. He is the 'I Am' God; his name reveals his presence. In Jesus the Son, God is present; the covenant promise is fulfilled. [32] God's name is revealed as Father, but that name has meaning through the divine Son who alone can reveal the Father.
Jesus reveals the Father, making his name known, but the Father also reveals the Son, giving him a name that is exalted above every name (Phil. 2:9-11). Forever at the right hand of God Jesus sits as the God-man. From that throne he sent the Spirit of his glory. Jesus told the disciples that they had f not asked in his name, but that 'in that day' they were to use his name in their petitions (John 16:26). The use of his name awaited the sealing of his triumph with the sending of the Spirit. To pray in his name does not mean simply to append his name to our prayers as a formula, but to confess his name, to acknowledge him as God the Son, the only Way to the Father. It has been well said that prayer in the name of Jesus is prayer through which the self-revelation of Jesus shines. [33] The Father hears us not only because we use the name of his beloved Son, but because we pray in the Spirit of the Son. Through our prayers there echoes the voice and will of Jesus.
4. Christ the Mediator of Prayer
a. The Mediator foreshadowed
Moses stands as the great mediator of the old covenant. He was chosen and commissioned by the Lord to be his spokesman to Israel and to Pharaoh (Exod. 4:12-16; 7:1). Because the people could not bear to hear the voice of God speaking from Sinai, Moses received from the Lord the words of the covenant to give to Israel (Exod. 19:9; 20:19). God spoke to Moses as a man speaks to another (Exod. 19:11). The unique relation that Moses held as God's servant became the basis of his intercession for Israel. God knew Moses by name, and Moses claimed God's name of mercy for Israel (Exod. 33:12, 13; Deut.9:25, 26; cf. 9:9). He even prayed to be made their sin-bearer: to be blotted out of God's book in the place of sinful Israel (Exod. 32:31, 32).
Like Moses, later prophets served as mediators, bringing God's word to his people and pleading to God for them. The false prophets are condemned because they did not 'stand in the breach' as mediators (Ezek. 13:5; 22:30). The priests also mediated between God and men. On the day of atonement the high priest went into the most holy place to appear before God for the people (Lev. 16). When he came out again, two priests blew on silver trumpets to announce the blessing of God on the accepted sacrifice (Num. 10:10). The priestly blessing put the name of God upon his people (Num. 6:22-27).
Yet these mediators could not accomplish God's promised redemption. Job cries out for a mediator to plead his case with God (Job 9:33; 13:3; 16:18; 19:25). Moses sees the generation for whom he prayed die in the wilderness, under God's judgment. A greater Servant of the Lord must be raised up to mediate God's salvation. He will come as a royal Servant; he will receive the blessings of God, deliver the people, and establish God's peace and justice (Ps. 2:7; cf. 2 Sam. 7:14). The Psalms describe the sufferings, victory, and glory of the ideal King, the Lord's Anointed (e.g. Pss. 22; 72).
In the prophecy of Isaiah the mediatorial role of the Lord's Servant is clearly presented. The Servant is identified with Israel (Isa. 49:3), but he is also the Saviour of Israel, and a light to the Gentiles (Isa. 49:6, 7). In his suffering he will do what Moses could not do: he will bear the sin of his people. As the chosen Servant of the Lord, he will make intercession for the transgressors, pleading his own sacrifice for them (Isa. 53).
It is this mediatorial work that Jesus Christ fulfils. He speaks the words given to him by the Father as the final Prophet (John 15:15; 17:8; Heb. 1:1, 2; 2:3). He comes to give his life a ransom for many (Mt. 20:28). In his ministry of healing he is revealed as the suffering Servant, who himself bears our diseases, paying the price of sin even as he delivers from the curse (Mt. 8:16, 17; Isa. 53:4). He prays for those the Father has given him, even as he prepares to give his life for them (John 17:9). He raises his hands in the blessing of the true Priest as he ascends to heaven (Luke 24:50, 51).
b. His mediatorial office
The epistle to the Hebrews focuses on the unique and final position and work of Christ as the Mediator. Turning to the prophecy of Psalm 110, the author affirms that Christ holds the priestly office by divine appointment, an appointment sealed with God's oath: 'The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: "You are a priest forever"’ (Heb. 7:21).
Christ is priest, not by genealogical descent from Aaron, but by divine oath, appointing him to a royal priesthood, like that of Me1chizedek. The oath appointing Christ fulfils God's oath to Abraham (Heb. 6:17, 18). Christ is made both the guarantee and the Guarantor of the new covenant (Heb. 7:22). We have, therefore, the strongest encouragement for prayer. Christ's appointment to heavenly status as an eternal priest provides for us an anchor in the sanctuary of heaven itself (Heb. 6:18-20). Indeed, heaven becomes our 'sanctuary' as we flee for refuge to Christ (6:18).
Christ is appointed to a final and eternal priesthood. The author of Hebrews contrasts Me1chizedek with the priests descended from Aaron: they claim their office by their lineage and pass it on to their successors, but Me1chizedek is presented in Genesis (the 'book of generations') as without genealogy or descent. No beginning or end is assigned to the priesthood of Me1chizedek. [34] This circumstance provides a fitting symbol of the abiding priesthood of Christ (Heb. 7:3). Christ is unchanging; he lives forever to be the mediator of those who come to God through him (Heb. 7:25).
Underlying the unique appointment of Christ are unique qualifications. What was a symbol in the narrative about Me1chizedek is reality in the case of Jesus Christ. He has neither beginning of days nor end of life because he is the Son of God (Heb. 7:3). Nothing short of full deity must be attributed to the: One who has become our Mediator (Heb. 1:3-6). [35]
The other side of his qualification is the true humanity of Jesus Christ. The Mediator is identified with God; he is also identified with us. He is Jesus the Son of God (Heb. 4:14). He shares our nature, knows our weakness (2:14-17). Jesus has been tempted and tested in every way, just as we are, yet he was without sin (4:15). Although he is God's Son, he learned obedience through the things that he suffered (5:8). A priest must show sympathetic gentleness (5:2): that compassionate understanding is perfectly expressed in Jesus Christ. He knows our situation totally, not simply by virtue of divine I omniscience, but by his incarnate hunger, thirst, and weariness; by the fierce I assaults of the devil; above all, by bearing the burden of our sins in the abandonment of his crucifixion. Our High Priest not only prays for us; he feels for us. More than a father pities his children, or a mother her infant, Christ cares and carries our burdens. He understands our needs, hears our prayers, and grants his grace at the right moment (4:16).
Israel, thirsting in the wilderness, accused God of unfaithfulness. 'Is the LORD among us or not?' they cried (Exod. 17:7). The cry of rebellion at Meribah has been forever answered in Christ. The Lord is indeed among us; he is one with us. The wonder of the high priestly ministry of Christ lies not just in where he is, but in who he is. Where he is we may boldly go; he has opened the way to the sanctuary of heaven and the throne of grace. Prayer enters where God dwells. But the boldness of our approach rests on who he is. We know him because he has first known us, and knows us still in all our helplessness and need.
This essay first appeared in Teach us to Pray: Prayer in the Bible and the World, D. A. Carson (ed.), (Baker/Paternoster, 1990), 136-76, 336-38 and is used here with permission. No part of this essay may be copied or transmitted in any form without the permission of the publishers.