ter a night of prayer which has no connection with any crisis
reported for us (Luke xi. 1), that he taught his disciples the Lord's
prayer in response to their requests. The prayer beside the grave of
Lazarus (John xi. 41, 42) suggests that his miracles were often, if not
always (compare Mark ix. 29), preceded by definite prayer to God. His
habit of prayer was the natural expression of his trust in God. From the
resistance to the temptations in the wilderness to the last cry, "Father,
into thy hands I commend my spirit," his life is an example of childlike
faith in God.

273. Yet throughout his life of obedience and trust Jesus never gave one
indication that he felt the need of penitence when he came before God. He
perceived as no one else has ever done the searching inwardness of God's
law, and demanded of men that they tolerate no lower ambition than to be
like God, yet he never breathed a sigh of conscious failure, or gave sign
that he blushed when the eternal light shone into his own soul. He was
baptized, but without confession of sin. He challenged his enemies to
convict him of sin (John viii. 46). Such a challenge might have rested on
a man's certainty that his critics did not know his inner life; but
hypocrisy has no place in the character of Jesus. The reply to the rich
young ruler, "Why callest thou me good?" (Mark x. 18), even if it was a
confession that freedom from past sin was still far less than that
absolute goodness that God alone possesses, simply sets in stronger light
his silence concerning personal failure, and his omission in all his
praying to seek forgiveness. It is probable, however, that that reply
deals not with the "good" as the "ethically perfect," but as the
"supremely beneficent," so that Jesus simply reminded the seeker after
life that God alone is the one to be approached as the Gracious and
Merciful One by sinful men (see Dalman WJ I. 277). Thus the reply becomes
a fresh expression of the reverence of Jesus, and still further emphasizes
his failure to confess his sinfulness.

274. In all this thought about himself Jesus stands before us as a man,
conscious of his close kinship with his fellows. Like them he hungered and
thirsted and grew weary, like them he longed for friendship and for
sympathy, like them he trusted God and prayed to God and learned still to
trust when his request was denied. He stands before us also as a man
conscious of being anointed by God for the great work which