John 16:23-33
In today’s Gospel from St. John, Jesus says:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
This is one of many passages in the Gospels where Jesus speaks of prayer, of the importance of prayer, and of the benefits of prayer. In St. Luke’s Gospel, we are also told that, on one occasion,
“Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…’”
Why did this disciple ask for such instruction? Why should people know how to pray, and why should they then pray?
Today we will seek God’s own answers to these questions in Holy Scripture. On this subject of prayer, we will also welcome some guidance into and through the Scriptures, from Luther’s Large Catechism.
To begin with, we can clear away some of the incorrect reasons why some people might be inclined to pray; and some of the misperceptions that are out there, as to why praying people do in fact pray.
We do not pray in order to persuade God to do things that he otherwise would not do. Likewise, we do not pray in order to inform God of our needs, or of the desires of our heart, which would otherwise be unknown to him.
God already knows everything. That means that he already knows what is best for you and others, and he already intends to do what is best.
St. John says in his First Epistle: “God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything.”
The Book of Proverbs says: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.”
And as we read in the Book of Job: “With God are wisdom and might; he has counsel and understanding.”
The Large Catechism points out that God
“wants you to lament and express your needs and concerns, not because he is unaware of them, but in order that you may kindle your heart to stronger and greater desires, and open and spread your apron wide to receive many things.”
God already knows your problems. But he wants you to know them.
He wants you, with honesty and humility, to acknowledge your problems to be the problems that they really are; and to acknowledge him as the God who alone can solve them. He wants you to wrestle with him in prayer, and to be ardent and persistent in your requests, not for his sake, but for yours.
As you think through how you will bring your concerns to the Lord in prayer, you will thereby come to a better understanding of what your concerns actually are.
Praying about your problems causes you to think more seriously about those problems. And it causes you to think more seriously about the fact that only God can truly solve those problems.
Also, contrary to what some might imagine, our prayers are not meritorious works that we perform for God, or offer to God, in order to earn his favor. God is the one who gives us the faith that inclines us to pray.
And through His Word, he is also the one who guides and shapes the content of our prayer. All of our prayers should be based on and derived from the teachings of Holy Scripture. But this principle is most clearly applied in our use of the Lord’s Prayer.
There are two places in the New Testament where Jesus teaches this basic prayer to his disciples, as recorded by St. Matthew and again by St. Luke. God himself, in the person of Christ, teaches this prayer to us. As the Large Catechism explains it, he thereby
“takes the initiative and puts into our mouths the very words and approach we are to use. In this way, we see how deeply concerned he is about our needs. And we should never doubt that such prayer pleases him and will assuredly be heard.”
When you in faith speak the Lord’s Prayer – or another prayer that is modeled after it – you can do so with confidence and certainty. You are able to know that God is pleased with your prayer.
You are able to know that you are asking for the kind of things that he wants you to ask for, because he himself has told you that this is how you should pray.
Through the proclamation of God’s Word, God’s Spirit also gives you the faith that prompts within you the desire to call upon him in prayer. In his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul asks:
“But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ … So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”
Your life of prayer is not something you do for God. It is something God does for you.
And what are the reasons why we should pray? Why should we be eager to learn from Jesus how and why to speak to God, just as his original disciples wanted Jesus to teach them how to pray?
There are basically two reasons. First, we should pray to God because God commands it.
Now, from the perspective of the doctrine of God’s attributes, it might seem to us that there would be no logical reason to pray. God is all-knowing and all-powerful, and is going to do whatever he wants anyway.
But such human speculations cannot negate God’s clearly-revealed mandate that we come to him with our petitions and thanksgivings. The Large Catechism again instructs us that, according to the Second Commandment,
“we are required to praise the holy name and to pray or call upon it in every need. For calling upon [God’s holy name] is nothing else than praying. Prayer, therefore, is…strictly and solemnly commanded.”
We are sinning against God if we refuse or neglect to call upon his name, and to acknowledge him alone as the source of all that is good. He alone is the almighty creator of all things.
No other being in the supernatural realm has the right to be the recipient of the devout pleadings of our heart. And we have no right to ask any creature, whether saint or angel, for the kind of divine help that only God can give; or for the kind of divine favor that only God can show.
The First Commandment, “You shall have no other gods before me,” must mean, if it means anything, that we may not call upon any other entity, whether real or imagined, in the same way as we call upon the Triune God. It is he who has placed his name upon us in our baptism – as our Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier – and who has thereby staked his rightful claim on all of our worship and devotion.
But God does not only command us to pray. He also invites us to pray, with the sweetest and most comforting promises. That is the second reason why we should pray.
In a commentary on one of the Psalms, the Large Catechism states:
“As [God] says in Psalm 50, ‘Call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.’ And Christ says in the Gospel, in Matthew 7, ‘Ask, and it will be given you.’ … Such promises certainly ought to awaken and kindle in our hearts a longing and love for prayer.”
The prayers of a Christian are pleasing to our heavenly Father for one important reason: because they are offered through faith in his Son Jesus Christ. Because of our human sin we would not otherwise be worthy to approach a holy God. St. Paul warns in his Epistle to the Romans that
“the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.”
If an unbeliever would presume to approach God in prayer, in the arrogance of a self-righteous heart, and suppressing in his darkened mind the truth of his sin and of his need for a Savior, the best consequence for him would be for the Lord to ignore him. If such a person did get God’s attention, the result would be divine judgment, not divine blessing.
But in Christ, as we in prayer approach a holy God with repentance and faith, we do not fear this judgment. God is not only holy and righteous in himself, but in his Son he also credits his holiness and righteousness to us, and covers our sin with it for the sake of Jesus Christ.
In his Epistle to the Romans, St. Paul writes that God’s righteousness
“will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
That’s what forgiveness means. When God forgives, he forgets. In Psalm 103 we praise God’s unmeasurable mercy toward us precisely for this reason:
“He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”
This is the loving God who invites us to pray to him in the name of Jesus, our Savior. This is the loving God who invites us to call upon him as children call upon their dear father.
Some may have the idea that God is more likely to hear the prayers of those whom he considers to be saints. Therefore, when they ponder their own weaknesses and imperfections, they hesitate to address the Lord themselves.
In a certain sense this supposition is correct. God does hear the prayers of his saints. But in Christ, God counts you to be one of his saints!
St. Paul addressed one of his epistles “To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Another was addressed “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi.”
These letters were addressed to whole congregations of believing Christians, not only to a select few who had risen to a higher level of sinless spirituality. In fact, no one on this side of the grave ever rises to such a level.
But all of us, as we struggle against the ongoing temptations that we face every day, and as we repent of our daily failures, are also invited to believe that for Jesus’ sake, we are forgiven; that we are declared to be saints; that we are justified by faith; and that we are helped and sustained by our Lord in all of our fears and trials.
Christ delivered us from sin and death by his sacrifice on the cross. And by his glorious resurrection, he opened up for us the pathway to eternal life with God. Through him, and in his name, we are therefore free to pray to our heavenly Father, without fear, and without ceasing.
To pray “in the name of Jesus” is not a mere formula. It is a faith – a faith that is shaped by the revelation of the Savior in whom we trust, and that accordingly guides and shapes the content and character of any prayer that is offered on the basis of that revelation.
St. John’s Gospel quotes Jesus as telling his disciples:
“Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
But just a few verses later, Jesus also says this:
“The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things.”
And so, the Holy Spirit, sent to us in Jesus’ name, and coming into our minds and hearts through the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments, teaches us the meaning of the prayer that is then to be offered to God in Jesus’ name. We do not teach God the meaning of our prayer, by the demands that we make on him when we pray.
To pray in the name of Jesus is not to compel or cajole God to give us what we want because we have “said the magic words,” as it were. It is, rather, to open ourselves up, in humility, to receive what Jesus wants for us, and to bring our wishes and desires into harmony with his wishes and desirers for us – and for the other people for whom we are praying.
As we pray, the perfect forgiveness of our Savior covers over all of our imperfections and flaws. His perfect forgiveness also covers over any imperfections and flaws that may be present in the words of our prayer, in the thoughts that are reflected in our prayer, and in the motives for our prayer.
Our prayers, flawed though they may be, are therefore not judged by God as inadequate and unacceptable. They are instead lovingly received and heard by God for the sake of the perfection of Christ, who prayed his high priestly prayer for us, and who even now intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father.
The Large Catechism speaks for us all when it summarizes the faith of a believing and praying Christian:
“Here I come, dear Father, and pray not of my own accord, nor because of my own worthiness, but at your commandment and promise, which cannot fail or deceive me.”
Jesus says:
“Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” Amen.