Did Jesus Meditate? Part 1 of 2.

Among Christians there are a wide variety of opinions concerning meditation. Some see it as beneficial and practice the art daily. Others see meditation as "the work of the devil", and avoid it like the plauge (swine flu?). What would Jesus say about the practice of meditation? Even more closely to the point; what would Jesus do? Did Jesus meditate?

Meditation would have been no stranger to Jesus of Nazareth. Meditation is mentioned several times in the Old Testament. It is also known that there were Buddhist missionaries in Palestine during the time of Jesus, so He would have been familiar with their practices as well. If we look deeply at the teachings of Jesus contained in the Sermon On The Mount, I believe we find evidence that Jesus did in fact meditate, and taught His disciples to do likewise. In His teaching on Prayer Jesus taught...

"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you, they have recieved their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask."

Matthew 6: 5-8

In the above passage from Matthew, Jesus teaches his followers to pray in solitude, using as few words as possible. Short and sweet seems to be what Jesus teaches concerning prayer. Yet many times in the Gospel accounts Jesus is said to spend an entire night in prayer before making a major ministerial move. Jesus is said to rise from sleep hours before his other disciples so he could go into a quite place to pray. Jesus is even said to have gone into the desert for 40 days and 40 nights to fast and pray. If Jesus believed in keeping spoken prayers short, what would He be doing for hours on end, or even days on end, praying in the wilderness? I believe He was spending time listening to God, being with God. In short, Jesus meditated.

In the short excerpt below from The Lost Gospel of Q, Marcus Borg seems to agree. What Jesus was doing for hours on end in solitude was what we today would call meditation. (See Did Jesus Meditate? Q9. Editors Note) For me it makes perfect sense. What do you think?

Blessings,

Ralph L.