They touched Jesus, but then, how did they pray?

I'm sitting in my room praying and thinking, "After the resurrection did the disciples pray to Jesus?" Just imagine this with me for a moment. You have spent the past 2 - 3 years of your life following this intriguing man around, your feet are calloused, your memory is overflowing with moments around the campfire or dinner table, and you've been challenged to completely shift your Jewish worldview. And then he is gone. Just as quick as he came, just as brief as the moment he walked the shoreline past your fishing boat and called out to you, he is gone. And you are left knowing you've met an incredible man who was more than a man -- a man who was somehow divine.

Now there is no one around you analyzing deep fulfilled Christological theological concepts, but there are plenty of Greek voices and new philosophical ways of contemplating life's happenings, there are Jewish commentaries, and there are the conversations that have happened along the roadside. And you are left, seen as one of the eleven leaders who now have to figure out how to navigate the landscape left before you. And you have a lot of people waiting, just waiting to see what steps you will take. You rest though in the peace of knowing this one thing, you know you followed Jesus, the promised Christ, and you believe it unquestionably. But, what does this mean for your life now?

Jesus taught you to pray, saying "Our Father, who art in heaven," but he also taught you that he came from heaven and that he had returned there to prepare a place for you. You know he is alive, you saw and touched, embraced and kissed him after those horrible hours watching his excrutinating death. Yet, the question is, "if he is still alive, can I speak to him?"


One has to wonder what those days following Christ's ascension were like for his disciples. One might even wonder, if they took that first moment to pray and to test the waters to see if they could talk to Jesus, what did they hear in reply? Did they hear an audible voice? Did they remember his words spoken here on earth? Did they wonder what their relationship with him could be like now?

Thus, I still sit here and think and wonder, "What does it mean for me to pray and talk to Jesus?" How would I feel different had I been here around 2000 years ago and I had touched, smelt, felt, heard, and known Jesus in a way different from how I know him now?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Just a slightly different perspective (maybe you'll remember our conversation a couple of weeks ago that touched on this), but how did Jesus' final words to them, recorded in John 16:23-28 (esp. 26-27), play into this question? In light of these verses, I struggle with this question of "praying to Jesus" even today.
Good point. Similar struggle at times here.
Hmmm... what about John 14:13-14 "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it." Note the context also.
Anonymous said…
So, in light of these two passages, both spoken by Jesus during the same evening, and the context that "I and the Father are one," do you think it really matters whether we address Jesus or the Father? The consistent phrase in both is that we ask in Jesus' name, thereby indicating our belief in who he is. Jesus will act on our behalf to bring glory to the Father; the father will act because he loves his son and to bring glory to himself. Perhaps the message was more, regardless of who they addressed, the disciples should make daring requests in faith.

Popular posts from this blog

Palm Sunday School Lesson for Teenagers

Question: Multi-generational ministry