Text: John 16:23-30
Our Lord said to His disciples on the night He was betrayed, “In that day you will ask nothing of me. 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.”[1] Ask, and you will receive, He said. The Latin word for ask is rogare, and it’s where we get the title and theme for the sixth Sunday of Easter, Rogate Sunday – Ask Sunday.
As our Savior was preparing to be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, suffer, die and be raised, He also had in mind that He would soon after those things be with His disciples no longer. Jesus also had in mind His ascension, the time where He would sit down at the right hand of the Father. Though He is still with us, His presence with us now is different than it was before. In order to comfort His disciples at His seeming absence, He gave them something. On the night our Lord was betrayed, He comforted His distressed disciples by inviting them to pray and promising that their (and our) prayers are heard and answered.
I.
“Ask and you will receive, in order that your joy may be full,” Jesus said. Our text this morning, as well as the Gospel readings for the last few Sundays comes from John 16. Jesus’ teaching in this chapter comes as part of His final discourse with the Disciples before His passion. We’ve heard already about the work of the Holy Spirit and why Jesus was going away. But, we also heard last week about the sorrow that was filling the Disciples’ hearts. By now, they’d been with Jesus for three years. Where He went, they went. When He ate, they ate. They were there for His teaching and witnessed His miracles. Soon, He would be with them no longer. Though at this point they did not fully understand (as St. John himself said – that they didn’t understand until after the Resurrection), they knew enough to be sad.
Our Lord, who knows all things, knew their sorrow. Our Lord is also a kind Lord and, to comfort His disciples, gave them a precious gift. “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.” Our Lord gave to the disciples the gift of prayer. Though up to this point they may not have understood their great need, they soon would. Soon, Jesus would be with them no longer. They will have sorrow while the world rejoices. And so, to comfort them, Jesus invited them to pray.
When they felt the scorn and hatred of the world, when they suffered persecution and great trial, when they encountered hostility, poverty, illness, and despair, and when the hour of death drew near, Jesus encouraged the Disciples to pray. To pray means to speak to God. In all hours of need and trial, Jesus comforted the Disciples by inviting them to pray in His name – to beseech and ask of the Father through faith in His name. “Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive,” Jesus said.
II.
“In that day you will ask nothing in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.”[2] Our gracious and kind Lord knew the sorrow His Disciples were enduring and would continue to face, and so He comforted them with the invitation and privilege to pray. But He didn’t just tell them to pray; He also promised that their prayers would be heard. The true comfort is not just in the act of praying, but in praying and knowing that our prayers are heard. “Ask, and you will receive,” Jesus said, “for the Father Himself loves you.”
Jesus invited the Disciples to pray to the Father and promised that He would hear and answer their prayers. “The Father Himself loves you,” He said, “because you loved Me and have believed that I came from God.” That is to say, those who pray to the Father through faith in Jesus can know and be assured the Father receives their prayer. And, for the sake of Jesus, He answers the faithful who pray. Those who are united with Christ by faith and through Baptism become fellow heirs with Him of the kingdom of heaven and are God’s beloved children. The Heavenly Father does not abandon His children, but watches over them and cares for them in every need. Jesus said elsewhere, “What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead…give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg…a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”[3]
When Jesus said, “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf,” He was not saying that He would no longer pray for His followers, for He will never cease that duty. In Hebrews it says that Jesus continues in His priestly office forever. He continually prays for us. Rather, Jesus means that His followers can now pray directly to the Father. Remember how, at Jesus’ death, the temple curtain was torn in two – showing the separation between God and man is removed through faith in the cross of Christ. Through faith in His death for the forgiveness of sins, the faithful in Christ find the door to the Father open wide, and so also His fatherly heart. As the Disciples were being filled with sorrow, Jesus offered them this comfort – they may pray to the Father directly and set every care before His throne, and know that He hears and loves them.
III.
My friends in Christ, the same invitation and promise that Jesus gave to the Disciples on the night He was betrayed, He has also given to us. We also can pray to God and know that our prayers are heard. By Baptism into Christ, we have received the white robes of His righteousness. When the Father looks at us, He sees only His beloved children and delights to answer our prayers. By faith in Christ’s death and resurrection for us, we have direct access to God and can know that for Christ’s sake, our prayers are heard.
What things, then, should we pray for? Everything! Every trial, need, temptation, distress, trouble. But, also, we should pray in thanksgiving for the many blessings and the gifts which God has already freely given us. It is true that God knows our every need even before we do and even if we don’t know it at all, but He loves to be asked and loves to answer. He hears and answers our prayers not because of any personal holiness or goodness on our part, but because we have been purchased back from sin and death by the blood of Christ and have been given faith in His name. Therefore, we can have confidence when we pray. The answer to our prayer depends not only our holiness, but on Christ’s holiness for us and the Father’s love.
Our Lord Jesus Christ, on the night He was betrayed, knew His Disciples’ sorrow. He knew, also, that He would soon no longer be with them. He would be separated from them by His death and, later – in a different way – by His ascension. To comfort them, Jesus invited them to pray to the Father and assured them that their prayers are heard. This invitation and promise, He has given also to us – His Church. In every trial and temptation, and also in every blessing, we may pray to God and be comforted that He hears and answers our prayers for the sake of His Son.
[1] John 16:23-24, English Standard Version.
[2] Jn. 16:26-27.
[3] Lk. 11:11-13.
St. John and Trinity Lutheran Parish 