He Fell on His Face and Prayed

Tuesday, March 31

When Jesus was a child of about twelve years old, and his parents had taken him to Jerusalem for the annual Passover Feast, he became separated from them on the caravan trip home (Luke 2:41-52). After searching for him, Mary and Joseph discovered him back in Jerusalem still in the Temple courts and conversing with religious teachers. Jesus responded to their anxious rebuke that He needed to be in His Father’s house (some manuscripts have “about my Father’s business”).   

The only story we have from Jesus’s youth recorded by the four Gospel writers is the first indication from His own mouth of His self-conscious mission of obedience to the Father’s agenda. This would not be the first time that Jesus would upset people—His closest family, friends, and His Jewish nation—by living in total abandonment to the Father’s will. Jesus repeated throughout His ministry that He did not come to do His own will, but to fulfill the Father’s will: “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38).  

What Jesus expressed in the Temple at age 12, His love for the Father above all else, continued and carried all the way through His death on a cross. On the evening before His trial and crucifixion, in the hour of His betrayal by men and in the face of cruel injustice and violent hatred, He once again surrendered His will totally to the Father’s. In obedience to the Father’s will and mission to rescue mankind, Jesus allowed Himself to be given over into the hands of His enemies to offer up His life in a cruel death—a death that brought us life.  

Lord Jesus, You came from heaven to do the will of the Father, and in obeying the will of the Father to the uttermost, You sacrificed Your perfect life to endure injustice and death. You did this so that I might have life through You in the Father. Thank you for Your obedience, Lord Jesus, that You did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. You endured the pain and shame of the cross to bring me to salvation. By Your Holy Spirit in me, help me to say “Yes” to Yours and the Father’s will no matter what it costs me, because You and the Father held back nothing to rescue me in love. Amen.  

Written by Faculty Members of the Gary Cook School of Leadership at Dallas Baptist University.