Denied Prayers and the Crucifixion

Here are some great thoughts from February 21st’s Sunday School lesson on Mark 14. I encourage everyone to add their own by clicking “Leave a Comment” above.

Perry

Hi Perry,

I don’t have the email address for Daniel [Burbank] or I would have emailed him with this.    Sometimes the ‘teacher’ in me just refuses to be silent.   There was a point that I wanted to make last Sunday during class but we just ran out of time and Daniel was busy after class.   But I was still hoping to make the point.

When you listen to prayers and praises over a period of time, you see a pattern that is very common among us.   We pray for many things, for healing, for events to unfold as we’d like, for situations to be untangled, for growth, for deeper faith, etc.    But what about the praises?    Typically, we offer our praises when our prayers have been answered the way we wanted them to be answered.   It is rare that we offer praises for prayers that appear to be unanswered or answered with a ‘no’.

So hold that thought for a second.

We say again and again that Jesus already went through anything and everything that we have to go through so He knows what it’s like.   The one aspect of that which I almost never hear mentioned is that Jesus also endured prayer that appeared to be unanswered or answered with a ‘no’.   When He was in the garden before His capture, He prayed that if possible the cup might be taken from Him.    Yes, He continued on with the ‘Thy will not My will’ part which is certainly paramount in importance.   But I think we too often lose sight of the fact that Jesus asked for the cup to be lifted from Him and the Father’s answer was ‘no’ … and we have offered praises to the Father for centuries now because His answer was ‘no’ (since He knew His plan was necessary and better).

So the bottom line is that right here is our shining example that even when our prayers appear to be unanswered or not answered the way we want them to be, we need to offer praises to God for everything.  

The 21 year old son of my a friend of mine just died of brain cancer a few weeks ago.   Joe [name changed] was a Godly young man … he loved the Lord and he was involved in a number of kinds of service to the Lord … real service.   But he got a tumor a few years ago and battled and suffered for about 3 years, before losing the battle.   I and many, many others prayed for Him so many times; we prayed for healing, but it just didn’t happen.   It’s so hard for us to fathom.   It’s like the pain that Pastor David spoke of on Sunday morning [see sermon from 2/7/10]…. deep pain … and difficulty with understanding.   I am not a person who believes that God orchestrates every little thing that happens … some would say Joe had that tumor because God wanted him to …. I don’t believe that.   BUT   There had to be a reason why God chose not to remove it, even if I can’t see it and his family can’t see it and his church can’t see it.   God could have healed that tumor if He so chose, but He chose not to, despite hundreds of prayers.

At the funeral service, they chose to celebrate Joe’s life and to trust that God knows what He’s doing.   If God could say no to His son when He asked to be spared from what was to come because God knew it would be for the good of all who loved Him (Mark 14:36), then surely we can still offer our praises to God when He says no to us …. and we can REST in the assurance that although we may never understand it on this side of heaven, it will be used for good.  

Sorry that this grew to be a little lengthy … sometimes when I get started I have a little trouble curbing the words.   I struggled with whether to write this or not; sometimes things like this can appear to come from pride or a desire to be seen and heard.   Sometimes they do stem from those things.   I have prayed for God to remove any hint of pride from my words and from my heart.   I don’t know if He answered that one or not … I hope so.    But I just wanted to offer a little insight that probably didn’t come from me … I’m just another pile of filthy rags when I operate in my own power.  

Tom Haywood