Everyone Who Asks
Lk. 11:1-13[1]
Prayer is a puzzle to most of us, I think. I’m not sure most of us even know why it is
that we pray.[2] In this self-oriented culture of ours, many
people pray as a form of sanctified wish-fulfillment. They think they can put a prayer coin in the
slot machine and have all their dreams come true--if they pray the right
way. Then there are others who reject
prayer altogether as a remnant from the days when people thought God was
directly responsible for things like the weather. They tend to think it’s just a mind game
we’re playing with ourselves. I think
the solution to the problem of prayer lies somewhere in the middle between
self-interest and cynicism.
Our Gospel lesson for today contains three teachings about
prayer. I think the one we hear is “Ask, and it will be
given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for
you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for
everyone who knocks, the door will be opened” (Lk. 11:9-10). We hear it, and yet I’m not sure we know
quite what to make of it. Those who pray
only for their own self-interest find in this statement a promise that their
wishes will be granted. Those who object
to that kind of thinking may simply reject it. It’s problematic at best. After all, who of us hasn’t had the
experience of praying for something that seemed right and good, only to ask and
not receive?[3] So what do we make of this?
I think the Gospel lesson gives us some clues. For example, I think that it’s important to
note that this passage on prayer that ends with “everyone who asks receives”
begins with Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer. In comparision with the version in Matthew’s
Gospel, this one is much shorter. And it
seems to me that makes it even more clear that in this model prayer Jesus was
teaching his disciples to pray for God’s Kingdom to come. So I think the first clue to understanding
“everyone who asks receives” is that all of our praying must be an expression
of seeking first God’s Kingdom.[4]
The second clue comes in the story of the friend who asks to borrow
bread at midnight. He has received
unexpected guests, and not to offer them food would be a serious
embarrassment. So he asks his neighbor
to borrow bread. Of course, the neighbor
objects, but Jesus said, “because of his persistence he will get up and give
him whatever he needs” (Lk. 11:8). There
are a couple of things we have to understand about this. For one thing, Luke tends to emphasize the
importance of persisting in prayer and not giving up in his version of Jesus’
teachings.[5] That is a good thing. But the other point here is that Jesus is not saying that God gives begrudgingly
when we make a nuisance of ourselves in prayer.
Sometimes, Jesus’ sayings are intended to illustrate the opposite of
what is true about God. This is
certainly an example of that. The truth is that Jesus assured us we can pray
knowing that God knows our needs (Matt. 6:7-8) and is already working in each
of our lives for our best interest.
I think we see this confirmed in the third clue found when Jesus compares prayer to a child asking
for something from a parent. Jesus
acknowledged that, for the most part, we human parents want what is best for
our children. So he says, “Is there
anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead
of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?” (Lk
11:11-12). Of course, the answer is
emphatically “No.” Even we who are
flawed and fallible parents “know how to give good gifts to [our] children”
(Lk. 11:13). How much more can we trust
that God who loves us unconditionally is constantly working in our lives with
grace before we even know we have a need.
And so when we pray, we do so with assurance, not out of the fear that
we somehow have to get God’s attention or twist God’s arm.[6]
In all of this, you may be thinking that the lesson is that we
shouldn’t pray for our own desires. I
don’t think that’s the point. What is
more natural than to turn to our creator and redeemer to express the deepest
desires of our hearts. But Jesus’
approach to prayer suggests that the desires of our hearts ought to be shaped
not by the values of our culture, or our own selfish interests, but by the
principles of the kingdom--compassion, peace, justice, freedom, and new life.[7] As we pray in that way, I think we can pray
with the confidence that “everyone who asks receives.”[8] And this doesn’t just relate to our
spirituality--part of the “Lord’s Prayer” involves meeting our daily needs and
protecting us from trials that may overwhelm us. Jesus assured us that we can pray for all
these concerns, knowing that God knows our needs and is already working in each
life to bring grace and peace, and mercy and love, and new life.
[1] ©
2013 Alan Brehm. A sermon preached by
Rev. Dr. Alan Brehm on 7/28/2013 at First Presbyterian Church of Dickinson, TX.
[2] Barth
seems overly confident when he says, “True prayer is prayer which is sure of a
hearing. By 'hearing' is to be understood the reception and adoption of the
human request into God’s plan and will, and therefore the divine speech and
action which correspond to the human request.” cf. Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics, 3.4, 106
[3]
Cf. Stephanie Frey, “On God’s Case,” The
Christian Century (July 13, 2004):17.
[4] Cf.
Barth, Church Dogmatics, 4.4.76,
where he says “the whole of the Christian life is a form of this petition.” See also N. T. Wright, “Thy Kingdom Come:
Living the Lord’s Prayer,” in The Christian Century (March
12,1997) 269: “We are praying, as Jesus was
praying and acting, for the redemption of the world; for the radical defeat and
uprooting of evil; and for heaven and earth to be married at last, for God to
be all in all. And if we pray this way, we must of course be prepared to live
this way.” Contrast John Nolland, Luke
9:21–18:34, 620, where he insists that the prayer is “unambiguously for the
future coming of the kingdom of God.”
[5]
Cf. E. Glenn Hinson, “Persistence and Prayer in Luke-Acts,” Review & Expositor 104 (Fall 2007): 721-736.
[6]
Cf. Jürgen Moltmann, The Church in the
Power of the Spirit, 118, where he
says, “The prayer offered in the assurance that prayer will be heard therefore
becomes the expression of life lived in friendship with God. God can be talked
to. He listens to his friend.”
[7] It might be easy to miss, but there’s another clue
here that our praying is to be informed by the principles of the Lord’s prayer,
and above all is to be an expression of seeking first the Kingdom. Matthew’s version of this saying says, “how
much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
(Matt. 7:11). But Luke’s version says,
“how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask
him!” (Lk. 11:13). Luke presupposes that
Jesus’ disciples are praying for Kingdom matters--like peace, and justice, and
compassion, and new life. And Jesus
promises that God will freely give us the Spirit so that we can not only pray
for the Kingdom but also work for its realization in our lives and in the lives
of those around us. Cf. Fred Craddock, Luke, 154.
[8]
Cf. Nolland, Luke 9:21–18:34, 632: “this
extravagant sense of the accessibility of God and of his ability and
willingness to respond to us as we come to him fit well with the radical
simplicity of the faith of Jesus, and Luke would have us encounter this in all
its starkness.”
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