the Week of Proper 26 / Ordinary 31
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Bible Dictionaries
Intercession (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or INTERCESSION (the act of one who goes between) is generally taken to mean that part of prayer in which we approach God on behalf of others. The corresponding word in NT, ἔντευξις, which occurs only at 1 Timothy 2:1; 1 Timothy 4:5, does not necessarily mean what we now understand by intercession, but rather, as its connexion with ἐντυγχάνω implies, drawing close to God in free and familiar prayer (see Trench, Syn. p. 190, where, however, it is added, ‘In justice to our translators it must be observed that intercession had not in their time that limited meaning of prayer for others which we now ascribe to it’).
Intercession has always been regarded as a characteristic duty and privilege of believers in Christ. There is no fact or aspect of prayer more distinctive of the Christian religion than this, in which the Christian heart, rising above all consideration of self, expands with a Christ-like benevolent desire for the welfare of every living soul, and prays for all mankind. Accordingly, we find that from the beginning intercession has been looked upon as a specific and characteristic part of the vocation of the Christian Church as a whole as well as of its individual members. The practice was enjoined by Christ, He Himself setting the example to His disciples. As prayer, in the general sense of the word, is essential to the Christian life, so intercessory prayer has always been looked upon as an essential part of Christian prayer.
Christ, when on earth, prayed for His followers, and still continues to plead for them beyond the veil, though in thinking of this aspect of His intercession it is a mistake to confine it merely to prayer. This has been admirably and convincingly pointed out by Milligan in The Ascension and Heavenly Priesthood of our Lord (pp. 149–153), and though this aspect of Christ’s intercession belongs to a subsequent heading (§ 2 below), yet, because the intercession of Christians must always be based upon the Lord’s intercession, it may be premised here that in the intercessions we offer to God the idea is wider than mere petition on behalf of others. ‘Intercession and giving of thanks’ are to be made for all men (1 Timothy 2:1). It is a commonplace that prayer is more than mere petition; and so even in prayer on behalf of others mere asking of benefits for them cannot be the whole of prayer. Intercession, then, would appear to embrace thanksgiving for benefits bestowed on others as well as imploring favours for them. Further, intercession also seems to imply that in praying for others, if we pray sincerely, we place ourselves with our means and our energies at God’s disposal for His purposes of grace towards those for whom we pray. Intercession thus leads up to and necessitates self-dedication. In proceeding now to examine our Lord’s teaching, we note:
1. The duty of intercession.—The duty of intercession is explicitly and frequently taught by Christ in the Gospels. It has often been remarked about His teaching as to prayer that He seldom, if ever, gives a direct command to His followers to pray, but, taking it for granted that they do pray and do not need to be told to pray, He simply gives them directions how to pray, and shows them what are the essential elements, characteristics, and conditions of prayer (cf. e.g. Matthew 6:5; Matthew 6:9, Mark 11:24-25, Luke 18:1).
It hardly needs to be remarked that the Christian religion, being a social religion, implies that prayer on behalf of others is an essential and distinguishing element in its devotions. It would have been surprising if Christ had not taught the duty of intercession. This, of course, must not be taken as meaning that He taught it for the first time. Under the OT dispensation God’s people were admitted to the privilege of intercession, and their prayers for others were availing. In particular, ‘the prophets were intercessors in virtue of their calling. The ground of this was twofold. The prophet was an acceptable person; but, further, he had the Spirit, and the possession of it enabled him not only to interpret the mind of God to man, but also the mind of man to God’ (Bernard in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible, vol. iv. p. 40b). But in the Gospels we might have expected to find, as we do find, that the duty and privilege of intercession is advanced and developed. In Christ’s teaching, intercession takes a wider range and a higher view than under the OT dispensation, for no section of mankind is excluded from the scope of His redemption. Jewish prayers, even of intercession, had been offered to ‘the Lord God of Israel’ or ‘the God of our Fathers,’ but in our Lord’s pattern prayer, as well as throughout His teaching, every human being is invited to call upon God as his Father, and in so doing to regard all mankind as his brethren. ‘When His disciples ask to be taught to pray, He gives them a prayer very unlike what John would have given, for it contains not a word of that petition for blessing upon Israel which, in any prayer that an Israelite offered, contained, to his mind, the gist of the whole’ (Latham, Pastor Pastorum, p. 416).
The Incarnation has furnished a new motive and a new power for intercession. The man who is in Christ is no longer an isolated unit: he is a member of the Body of Christ, and therefore prays for all mankind as Christ did; for, knowing that God has loved him in Christ, he loves others for whom as for himself Christ came, and in the power of that love he prays for all men living.
When we come to our Lord’s express teaching as to intercession, we are at once arrested by the fact that in the Lord’s Prayer—given to the disciples in response to their request to be taught how to pray—intercession not only holds the first place, but the spirit of intercession pervades it all. This prayer, which is the peculiar prayer of the Christian believer, the use of which marks him out from all others (witness the fact that in the early Church it was not taught to the catechumens till they were competentes and on the eve of their baptism), is a prayer of intercession. ‘Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.’ Here the disciples are taught to pray that all mankind may be brought into the Kingdom of God, that they may reverence His name, that they may learn to do His will and submit themselves to His rule. Here all limits of space and time are transcended, and he who prays the Lord’s Prayer prays for all mankind, even for the generations yet unborn. It would hardly, therefore, be an exaggeration to say that in Christ’s teaching upon prayer, intercession holds the first place. This is in keeping with the whole tenor of His teaching and with the genius of His religion, who all His life took thought for others, and whose first utterance on the cross was a prayer for His murderers (Luke 23:34). Following upon this, it is noteworthy that, according to Luke 11:5-13, it was in direct sequence to and by way of commentary upon the Lord’s Prayer that Christ spoke the parable of the Friend at Midnight, in which He teaches the necessity of importunate prayer, the importunity inculcated being the importunity of one for his friend. Intercession, therefore, according to Christ’s teaching, is not only to be offered, but it is to be offered with importunity.
2. Christ’s personal example.—Besides His great prayer of intercession recorded in John 17, the Gospels afford several instances of our Lord’s personal example in intercession. His prayer on the eve of the ordination of the Twelve, when He continued all night in prayer (Luke 16:12 f.), was, it is highly probable, largely occupied with intercession for them. He prayed for St. Peter (Luke 22:32). His first word from the cross was a prayer for His enemies. There is also the prayer recorded in Matthew 11:25-27, and His prayer at the grave of Lazarus (John 11:41 f.), both of which are intercessory.
Christ teaches that, as He is the Mediator between God and man, intercession must be offered through Him. He is the Intercessor, and our intercessions can avail only because He intercedes, presenting our prayers to the Father. He prayed for His disciples and for all who through their word might believe, and now He prays within the veil, carrying forward the intercession begun on earth. This comes out clearly in His ‘Intercessory Prayer’ (John 17), or, as it has perhaps been more fittingly designated, His ‘High Priestly Prayer.’ Reading it in the light of the happily correct rendering of Revised Version NT 1881, OT 1885, we see that He is speaking as if He had already entered into the glory, and were looking back upon His earthly course. In the joy of His anticipated triumph He presents Himself before the Father and pleads for the fulfilment of the Father’s will. Christ’s intercession for mankind which was begun on earth is continued in heaven, and our prayers for others are presented by Him in virtue of His mediation. At the same time, this prayer affords an unfailing guide to our prayers of intercession, teaching us that prayer is to be offered for the ingathering of men into the Kingdom, for the unity of the Church of God, for the perseverance of believers, and for the sanctification, for all these ends, of those who are engaged in the Church’s work.
3. The scope of intercession.—Our Lord is careful to tell His disciples to pray for their enemies (Matthew 5:44), and in so doing He bids them remember in prayer those whom they might not have thought of including, assuming that they would, without being specially directed, pray for all others. He thus teaches both by direct precept and by implication that intercession is to be full and universal. The only other special direction He gives in this connexion is that they are to pray for labourers to be sent into the Lord’s harvest (Matthew 9:38, Luke 10:2). Christ gives these few general directions as to the scope of intercession, leaving it to time and growing experience to suggest their amplification. The scope of Christian intercession must always be widening.
‘It grows with the growth of the Church and her needs; it grows with the growing complexity of human society as new classes and new objects rise up to claim its help.… Intercession is also an ever widening element in each individual life; as a man’s interest and experiences widen, so must his prayers’ (Frere, Sursum Corda, p. 1).
4. The conditions of intercession.—Two distinct, though sometimes confused, conditions of acceptable intercession are laid down by Christ. (1) In Mark 11:25 He shows that effectual intercession presupposes a forgiving spirit. Those who pray for others through Christ must have the spirit of Christ. (2) In Matthew 5:23-24 the disciples are taught that a condition of acceptable prayer is that they must seek reconciliation with any one who regards them (rightly or wrongly) as having done him a wrong (see Zahn, ad loc.). There must be a removal of the sense of injury from his mind as well as forgiveness to those who have wronged themselves. He who prays for others must be in peace and charity with all men.
Literature.—Most of the modern popular books on Prayer are astonishingly silent as to Intercession. In many of the so-called ‘divisions of prayer’ Intercession does not even find a place. But in Matthew Henry’s Method of Prayer, a book little used now, Intercession is prominent. Of the few modern books in which the subject is dealt with, mention may he made of Worlledge on ‘Prayer’ in the Oxford Library of Practical Theology; Frere and Illingworth’s Sursum Corda; Reid’s Christian Prayer; Rendel Harris’ Union with God, pp. 41–64.
J. Cromarty Smith.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Intercession (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/i/intercession-2.html. 1906-1918.
