Jesus Praying

[jjb5985]

One thing I can’t really come up with a good answer for is if Jesus is God, why did Jesus pray to God? Was it simply to be an example for us? How do you explain Jesus asking that God’s will be done if Jesus Himself is God? I assume it wouldn’t be correct to say Jesus was talking to himself, but is there a good explanation for this? Thanks.

 

[LilyM]

One thing I can’t really come up with a good answer for is if Jesus is God, why did Jesus pray to God? Was it simply to be an example for us? How do you explain Jesus asking that God’s will be done if Jesus Himself is God? I assume it wouldn’t be correct to say Jesus was talking to himself, but is there a good explanation for this? Thanks.

Remember Jesus and the Father are one in being of the essence or nature of God - they are distinct persons though, not the same person. The Father doesn’t share in Jesus’ humanity, for one - the Father himself was never human. So they are not the same in every single respect.

Thus Jesus in his human nature, for example, was agonising at the idea of having to undergo a cruel and horrible death which in any event would fail to save everyone. Hence asking the Father if another way could be found and having to steel his resolve in the end to do what he finally realised was unavoidable.

 

[water]

Could we say that Jesus and the Father both have different wills, but Jesus was obedient to the Father to die for our sins?

 

[porthos11]

Could we say that Jesus and the Father both have different wills, but Jesus was obedient to the Father to die for our sins?

I think it’s more accurate to say that Jesus had two wills: a human and a divine. The Agony in the Garden forms a scriptural basis for this. Basically, Jesus’ divine will was in complete conformity with the Father (because God cannot contradict himself), while his human will enjoyed the freedom bestowed on human nature, and could hypothetically go its own way. Yet as Scripture shows, his human will submitted itself to the divine will. This is because Jesus’ human will was perfect and untainted by original sin. So the two wills acted in complete harmony with each other. This is how Jesus can say that his will not be done, but the Father’s, because human nature would automatically cringe from death, and if the human will were to decide alone, it would naturally act to preserve the human nature. But it was its conformity with the divine will that allowed Jesus to say this prayer.

The denial of the two wills in Jesus is the heresy of Monothelitism (lit. “one will”) and was condemned at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (Constantinople III).

 

[Sam88]

I think it would also be correct to say that these wills are (both) distinct from the will of the Father – but were completely in harmony with the Father’s will since Jesus always chose to do the Father’s will in everything.

Perhaps someone with more theological training can confirm or correct this.

 

[porthos11]

I think it would also be correct to say that these wills are (both) distinct from the will of the Father – but were completely in harmony with the Father’s will since Jesus always chose to do the Father’s will in everything.

Perhaps someone with more theological training can confirm or correct this.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, the Divine will of Christ is numerically one with that of the Father and the Holy Spirit (under the entry on Monothelitism and the Monothelites).