Dear Christians,
When was the last time you outright asked your Dad for something? Depending on your relationship with your father, you might’ve had to muster some courage before you opened your mouth. But consider the following scene from a movie: 12-year-old Michael Sullivan, Jr. and his father were having supper at a quiet roadside diner. Michael showed a fair amount of boldness while talking with his father. His father was a hit-man turned bank robber. It was the 1930’s, and they had been robbing bags and bags of dirty money from the Chicago Mob in banks across the Midwest. “So when do I get my share of the money?” Michael asked shamelessly. “Well,” his father answered, “How much do you want?” “Two hundred dollars,” said Michael. His father shrugged, “Okay. Deal.” They continued eating, but then Michael stopped, “Could I have had more?” Between bites, his father replied, “You’ll never know.”
Michael’s dad was by no means the perfect father, yet he was still willing to give his son what he asked for – up to a point. We do have the perfect Heavenly Father. There is no limit to His generosity, and yet, we often avoid approaching Him with our timid and infrequent prayers, don’t we? In today’s gospel, as Jesus taught the disciples to pray, He also speaks to our own struggles with prayer. Our Father gives great gifts. We can ask shamelessly. He will answer perfectly.
Throughout his book, and in today’s lesson, Luke made sure that we notice Jesus praying. But wait – why would Jesus need to pray? Why would God need to talk to God? We can’t claim to understand everything about our God, who is three in one; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But we do know that Jesus also became true man. He put Himself in our shoes. While He was here, He demonstrated that prayer was good. And He was good at it. Jesus prayed long and He prayed often. Prayer was a priority. For someone who certainly had a lot on His plate, Jesus showed the importance of prayer.
The disciples recognized Jesus was the prayer expert. They were often with Him while He prayed. How amazing it must have been to hear some of those profound and perfect prayers! Words spoken from Son to Father. Even during the times they saw Jesus praying silently, the concentration and the dedication of His meditation must have amazed them thoroughly. Time and time again, the disciples had to face the fact that their prayer lives fell way short of the standard set by Jesus. None of them could come close to praying like Jesus. And so, one of the disciples mustered up the courage to ask Jesus for some advice.
Luke doesn’t explain the exact circumstances of the disciples’ request, but maybe it happened like this: One disciple, on a dare from the others, started to approach Jesus – but then he had to stop – Jesus was praying, again. The disciple sheepishly waited for Him to finish. Then, Jesus looked up at him expectantly, already knowing his request. The disciple stammered, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Perhaps he added that last part, as if to say: “I’m only asking because we heard that John the Baptist also taught his disciples how to pray – not because we know we are so bad at praying, and we need help.” Jesus took this clumsy request, and answered perfectly.
Jesus gave the disciples a model prayer to follow, which we still use today. Jesus pointed them to their Heavenly Father. They should call God, “Father.” How can sinful human beings call the holy God, their Father? He did create, and continues to preserve and care for the whole universe, which includes all people. But most importantly, as we will talk about later, Jesus is the one who made our relationship with God possible. “Father” is a humble and respectful address, but also a title that recognizes God’s love for His children.
But this is not the only lesson Jesus taught that day. Not only did Jesus show the disciples how to address their God, and what to pray for, but He told them a story about the way they should pray. The midnight hour. A knock at the door of a friend. The urgent need. A shameless request for some bread. You remember how it goes. Keep in mind what made this man so bold. The trusting relationship with his friend inspired his shameless knocking. But now put yourself in a similar story…
Phone rings. It’s almost 3 AM. Phone rings again. Baby wakes up, but your wife has already calmed her down again by the time you stop trying to answer your glasses case and open up your cell-phone. Through the blinding brightness of the display, you struggle to make out the name of the person calling you. It’s your in-laws. Apparently, they had felt awake enough, and decided to drive through the night after all, instead of stopping at a hotel. Their new estimated time of arrival: 4 AM.
It is only as you are pulling the extra set of sheets out of the linen closet that you realize there is no air mattress to put them on. Your buddy, Ted, was going to drop his off at your apartment later in the day. But that won’t help you now. Your guests need a place to crash, and it cannot be the floor. There’s no way you’re going to ask your wife to take the couch, either.
But, there’s still Ted. You know Ted. He’s always been there for you. He stood up in your wedding. He’s even on your speed-dial. It’s so easy; you only have to press two buttons. “Seven.” “Send.” You didn’t really think over your decision to press those two buttons, but as you hear the dial tone, you decide you don’t care. I mean, it’s Ted.
“Hello?”
“Hey Ted, it’s me.”
“It’s like 3 in the morning.”
“I know, I’m sorry, but listen: It turns out I’m gonna need that air mattress a little sooner.”
[Pause.]
“Like, in about an hour- ”
“C’mon man! I’m supposed to get up early tomorrow, uh, er, today. Whatever. The point is, I am not gonna drag myself outa bed and drive all the way down to your place. It’s not my fault your lousy little car is in the shop tonight.”
So, maybe your friend Ted is not exactly a morning person. Yet, in spite of all his protests, his truck pulls up just in time. As he drops the air mattress on your floor, he mutters, “It’s not because I like you. You woke me up, and I wasn’t going to fall back asleep anyways…”
So concludes our little story – similar to the end of Jesus’ story. Listen again to what Jesus said: “I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”
What does this teach us about the way we should pray? The key word here is “boldness,” or literally, “shamelessness.” Jesus wanted his disciples to know that the shameless request works – even a grump will give generously! How much more will our loving Father in Heaven give us what we need? For this reason, Jesus urged his disciples, and now urges us, to pray shamelessly.
However, like the disciples, we recognize that our prayer habits can end up being just plain shameful. Forced. Brief. Thoughtless. Few and far between. With these prayer habits, we can grow distant from our Heavenly Father. We can become full of shame, thinking: “It’s been so long since I have talked to Him – will He still answer? Will He still keep His promises? Why would He?” If we doubt God’s promises, we will see no reason to pray at all. Doubt, a dangerous trait of our sinful hearts, is the problem behind our worst prayer habits.
But Jesus fulfilled those very promises of God, which we are tempted to doubt. Through Jesus’ perfect life, our Father gives us the great gift of salvation. Jesus has taken away our shame and replaced it with His perfect prayer habits. We may still feel ashamed to bring requests to our Father, but we don’t have to. Instead of seeing our doubting silence, God sees Jesus’ record of trusting prayers next to our names. His perfect prayers belong to us. Jesus nullified our record of shame and doubt by His sacrifice. He buried every sin of doubt and distrust in the grave forever. His resurrection removes any doubt that we are forgiven. Now we have a new relationship with our Father – one of love and trust, forgiveness and faith.
We know we have fallen short on our side of prayer. But thanks be to Jesus for the new relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. Now, we can ask shamelessly. But there’s more; our Father will never let us down. Our Father gives great gifts. He will answer perfectly.
Our Father always answers. So keep on praying! “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”2 Jesus urges us to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking – and our Father promises to answer. With this underlying promise, we have good reason to keep our prayers coming – no matter what the situation. Hold God to His promises! Pray for results He has promised to give.
There is no doubt – God will answer. God does not first consider the worthiness of the person who is praying before He answers. Jesus made sure of that. Instead, our Father considers everyone worthy because of Jesus’ blood. Therefore, our Father promises to answer us for Jesus’ sake. Has He ever broken a promise? God does not lie. Because we depend on Jesus, we can approach our Father without shame, again and again, knowing that He gives great gifts. Knowing that He will answer perfectly.
To drive home just how great our Heavenly Father’s gifts are, Jesus compares Him with our earthly fathers. Earthly fathers know how to give gifts, too. Jesus says, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?”3 A father will rarely give his child an evil or cruel gift. That’s not the nature of a father’s love. Unfortunately, I know not all earthly fathers are good fathers. However, I have been blessed with an earthly father, who is more loving than I deserve. My dad has absolutely buried me with gifts of fatherly love. A home, food, a bed, books read to us after long days at the office, Christian education, encouragement, support in everything and in every way. And still he says, “If you need anything, just ask.” With a dad like this, it’s easy to see why Jesus tells us to call God, “Father.”
And yet, earthly fathers are still sinful human beings, like any one of us. They don’t come close to our Heavenly Father. He is the perfect dad. How mind-blowing to think of the love shown by earthly fathers, scaled up to the level of love we receive from our Heavenly Father. Jesus leads us to draw out this comparison, to get an idea of God’s perfect love for us.
He has given us everything we have. No time is a bad time for Him – He isn’t even affected by time! He gives gladly, not grumpily. And with His almighty power, there is nothing He cannot do. He has given us better gifts than we could ask for – all according to His perfect will and timetable. Sometimes, we ask for things that would be bad for us. Perhaps we even ask for the equivalent of a “snake” or a “scorpion”, yet He gives us a “fish” or an “egg.” He always gives us what we really need.
Our Heavenly Father not only gives us what we need on earth, but gives even the greatest gift. Jesus said, “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”4 Our Father has sent the Holy Spirit to work faith in our hearts. The Holy Spirit will even strengthen our faith, as we ask Him. It’s the perfect answer to our greatest need. By this greatest gift, we become God’s children. God is our Father. We can pray to our Father as His children. We can live as His children. This gift of the Holy Spirit affects every part of our lives.
Since God freely gives us this greatest gift of eternal life, won’t He be willing and able to give us other great gifts? And He certainly has! He gives us our daily bread, clothing, shelter, a great nation, and so much more. He also gives us endurance to make it through tough times. Every gift we receive from our Heavenly Father is for our eternal benefit, according to His perfect plan for each one of us. Trust God to answer your prayers in ways better than you could ever imagine!
Our relationship with our Heavenly Father has been made sure by Jesus. Unlike any earthly father, we can ask Him for anything, at any time. He promises to give us greater gifts than two hundred dollars, three loaves of bread, or one borrowed air mattress. Hold God to His promises with your prayers. You can always depend on God to keep His promises – including His promise to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. There is no doubt, our Father gives great gifts. We can ask shamelessly. He will answer perfectly.
Amen.