Easter
6 – May 13th, 2012 – John 16:23-30
Christ
is Risen, He is Risen Indeed, Alleluia +
We have in these past few weeks heard
that our Lord would send us the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to be with us during
our days here on earth, to be our aid and companion until our Lord’s
Return. We have heard how the Spirit
will take the Word of God and make us to understand it, how He will use Law and
Gospel in our lives, how He will make us to stand in the face of Satan and His
temptations. Today we get one more tool,
one more blessing from our Lord. Today
our Lord speaks to the gift of prayer – so today we will ponder for a bit this
gift of prayer.
Now, before we look at our Gospel
lesson in detail, I want to make one thing abundantly clear. This text, even though it doesn’t mention the
Holy Ghost directly, still is about the working of the Holy Spirit within
us. Why do I say this? Consider Romans 8:26, which reads: “Likewise
the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we
ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for
words.” When we talk about
prayer, again, this isn’t just a matter of what we do, our own efforts, but God
Himself works in us and through us in His gift of prayer. And when we do not pray as we ought, when we
are at a loss for words, the Holy Spirit, who is all about speaking the Word of
God, prays for us. This also ties into
one of my favorite Luther quotes – Luther says that often the best prayer of a
Christian is just that deep sigh, because God knows precisely what it means. Prayer is not meant to be a burden, a hoop
you jump through, an artistic endeavor whereby you impress your neighbor with
your long and flowing prayer with plenty of flare. Prayer is for your aid and comfort. Let’s look at our Gospel text.
“In that day you will ask nothing of me.
Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will
give it to you.” Now, this is
something very important to think about.
While they were disciples, if the Apostles had wanted something, they
asked Jesus, who was standing right next to them. Jesus was the one who did all the stuff. But what of when Christ has ascended? Are the Apostles, are we cut off from the
Father? Hardly – whatever we ask of the
Father in Christ’s Name, He will give it.
Now, let’s make sure we understand this text – and to do so we must
understand the phrase “in My Name.” As
Christians we are to pray in the Name of Christ – this is why so many of our
prayers will end “in the name of Christ Jesus our Lord” or “in the name of
Jesus we pray”. However, praying in the
Name of Jesus doesn’t just mean slapping a phrase at the end of a prayer. Praying in the Name of Jesus means that we
pray at His command and with His authority.
It means that when we pray, we are acting in His Name. Consider – all the old movies where the hero
is chasing the villain, and the hero yells out, “Stop in the Name of the
Law.” The thrust of that phrase is to
show that it’s not just the hero who is trying to stop the villain – the hero
is acting with the weight of the Law behind him – that he is acting as an agent
of the state. With the gift of prayer,
Christ has made you His own agent; you pray in Christ’s Name – Christ has given
to you the blessing, the gift to pray with His own authority.
This is why Luther brings up prayer in
the explanation to the 2nd commandment. What is the 2nd Commandment? You shall not take the Name of the Lord our
God in vain. What does this mean? We should fear and love God so that we do not
curse, swear, use satanic arts, lie, or deceive by His name, but call upon it
in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks. The fact that we are given the gift of prayer
means that we may go before God and call upon Him in every trouble, that we may
offer our concerns up and lay them before Him, that we may praise and give thanks
to God in the midst of all things, even the trials of life. However, as you might have guessed, this can
be abused. “Truly, truly, I say to you,
whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until
now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy
may be full.” Ah, so often
people will take this verse and run with it, run with it away from God. We will hear the phrase “whatever you ask” and
think that it’s carte blanche to just start bossing God around – you said
whatever I asked God, well I’m praying for more wealth, pony it up! I’m praying for healing, I’m even shaking my
hand on this person’s forehead and smacking them, You had better heal them
quickly or you’re being a bad, naughty god!”
This idea, this idea that we can use prayer to force God, to bind Him to
our will – that’s what Luther was referring to with the phrase “satanic arts”
or “witchcraft” as the older translation said.
The idea that we become the master of God and use magic words to bind
Him to our will… that’s not good. That’s
basically the old fashioned definition of witchcraft.
No, this isn’t about us binding God to
our wills, but rather, with prayer Christ binds us to the Father and His good
will for us. Again, it is whatever we
ask in Christ’s name. If the police
officer turns on the flashing lights and says, “Stop in the name of the Law” –
we are bound by Law to stop. What if the
cop walks up, knocks on your door and says, “You will bake me a cake in the
name of the Law”? That’s a total abuse,
there’s nothing in the Law that would let a cop force you to bake a cake. And you may, as a good citizen, want to ignore
that cake demanding cop and report him.
Likewise, we pray in the Name of Jesus, we pray for the things which He
has commanded us to pray, the things that He has promised us. This is why we often will introduce the
Lord’s prayer as the prayer our Lord has taught us to pray – that we are rightfully
praying in His name.
“Until now you have asked nothing in my name.
Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” And here Christ Jesus makes a
wonderful point. According to our sinful
flesh, we want, we crave stupid things.
Consider this week – how many times have you craved or desired things
that were bad or harmful for you? How
often have you wanted things that didn’t really fulfill you, didn’t really
satisfy you? According to our sinful
flesh, we act outside of and contrary to God’s will, we want things that are
foolish. But you, dear friends, have
been given the gift of faith, you have been made to know Christ Jesus and His
salvation by the Word and Spirit, and you have been Baptized into His name,
brought into His kingdom, and you now know the gifts that He gives you. He has given you forgiveness. He has given
you life and life in full so that you might show love to your neighbor. He has given you courage and strength so that
you might endure in the face of trials.
He has given you the gifts of the Holy Spirit. These are the things He has promised you,
these are the things He has won for us by His death and resurrection, these are
the things that give us true joy in the midst of our lives here on earth. Ask for these things in His Name, so that
your joy may be full.
You see, prayer isn’t a creative act
on our part. We don’t have to come up
with new things, new petitions, new spiffy things. People will sometimes despise the simple
repeated prayers, and when they do that they just show they don’t understand
what prayer is. Prayer is simply
speaking back to God the Word which He has spoken to us. Prayer is going before God and saying, “This
is what You Yourself have given me in Your Son, Heavenly Father. I am sore oppressed in this world, and the
foe would blind me to Your love – be with me, give me Your Spirit that I might
see these promises again.” That’s why
the Holy Spirit is involved with prayer – it’s tied to the Word of God, and
wherever the Word of God is involved, the Holy Spirit will be there. Our prayers are shaped by the Word of God. It’s just like breathing – you breath in, you
breath out, inhale and exhale. As a
Christian you receive the Word of God, you hear it, you receive the Supper, it
comes into you – and then it will flow out of you in prayer. That’s why we say Amen at the end of prayers
– Amen means “truth”. We know it’s truth
because we speak back to God His own Word which we know is true.
Our Gospel concludes with a few more
words to bring this all into focus. “I
have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I
will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly
about the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, and I
do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf;
for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed
that I came from God. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and
now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” We too, this day are children of God. We are loved by the Father – and indeed, part
of the love He has shown us are our mothers, are the other kind women He has
given into our life to care for us – we are loved by the Father, and the Father
will hear our prayers that we raise before Him in Christ’s Name. We have been made to know Christ, to know His
forgiveness and love and strength – and God has promised that He will give
these things to us through His Word. And
so that we might never forget this, so that we might not ever be overwhelmed,
Christ Jesus has given us the gift of prayer.
Go, pray to the Father, remember that He loves you and delights when you
pray. Remember the promises that God has
made to you, and delight in His love.
God does not abandon you, but He has promised you truly good things, not
the desires of your flesh, but the things that bring true joy and peace and
eternal life. All thanks be to God that
we who have been baptized into the name of God have a gracious God who calls us
unto Him in the gift of prayer. Christ
is risen, He is risen indeed, Alleluia +
No comments:
Post a Comment