John 16:23-33
Over the past several years, the phenomenon of Harry Potter has captured the imagination of a large number of America’s children. And I suppose not just children.
Harry and his friends are likeable, up-and-coming sorcerers. As such, they always try to come up with the proper magical incantation for any situation, by which they seek to take control of that situation and bring about a positive outcome.
Over the years, some Christian parents have been concerned about the popularity of Harry Potter. They have feared that these books and movies might be creating in their children an unhealthy interest in the occult or in witchcraft, while sugar-coating the truly dark and demonic character of sorcery.
Others point out, however, that our popular culture is filled with children’s stories that involve spell-casting, such as Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, and the Wizard of Oz. But these have not created an undue interest in sorcery among our children.
Apart from the question of whether such fictional stories are spiritually dangerous or not, we can say that it is contrary to the Christian religion to believe that these kinds of incantations are available to us, and might be used by us: allowing us to have power over our circumstances, and to change our circumstances according to our wishes.
But what are we to think of the promises that Jesus makes in today’s Gospel from St. John? Is Jesus perhaps giving us a Christian “incantation” that we can use to get the things we want when we pray? He says:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. … Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
It almost seems as if the Lord is telling us that if we say the phrase “in the name of Jesus,” or something like that, when we request something in prayer, then we will be sure to get it.
Yet we are warned away from such an interpretation by our Small Catechism. It reminds us, in its explanation of the Second Commandment, that
“We should fear and love God, so that we do not…practice witchcraft…by His name, but call upon Him in every trouble, pray, praise, and give thanks.”
This is not a warning against flagrant Satanism or the Wiccan religion, which are already covered by the prohibitions of the First Commandment. It is, rather, a warning against using the name of God – and that includes the name of Jesus Christ – in a magical, manipulative way.
In summary, we don’t automatically get what we want just by saying the phrase “in the name of Jesus” when we pray, as if this phrase were an incantation.
If God does not already want us to have something, we cannot make him give it to us by throwing a certain set of words at him. That’s not the way of true faith, and that’s not the way of true prayer.
In fact, Jesus warns us that when his name is placed upon us in our baptism, and when we accordingly pray in this name and confess this name before others, things will probably go worse for us in this life than what would be the case if we had never become Christians. Elsewhere in John’s Gospel, Jesus says to his disciples:
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. … If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. … But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.”
So, having and using the name of Jesus is not a formula for success and prosperity in this sinful world. It is, instead, a formula for putting yourself on the receiving end of this sinful world’s hatred and persecution. As Jesus tells his disciples in today’s text:
“In the world, you will have tribulation.”
But we are often unwilling to bear patiently the trials that are laid upon us in this world. We would prefer a religion that “works” for us, and that brings us happiness and success – as the world would measure those things.
So we often act and speak as if we think that God owes us comfort, health, and fair earthly outcomes. When we don’t experience these things, then we doubt God and wonder why he is afflicting us with whatever it is we are facing.
I suppose the fact that we so quickly and presumptuously complain about such trials – when we do pass through them – is evidence of the weakness and immaturity of our faith; and is evidence of our need for these chastisements precisely so that our faith might be refined and refocused through the purifying effect of those trials.
But at other times, too, God strengthens our faith by allowing difficult circumstances to come into our life – and by not removing those circumstances even when we ask him to. This prompts us to exercise our faith, and it deepens our trust in him and in his goodness, as we call out to God for help in the midst of those circumstances.
In a letter that he wrote while his wife was fighting a losing battle with cancer, C. S. Lewis spoke for many of us as we face grief and anguish in this life:
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us. We are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be.”
Thomas a Kempis, the well-known Medieval devotional writer, offers some observations that are just as pertinent to our time as they were to his own. He writes:
“Jesus has many lovers of His kingdom of heaven, but He has few bearers of His cross. Many desire His consolation, but few desire His tribulation. He finds many fellows at eating and drinking, but finds few that will be with Him in His abstinence and fasting. All men would rejoice with Him, but few would suffer anything for Christ. Many follow Him to the breaking of His bread for their bodily refection, but few will follow Him to drink a draft of the chalice of His Passion. Many marvel and honor His miracles, but few will follow the shame of His cross.”
Asking God the Father for things “in the name of Jesus” is not a formula for getting what we want. It is not an incantation that we can repeat, in order to be able to eat, drink, and be merry in this life, courtesy of God.
But if these interpretations of what it means to pray in this name are wrong, what is the correct interpretation?
Well, according to the Biblical understanding of the word “name,” a “name” refers to a lot more than just the term that we use to call out to someone, or to differentiate one person from another. Rather, according to the Scriptural view, an individual’s “name” involves and includes everything by which that individual makes himself known and identifies himself to others.
The name of Jesus, then, is everything about him that he has made known to us in his Word, and that he has impressed upon our minds and hearts through his gospel and sacraments. When we believe in his “name,” therefore, we are believing in him, and in all the promises he has made to us concerning our salvation. That’s why St. John says:
“To all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
And in explaining to his readers why he had included in his Gospel the things that he did include, John also says this:
“But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
When you have the name of Jesus, you have Jesus himself and all his blessings. When you believe in the name of Jesus, you believe in his whole Gospel and are a child of God through that faith.
There is no magic formula or incantation that we can recite when we pray, in order to get what we want. But there is a name – a divine, holy, righteous, and forgiving name – which changes our standing before God when it is placed upon us; and which changes our hearts and the desires of our heart, our minds and the thoughts of our mind, when it is planted within us.
When the name of Christ is proclaimed to us, the righteousness of Christ is credited to us to cover over the stain of our sins. And as we receive this gracious proclamation in faith, we thereby also receive the right and privilege to approach God in prayer.
Primarily, we pray with open hands, to receive what God gives – whatever that might be. But God also invites us humbly to lay our petitions before him. What will be the content of those petitions?
As we grow in our faith, the maturity of our life of prayer also grows. As the name of Jesus imbeds itself ever more deeply into our conscience, we think less and less about what we want, and we think more and more about what God wants us to have, for our true and lasting good.
That’s why prayers that are offered in the name of Jesus are accompanied by a pledge from our Savior that they will be heard and granted.
A prayer motivated by greed, selfishness, or a love of luxury is not a prayer that is spoken in the name of Jesus, regardless of the formulation that might be tacked on at the end of the prayer. Such a prayer has no guarantee of success.
In fact, the only thing we can be sure of regarding such a prayer is that God is not pleased with it, and may in fact chastise us for it.
But a prayer that is genuinely offered in the name of Jesus, is a prayer that is offered from within the Christ-centered faith that God’s Spirit gives us. It is a prayer that is offered from within the saving relationship that Christ has established with us.
A prayer that is offered in the name of Jesus is a prayer that is shaped and molded by the Word of Jesus. It is a prayer that is brought to life within us by the new birth of our baptism. It is a prayer that is nourished within us by the heavenly food of the Lord’s body and blood.
As Jesus warns, in this world we will have tribulation. Sometimes a lot, and sometimes a little, but tribulation in some measure there will always be.
And this tribulation will come in various forms and from different directions: through outward attacks and setbacks, and through inner struggles and temptations. In one form or another, tribulation will always be a part of life in this world. We cannot pray it away.
But listen to what Jesus also says in the context of his remarks about the inevitability of tribulation:
“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”
When in the midst of tribulation you pray in the name of Jesus for the peace that the world cannot give – the peace of a conscience that has been fully and completely forgiven by Christ – God the Father will grant that prayer!
When in the midst of tribulation you pray in the name of Jesus that God’s Spirit would draw you ever closer to your Savior in a deep, mystical union with him, God the Father will grant that prayer!
When in the midst of tribulation, you pray in the name of Jesus for the assurance of your ultimate victory over sin and death through the power of Christ’s resurrection – by which he has indeed overcome the world and all its dark forces – God the Father will grant that prayer! Jesus says:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. … Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Praying in a manner that is more like a demand on God, than like a humble submission to God, and speaking the name of Jesus as an incantation rather than as a confession of faith, do not result in joy.
But praying in God’s way with God’s words – on the basis of God’s revelation of what we truly need, and on the basis of God’s promises of what he wants to give us – does bring joy. Prayer that is offered from within our faith in Christ’s sacred name brings true joy, even in the midst of suffering and sadness.
And God’s faithful answering of such prayers, according to his loving will, renews confidence in God, even in the midst of doubts and fears.
God’s answers to such prayers, as his Word reveals those answers, bring satisfaction with God’s provision, and contentment under God’s protection: even when the world, the flesh, and the devil would want to draw us away from the blessings of the gospel and of faith, into dissatisfaction with God, and toward a denial of God.
What we learn about prayer also from Psalm 55 is a lesson we should apply whenever we offer our petitions to the Lord. Let us listen to what this Psalm tells us, as the conclusion of this message about prayer in the name of Jesus:
“My heart is in anguish within me; the terrors of death have fallen upon me. But I call to God, and the Lord will save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice. Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved.” Amen.