As Usual

Jesus was in the habit of going to the Mount of Olives to pray. “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him.” Luke 22:39

After a healing of a boy with an evil spirit, the disciples asked Jesus, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?” and he replied, “This kind can come out only with prayer.” Mark 9:29 As we read this account in Mark, we don’t see Jesus kneeling by the boy and praying and begging God to fix the problem. He simply commands the spirit to come out. Surely, Jesus prayed often on the Mount of Olives and in services at the synagogue, but it seems he is referring to something more here.  

As Jesus was entering a town, a funeral procession was coming out. A widow’s only son had died. “His heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’ Then he went up and touched the coffin, and those carrying it stood still. He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, get up!’ The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.’” Luke 7:13-15 Jesus didn’t stop and pray a lengthy prayer imploring God to bring this young man back to life. He simply told him to get up!

When I think of how we pray for healings, begging and imploring God to remove the cancer, bring a rebellious child back to fellowship with his/her family and God, etc., it seems that we try to remove this moment from our daily lives and circumstances and present it to God as something different and/or special. It seems we want a formula… if I do these three things in the right order, the result will be… If I pray enough, if I believe enough… That would give us control over our lives and over the lives of those we love. But Jesus didn’t seem to operate that way. These healings took place most often on the way to somewhere. There was a man who was blind from birth, the lepers who acquired the disease later in life, the paralytic brought by friends, the shriveled arm, the centurion’s sick son, etc. The only thing these situations have in common is unexpected results – miracles. Raising the only son of the widow wasn’t even asked for. Jesus just did it.

Oswald Chambers in his January 6 entry in My Utmost for His Highest, says, “The lasting value of our public service for God is measured by the depth of the intimacy of our private times of fellowship and oneness with Him. Rushing in and out of worship is wrong every time – there is always plenty of time to worship God. Days set apart for quiet can be a trap, detracting from the need to have daily quiet time with God. That is why we must “pitch our tents” where we will always have quiet times with Him, however noisy our times with the world may be. There are not three levels of spiritual life – worship, waiting, and work. Yet some of us seem to jump like spiritual frogs from worship to waiting, and from waiting to work. God’s idea is that the three should go together as one. They were always together in the life of our Lord and in perfect harmony. It is a discipline that must be developed; it will not happen overnight.” (Discovery House Publishers, 1992)

I wonder if Jesus ministry of healing, then, was part of this harmony of worship, waiting and work. While he took time away from the world at the Mount of Olives, he lived in constant worship and relationship with God, his Father. He didn’t separate his relationship with God from his trip to town X. He didn’t quick get in his morning devotions and then take off with an agenda longer than hours in a day. But rather, his worship continued throughout the day in his waiting for God’s timing – the right moment – and in his work – his service to others (healing, restoration, and encouragement). He wants that for us too. “My prayer is not for them [the disciples] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me.” John 17:20-23

This oneness Jesus is referring to doesn’t happen by praying in the morning and running hard all day on my own power. The most stressful times in my life seem to be when I separate worship, waiting, and work. The more intimate I become with God, the more worship becomes a part of my waiting and my work. Work, no matter how difficult, becomes more special and fulfilling when it becomes part of my worship. The ‘quiet time’ exists in my soul all day long no matter the circumstances. This is the peace that Paul speaks of, “The peace of God, that transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:7

My prayer for all who claim to follow Christ is that we continue to move toward that perfect harmony of worship, waiting and work – that while we need a private quiet time with God as we rise in the morning, our quiet time with him in our souls continues throughout the day, confident that he is doing his great work in us and through us no matter what the circumstances are – as usual.