The Church Season of Easter,
Easter
6, One Year Series
Our
Savior Lutheran Church, Midland, MI (May 13, 2012)
Readings: Psalm
107, 1-9
Numbers 21:4-9 1 Timothy 2:1-6
John 16:23-33
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Grace,
mercy and peace be to you from the Father
and
the Son and the Holy Spirit, Amen
The text for
today’s message will be from the Gospel lesson as recorded in the 16th
chapter of St. John, especially the following verses:
John 16:23-33 (NIV)
23 In that day you will
no longer ask
me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in
my name. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in
my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
Jesus said to his disciples, “In
that day you will no longer ask me anything.” Asking is something we’re told is sometimes
good at and other times we’re not so good. Sometimes we ask questions because inquiring
minds want to know the answer to things that puzzle them. Sometimes we say what we want God to tell us
because it has hurt us or someone we know.
Children seem to be the champions of asking questions in a never ending
“why game” where no matter what the answer is the next question is always, “but
why?” And
then there are those who ask questions because they really want to know what
something means, why something is happening of or how something works. Sometimes we don’t ask questions because we
don’t really don’t want to hear the answer.
Sometimes we ask questions just so everyone else will see that we know
the answer. And other times we ask only
after we have hit rock bottom and whatever it is that we desire overrides our
personal pride and then we ask God. The
disciples had Jesus there with them and when they doubted or misunderstood they
could go to Him and ask. When we have a
question about what God says, we still go to Christ and ask, and we can do so
in prayer or by simply going to the Bible and searching for the answer. But when we have particular spiritual or
physical needs then we pray and request, and in Jesus' Name, we pray.
During the three and one
half years of Jesus' ministry the disciples showed their immaturity again and
again. For example, when Jesus fed the 5000, He first asked the disciples how
they would feed all these people. When
asked to find a solution the disciples were lost as to what to do. They had in their hands, five loaves and two
fish and that didn’t give them a good solution.
While they may have thought, “It just can’t work, or how can I make it
work,” the disciples were looking in the wrong place. The disciples looked to their knowledge and
skill, they looked within themselves and could find no answer. But they still wanted to answer. And so what they failed to do is to ask
Jesus. They just looked to themselves, said
this is all we have, and so it can’t be done.
In the Gospel lesson
today, Jesus shows them how it worked.
Jesus announced to His disciples that He would be betrayed, he would
suffer, die, he would be resurrected and ascend in to heaven. Jesus told the disciples all these three
times (Mt. 16:21; 17:22; 20:18) but it only grieved them. Oh the disciples did
ask questions, like, “36Simon Peter asked him, "Lord, where
are you going?"(Jn 13:36) or Thomas who asked, "Lord, we don't
know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"(Jn 14:5) And Philip said, "Lord, show us
the Father and that will be enough for us."(Jn 14:8) And when Jesus prophesied about the time,
when they would have fuller knowledge of all things, the disciples thought that
time had already come. So they didn’t
feel the need to ask, they weren’t engaged, they assumed their own answer, and
so Jesus told them what they would do, He said, “a time is coming, and has come, when you will be
scattered, each to his own home. You will leave me all alone.”(v. 32)
They didn’t understand that, they didn’t ask, they didn’t want to ask,
they didn’t want to hear Christ’s words.
Left to their own knowledge and fears, they did just what Christ said
they would do, when Christ was betayed, they scattered to try save themselves.
Because of their lack of
faith they abandoned Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They failed to attend His
trial. And except for John they did not go to Calvary either and on Saturday
and Sunday they locked themselves into their room.
They did not ask Jesus
how all this would happen and even if they did the result would be the
same. They would indeed scatter, and
regardless of their actions Jesus would still help them. Only a few hours later, in the Garden of Gethsemane,
the disciples ran from the Jewish authorities and the Roman soldiers. The
disciples were in tribulation. But even though they didn’t realize it, the
peace of God went with them. And so you may ask, what is this peace? Well
actually St. Paul gives the answer in his letter to the Romans, “Therefore,
since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace
in which we now stand.”(Rom 5:1-2)
Because we are justified
by faith in Jesus, we need not ask if God is angry with us, He is not. This
peace of God guarded their minds and hearts in Christ Jesus, it was the peace
of God, not of something they found in this world. Even though they would desert Jesus, He still
said: "Be of good courage, I have overcome the world." Indeed,
in this world, our flesh and the world overcomes us, but Jesus has overcome the
world.
We ask if there will
ever be a time when we will ask no questions of doctrine, question what
scripture tells us, question why our prayers aren’t immediately answered, or even
ask, “What does Jesus mean?” All those questions have been answered. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit who gave us the
Holy Scriptures. The scriptures lead us in all truth. While we may want to debate or ask many
questions which the scriptures do not answer, the scriptures give an answer to
all we need to ask. We do not
need any further revelations, because the Triune God has given us the whole
Truth in the New Testament which is the fulfillment of the Truth of Jesus
Christ.
Jesus Christ said, a
time will come when we can bring any spiritual or physical need to Jesus and He
assures us that He will answer. That time has come and it is now. Jesus hears your prayers. In fact, Jesus' promise is complete. He is one with the Father, He always has
been. And we are the Father's dear children in Christ Jesus. Remember Luther even said that in the Small
Catechism, in the introduction to the Lord’s Prayer, in the response to “Our
Father who art in Heaven,” the response is, “With these words God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true
Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and
confidence, we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.” In fact
He gives us much, much more than we could ever ask for, for in Baptism He gives
us the promise of eternal life. Christ
was bloodied and beaten, and He went to the cross, so that we could ask
forgiveness of our sins. Though we have
left Him alone there on the cross, He does not turn away from us. So ask away, ask to “Take my life and let
it be consecrated, Lord to Thee,”(LSB# 784) or “Lord, Open Now My heart
to hear, and through Your Word to me draw near.”(LSB# 908) Just ask, “and you will receive, and your joy will be
[eternally] complete.” Amen.
The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of
God
and the fellowship of the Holy
Spirit be with you all.
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