Have you ever noticed that the act of prayer is itself a sign and echo of Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection?

United Methodist theologian Stanley Hauerwas likes to tell his students that "Everything in Christianity relates to everything else." Thus, the process of learning to think like a Christian (or become a theologian!) is a matter of learning to make biblical and theological connections well.

And the theological center of the Christian faith is Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the center of the Christian faith whether we are thinking of the Bible, thinking dogmatically, thinking symbolically, thinking iconically, thinking philosophically or sitting at the office smelling flowers. The basic and primary task of Christian theological thinking is to think about everything in relation to Jesus Christ.

So think about prayer. The human relationship with God through prayer reflects Jesus Christ's crucifixion and resurrection. Our prayer or petition or praise or grief is the passion we offer God. It reflects, and in a deep sense is made possible only by, Jesus Christ's own passion and death. And past the 'death' of our prayer, God's answer to our prayer (whether or not it is what we expect) reflects and flows from Jesus Christ's own resurrection. So the whole action of prayer takes place in Christ. Our prayer is seen and perfected in Jesus Christ's passion and death, and God's perfect answer reflects Jesus Christ's resurrection, in which it begins. Our whole relationship with God, free and personal, is already on display in Jesus' death and resurrection.

Let's dwell for a moment on his death and resurrection in order to learn more about prayer.

Jesus' passion culminates in a complete surrender, a complete offering of himself to the Father. Such is his death. Let us listen to Luke's account:

"It was now about noon, and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon, while the sun's light failed; and the curtain of the temple was torn in two. Then Jesus, crying with a loud voice, said, "Father, into your hands I commend my spirit." Having said this, he breathed his last." (Luke 23:44-46 NRSV).

Jesus' death is at once the paradigm for our prayer, even as it surpasses and makes possible our prayer. When we pray, we take part in Jesus Christ's all-sufficient and finished (John 19:30) offering to the Father. Our words may come with struggle; we may strive to be fully transparent to God in our prayer. Yet even our most desperate striving rests on Jesus Christ's perfect prayer. "Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words" (Rom. 8:26). Thus both the Son and the Spirit are involved. They are always there for us, working in us to help us pray. We can pray because the holy Trinity who saves us by Jesus Christ's sacrifice on the cross provides everything we need to approach God. So as the writer of Hebrews says, "Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need" (Hebrews 4:16). With a prayer, we approach God in bold vulnerability, like Jesus. We commend our prayer to God like Jesus commends his spirit to God — and we let it go. Only God can answer our prayer. Only God can raise the dead.

And God answers our prayer just as God raises Jesus from the dead. Think about how mysterious the resurrection accounts are in the Gospels, though. Jesus' disciples didn't expect him to rise, and when he is risen he appears different than they expect (Luke 24:13-35; John 20:11-18, etc.). In a similar way, God will and does answer our prayer, in a way beautifully beyond our control. Paul gives glory to the triune God as "him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20).

God answers our prayers in a way that echoes Jesus Christ's resurrection: more wonderfully than we could have asked for. Better than we can ever imagine.

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Clifton Stringer is a Ph.D. student in Historical Theology at Boston College and the author of "Christ the Lightgiver" in the Converge Bible Studies series.