Names and Authorities: A Meditation on John 16 for the 6th Sunday in Easter

And in that day ye shall ask me nothing.

Verily, verily, I say unto you,

Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name,

he will give it you.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name:

ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs:

but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs,

but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.

At that day ye shall ask in my name: and I say not unto you,

that I will pray the Father for you:

For the Father himself loveth you, because ye have loved me,

and have believed that I came out from God.

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world:

again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.

His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly,

and speakest no proverb.  Now are we sure that thou knowest all things,

and needest not that any man should ask thee:

by this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe?

Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered,

every man to his own, and shall leave me alone:

and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.

These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.

In the world ye shall have tribulation:

but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

 

Like the distinction earlier in this same passage where Jesus promised directly to His disciples that the Holy Spirit would guide them into all truth (and thus to compose the New Testament Scriptures according to that unique inspiration, the fullness of truth by which the Holy Spirit guides all subsequent Christians) there is also a direct and indirect audience for Jesus’ words regarding prayer.  In Acts we read of the Apostles doing many miracles as they preached the Gospel, and those miracles affirmed the divine authority of their message.  Yet there is also a secondary audience for Jesus’ command to pray in His Name, and the promise that the Father would love them and hear their petitions for Jesus’ sake.  Each generation of Christians since the Apostles has held onto this passage, trusting that faith in Jesus brought them into loving fellowship with the Father, and indwelt them with the power of the Holy Spirit.  While all Christians after the Apostolic Age may not have been given the same concentration of miraculous activity which followed St. Peter, St. Paul, and the whole Apostolic band, the history of the Church is full of myriad accounts of miraculous answers to prayer… as is the Church today.

 

In the ancient world, to act or speak in another’s name was to do so in their delegated authority.  If a king sent an emissary with a message to deliver in his name, that emissary acted and spoke in the authority of the king.  However, the emissary could only act and speak in the king’s authority according to the will of the king; i.e., the emissary didn’t become the king, but only exercised the authority given to him.  Likewise in the text above, when Jesus invited His disciples to pray and ask the Father to accomplish things in His Name (or in Jesus’ Authority as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords) that authority could only be used in accordance with His will.  Fallen men, even Apostles, might be inclined to ask God to do something that should not be done, and there is nothing in this text which suggests that God will do something against His will just because someone asked for it in Jesus’ Name.  There is no way to separate the Father from the Son, nor to divide their divine will against one another.  Thus when the disciples were chided for wanting to call down fire from heaven on those who rejected their preaching, or when St. Paul was denied his request to remove his thorn in the flesh (likely a reference to his failing eyesight), there were times that even the Apostles were not granted their requests because what they asked for did not align with the will of the King.

 

I think this is instructive for us as Christians in our own time and place.  While it is true what St. James writes, that some people do not receive from God because they do not ask, and some do not ask rightly by faith, but rather to satisfy selfish desires, it is also quite possible that we can ask in faith and still be denied our request.  For instance, we may pray for a person to be healed of their infirmity or be spared from death, and the Lord may grant it—but knowing that it is appointed for all people to eventually die, and that all people have a life which is interwoven into God’s plan for all time and eternity, should we expect God to never let anyone we love die?  If God can see every individual who ever was and ever will be, and sees them not only according to their brief few years in this world but for their eternal destiny, we must trust that God knows precisely what each soul needs to endure in this life for their best possible eternity.  And since we don’t have that kind of divine wisdom or perspective, our prayers to God must always be in the humility of knowing we are creatures entreating our Creator, even as we approach Him in His Name.  God does not expect us to know all things as He alone can, but He does invite us to ask of Him freely, and that according to His will, He will grant us what we pray for.  In this way we can be thankful and praise Him when He blesses us with what we’ve asked for, just as we can give Him our thanks and praise when He blesses us by sparing us from what we’ve asked for.

 

As with much of what our Lord teaches us, this encouragement to prayer is both a comfort and challenge.  That we have been given access to the throne room of the Almighty and Everlasting God, to bring our petitions directly to Him by the delegated authority of His Only Begotten Son, is a grace beyond mortal comprehension.  What creature is there in all heaven above or the earth beneath that has been blessed with such honor?  Who else has been washed in the shed Blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, given a new white robe and a new name to signify our adoption as sons and daughters of the King by grace through faith in Christ alone?  Who else has been invited to ask for anything, and to know that God loves us and hears us because we are baptized into Christ?  And even so, we are challenged to keep our faith aligned with the Word of God, to know that as servants we are not above our Master, and that our path through this world under the Cross will reflect our Lord’s walk to Calvary.  We live in both faith and repentance even as we learn to approach the Throne of Grace, to humbly ask of God what we desire, knowing that it is we who must be conformed to His Word and Will, not that God be conformed to ours.  In this way we will learn to walk and live and speak and ask according to our Lord’s will, even as He is refining from us our darkness and dross, so that we might day by day better reflect the Light of His goodness, truth, and love.

 

Be of good cheer, dear Christian, for the Lord of Glory has called you into His presence, and invited you to open your heart before Him.  In His love for you, He has given you the authority to appeal directly to the King of the Universe, even as He places upon you the Name of His Son which is above every name in heaven and on earth.  Your eyes will see miracles you have never dared to dream possible, even as your heart is molded each day into the image of your loving Savior.  He will send you out into the world in His Name and authority to forgive the sins of those who wound you, to bear witness to the Gospel which saves you, to cast out demons who blight the communities around you, and to be His emissaries of life and reconciliation everywhere death and division abound.  Hear the Word of the Lord come to you today, inviting you to stand by faith before the Throne of Grace.  In the love of God Almighty, walk with Him down every road you are sent to travel, raising your petitions to Him in Jesus Name, guiding and lifting those around you to join you on that same wondrous path of grace, faith, and eternal life.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.