One of the most basic prayers of Jesus in the Synoptic tradition is that the Father may bring about the accomplishment of His will (Matt 6.10; Mark 14.36). The life of the Johannine Jesus is a perpetual "Your will be done," because Jesus does nothing on his own (John 5.19). His very food is to do the will of the Father (4.34). It is this prayerful attitude that is summed up in John 11.42: "I knew that you always hear me." His is a supreme confidence in the Father because he always does what is pleasing to the Father (1 John 3.21-22). He knows that whatever he asks is according to the Father's will and that, therefore, he is heard (1 John 5.14). He demands this same confidence in the prayer of his followers (John 14.12-13, 15.16, 16.23, 36).
Raymond E. Brown
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