DAY 74

UNANSWERED PRAYER

Deuteronomy 25, 26 & 27 and Mark 14:27-53

While he was still speaking, Judas came…and so it begins with betrayal. I wrote about the weight of Gethsemane when we read Matthew’s account of this night. Today I want us to consider our moments…our moments when the prayers we have offered are seemingly unanswered. We all have them. They range from hospital waiting rooms, to school rooms, to the workplace. This night in Gethsemane was such a night.

Have you ever thought about this fact, the fact that God the Father said “no” to God the Son’s request. C.S. Lewis wrote of this situation. He most likely knew it well. His wife died of cancer. I know right now this might be hard for some to read because unanswered prayer is not some theoretical situation we gaze upon. No, unanswered prayer is a reality we all experience in some of the hardest moments of our lives.

“Some things are proven by the unbroken uniformity of our experiences. The law of gravity is one example. Now even if all the things that people prayed for happened, which they do not, this would not prove what Christians mean by the efficacy of prayer. For prayer is a request. The essence of request, as distinct from compulsion, is that it may or may not be granted. And if an infinitely wise Being listens to the request of finite and foolish creatures, or course He will sometimes grant and sometimes refuse them. Invariable “success” would not prove the Christian doctrine at all. It would prove something much more like magic – a power in certain human beings to control, or compel, the course of nature.

There are, no doubt, passages of the New Testament which may seem at first sight to promise invariable granting of our prayers. But that cannot be what they really mean. For in the very heart of the story we meet a glaring instance to the contrary. In Gethsemane the holiest of petitioners prayed three times that a certain cup might pass from Him. It did not. After that the idea that prayer is recommended to us as a sort of infallible gimmick may be dismissed.” (C.S. Lewis The World’s Last Night and Other Essays).

What then of prayer? Lewis has certainly dealt with the situation of “ask and it shall be given you” (cf. Matthew 7:7). Prayer, for me, is more than a request; it is my heart reaching out to God’s – and I believe God’s heart unites with it. Have you ever had a loved one come to you, tell you about a situation, a situation you could not “fix”. I think we all have. Has not your heart broken? If we as “finite and foolish creatures” have our hearts linked to those we love, then how much more will God’s unite with, and feel with, ours? Prayer is union with Him who loves us. This night in Gethsemane I believe the Father was completely there.