Rogate, the Fifth Sunday after Easter (John 16:23-30)

Jesus had already taught His disciples how to pray. They approached Jesus back in Luke 11:1, saying, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” Jesus taught them to pray by giving them the Our Father, the Lord’s Prayer as we call it. Jesus begins by teaching them to approach God, His Father, as their Father. He is their father because they believe that Jesus is His Son who has come into the world to save sinners as St. Paul writes, “You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:26). Jesus teaches them to pray to God, to present their requests to God, as a child asks his earthly father for something he needs. Jesus also teaches them what to pray for. They are to pray that God’s name be hallowed, that is, that His Word be taught purely and plainly and that those who hear and believe would lead holy lives according to His word. They are to pray for God’s kingdom to come, that is, that the Holy Spirit works in their hearts through His word to create, sustain, and fortify their faith. They are to pray that God’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven. They pray against the devil’s will, the world’s will, and the will of their own sinful flesh, all of which hate God’s will and don’t want God’s name to be hallowed or His kingdom to come. Instead they pray that His will be done, and that it be done in them, so that they hallow His name in their teaching, in their belief, in their thoughts, their words, and every work.

He teaches them to pray for daily bread, everything that has to do with the nourishment and needs of the body. They know that God gives daily bread to everyone without prayer. David says in Psalm 145:16, “You open Your hand And satisfy the desire of every living thing.” But the disciples are to pray for daily bread so that they acknowledge that all they have is from their Father’s gracious hand. He teaches them to ask that their Father would forgive their sins, especially those of which they aren’t aware, and that, receiving His forgiveness, they might see in their forgiveness of others—when they repent—proof that their sins are, in fact, forgiven. He teaches them to pray for victory in the hour of temptation, that God would guard and keep them in every temptation, by relying on God’s promises, they might overcome every one of them. He teaches them to ask that their Father would deliver them from every evil of body and soul, and give them the blessed end of faith in Christ. This is how they are to pray. They are to use these words. They are also use these seven petitions as a pattern for their own prayers. Everything the baptized child of God needs—and desires—is contained in these seven petitions. Jesus had taught them how to pray, and they most certainly prayed to God, their Father in heaven.

But on the night in which He was betrayed, Jesus gave them something else. “In that day you will ask me nothing. Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.” Jesus has already taught them to ask God for whatever they needed in prayer. But they hadn’t asked anything of the Father in Jesus’ name yet. He teaches them to pray in His name now because He is about to accomplish His chief work as High Priest and Mediator between God and man. He will suffer greatly and die to pay for all the world’s sins. All who believe in Him as the only Mediator between God and man have the forgiveness of sins and His perfect righteousness, but also access to God the Father in His name. Jesus is the door into the heavenly throne room where we can ask our Father for all that we, as His dearly loved children, need. We’re barred from access to God the Father apart from faith in Christ. God does not hear the “If You’re up there” prayer. Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is.” God doesn’t hear the “I’ve been really good recently so I’d like something” prayer, for we are neither worthy of the things for which we pray, nor have we deserved them. Nor does God hear the “I intend to remain in my sin, but I need something” prayer, for David says in Psalm 66:18, “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear.” God only hears prayer prayed in the name of Jesus, which means prayer prayed by one who believes that it is only through Jesus’ suffering and death that we have access to the Father. To pray in Jesus’ name is to present our requests to God our Father humbly—for we don’t ask in our name—but also confidently, because we’re there in the name of His only-begotten Son with whom He is well pleased, who has said to us, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give to you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy may be full.”

There’s more to praying in Jesus’ name. The sinful flesh wants to turn prayer into a self-serving exercise, so that we pray, “My will be done,” rather than “Thy will be done.” The sinful flesh hears Jesus’ promise and twists it to mean that God will grant us anything we want, even sinful things. But God does not hear the prayer that asks for things contrary to His will in the Ten Commandments. God doesn’t command one thing and then give the opposite. No, praying in Jesus’ name means we pray according to Jesus’ will. And what is Jesus’ will? He said in John 5:30, “I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” So praying in Jesus’ name means to pray according to God’s will for us. And what is His will? This takes us back to the Lord’s Prayer, the Our Father, where Jesus tells us precisely what we are to pray for. These are the things God wants to give you. He wants to give you His Word taught purely and plainly. He wants to establish His reign in your heart by His Holy Spirit. He wants to give you everything you need for this body and life today. He wants to forgive your sins. He wants you to be victorious in every temptation. He wants to deliver you from every evil. Therefore, pray for these things. The Father promises to give them to you. Ask, so that you may receive, that your joy may be full, the joy of knowing that God is your Father and that He hears your prayer. And in those specific requests that God hasn’t promised to give, like physical healing, like a spouse, like the end to a specific affliction, pray boldly still, but humbly as Jesus Himself prayed in Gethsemane, “Not as I will, but as You will” (Mt 26:39).

But what about those times when we don’t feel like praying, when you become lax, lazy, or listless in your prayers? Every Christian experiences this. The devil works tirelessly to impede prayer and our sinful flesh is too easily distracted by the things of daily life which proclaim to be more important than prayer. How is this overcome? First, there’s the command to pray. It’s a sin if we don’t pray. When Israel asked Samuel to intercede for them, he told them, “Far be it from me that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you” (1 Sam 12:23). Second, there’s the promise Jesus gives us today, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give to you.” and elsewhere throughout the gospels. Third, there is our great need. There’s always something we need, or something someone else needs for which we can pray. And if we are still joyless in prayer, God’s word shows us His many gifts and our many needs. We can take each petition of the Lord’s Prayer and meditate upon them to see just how much we need. We can also meditate on the Ten Commandments as instruction—what God requires of us—then as thanksgiving—what God gives us and wants to protect by each commandment—then as confession of sins against each commandment, then as prayer in which we ask God our Father for forgiveness and a renewed spirit so that we might live cheerfully according to each commandment. In fact, we can take our Small Catechism when prayer is difficult, select any part, and by pondering it, fan into the flame the smoldering embers of our prayers until they rise like incense before God.

There is one other aspect of Jesus’ teaching today that spurs us to prayer. Jesus says, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the Father for you; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.” While Jesus makes intercession for us (Rom 8:34), we don’t ask Him so that He might then ask the Father for us. You have direct access to the Father in His name because the Father Himself loves you. Why does He love you? Because you have loved Me,” Jesus says, “and have believed that I came forth from God.” This is not the general love that God has for all mankind by which He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust (Mt 5:45). God loves all things He has created. But as He forgives all your sins because you believe in His Son, so He hears your prayers and grants them because you love the Son of His love (Col 1:13), His beloved Son with whom He is well pleased. By all these sayings our Lord Jesus readies our hearts and makes us eager to pray. With all these sayings, our Lord Jesus teaches us pray so that we don’t tempt God by babbling on and wandering aimlessly in our thoughts and words, but that we confidently approach our Father and clearly let our requests be made known to God. Jesus gives you access to God the Father, so that you may approach Him by faith in Christ, asking for the things He’s promised to give, and that in those things He hasn’t promised, His will would be done. And we know that He hears us. Not for our own sakes. Not because we deserve it. But because we come to Him as His dear children in Jesus’ name. Amen.