Why Didn't Jesus Pray For People?

I'm musing here more than anything, but a few days ago the thought occurred to me - why didn't Jesus pray for people? (That darned Holy Spirit, putting such a question in my head!) Anyway, as I thought about it and searched my mind's concordance, I honestly couldn't come up with a situation described in Scripture in which Jesus actually sat down with a particular person and prayed for them. I mean - it's something I do all the time. I'm doing a hospital visit or a home visit, and eventually I say, "why don't we pray." Or words to that effect. And we do. Or, more commonly, I do - praying mostly about issues in the life of the person I'm talking to. And the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was having trouble coming up with incidents in which Jesus engaged in any form of intercessory prayer for people? But why doesn't he? So I started checking out Scripture.

The only specific reference I could find to Jesus making intercessory prayer was Luke 22:32. And even there, the prayer isn't recorded. Jesus says to Peter, "I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail." And as far as I can see, in all of the stories of Jesus, that's the only time there's a reference to him offering or at least suggesting that he had offered an intercessory prayer for someone in particular. Interesting. At least to me.

Mostly when Jesus prayed, he seems to have prayed for himself! There are several references to Jesus withdrawing to a lonely place to pray, the implication being that this withdrawal was for his own benefit; that he needed to get away and spend some time with God. I suppose it's possible (maybe likely? I'd like to think so, anyway!) that he might have included some intercessory prayer for someone during one of these prayer-times, but it doesn't say so. There is, of course, John 17, when Jesus offers a very general intercessory prayer for his followers. I won't quote the whole thing. It's John 17:6-24. My NIV Bible subdivides it into two sections: "Jesus Prays For His Disciples" and "Jesus Prays For All Believers." Even in John 17, it's a three part prayer, with the first section entitled "Jesus Prays For Himself." And, of course, when Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, in what we now call "The Lord's Prayer," there's no intercession mentioned for anyone other than ourselves, unless "as we forgive those who trespass against us" could be taken as an offering of forgiveness to those whom we're harbouring bitterness toward?Maybe. But. Still. Again. Interesting. At least to me. I will concede that, a long time later, Hebrews 5:7 records that "during the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death ..." I suppose the petitions could have been for others, but the implication is, again, that they were for himself. So, where does this leave me?

I'm certainly not saying that prayer is unimportant. Prayer is how we connect to God. It's the sign of the relationship we have with and the love we have for God. So, it's important. I'm also not suggesting that we shouldn't pray for others. I don't know exactly what happens when we pray - but I've seen enough over the years to believe that there's power in intercessory prayer. And while most of the scriptural references even to intercession have to do with Jesus interceding for us, I don't overlook 1 Timothy 3:1, which says "I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people ..." So the New Testament does affirm the importance of intercessory prayer for others. I just still wonder - why don't we see Jesus doing it?

I wonder if it's to remind us of what's really important about our faith and how we're to live it? My reading of the Gospels is that when Jesus encountered a hungry person, he didn't pray for them to be fed - he fed them! And when Jesus encountered a sick person, he didn't pray for them to be healed - he healed them! And when Jesus encountered a sinful person, he didn't pray for them to be forgiven - he forgave them! And when Jesus encountered an outcast person, he didn't pray for them to be accepted - he accepted them! Of course, he could do all those things much more easily than we can - because he was, after all, the Son of God; God incarnate. But maybe the lesson about what's recorded of Jesus' prayer life is not that we shouldn't engage in intercessory prayer for people, but that we need to make sure that we don't just settle for intercessory prayer. "I'll pray for you" is fine and important, as long as its meaning is really "I'll pray for you and do something to help you with your burden if I can." Sometimes, perhaps, saying "I'll pray for you" and leaving it at that is actually nothing more than a way for us to let ourselves off the hook.

Maybe that's why the Bible doesn't record Jesus praying for people very often. He was already quite busy actually helping in a concrete way.  After all, according to the Bible God seems largely uninterested in ritual for the sake of ritual. Real religion is that we help widows and orphans in their distress, is it not? Or, presumably, anybody else who needs our help when we have help to offer. "Pray without ceasing," indeed. But also try to do something about whatever or whoever it is that you're praying for! Maybe that's the message!