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Luke 5:16
“[Jesus] would withdraw to desolate places and pray.”
The leprous man was confident that Jesus was able to heal him, and he approached our Lord in faith, believing that Jesus would in fact exercise His healing power if it was His will to do so (Luke 5:12). As we have seen, it was indeed Jesus’ will to heal the man, and when our Lord touched him, he was cleansed (Luke 5:13). An ordinary person could not come into contact with a leper without himself becoming unclean (Lev. 5:1–3), but Jesus was not rendered ritually impure by touching the leprous man. Instead, the sick man was cleansed and Jesus remained pure, demonstrating that He is no ordinary individual. He is, in fact, the incarnate Son of God (John 1:1–18). Interestingly, Jesus did not want the healed man to make his healing widely known, possibly because it would increase His fame and might lead His public ministry to attract the attention of the ruling authorities before the proper time. Yet Jesus did want testimony to be given at least to the Jewish priests, for He told the man to go to be inspected by them for cleanliness as prescribed in the Mosaic law (Luke 5:14; see Lev. 13–14).
News of the healing did become widely known, and many came to be healed by our Savior. This prompted Jesus to “withdraw to desolate places and pray,” as we see in today’s passage (Luke 5:16). Luke is not the only Evangelist to tell us this, for all four Gospels note that Jesus would spend time in prayer, sometimes even for lengthy periods of time (e.g., Matt. 26:36; Mark 1:35; John 17). If we are not careful, we might miss how remarkable this is. Surely if anyone might not need to pray, it would be Jesus, for as the incarnate second person of the Trinity, He enjoyed perfect communion with our Father. Yet Christ would still spend time with God in prayer, drawing from Him the strength He needed to continue in His work as the perfect Mediator between the Creator and human beings. Moreover, even in His glorified state, Jesus continues to pray, interceding for His people (Heb. 7:25). This helps us understand that we really cannot do without prayer.
Dr. R.C. Sproul writes in his commentary on Luke that “if it was necessary for the Lord Jesus to find that strengthening and intimate power from being alone with the Father, how much more important is it for us to be before the Father, gaining strength from His Spirit?” If the Son of God needed to pray, so do we. Without regular prayer, our effectiveness in ministry will diminish.
Coram Deo Living before the face of God
Prayer can be difficult at times, but we do not need to overcomplicate it. We simply need to work at getting into a regular rhythm of prayer, focusing less on the length of time we pray every time we come before the Lord and more on making prayer a habit. Even a few minutes of thoughtful prayer a day can do much for deepening our relationship with the Lord and recharging our spiritual strength.
for further study
- Nehemiah 1:4
- Proverbs 15:29
- Matthew 14:23
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17
the bible in a year
- Numbers 36–Deuteronomy 1
- Mark 11:1–14