What is the Jesus Prayer?
The prayer usually meant by that name — "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner" — is stitched together from two cries in the Gospels: the tax collector in the temple and the blind beggar by the road. Both cries are real prayers that God answered, so the question is not whether the words are good, but what gave them their power and what happens when they are turned into a formula to be repeated.
The tax collector's cry
The first half of the prayer comes from a man who stood far off in the temple and asked God for mercy. One writer takes his few words apart to show how much is packed into them.
H H SnellMark the character of this prayer: first, his request is made to "God." Second, he admits his guilt as "a sinner." Third, his only ground of expectation is God's mercy — "be merciful." Fourth, his deep, heartfelt personal need — "be merciful to me." He brings nothing but a load of sin to be removed, a conscience burdened with guilt to be cleansed, an aching heart to be comforted, a needy soul to be filled. He offers God no merit of his own, and he expects everything from God.
The Greek has a definite article that most translations smooth over, and commentators make much of it — he called himself the sinner, not one among many.
William KellyHe did not dream of hiding himself in a crowd of sinners or in a vague confession. He singled himself out as the sinner, if ever there was one. What did he know of others? Even if he had some slight knowledge of them, he knew himself far better and overwhelmingly.
What "have mercy" is asking for
The word behind "be merciful" is not a vague appeal to kindness. It is the word for propitiation — for God's holiness being satisfied.
F. B. HoleThe tax collector in our Lord's parable knew this, for he said, "God be merciful [propitiated] to me a sinner" (Luke 18:13). God had to be propitiated because sin was an outrageous challenge to His righteousness and holiness. He never hated us, however. His heart was not estranged from man, for if it had been He would never have sent His Son to be the propitiation that was needed to meet the claims of His righteousness and holiness.
Bartimaeus and the cry that stops Christ
The other half — "have mercy on me" addressed directly to Jesus — belongs to the blind beggar outside Jericho, who kept shouting while the crowd told him to be quiet.
W. T. P. WolstonThat voice of need falls on the Saviour's ear and touches His heart, and Scripture says, "Jesus stood still." He was on His way to Jerusalem to carry out the wonderful work of the cross, but the cry of need stopped Him. He is now in heaven, in glory, but the voice of need touches Him now just as the voice of misery and need touched Him then.
Repetition and "vain repetition"
Jesus warned against heaping up words, and writers apply this straight to set prayers said over and over.
The Bible TreasuryThe way some Christians repeat "the Lord's Prayer" on every occasion, sometimes several times in a row, really smacks of superstition — as if there were some charm in merely repeating the words.
But the warning is aimed at emptiness, not at frequency. Jesus Himself said the same words more than once.
C. H. MackintoshOur Lord does not forbid frequent repetition, but "vain repetition." He Himself, blessed be His name, in His agony in the garden prayed the same thing three times over. This is enough to prove that there may be repetition that is very far indeed from being "vain."
What changes once mercy has been given
The tax collector went home justified. Writers press the question of whether he would go on saying the same prayer afterwards.
The Bible TreasuryI do not ask whether we are still saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. The tax collector would not say that once he had gone down to his house justified. But he would still stand on the same ground he took when, not daring to lift his eyes to heaven, he stood and beat his breast.
Praying in His name
Christian prayer is offered in the name of Jesus — and that phrase is regularly misread as a verbal formula.
W. W. FeredayPraying in the name of the Son is not merely attaching His name to the end of our requests. It is prayer in the awareness that Christ, by His death and resurrection, has brought us into His own standing before God — accepted in His acceptance, blessed as He is blessed, and loved as He is loved.
Summary
- Source. The words are biblical: a tax collector asking God for mercy, and a blind beggar shouting to Jesus for mercy — both answered.
- Ground. "Have mercy" means "be propitiated." The prayer only works because God sent His Son to meet the claims of His own righteousness.
- Reach. The cry of need stopped Christ on the road, and it still reaches Him in glory.
- Danger. Repeating is not the problem; empty repeating is. Treating words as a charm turns prayer into superstition.
- Result. The man went home justified. Mercy given moves you from pleading for it to praying in the name of the One who secured it.