Bible Text: St John 16:23–33 | Preacher: Rev. Dr. Christian Preus
Jesus tells the story of a persistent widow, who goes to a judge, and he’s a bad judge, he’s a man that doesn’t fear God and doesn’t respect people, but she keeps asking him for help, until finally he gives it, not because he likes her, not because he’s interested in justice, but only because he doesn’t want to get bothered anymore.
It’s a compelling story. Even a bad man will give you what you ask if you’re persistent enough. Persistence pays off. But’s that’s actually not the point. It’s compelling because the bad judge is so much UNLIKE God. God’s not a bad judge. He’s a loving Father. That’s how Jesus commands us to address God, as Father. I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: Christians in the Old Testament simply did not address God as Father until Jesus came and told us to. You can read the entire Psalter, 150 psalms, and not once will you call on God as Father. JESUS invites us to call Him Father. Why? Because He is the Son. And we, baptized into His death and resurrection, have been so united to Him by His Spirit, that His Father IS our Father. What we have in Jesus, is not simply the forgiveness of our sins, eternal life, innocence before God, we also have a status before Him: WE ARE HIS CHILDREN. And He hears us as a dear Father hears his children, as THE FATHER hears HIS ETERNAL SON.
Prayer is the life of a Christian. Whenever Moses had a problem with the people of Israel, what did he do? When they complained because there was no water, when they complained because they had no bread, when they complained because they had no meat, what did Moses do? He took it to God in prayer. Every time. What did King David do when his infant son lay dying? He took it to God in prayer. What did King Hezekiah do when he was sick and near death? He asked God for more time, and God gave him 15 more years of life. What did the disciples do when they didn’t understand, when they were afraid, when they were in danger, they put it before Jesus in prayer.
The prayer of Christians has accomplished amazing things! Elijah prayed and fire came from heaven. He prayed and rain stopped falling for three years, and then he prayed again and the rain fell.
Christians pray. It’s what we do. Jesus commands us to pray. And He promises to hear us. When we do not pray, it’s not simply that we’re sinning against God. It’s that we are denying who we are. We are His children. And God’s children ask Him for what they need, and they praise Him for what He gives, and they thank Him when He gives it. The birds awaken the morning with their song. Jesus points you to them. Pray to your Father when you wake up in the morning. Waken the morning with your prayers. Pray before you eat and thank the God who gives it. Pray when you go to bed because it’s your Father who will keep you safe through the night. Begin the day with prayer, because God is the One who will keep you safe from every evil throughout it and send His angels to defend you, pray to end the day, because you’ve sinned throughout it and your Father forgives you for Jesus’ sake.
O that’s for really religious people, for pastors, for saints – no, God’s command to you to pray is as much for you as it is for Saint Paul or Saint Peter, Pastor Preus or Pastor Richard. It’s not again simply that you sin by not praying – every sin can be forgiven – it’s that not praying is the sure sign that you don’t believe a thing about Jesus, your sin, creation, or heaven. Now most times I kneel at that altar and confess my sins, I confess that I have not prayed as I should. No sinner can – if we could, we would be so happy, our joy would be so full, as Jesus promises, we would know minute after minute of every day how blessed we are to have a Father in heaven who loves us. We will fail in prayer, forget to pray at times, wander in our thoughts as we pray. And we confess those sins and God forgives. But to NOT pray, to actually live day by day, never addressing God? Never waking up and thinking of Him, never going to bed commending yourself and all your loved ones into His protecting hands? That is pure heathen.
For Christ’s sake, who redeemed you to God by His blood, and won for you the right to call on God as your Father, be constant in prayer. If it is not what you have been doing, begin. Every morning, every night, every meal, throughout the day, and you will learn just how blessed the man is who makes the Lord his God.
What should you pray for? There are four types of prayer. You pray that God would take bad things away from you – that’s anything: cancer, anxiety, temptations, loneliness, sin, pain; God promises to relieve the downtrodden, forgive the sinner, bind up the wounded. second, you pray that God give you good things, job, income, wife, husband, children, strong faith, patience, kindness, self-control, forgiveness: God is the Giver of all good things; third, you pray for other people, for those who are suffering, for those who are sad and mourning, for those who need repentance and faith, for those you love and those who hate you; God commands you to love your neighbor and prayer for your neighbor is love; finally, you pray simply to thank and praise God for everything He gives you, for a beautiful morning or the smell of the grass after a rain or good health or – there are a million things in your life to thank Him for. He is worthy of an eternity of praise for all His goodness.
Jesus tells us to pray IN HIS NAME. That is always the posture of prayer. I don’t deserve to ask anything from God. I’m a sinner. But Jesus has made something else of us. He has made us holy. His blood covers all our sins. If I ever approach God pointing to my own worthiness, I won’t receive a thing, because I’m not worthy to receive a thing. But when you approach God in Jesus’ name, your Father has bound Himself to hear and answer. If you feel unworthy to pray, because who are you? a sinner, Luther likes to say, “maggot fodder,” don’t ever let that keep you from praying. God has never listened to a prayer or answered a prayer based on my will, on a sinner’s pride, no, He promises to answer sinners who trust in His Son. That’s what Jesus says, “The Father Himself loves you, because you love Me.” Not because you’ve been so good. Because you love Jesus. And You love Jesus because He has first loved you. You love Him because He has taken the load of sin off of you and unto Himself. You love Him because He suffered your punishment, died your death. You love Him because He forgives your sins, and gives you life and a good conscience and peace with God in His body and blood. You love Jesus and so the Father loves you and hears your prayers.
That also means you pray from the heart. It’s funny, Luther went after the prayers of the monks so much, because they just repeated prayers in Latin they didn’t understand, so it was useless, a mockery of prayer. But he went after it so much that people started getting the impression they didn’t need to pray at all. It would be better not to utter a single prayer your whole life through, then to throw out a bunch of religious jargon without any faith in your heart. But when you trust in Jesus, when you know your needs, and what it means that the Lord says, “Call on me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you and you will glorify me,” then you will pray from your heart to the God you know loves you and cares for you and wants to relieve you and comfort you and deliver you. We pray with the psalmist, “When you said, seek my face, my heart said to You, Your face, Lord, I will seek. Do not hide your face from me; do not turn your servant away in anger; you have been my help; do not leave me or forsake me, O God of my salvation. When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take care of me. Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage. And He shall strengthen your heart; wait, I say, on the Lord.”
And that gets us back to persistence. That widow got what she wanted from a wicked judge by persistence. If you are praying to your Father in Jesus’ name for good things, if God makes you wait, if his answer is no for a time, it’s for your good and it is not a sign that you should give up. I’ve prayed for a loved-one’s healing for years and God hasn’t given it yet, but I won’t stop till He gives it. I’ve prayed for my uncle’s return to the faith for ten years, and it hasn’t happened, but I won’t stop. And I won’t stop, because I and you and every Christian has experienced that our gracious Father DOES HEAR our prayers. He commanded you to pray, He promised to hear you, and more than that He has answered your prayers for the body, for the soul, more times than you can count. And you see it every Sunday. You pray for heaven and He gives it. You pray for forgiveness and He speaks it. You pray for mercy and peace and He feeds you with the body and blood of His Son, who reigns in heaven and prepares a place for you.
He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not with Him also freely give us all things? So ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full.
Alleluia! Christ is risen!