6^th Sunday after Easter (Rogate)                                                                              Peter K. Lange

May 17, 2009                                                                                         St. John’s Lutheran Church

John 16:23-30                                                                                                          Topeka, Kansas

Our text is today’s Gospel reading, from John chapter 16, where Jesus said:

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” (John 16:23b-24)

Today our Lord teaches us about prayer.

While scripture has much to say on the subject, the chief thing that jumps out in these verses is our Lord’s reference to prayer in his name. Three times we hear it in today’s Gospel reading:

“Whatever you ask of the Father in my name”…

“Until now you have asked nothing in my name”…

“In that day you will ask in my name.”

“In the name of Jesus.” That is how we pray. And today our Lord teaches us what it means to pray in the name of Jesus.

The first thing we see is that this is something new and different now to pray in the name of Jesus. Our Lord says to his disciples in verse 24:  “Until now you have asked nothing in my name.” Not that they hadn’t asked him for things, until now! Not that they hadn’t talked with Jesus for three years, or prayed to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God’s people had been doing for thousands of years. But until now, they had asked nothing—that is, they had not prayed—in Jesus’ name.

What does this mean?!

It means that everything was about to change! The death, resurrection, and ascension of our Lord, and the sending of His Holy Spirit would change forever the way that the people of God relate to the Father and approach him in prayer.

When the people of Israel grumbled against God in the wilderness, and God sent fiery serpents among them to punish them, what did the people do? In today’s Old Testament we heard that “the people came to Moses and said, `We have sinned, for we have spoken against Yahweh and against you. Pray to Yahweh, that he take away the serpents from us.” Note, the people didn’t pray on their own. They asked Moses to pray for them.

But now Jesus tells his disciples that their relationship with the Lord is about to change… and so will their privilege and means of access to him. “In that day…” Jesus says. “The hour is coming…” Jesus says. “In that day” you will ask in my name. And what is that day? It is that day, just a few days after Jesus spoke these words, when He who came from the Father and had come into the world would leave the world and go back to the Father. Jesus is talking about the culmination of his saving mission on earth. He’s talking about Good Friday, and Easter, and Ascension, and Pentecost, and how these things all rolled into one, this great culmination, would change forever the way that the people of God approach their Creator in prayer.

And what would be different then? What is different now for you and me who live on the other side of these watershed events? What is different is that the reconciliation of the world has been accomplished! You and I have been reconciled to God. Our estrangement is over. The shattered communication with God that resulted from the Fall has been repaired and restored. And all of this for Jesus’ sake—which means, “because of what he has done”. All this because, and only because, of the Savior’s death on the cross for us, and his resurrection from the grave to conquer death. Now because of these things it is as Jesus said in verse 27:  “The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.” This is what it means to pray in Jesus’ name. It means to believe and trust that we have access to our Father and Creator only because of what Jesus has done for us on the cross. …Not because prayer is a universal right. Not because we deserve to be able to pray. Not because we should take it for granted that everyone has been invited to call upon the Lord. But we have the high and holy privilege of speaking to the Heavenly Father in prayer for Jesus’ sake, that is because Jesus has reconciled us to the Father, and called us by the Gospel to be sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father.

Yet there is more. This 16^th chapter of John speaks much of the promise of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this chapter is the culmination of three chapters, all of which promise the Holy Spirit, the Helper who would be poured out at Pentecost. Listen to these verses from John chapter 14:

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth… You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you… Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you… He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him… If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.

You see, the Spirit’s job is to unite us to Jesus. And being united to Jesus we are united with the Father. So that in Jesus, that is, “in Jesus’ name”, the Father hears our prayer as Jesus’ prayer, and the Father looks upon us with the same love with which he looks upon Jesus, because we are “in Jesus” and Jesus is in us!

All this is made possible by the Holy Spirit who was poured into your heart in Holy Baptism, and who continually proceeds from the Father and the Son into your heart through the preaching of the Gospel and through the gifts of His body and blood in Holy Communion.

And so today, let’s give thanks for the marvelous gift of prayer in Jesus’ name.

Let’s use this gift daily and without ceasing.

Let us give thanks for the gift of the Holy Spirit whose indwelling in our hearts is sustained by the ministry of God’s Word and Sacraments.

Let us give thanks for the Holy Spirit who united us inseparably to Jesus Christ, so that we may stand before the throne of our Heavenly Father, praying with all boldness and confidence, as dear children ask their dear Father.

For Jesus said:  “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in my name, he will give it to you… Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full!”

Hear us, Father, when we pray, through Your Son and in Your Spirit.

By Your Spirit’s Word convey all that we through Christ inherit.

That as baptized heirs we may truly pray.

Jesus, advocate on high, sacrificed on Calvry’s altar,

Through Your priestly blood we cry:  Hear our prayers, though they may falter;

Place them on Your Father’s throne as Your own. (LSB 773, st. 1&3).

Amen!