Yose ben Yoezer, a rabbi of the early Maccabean period of Jewish history, stated, “Let your house be a meeting place for the rabbis, and cover yourself in the dust of their feet, and drink in their words thirstily.” As we follow our Jesus, the Rabbi and our Master, we will discover that He prayed with intensity and intimacy. What follows are the prayers of Jesus. We will explore them in the next few posts, unless, of course, you want to run ahead and pursue Him on your own.
Without knowing the actual content, we know that Jesus prayed alone. He prayed early in the morning, deep into the night, in preparation for crucial events, and after significant events.
- Jesus prayed the Shema every morning and evening. You will find this prayer in Deuteronomy 6:4-9; 11:13-21; Numbers 15:37-41.
- He teaches us to pray and prays with us in what we know as the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew chapter six, at the heart of the Sermon on the Mount.
- In His prayer for unity in the seventeenth chapter of John, Jesus intercedes for Himself, His disciples and for believers to come.
- In Gethsemane, He prays in anticipation of the crucifixion.
- His seven last statements from the cross at Calvary are prayers of eternal impact.
We shall proceed: covered in His dust, thirsty for His words!