The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: St. John 16:23-30
In Christ Jesus, who has taught us to pray with all boldness and confidence because He has died for us, risen from the dead, and ascended to the right hand of the Father, dear fellow redeemed:
If there was something you wanted as a child, who were you more likely to ask: your mom or your dad? There were a number of factors to consider: First of all, their track record—who said “yes” more often than “no.” Second, their level of stress—who was in a better state of mind to consider your request. Third, their natural interest in your particular idea—for example, dad was maybe more disposed to say “yes” to ordering pizza, while mom was more willing to say “yes” to going to a friend’s house. There were some important calculations you had to make—and possibly some minor manipulations—to get your way.
This is not the sort of approach we need to take in praying to God. We do not need to guess what He might be thinking before we make our request. “For who has known the mind of the Lord?” (Rom. 11:34). We do not need to hope He is happy with us and looks with favor upon us before we pray. “For God so loved the world” (Joh. 3:16). We do not need to appeal to one Person of the Triune God over another, as though one is harder to approach or less willing to hear. For “God is one” (Gal. 3:20).
There is much in this world that discourages our prayer. But there is much in Jesus’ Word that encourages it. First of all, the obstacles to prayer. One of the obstacles to prayer is the thought that we don’t have time to pray. We have so much to do. We have to keep up with kids and work and appointments. We hardly have time to eat and exercise the way we want to. Even if we did carve out a few minutes for prayer, our brains are so full of what else needs to get done, that we could not focus anyway.
Another obstacle is our lack of confidence that we are praying in the right way. We know people who are good at it, it seems to come naturally to them, but that isn’t us. We stumble over our thoughts and our words. We imagine that God is in heaven shaking His head at our attempt. This obstacle is closely related to another one: I am not worthy to pray. Who am I to think God would ever want to hear my prayers? I have sinned too much. I haven’t been loving or kind to others like I should be. I don’t deserve to have what I want to ask for. The thought of trying to pray just makes me feel guilty.
Another obstacle is the thought that my praying won’t accomplish anything that isn’t already in God’s plan. This goes along with the idea that God has predetermined everything. He knows what He will do, and there’s nothing I can do to change that. So why pray? He knows what I need; He doesn’t need me to ask Him. Closely connected to this obstacle is the notion that God probably isn’t going to give me what I ask for, so why increase my frustration and pain for giving prayer a try and having it fail?
These are common obstacles to prayer. I am confident they sound familiar to you. If you polled one hundred Christians, I think the vast majority of them would say that their practice of prayer is weak or nearly non-existent. Our goal today is not to give you a list of ways to form a habit of prayer, to teach you to become a more effective pray-er, or to try to convince you how fun this can be. That would be trying to motivate you with the Law, and that would only lead to more guilt and failure. Instead, we will focus on the promises of Jesus, on His encouragements to pray, and the power and grace He imparts to us to bring our requests to God.
At the beginning of today’s reading, Jesus says, “Truly, truly—Amen, amen—I say to you.” Whenever He doubles the word “amen” or “truly,” we should listen carefully. He is saying something immovable, something He wants us to take to heart and keep there. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you.”
This is a glorious passage! Jesus is saying that there is no barrier between us and the Almighty Father, Maker of heaven and earth. Jesus taught His disciples in every time and place to pray, “Our Father, who art in heaven.” In the Catechism, Martin Luther beautifully explains what this means: “God would hereby tenderly invite us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that we may ask Him with all boldness and confidence, as children ask their dear father.”
The reason we can ask the Father with such boldness and confidence, and the way we do it, is “in Jesus’ name.” “In Jesus’ name” means in view of everything He did to save us. He paid for our sins, He overcame our death, He covers us in His righteousness. Because we are in Him, members of His body by faith, when the Father sees us, He sees His Son. When He hears us, He hears His Son. When He answers our prayers, He answers them as though His Son did the asking.
But if that is true, why don’t we receive everything we ask for? Did Jesus receive everything He asked for? Think about how He prayed in great agony in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before His death: “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done” (Luk. 22:42). Did Jesus receive what He asked for? The Father did not remove the cup of suffering from His Son. Jesus had to suffer the wrath of God and the fires of hell and die on the cross in order to make atonement for our sins. The Father’s love for us compelled Him to send His Son to suffering and death.
The cup of suffering was not removed from Jesus, but the Father’s will was done, and that is ultimately where Jesus left His request: “Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” We pray in the same way when we are praying for things that we’re not sure God wants to give us. “If it is Your will, help my injury to heal, my health to improve, my finances to stabilize, my family to grow.” It may be His will to let our struggles continue a while longer in order to train us in our faith, our patience, and our humility.
But we do not pray to the Father expecting to come up empty-handed. We pray with confidence, in full expectation that He wants to bless us and will bless us. Jesus said, “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (Mat. 7:11). The Father loves you! He sent His only Son to die in your place! If He did not care about you, He would not have done this, He would not provide for your daily needs, and He would not continue to bring His holy Word to your ears and heart.
You have a gracious, generous God. There are so many proofs of this in the abilities, interests, and skills He has given you; in the food, clothing, and home you enjoy; in the family and friends that surround you. You are part of a Christian congregation; you hear His saving Word; you receive His life-giving Sacraments; you have a pastor who cares for your soul (Heb. 13:17). Your God forgives you, comforts you, strengthens you, protects you. He loves to hear your prayers, and He loves to give His gifts: “Ask,” says Jesus, “and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
These promises all hinged on Jesus completing the work His Father sent Him to do. Jesus said: “I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” The disciples did not understand it at the time, but Jesus was telling them that He had to suffer and die, and that He would rise again and return in glory to His Father. His “leaving the world and going to the Father” at His ascension was the sign that His saving work was finished. It was the proof that the way was opened to the Father, that every believer has direct access to the Father in prayer.
Jesus’ death and resurrection to save our souls, His righteousness that covers us, His name placed on us in Baptism, is why we are confident in prayer. Through His Word and Sacraments, the Holy Spirit imparts the grace we need for praying. The Holy Spirit works in us the desire to speak to our Father in Jesus’ name, to bring all our concerns, struggles, and wants to Him, and to have confidence that everything we need, “whatever [we] ask,” rests in His merciful and all-powerful hands.
We don’t need to wait for the perfect time to pray; we don’t need to pray in the perfect way; we don’t need to wonder if God is ready to hear us or worry how He will respond. Effectiveness in prayer does not depend on how well we do it or on pulling the right strings. It depends on the love of God toward us. He wants us to pray. He promises to hear us. He loves us with a perfect love which means He is not looking to criticize us or judge us harshly for our weakness in prayer.
Like a dear mother or father who patiently and gladly listens to the request of a child, God listens to us. He knows all things, so He knows what is best for us. He will answer our prayers in such a way that we are spared from the weak impulses and inclinations of our sinful nature and are instead confirmed in His grace and truth. His perfect answers to our prayers increase our joy and move us to respond to Him in words of thanks and praise. So we say:
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus and the Little Child” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: Judges 16:18-30
In Christ Jesus, the greater and perfect Samson, who delivered us from all our enemies, dear fellow redeemed:
There is an error about prayer hanging around some of the branches of the Christian Church. The error is the idea that if you pray with enough faith, or if you have proven yourself worthy before God by your good works, then He will give you exactly what you ask for. When people who are taught this do not receive what they pray for, they have a crisis of faith. They assume that God must be punishing them for something. They picture Him looking upon them with fierce wrath instead of looking upon them with mercy.
We see a different picture in God’s dealings with Samson. But first, a little backstory is helpful. Before Samson’s mother had him, she had been unable to have children. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said that she would “conceive and bear a son” (Jud. 13:3). He would be dedicated to the LORD, and his parents were directed to let his hair grow. As he got older, we are told that “the LORD blessed him. And the Spirit of the LORD began to stir in him” (13:24-25).
One of the ways the Holy Spirit “began to stir in him” was by giving him tremendous physical strength. On one occasion, a young lion charged at him roaring. “Then the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him, and… he tore the lion in pieces” (14:6). The same language is used later on—“the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him”—and he single-handedly killed thirty men among the Philistines who ruled at that time over the Israelites (v. 19). The LORD was using Samson to deliver the Israelites from their oppressors.
For his next act, he caught 300 foxes, tied them together in pairs and put a torch between them. Then he set them loose in the Philistines’ grain fields and olive orchards, and much was destroyed. The Philistines came after him, and with the jawbone of a donkey in his hand, Samson killed 1,000 of them. Another time, he tore out the gates and posts of one of their cities and carried it in one piece and set it on the top of a hill. Samson was a big problem for the Philistines.
And Philistine women were a big problem for Samson. We meet one of them in today’s reading, a woman named Delilah. The Philistine rulers promised her great riches if she would “seduce him” and find out “where his great strength lies” (16:5). Samson told her that if he were bound with seven fresh bowstrings, he would become weak. When he fell asleep, she bound him with seven fresh bowstrings, but when he woke up, he broke them easily. She kept trying. He told her that fresh ropes would do it, but he broke those too. Then he said if his hair were tied into a weaver’s loom, he would become weak. Delilah did this, but it didn’t work either.
It is obvious that Delilah could not be trusted, but she wouldn’t give up. She kept pressing and pressing until Samson finally gave in. “A razor has never come upon my head,” he said, “for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head is shaved, then my strength will leave me, and I shall become weak and be like any other man” (16:17). You heard what happened next. The Philistines shaved his head while he slept, and when they attacked him, he figured he would defeat them like before. But “his strength left him” because “the LORD had left him.”
Samson had taken his strength for granted. He felt invincible. He thought he could not be defeated. He had forgotten where his strength came from. He had forgotten to put his trust in God and follow the LORD’s will. He was full of pride, and that led to his fall (Pro. 16:18). It was a tremendous fall. The Philistines gouged out his eyes and made him grind at the mill in their prison. Then they gathered for a great feast to their god Dagon to celebrate Samson’s defeat, and they brought Samson in to entertain them. We can imagine the abuse and mockery hurled toward him. He had killed so many of their people, but now here he was—weak, pathetic, a joke.
These hardships had given Samson time to reflect. He knew where he had gone wrong. He understood how foolish he had been. He realized how arrogant he had been and how faithless before God. We see this humility come out in his prayer to the LORD: “O Lord GOD, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, that I may be avenged on the Philistines for my two eyes.”
But why should God give back to Samson what he had so carelessly thrown away? He didn’t owe Samson anything. Samson had been given a great gift from God, and he sold it for the charms of Delilah. Samson deserved to be the Philistines’ slave. He deserved their ridicule and torment. Why should the LORD listen to his prayer?
The same question might come to our minds. None of us have had the strength of Samson, but like Samson, we have taken God’s gifts for granted. We have not used our ability to think in pure and dedicated service to the LORD. We have not always used our mouths for His glory and honor. We have not always used our physical abilities to serve Him and our neighbors. We have treated these gifts as though they originated with us and not with God. Why should the LORD listen to our prayers?
The answer is not that we have somehow earned the right to have God hear us because our faith is strong enough or we have proven ourselves worthy before Him. We know this is not the case. The reason the LORD listens to our prayers is because He is merciful—full of mercy—toward us. He is not watching us and keeping a tally of all the things we do and say and think that are wrong, to see when the scale tips or the balance shifts away from His favor. If this were the case, our fate would have been sealed long ago for our sins against Him.
But as He looked upon Samson, so He looks upon us. He knows far more clearly than we do how we have sinned against Him. He sees every misdeed, every infraction, every transgression. We deserve nothing but torment from God for these sins, endless torture in the eternal prison of hell. But the LORD has mercy upon us. He saw us in all our weakness, surrounded by our enemies, unable to free ourselves, and He sent us a Savior.
Like the angel who spoke to Samson’s mother, an angel appeared to the virgin Mary and said, “you will conceive in your womb and bear a son” (Luk. 1:31). The Spirit of the Lord was upon Him because He was the eternal Son of God. As He humbled Himself to carry out His saving work, Jesus appeared vulnerable and weak, but His enemies were not able to overcome Him. The devil, the roaring lion, rushed at Him with many temptations, the unbelieving world with all its power and resources tried to bury Him, death tried to hold Him fast in its dark chains. But all of them failed. He conquered them all.
He was our Samson, the strongest Man, who stood up to our formidable enemies. He had mercy on us in our weakness. He rescued us from the devil’s prison house. He paid the price for our transgressions. He suffered and died for our sins. This is how we know God the Father loves us—He sent His Son to redeem us by pouring out His holy blood. This is how we know God the Father is not punishing us for our wrongs—He punished His Son in our place.
Jesus’ death on the cross and His resurrection on the third day is also how we know the Father hears our prayers and wants to hear them. In today’s Holy Gospel, Jesus says, “the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God” (Joh. 16:27). Because of what Jesus has done, the way is open to the Father. He urges us to pray to Him as He says in Psalm 50, “call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me” (v. 15).
He knows that it is often in “the day of trouble” that we remember to pray to Him. It is when we are weak, when we are unable to control or fix something, when we don’t have answers, that we remember to bring these troubles to our LORD. This is what Samson did. He was weak, he couldn’t see, he was the object of everyone’s scorn, and he prayed for the LORD to give him strength. The LORD did. Samson pushed against the pillars of the house, and the house fell on the thousands of Philistines gathered there, killing more in Samson’s death than he had in his life.
The LORD had given him strength in his weakness, and He had done it for the sake of His people Israel to save them from their enemies. The LORD also works in you as the Holy Spirit strengthens and builds you up through His Word and Sacraments. He leads you to repent of your sins, to set aside your arrogance and pride, and put your trust in Him alone. He applies the saving work of Jesus to you, so you are comforted and assured of His grace.
The Holy Spirit also guides you in your prayers. He graciously brings your needs and concerns and requests before God. Romans 8:26 says, “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.” The Lord God wants to hear your prayers, and in His mercy, He promises to answer them in the way that is best for you, both for your earthly good and for your eternal salvation.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from stained glass by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, c. 1660)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Pr. Faugstad sermon
Text: James 1:22-29
In Christ Jesus, who did every good thing that His Father gave Him to do, so that we sinners would be covered in His righteousness, dear fellow redeemed:
The employee worked hard. He went above and beyond what was asked of him. He never took company things for his personal use. But he still got passed over for promotions in favor of co-workers who were less dedicated and less honest. Why should he work hard if no one notices?
The mother finds time in her busy schedule to put a meal together for her family, and all they can do is complain about what she made. How can they be so ungrateful?
The student tries to be friendly and helpful to her classmates, but they hardly acknowledge that she exists. Why should she be nice when no one seems to care?
We can relate to these situations or ones like them. Each of us has had the experience of doing good things for others, and then either having them not notice or having them criticize our efforts. That hurts! It makes us question whether it might have been better not to try at all. Or it makes us regret that we tried, along with the resolve not to try again in the future. In other words, “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
But there’s a problem with this approach: It makes our doing of good contingent on receiving something in return. Then it’s fair to ask how good our good deed is, if there is really a selfish aim behind it. But how else are we supposed to operate? Who is able to keep doing good when the opposite is thrown back at them? If our good deeds never result in being promoted or thanked or treated with kindness and respect, then why should we try? Then What’s the Point of Doing Good?
We receive an answer to that question in today’s reading. Just before our text, James writes about the salvation we receive through the Word of God. We heard these words last week: “receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (v. 21). By calling it “the implanted word,” James indicates that God’s Word should grow in us, and that it should produce fruits in us and through us.
This is why he goes on to say that we should “be doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Notice that he does not say that doing is more important than hearing. In fact, one follows from the other. We are not ready to do until we have heard. Our faith and our salvation come from hearing, not from doing. This is what Romans 10 and Ephesians 2 teach, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (v. 7). And, “by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast” (vv. 8-9).
The great error of the Roman Church that Martin Luther called out at the time of the Reformation was the idea that a sinner’s salvation comes from a mixture of his faith and his good works. That is wrong for two reasons: 1) It takes the glory away from Christ who perfectly kept the Law for us and gave up His life to redeem our souls, and 2) it leads us either to pride in our works or to despair because of our failures.
The Bible teaches that salvation was won for us 100% by Jesus and is gifted to us by the work of the Holy Spirit. That is why we can be completely confident of our salvation. It was accomplished for us by Him. It happened outside of us, not inside us—apart from us, not with our assistance. God the Father declares us forgiven, redeemed, saved because of the perfect life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus.
This good news, this gracious reality imparted to us—it changes us. It changes our heart, our mind, our purpose, our plans. It changes the way we look at ourselves and at one another. This change is what James describes in his epistle. If we have rightly heard, he says, and faith has been worked in our hearts, then we will certainly do. We will reflect the love we have received from God out toward the people around us.
This love will make us stand out in a world that is so filled with hatred and self-righteousness. The Christian Church throughout history has always been known for its love. Christians have started countless hospitals, orphanages, care centers, soup kitchens, and food pantries around the world to help the poor, helpless, and lonely. Christians defend and care for those whom others cast aside, such as the crippled, the sick, the elderly, and the unwanted.
This is how James describes “pure and undefiled [religion] before God,” to care for those who are most in need, such as “orphans and widows in their affliction.” Then he adds that such pure religion is also, “to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Christians are in the world, but they are not of it. They have a special purpose, a special calling from God. They are set apart for holy things and holy works, even as they live in an unholy world.
But there is a problem: Christians are not perfect either. Often we, too, think selfishly about things. We focus on what others should be doing for us, instead of what we should do for them. Or we keep our faith so well disguised around our friends and co-workers, that they would never guess we believe in Jesus as our Savior. This is hypocrisy, which is one of the sins that James identifies in today’s reading.
It is hypocrisy when we say we believe what God says, but then we act or speak in ways that are contradictory to our beliefs. We have all in our own way played this game. We have been on good behavior around fellow believers but behaved just like our unbelieving acquaintances in other settings. Or we willingly compromised the truth when it seemed advantageous to do so.
In these ways, we don’t look much like the new creation we are through our Baptism into Christ. We don’t look like those who have been transformed by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit through the Word. We don’t look like those who are bound for the kingdom of heaven with the saints and angels who stand in the holy presence of God.
When God looks at how little we have accomplished and how much we have failed, it seems fair that He should ask, “What’s the point?” “What’s the point of all that I do for them, providing for their needs every day, pouring out my blessings upon them? What’s the point of forgiving their sins, when they just sin more and more? What’s the point of doing good to them?”
But God does not ask these questions. He doesn’t ask them, because His love toward us is perfect. It never falters. It never runs out. He does not second-guess His commitment toward us. He loves, because He is love (1Jo. 4:16). He does good toward us, because He is good.
His love is what caused Him to send His only Son to save us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (Joh. 3:16). God did not send His Son in order to get something from us. He sent His Son in order to give grace to us, by fulfilling the law for us, dying for us, rising from the dead in victory for us.
Jesus perfectly carried out this work to save our souls. He did not make His good words and good efforts contingent on others doing good to Him. He kept doing good things, even when He was opposed, mocked, and finally crucified. Even when the nails were piercing His flesh, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luk. 23:34).
Jesus’ perfect life of love is already counted as ours by faith. We have nothing to do to earn God’s favor or get ourselves to heaven. We get to work, we get to serve, we get to help, we get to pray for everyone in need as the special agents of God carrying out His mission in the world. “We love because he first loved us” (1Jo. 4:19).
Through the immeasurable love of God toward us, we learn how to love others. We learn that the hard work we put in (like the honest employee), the sacrifices we make (like the meal-making mother), and the kindness we show (like the helpful classmate), are not about what we can get or what we think we deserve. They are about what we can give in recognition of what God has given us. One of the best ways to give to others is to pray for them. This is how we bring their needs to God who promises always to answer our prayers in the way that is best.
God only does good toward us. There is no good apart from Him. We do good to others through our words and actions, because that is what He created and redeemed us for as His children. Since He never runs out of good, neither will we, because “every good gift” comes down to us “from the Father of lights” (Jam. 1:17). “Oh, give thanks unto the Lord, for He is good, for His mercy endures forever” (Psa. 106:1). Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(picture from “Jesus and the Little Child” by James Tissot, 1836-1902)
The Sixth Sunday of Easter – Vicar Anderson sermon
Text: St. John 16:23-30
In Christ Jesus, who teaches you the value, meaning, and the command of prayer, giving the Lord’s prayer as your model and guide, assuring you that He hears you, dear fellow redeemed:
Pastor and I have started another round of Christianity 101. Like the class in the fall, a statement is made to try and put people at ease. That statement is, “There is no such thing as a dumb question.” Now we might chuckle and think to ourselves questions that fit that category, we can also use this idea with our worship lives. Is there such a thing as a dumb prayer? Now I know when children hear the text say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you,” they can wonder if God will really give us anything. “Can God really give me my own semi-truck?” “Can He get me my very own race car?” As a child I may have had these questions, and even if they were childish then, our text today is very clear. Jesus is teaching about the power that prayer has. This power is not from us, but we see Christ’s work on display. It is through Him that the Heavenly Father hears His children’s prayers.
Our text starts with Jesus telling the disciples that their joy will be full when they ask in His name. He is pointing out that this joy is coming to them from God. God is with them, and He will not leave them or forsake them. Jesus is pointing this out because they can still have joy, even when there is great tribulation. The disciples forget about the joy they have from their heavenly Father as the night continues. Their joy that they have being with Jesus soon shatters as Jesus is arrested and taken away from them. Instead of joy, they run away in fear.
The disciples are trying to figure out what Jesus is talking about. Jesus admits to them that some of the things that He tells them, He is using figures of speech. Jesus is not saying these things to trick His disciples. There is important information that Jesus tells them plainly. The important information is that He will die and rise from the dead. The disciples do not want to believe this saying.
Jesus also tells the disciples where He came from. “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.” He points out that the disciples do believe this. That Jesus is the Son of God. They can pray to God the Father because they believe in the Son. Hours from now they will be asked to pray. Jesus would pray continually in the garden, but instead of praying, the disciples would fall asleep. They would not ask for strength and they would run away in fear.
We all have fears that the devil will try to use to paralyze us. Our fears can consume us. I don’t need to say, “think about being in the disciple’s shoes.” Each one of us has had a fear that has caused us to cower and many times, it can be from our sins. We can be struck with the fear that our sins could be brought into the light. This fear has been passed to us from our first parents. Adam and Eve tried to hide their sins from God. They sewed fig leaves to make clothes and when they heard God walking in the Garden, they hid among the trees. God knows their hiding place.
He also knows our hiding place. God sees all that we do, nothing is hidden from Him. Like Adam, Eve, and the disciples, how do we go to God when we have sinned against Him. He is a righteous judge. Yet we get in trouble because we do not go to Him when we have problems. We think that since God is upset with us, maybe we can just get ourselves out of the problem. God is right there to give us medicine, but we look the other way. How can the Father love us and answer us when we have failed to keep His commands?
Jesus is teaching His disciples about God’s command of prayer. God hears our prayers and commands us to do it. Now what is the problem with that? Well, we usually do two things. We can find ourselves in a group who don’t pray or pray very little. We think that we are controlling our lives. The devil enjoys when we are not going to God. He knows that when we are not praying, it means we are focused on ourselves. Then we go to God in prayer as a last resort when we find ourselves in a bad situation. There is another group who looks at prayer as something we are doing for God. That God needs our prayers to function. These prayers, like the last-minute ones, focus on me. Not on what God has done, but what I can do for God or what I demand from Him. As you might be wondering to yourselves, “how do I pray to God”, Jesus keeps you calm with the first thing He says in this text.
God the Father does hear His children. Jesus teaches the disciples that they can have comfort and joy because they know the truth. Jesus tells them that “you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” They understand that Jesus is true God. God the Father loves them because they loved and trusted His Son. They can go to God the Father as children because Jesus has taken away their sins and made them right with God. Even when they were going to still mess up. Jesus would soon leave them, but He would come back to them, rising from the dead!
Jesus’ glory shines forth and we see that He is not just a man. This is God in the flesh. No one can talk like this unless they came from God. The world needed someone to be able to answer God directly. We cannot do that because we are not perfect. Jesus however can talk to God directly because He has done all that His Father asked of Him. Jesus assures us just as He assured His disciples that the Father does hear us. He listens to our every word and Jesus explains why.
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” Jesus knows that you can’t go to God the Father on your own. He is a righteous judge. Jesus tells you that it isn’t because of anything that you can do to talk to God the Father. You needed a go-between. “For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5). You can ask for anything in Jesus’ name because He is your go-between. He stepped in front of God’s vision with His sacrifice on the cross for your sins. Your communication is restored with your heavenly Father because He comes to you through the work of Christ.
Christ’s redemptive work is the reason that you are children of God. You never need to think that God doesn’t hear your prayers. He is always listening. When life looks as though it will continue to push back on you, when it drives you into the lowest parts, it can feel and seem easy to not pray to God. It is in these hard moments where you look to the cross, see what Christ has done for you and know that God hears every prayer. He can even translate prayers when you are so hurt that it looks as though nothing will come out of your mouth.
As God translates even your silent prayers of pain, He has given you other prayers to pray. The psalms are rich prayers that still fit today. They remind you of where your prayers are supposed to come from. “O LORD, you hear the desire of the afflicted; you will strengthen their heart” (Psalm 10:17). Your prayers do not come from elaborate thoughts, they come from the heart. The psalms assure you that because of what Christ has done for you, you are heard here on earth.
Your Savior has also taught you a prayer that sometimes you take for granted. There is a reason that Jesus taught the Lord’s prayer. Think about the petitions, how many are focused on the things of this world? The fourth petition is the only petition that you pray that God would give you daily bread. Your daily bread is anything you need to take care of your body and life. All the rest of the petitions are about your spiritual needs. These are needs that you can sometimes forget about, and these are the most important. You are reminded that God is the One who takes care of you, not the other way around. And when you forget this, it is your Savior who has redeemed you that you can go to God as children go to their Fathers.
We do not need to be in fear or think that we don’t deserve this Fatherly love. We receive it not based on our own works. The Father loves us because of His Son. Christ died in our place and rose from the dead taking away our sins. It is because of what Christ has done for us that we don’t need to worry about our prayers. They are being answered by God himself. He is all around us, providing us with strength for our trials. Our prayers are not dumb in God’s eyes. He hears every word, even the words that won’t come out of our mouths. Nothing is too big or too small for God to handle. He will do everything according to His good and gracious will. Jesus teaches us that whatever we ask in His name God will hear. Our joy will be full because we know that we speak to God because of Christ. And because of Christ’s resurrection, we will speak to Him face-to-face when He calls us home. Amen.
Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, forevermore. Amen.
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(portion of “Crucifixion, Seen from the Cross,” by James Tissot, c. 1890)