Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. – Mark 1:35

Today’s Scripture Reading (September 13, 2017): Mark 1

I talk to myself. I always have. Some would argue that talking to yourself isn’t an issue as long as you don’t start answering yourself, but I do that too. There seems to be something important about vocalizing the problem or the situation. It doesn’t matter that there is no one around. In fact, sometimes it is essential to me that no one is around. Because it is in those solitary moments that I sometimes admit the things that I would never own up to any other time. In those moments, I can sometimes get to the root of the problem. Oh, while we are on the subject, I also argue with myself, vocalizing two sides of a problem and trying to arrive at a solution. For me, these solitary discussions are a type of prayer. They are not the only prayers that I offer, but these prayers are still important – at least, to me.

One of the Trinitarian questions that we sometimes ask is this – if Jesus was God, then to whom was he praying when he prayed? My immediate response is that there are so many things that we do not understand about the Trinity, and much of it our minds, trapped in the individualness of time and space, we will never understand. Just because we do not understand something does it mean that it is not true. There is a reality that the concept of the Trinity explains that is left unexplained without it. The Trinity makes its own kind of logical sense, even though we struggle to understand the concept. So is it too hard to believe that a God who exists in essential community as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, communicates within the Godhead? That the Son, who was also the Father, prayed to Father for guidance and power. Or maybe in becoming part of creation, Jesus, for a time, was cut off from all the power of God. Again, the sense in this idea is that Jesus became like us – and I am not sure how that is possible if you possess all of the power knowledge of God. Because that I do not have.

Of course, another explanation is that Jesus talked to himself. He got alone and verbalized what needed to verbalize. I do it all the time, so in this Jesus becomes like me – he finds solace in getting alone and just talking out loud.

The answer is probably a little of this and a whole lot of other realities of which we remain blissfully unaware. But the truth that I believe is that Jesus was God, and even he needed to get alone and pray. And if Jesus needed times of solitary prayer, then so do you we - regardless of how you might understand Jesus conversations with the Godhead of which he was a part.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Luke 3