Christian prayer is always Christ-centered

Sermon for Rogate – Easter 5

James 1:22-27  +  John 16:23-30

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that Rogate Sunday is focused on prayer. In the new catechism, we ask the question, Why do we pray? And there are three basic reasons given. We pray because God has commanded it; because our needs are very great; and because God has promised to hear and help.

What does it even mean “to pray”? It’s a special word we use for talking to God, and in Scripture we find three basic reasons for talking to Him: to confess our sins, to thank and praise Him, and to ask Him for something. It’s this asking God for something that we want to focus on today, because that’s what Jesus commands, or rather, invites us to do in today’s Gospel. Pray! Ask in Jesus’ name, and you will receive.

Jesus says to His disciples, In that day—that is, on the day when they see Him again after He goes to the cross and to the tomb. In other words, on Easter Sunday. 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 you. Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full. So a change is taking place in the way God’s people are to pray—a change that begins on Easter Sunday. What is it that changes?

Well, how had Jesus’ disciples, and all the Jews, been praying up until that time? Do you remember what King Solomon prayed at the dedication of the Temple he had built in Jerusalem? He prayed: O Lord, my God, let Your eyes be open toward this temple day and night, toward the place where You said You would put Your name, that You may hear the prayer which Your servant makes toward this place. And may You hear the supplications of Your servant and of Your people Israel, when they pray toward this place. Hear from heaven Your dwelling place, and when You hear, forgive.

Where were the Jews to face when they prayed? Toward the Temple. Why? Because God had placed His name there. God is everywhere, as Solomon confessed earlier in his prayer. But where is God present to hear and accept prayers? In the Old Testament, it was in the Temple where He had placed His name. That’s why Daniel prayed as he did, before he was thrown into the lions’ den. If you recall, Daniel had been taken captive with the rest of the Jews to Babylonia. But we’re told in what direction he prayed: In his upper room, with his windows open toward Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees three times that day, and prayed and gave thanks before his God, as was his custom since early days.

It’s not that God could only hear prayers uttered within the Temple walls. It’s not even that the Jews had to be facing toward the Temple in order for their prayers to be heard. It’s that the Temple is what made their prayers acceptable to God, because that’s where He had placed His name, so that sacrifices could be made there for sin, and He promised to receive them and to be merciful to His people because of them.

Well, you know what happened on Good Friday. Jesus became the once-for-all sacrifice to make propitiation or atonement for the sins of the world. The curtain in the Temple was torn in half. And a monumental change took place. No longer were the Jews to face the Temple when they prayed. No longer were the Jews to ask God on the basis of the sacrifices made in the Temple. From Easter Sunday on, God’s people were to pray to Him in the name of Jesus, the far superior replacement for the Temple, because He bore the world’s sins, and because, as true God and true Man, He perfectly bears the name of God, as Jeremiah had once prophesied: This is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

So to pray in Jesus’ name means, first and foremost, to pray “facing toward Him,” that is, to pray trusting in Him, to pray for His sake, to pray because of Him, on account of His saving work. Christian prayer is always Christ-centered. Father, I ask this, not in my own name, not because of who I am or what I’ve done, not in the name of Abraham, Isaac or Jacob, not in the name of my parents, or of the Virgin Mary or any other of the great saints, but in Jesus’ holy name, because He died for me, because You have reconciled me to You through Him, because You love Him and He told me to approach You with my requests.

To pray in Jesus’ name means, secondly, to pray for the things Jesus prayed for. Again, Christian prayer is always Christ-centered. The seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer are a perfect summary of those things. The Psalms, too, provide perfect guidance. I won’t go into many examples of those things in the sermon today. For now, I’ll urge you to go back and read your Small Catechism on the Lord’s Prayer, and the questions and answers in the blue catechism that explore it. From there, go and read Luther’s Large Catechism, as well as the Psalms themselves.

To pray in Jesus’ name means, thirdly, to pray as Jesus prayed, as a dear child to His dear Father, with all boldness, confidence, and submission—submission to your Father’s will. Where our Father has revealed in His Word that He wants to give something—like patience, like faith, hope, love, strength, comfort—we don’t have to pray, “if it is Your will,” because we know it is. Where He hasn’t revealed His will to us—whether He wants this or that sickness to be healed, whether He wants this or that church to grow or to shrink, whether He wants you to prosper in this or that career—we add, “if it is Your will,” just as Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Ask in My name, and you shall receive, Jesus promises. And He seals that promise with yet another reason why our Father will hear and help.

For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came forth from God.

The Father “loves you.” Now, you need to understand something here. There is a word in Greek for “love,” as in, God so loved the world that He gave His only-begotten Son. That’s “agape” love. It’s God’s devotion to our race, centered around the desire for sinners to be saved through faith in Christ. God loves everyone in that way, both Christians and non-Christians alike.

But that’s not the word used here. Here Jesus uses the “philos” word for love. This a friendly kind of love, the love of common interest, the love of liking someone, finding something lovable in another. And what is that thing that God finds in Christians, that thing that we have in common with God the Father? It’s love for Jesus and trust in Jesus. Now that’s not found in any of us by birth. That’s the love that the Holy Spirit Himself has formed in us through the preaching of the Gospel. But now that we love Jesus, we have something special in common with God the Father. We love Jesus. So does He. And so, even though His own Spirit created that love in us, it’s real, and so the Father has this special kind of love for His children, for Christians, for those who have loved Jesus and trusted in Him for salvation.

And because the Father loves us in this special way, He is even more motivated, to put it in a human way, even more motivated to hear our prayers and to grant our requests.

Now if that’s the case, then why would anyone ever pray to the Virgin Mary or another deceased saint? There is no one closer to God the Father’s heart than Jesus. And as Jesus reveals in today’s Gospel, He has given us direct access to the Father, who loves everyone—personally and individually—who loves Jesus.

So pray. Pray joyfully. Pray urgently. Pray often. You have every reason to ask, and no reason not to ask. In this area of prayer, as in all areas of the faith, heed the words of James: Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Do what Jesus says and ask the Father in His name. He will always hear and help, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.