A short study on prayer

 

I urge you (parakaleō), believers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join together with me in your prayers (proseuchē) to God in my behalf.  --Romans 15:30 (Amplified Bible)

In Victor Hugo's Les Miserables, protagonist Jean Valjean is paroled from prison with no money, no job, and no hope.  He is welcomed in by the Bishop of Digne, who shows Valjean compassion by giving him a meal and a bed for a night.  Valjean steals the bishop's silverware and silver plates.  When Valjean is confronted by the police and brought back to the rectory, the bishop shows mercy and grace to Valjean, "admonishing" him on having forgotten the silver candlesticks, which were a "gift" along with the tableware.  The bishop reminds Valjean of his "promise" to become a better man.  This act of mercy changes Valjean, who lives out his days in the light of that redemptive act, notwithstanding his having to run from his past.

I love that story.  Every time I see it, it brings tears to my eyes.

I mention this particular scene because it illustrates the two Greek words translated "prayer" in the New Testament.  The bishop is called from his prayers to God (proseuchē) to come alongside Valjean (parakaleō) and to urge him to do the right thing.  I'm sure the bishop entreated the Lord on Valjean's behalf often thereafter, beseeching God to guide the former thief.

The same Greek word for comfort and exhortation, coming alongside one to encourage or strengthen (which, by the way, describes the work of the Holy Spirit) is also used of a type or form of prayer. The word parakaleō not only means come alongside for encouragement and exhortation; it also means to beg, to entreat, to beseech.  Think of it as a different way to approach God.  

We usually think of prayers as acts of worship, praise, adoration.  This is what was meant by Jesus when he gave us the Lord's Prayer as a template or example.  When Jesus said, "Pray this way," He used the Greek word proseuchē.  But when we want to really entreat God, to come alongside Him and intercede for ourselves or others, that would be the Greek word parakaleō.  

This word parakaleō is used nine times in the book of Mark, a book which I have been studying in my daily Bible readings for the last two weeks.  Seven times it was used to describe requests that people made to Jesus during His earthly ministry, and twice it was used by demons speaking to Jesus.  Each time it is translated beg in the ESV (the translation I use for study).

In Mark 1:40 a leper came to Jesus and begged that He make him clean.  In 5:23 a ruler of the synagogue named Jairus begged Jesus to heal his daughter.  In 6:56 the crowds that followed Jesus from town to town begged Him to touch them and heal their diseases.  In 7:32 a deaf man was brought to Him, and He was begged to touch the man so that he could hear.  In 8:32 a blind man was brought to Jesus, and they begged Him to restore sight to the man.  In each of these examples, the entreaties or prayers to Jesus were answered in the affirmative.  

I want to point to the passage that shows the anomolies.  In the fifth chapter of Mark we read about when Jesus healed the man known as the Gerasene Demoniac.  Jesus went by boat to meet this man who lived in a graveyard because he had been possessed by an evil spirit.  The demons had given him superhuman strength, because the people of the area had been unable to restrain the man, even with shackles and chains.  The man was ostracized by the villagers, and spent his time crying out with a loud voice and cutting himself.  He was in bad shape.  This is the only time in Scripture where I can find that Jesus listened to the prayer of a demon.  And it is one of just a few instances of Jesus answering a prayer in the negative.

Jesus' encounter with the demons

When Jesus approached him, the man ran to Jesus and fell down before him.  However, when the man opened his mouth, the demons spoke for him.

And crying out with a loud voice, he said, "What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?  I adjure You by God, do not torment me."  For He was saying to him, "Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!"  And Jesus asked him, "What is your name?"  He replied, "My name is Legion, for we are many."  And he begged Him earnestly not to send him out of the country.  Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged Him, saying, "Send us to the pigs; let us enter them."  So He gave them permission.  And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. (Mark 5:7-13)

Twice the spirits asked Jesus, begged Jesus, not to send them into the abyss, but rather to send them into the herd of swine.  The demons approached Jesus, and engaged Jesus in conversation, and begged not to be destroyed.  Jesus answered their prayers.  He did not destroy them; He allowed them to enter into the pigs, and the pigs were then destroyed, but the spirits were shown to be in subjection to Jesus because they acknowledged Him as Son of the Most High God.  Does that mean they were saved?  No, of course not.  Knowledge alone will not save.  Confession without contrition will not save.  Without repentance, redemption is not possible. 

Jesus' encounter with the townspeople

Next we see a prayer of unrepentant people.

The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country.  And people came to see what it was that had happened.  And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.  And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.  And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. --Mark 5:14-17

These people saw the change in this man whom Jesus had set free.  There was a radical change in him, for he was seated, speaking in normal tones.  He was wearing clothes, in contrast to his usual state of undress.  He appeared to be in control of himself, thinking and speaking clearly.  But instead of praising God for delivering this man from his torment, they were afraid.  Instead of asking Jesus to radically change them, they trembled.  Then somebody noticed the lack of livestock.

"What happened to the pigs?" one might have asked.  The eye-witnesses explained that the pigs had run off a cliff into the sea, and that apparently the legion of demons that had inhabited the man were cast out of the man and into the swine.  The owners of the herd had suffered an economic loss, for sure, but this behavior was not in the pigs' nature.  I am told pigs are fairly intelligent creatures, and prone to self-preservation.  They would not naturally commit mass suicide (sooey-cide?) like this.  (Sorry, could not resist the dad joke there).

As a result the people asked Jesus to leave.  They begged Him to depart, entreating Him to go back the way He came.  Again, Jesus answered their prayers.  

Jesus' encounter with the newly converted disciple

As He was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged Him that he might be with Him.  And He did not permit him but said to him, "Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how He has had mercy on you."  And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.  --Mark 5:18-20

The prayer of the man who had been delivered from evil is an anomaly, because his prayer was not answered in the affirmative like all the others.  Jesus had said yes to the leper, and had healed him.  He said yes to the ruler of the synagogue and raised his daughter from the dead.  He said yes to the crowds who begged him for healing.  He said yes to the deaf man who wanted to hear.  He said yes to the blind person who wanted their sight.

What about this man?  He had been delivered from demons.  He no longer wanted to live among the tombs.  He did not want to spend his time cutting himself and crying out.  What did he want? What was his prayer?  He begged Jesus to be a disciple, a close follower.  He wanted to get on the boat with Jesus and go back with Him to Galilee.  He wanted to sit at Jesus' feet, to hear His words, to learn from Him.

All of these were reasonable requests.  Nevertheless, Jesus said no.  Jesus would not allow the man to get into His boat.  He would not let the man walk beside Him, to be physically present with Him.  Instead, Jesus asked the man to become a missionary for Him to the Decapolis.  He was to spread the Good News of the Gospel of Jesus to his friends and family there where he lived.

Applications

Jesus hears our prayers, and He answers them.  Sometimes, the answer is no, not because He does not hear us, but because He wants us to go a different direction.  In Genesis 18:16-33, Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah, but God destroyed those cities anyway.  Did Abraham stop praying to God when that happened? No, of course not.  We know that God is faithful, even if our prayers are not answered in the way we want them to be. Elizabeth Elliot wrote, "Sometimes we want things we were not meant to have.  Because He loves us, the Father says no.  Faith trusts that no.  Faith is willing not to have what God is not willing to give.  Furthermore, faith does not insist upon an explanation.  It is enough to know His promises to give what is good--He knows so much more about us than we do."

We cannot get discouraged in our prayers.  Sometimes it may seem like everyone else's prayers are answered but not ours.  We see people whom we would think are unspiritual, or whose theology is different, or who seem to have no spirituality at all.  Why are they blessed and not us? Why would it appear that God is answering their prayers but not ours?  We must remember that Jesus gave permission to the demons for their requests to be answered, but that eventually they will be cast into hell (Matthew 25:41).  Not everyone who refers to Jesus as Lord will enter into heaven (Matthew 7:21).  We must remain faithful, and pray that His will be done in all things.

God knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).  When I was having trouble at work last year, I prayed earnestly that I would improve, and that I could continue in my job.  As time went on and it became apparent that my performance was still not meeting expectations, I begged God to let me keep my job.  Unfortunately, I was let go.  Fortunately, by God's grace, I was given a generous severance package.  I urgently prayed that I could find a new job within a few weeks, and that the surplus severance pay could be used to pay down debt or pad my savings.  When I finally was hired, my start date was delayed, and I continued to have to draw money from the severance.  Even though my prayers were not answered in the way that I thought was best, I knew that God was providing for me.  He knows my needs; I only need to trust Him.