“That Your Joy May Be Full”
Jesus said, “whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you.” How do you understand these words? Does He say we have an unlimited blank check to fulfill our wildest worldly dreams? Many people think so, and they boldly point to this verse as justification of their quest for money, power and prestige. Others understand “in My Name” as a magical incantation which guarantees wishes are granted. Slap on a little crazy glue and you can stick Jesus on the end of any request to make it acceptable to God.
Two weeks ago Jesus spoke to His disciples about sorrow, and joy that no one will take away. Today we pick up with those words of never ending joy ringing in the hearts of Peter, James, John and the others. Jesus said, “In that day you will ask nothing of me.” Jesus is pointing His disciples and us to something else.
That “something else” is the time after His death and resurrection. Once the ransom for sin is paid by His innocent blood on a cross, Jesus says the relationship between God and His creation will be changed. No longer will there be a need for an intercessor like Moses or the Levitical priesthood speaking on their behalf. No longer will the temple and the Holy of Holies be the only place where His people go with their petitions. The people of God will be welcomed and invited to come to Him directly themselves because He will make them His Temple and Holy of Holies, because the intercessor, Christ lives in each and every one of them.
The disciples’ understanding of petitioning God the Father is greatly different than our own. For them, God was known as the God of Sinai who gave the Law and sent fiery serpents to judge unbelief. Sin had not yet been broken, so the barrier, the curtain into the Holy of Holies was still intact. If they went to God directly, all they encountered was the hidden God of Judgment which produces fear and trembling. They needed someone like Moses to go to God for them, and so do we for Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Only through the blood of the Son are we able to go to the Father. Apart from this, the only God we find is the God of Judgment who wants to kill us for our sin.
Our problem today is not encountering the terrifying hidden God of Sinai, well, it still is a problem, but the real stumbling block for Christians is the revealed God in Christ Jesus. I say that is a problem because our sinful nature wants to be god. This faulty thinking leads us to see our risen Lord as a loving buddy, and the God of creation becomes a magical, heavenly vending machine always ready to dispense fulfillment of desire. So, when we hear, “whatever you ask of the Father in My Name, He will give it to you,” we go wild. Suddenly we think God really wants us to be rich, powerful and popular.
Thinking this way misses the mark in a most grievous way. Jesus reveals a precious gift to creation, that of the Christian life. He invites you to share His life of continuous prayer and He gives you a powerful promise: “Ask, and you will receive.” There are no limits to this promise because the purpose of it is “that your joy may be full.”
In the resurrection, your joy is made full, complete, in a way only God is able to do and no one is able to take it away from you. Dear Christians, you can now call on God for all your needs. You are His children and He loves you. Like a loving parent, He wants you to come to Him with your needs and wants, because He wants to make your joy full. And what your Father wants for you isn't the temporary, passing pleasures of this world, but a joy and peace that last forever! And that's what He gives you in Jesus.
God the Father, creator and sustainer of all things is fully ready and able to grant His blessings to His humble and obedient children. A proud person sees himself as god and tries to do it himself, if that fails he tries to make a bargain for what he wants, and if that fails he will demand fulfillment of his desires. But the Christian who is humble, repents of his pride and goes to the Father asking for the same thing Jesus did, not MY will, but Thy Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
Are you asking why or how God is willing to do this “for me?” Take comfort in the Father who sent the Son whom He loves, to reconcile the fallen creation to Himself, and through the death of the innocent Son, restore that broken relationship. Look! If the Father loved you enough to take care of your greatest need, forgiveness, by giving His only Son into death to wipe out your sins and open up to you the Kingdom of heaven, do you really think he can't or won't take care of the paltry needs of this life? No way. He's got you covered. He takes care of His children!
Clothed in this righteousness of the Son by baptism you are reborn as a child of God, and as a child whom He calls by name, you have peace with Him. Because “the Father Himself loves you,” you can live in freedom! You can trust His Will. You can pray with confidence that He wants for you the very best and that He works all things together to deliver that best to you. Away then with worry and fretting and anger! You have been set free!
And to keep you in that freedom and in that peace, He has given the Church Holy Absolution with blessed assurance of His peace. He also gives you the Eucharist. He feeds your body and spirit with His own, giving you strength to continue in this fallen world. The Christian Life is filled with an inner peace brought about by a life of prayer, a life of sonship, and a life of peace. All of these are a gift from the Father through the Son, and brought to you personally by the Holy Spirit. So go boldly with confidence to the Father as His son, “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.”
Amen.
