18th Sunday in Ordinary Time
August 2-3, 2008
"Jesus' Prayer"

Over the past few weeks, I have been preaching a lot on our partnership with God through Christ Jesus - on our responsibilities and our opportunities. Today's scripture has me focusing more on the other side of this relationship, this equation - Christ's side of our partnership. After hearing the news that John the Baptist's execution had taken place, Jesus goes off by himself to pray-as was his custom. All week long, I have found myself wondering in my prayer, what was Jesus praying about? We don't know, not for certain anyway. Our speculation really kind of depends on where we find the incarnational balance between Jesus being fully human and fully God at the same time - a balance of understanding that we as a church must continually attend to.

For instance, I believe Jesus understood from the beginning that he had been sent by his heavenly Father to save humankind. An angel announced his birth to his Mom Mary, who then gave birth and remained a virgin. You know he heard about that. Or there's a time when Joseph and Mary thought he was lost and they looked and looked and looked and they couldn't find him and they finally found him in the temple. And there he was, sitting in the midst of all the elders. And when asked about what do you think you're doing, he says, well, I'm here in my Father's house, where else? I think I know Jesus understood from the beginning that he was sent by his heavenly Father.

We know he remains perfectly obedient to his Abba Father's will throughout his life, even though what that will was in each event of his life had to be discerned. He had to pray, as do we. He had to discern and search and find his Abba Father's will. That's why he often went off by himself to pray.

We get a few glimpses of these private prayer times of Jesus. The transfiguration is one of them when Peter, James and John sort of got to tag along on that one. The agony in the garden is another when he went off and cried. At times, Jesus when he was discerning his heavenly Father's will he was actually surprised. Like the time when the woman came to intercede for her sick daughter. Jesus was quite surprised at her response. Even the dogs get to eat what falls off the table. He was amazed by her faith. Or there was the time when the centurion came pleading for his beloved companion. And Jesus was surprised. He had not found this kind of faith at all with his own people yet. And through these discoveries he learned that his Father's will was for his message and his salvation to go to all the world.

We also know that Jesus came to realize with growing awareness that he would have to suffer, die and then rise on the third day for our sake. As he came to this awareness, he would share it with his disciples, who never did quite really believe it until it happened.

You know Jesus grew up hearing about the baby slaughter stories from Bethlehem. How the then King Herod tried to get him then. And we know that when he entered into his public ministry and John the Baptist named him, he named him the Lamb of God. Jesus knew what that meant. The Lambs of God were offered in sacrifice. And now John himself, betrayed by his own people who had so recently adored him, has been executed. No doubt this is on Jesus' mind when he went off by himself in the boat to pray. The sacrifice he was beginning to comprehend, that would be required of him.

But what was Jesus actually praying about that day on the lake? In my imagination, I wonder...was he praying about you, about your pain? The widow who has lost her husband of 53 years. The husband who has lost his wife of 60 years. The teenager caught up in the snare of drugs as he tries to fit into a world that just seems pointless. The soldier coping with the stress of two little time with his family. Was Jesus praying about you? The Mom and Dad grieving the death of their child. The minority despised and feared because his language is different, their skin color, their family values. Was Jesus praying about our pain? The spouse betrayed. A child abused. The elderly discarded like trash. I think Jesus knew our pain. Perhaps not the specifics, but definitely the weight of it. The chains of sin wrapped around us. I think Jesus intuitively knew the depth of our human condition, our suffering, our depravity, our potential. He knew the depth of our condition and loved us.

This is the love of which St. Paul writes today. A compassion that Jesus has for us that cannot be severed, forgotten or decayed. A love that moves Jesus, not to flee or be repulsed by our pain or sin, but rather moves in compassion to feed us. To give the crowd who sought him out a taste of the reign of God he was sent to usher in. The same love we taste today.