“The Joy of Prayer” John 16:23-33 Easter 6 –
May 12 – 13, 2012
In
the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When you
read through the Gospels, one of the things that stands out is how often Jesus
prays. Before significant events, we find Jesus praying. We are often told that
early in the morning, before the sun comes up, Jesus goes off by Himself to
pray. Before He performs miracles, He often lifts His eyes to heaven and prays.
Praying, for Jesus, is like eating, sleeping, and breathing. Something that is
not just important to Him, but is part of the fabric of His life; which He
cannot live without.
Clearly,
this shows us that the relationship between Jesus and His Father is a close and
intimate one. And not simply because Jesus is God
of God, Light of Light, very God of very God (Nicene Creed) - but also for Jesus according to His
human nature. Jesus, as a man without sin, has that fellowship with God that we
lost when Adam fell into sin. He has that fellowship with the Father that the
Father wants to have with us; that the Father, in love, created us to have with
Him.
The good
news for us today is that in the Holy Gospel, Jesus is teaching us that that
close, intimate fellowship He has with the Father is now again ours. What sin had
rent asunder, Jesus has joined together again. For He says, “In that day . . . whatever you
ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. . . . 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 have
overcome the world.”
That
day that
Jesus is talking about there, when all this would happen, is the day of
resurrection. The day when Jesus overcame the world - and its prince and its
sin and its death - through His death on the cross and His rising to life
again. Before, in the time of the Old Testament, the tabernacle and the temple,
the priests and the sacrifices were needed as mediators to approach God. But
now things will be completely different. Now, in Jesus, we can approach the
Father. For Jesus is not just our mediator, who stands between us and God -
that we pray to Jesus and ask Him to take our requests to the Father. No, He
says; “I do not say to you
that I will ask the Father on your behalf. . . . You ask the Father in my name, [and] he
will give it to you.” Or
as Jesus taught before, “When
you pray, say, Our Father . . .” (Matt 6:9). He will hear
you, He will answer you, He will give to you.
He will,
for when you were baptized, Jesus’ Father became your Father. We are not sons
of God by right, but by gift.
For when
you were baptized, Jesus grabbed hold of you and took you with Himself through
His death and resurrection, so that with Him, you now live in that day Jesus was speaking of - the day of
resurrection; the day of new life. That means that when you were baptized, your
separation from God was washed away in the forgiveness of your sins, and you
were given that life. The life God created you to have. A life and intimacy
like Adam and Eve in the Garden before sin. A life and intimacy like Jesus.
You have
that life, even now. You may not realize it, or be living it, but you have it.
For that’s what forgiveness does. Forgiveness is not getting away with your sins
- like the criminal who gets away with his crime because of a technicality;
forgiveness is much more than that. It restores you. It releases you from the
yoke of slavery to sin, and gives you the freedom of the Gospel. A freedom not to sin, but a freedom from sin and its devastating effects. That
you may live a new life.
For the
word of forgiveness that you heard again this morning is no mere word, spoken
by a mere man, but words backed by the full faith and credit of your Savior
Jesus Christ and His blood that atoned for all your sin. His word which speaks a better word than the blood
of Abel, which cried for vengeance (Heb
12:24); for Jesus’ blood cries for pardon. And Jesus then commanded these words
of pardon be spoken to you, that you may know, that you may be confident, that
you may live, that your joy
may be full.
Part of
that joy is the joy of prayer. We may not always think of prayer as joy, but
that’s the thinking of the Old Adam in us; the old, sinful, separated Adam. But
as sons of God, with the new life of Jesus given to us, not only have we been resurrected to a new life, but so have our prayers. That
we may live and pray as Jesus. That prayer become for us like eating, sleeping,
and breathing. Something that is part of the fabric of our life; which we
cannot live without. Something that gives us joy.
Now, to
be sure, many of the things that we pray for do not give us joy.
Jesus was often grieved at what He saw His creation going through - the trials
and tribulations and travails of sin. But how wonderful to know that we can
bring these needs right to the ear of our Father in heaven. Prayer is not like
a letter or a phone call; it’s not even like a text or an e-mail. Prayer is
like the child whispering right into her parent’s ear - or, maybe on this
Mother’s Day, I should say right into her mother’s ear! - knowing that she is
heard and not ignored; knowing that there is no place else for those words to
go than into the ear and heart of her parent; knowing that she can whisper
anything, and it will not be rejected. The answer may not always be yes, but the prayer is always
heard and answered.
Even if
your earthly father and mother were not like that, but you yearned for them to
be, your Father in heaven has promised you this. That is what Jesus is teaching
us today. Baptism has made us children of God, put us on our Father’s lap, and
opened His ears and heart to us. There is nothing we cannot ask. He will hear,
He will answer, He will give.
So we
now have the joy of prayer, to pray for all people in all sorts of need. For
how often do you wish there was something you could do - when you see a
disaster on the news, when you’re sitting at the side of a hospital bed, when
your neighbor loses his job, when a family is torn apart, when you see a homeless
person sleeping on the street, when you see a person stuck in sin. You have the
joy of bringing that person to your almighty and merciful Father in prayer, to
whisper them into His ear, and know that He, in His goodness, will do what is
good.
They may not be able to pray. They may not know
their Father in heaven, or Jesus as their Savior. But you do, and you can pray
for them. Just as Jesus prays for us in our need, so you have that joy and
privilege now as well. And if you don’t know what to say or what to pray, Jesus
has given you those words as well. Our
Father, who art in heaven . . .
Do not
think your prayers are not needed. Scripture tells us that “The prayer of a righteous person
has great power” (James
5:16). And you are righteous, because you are of Christ, because you are
forgiven, because you are a baptized child of God.
But do
not think it will ever be easy. Though prayer be a joy, it is hard work. I
mentioned before that like Jesus, prayer is for us like eating, sleeping, and
breathing - but by that I did not mean to imply easy or automatic, but rather
something that we need to live. Something that we were created to do. So it is
with prayer. We were created to have this fellowship with God, but how much in
this world and life hinders our prayers! Our Old Adam telling us there are more
important things to do, that you’re too busy to pray. The old, evil foe
whispering in your ear that your prayers really don’t matter. The world telling
you that rather than pray, you should get up off your knees and do something.
Well,
while there is a time to get off your knees and do
something, there is also a time to be on your knees. And the reason why the
devil tries to convince us that our prayers really don’t matter is because they do matter. And our we really too busy to
pray? Is what we do really more important than what our
Father in heaven can do?
So our
Lord has commanded us to pray, like mothers tell their children to brush their
teeth - not just to do something good, but because He knows we need it. And our
Lord has not just commanded us to pray, but has added these promises to His
command, that we might pray all the more, and confidently: knowing that He will
hear, that He will answer, that He will give.
As you
come to the altar today to receive the body and blood of Your Savior, Your Lord
renews those promises to you, as the forgiveness and life of Jesus are given to
you. That resting here in God’s house and being served
by Him, breathing in His Word, and eating His very body and blood, you grow and
be formed into the image of Christ - the image lost in sin, but restored in
Him. That image which is not a possession, but a life. A life of close,
intimate fellowship with your Father in heaven - a life which is given at the
font, lives through the altar, and reaches its goal in heaven.
You have
that life. Yes, you do! So pray, children of God. Pray. Pray boldly. Pray
confidently. Pray joyously. For you have the ear of your Father in heaven who
loves you.
In
the Name of the Father, and of the (+) Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
