Jesus Withdrew to the Mount of Olives for Prayer

Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives. His custom reveals a pattern that all who would serve Adonai must learn: the rhythmic alternation between public labor and private prayer. By day, He sacrificed what was dearest to His soul, moving through Jerusalem's close streets and thronged bazaars, healing and teaching amid the crowd's demands. Yet when darkness fell and duty no longer required His presence within the city walls, He crossed the ravine to climb the green slope beyond, ascending to solitude with His heavenly Father beneath the starry night.

This was no supercilious withdrawal. Jesus displayed none of that morbid egotism which makes men shrink from contact with their brother-men—the false piety Coleridge condemned in those who "sigh for wretchedness, yet shun the wretched." Rather, His retreat was purposeful: restoration for renewed service. With dawn's light, His duties lay again within the Temple courts, where His enemies had already contrived fresh plots against Him.

Archdeacon Farrar observes that Jesus divided His time betwixt praying and preaching. All who would do good must follow this pattern (1 Corinthians 3:6). Richard Baxter stained his study walls with praying breath; Luther and his coadjutors broke the spell of ages through mighty pleading with Elohim. John Knox's power flowed from the same spring. Preachers must pray much.