The Gospels give us multiple glimpses into the prayer life of Jesus. We have His teaching on prayer in Matthew 6 with the Lord’s prayer. We listen in on His prayer for Himself, His disciples and future believers in John 17. We hear His parables teaching about prayer, such as in Luke 18:1-8. And we have the repeated example of His habit of getting away to pray, such as in Mark 1:35.
Hebrews 5:7 gives us a slightly new glimpse into Jesus’ prayer life:
In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety.
Prayers and supplications seem pretty tame for what were intense pleadings in prayer. The word ‘prayer’ is connected with the idea of begging, so it includes an element of desperate need. ‘Supplication’ is not a word I often use, but it also includes an element of urgent requests. A great example of these types of desperate begging and urgent prayer would be Jesus in the garden, hours away from the cross. He pleads with God that there might be another way for Him …
And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and He knelt down and began to pray,
saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”
Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him.
And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground.
Luke 22:41-44
But getting back to Hebrews 5:7, the final part of the verse says that Jesus was heard by God in these prayer requests. Which is interesting, because we know that after these prayers in the Garden, Jesus went on to be crucified to death. So, how can His prayers for deliverance be heard and answered by God the Father?
I don’t think the answer is that God spared Him from the death, because obviously, that didn’t happen. But I do think that God sustained Jesus through the death, and then also brought Him victorious on the other side in the resurrection from the dead. And for us today, it’s important to note that God answering prayer isn’t always about taking away difficulty. Many times, God’s answer to our prayers is seeing us through the difficulty.
So why did God hear and answer Jesus’ prayer? Hebrews 5:7 says it was because of Jesus’ piety. Perhaps a better word here is that of reverence, which is used in English Standard Version, or reverent submission, which is used in the New International Version. Jesus pleaded in prayer before God with tears and cries, but the reason God heard and answered wasn’t the intense emotion, but the reverence, obedience, and submission.
So, let’s bring this to bear on ourselves today. The author of Hebrews writes this so that we would hold fast to Jesus as our great High Priest. We want to have complete confidence that Jesus can stand before God and intercede on our behalf. When we have troubles, when we are in need, we want the help of Jesus, our great High Priest, to receive mercy and grace from God. And we can have such confidence, because in the midst of Jesus’ great troubles and need, God heard and answered Him.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 4:14-16
A second lesson is that of imitating Jesus. Why did God answer Jesus? Because of the urgency of the request? Because of the loud cries and tears? No, because of Jesus’ reverent submission. So, let us come boldly before God with our requests. Let us express ourselves with urgency, emotion, and intensity. But always, always let us have a humble awe before God. More than anything else, we want His will to be done, trusting that His will and His ways are much higher and better than any of our own.