Sixth Sunday in Easter
Luke 11:9-13
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him 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!”
Earlier in St. Luke’s eleventh chapter (where our text comes from), the disciples had asked that Jesus teach them to pray; and He’d taught them what we know as the Lord’s Prayer. And then, He’d set out an illustration for them.
The illustration encouraged a very persistent asking of God’s help (which indicates a very persistent offering of that help on His part, right?). The asking was to be so persistent, that were it a person asking for assistance from his friend, the friend (who was being inconvenienced late at night) would be so overwhelmed with the repeated, with the incessant asking, that he would finally give up and help him out.
That’s what comes right before our text. Jesus was telling His disciples, that’s how persistently, how earnestly they should pray to the Father.
In a certain place in the book of Acts, it lauds the devoutness of a particular man, saying about him that he prayed continually to God (Acts 10:1-2). That frequency of praying goes well with Jesus’ illustration. Jesus is encouraging the same in our text with the words, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
Again, we said, that the fact of us being encouraged so strongly to ask indicates God’s very strong interest in helping us.
Why wouldn’t we do this, then, right? Why wouldn’t we make use of the opportunity, (according to God’s command, even!), to go to him for our needs in prayer?
We can understand why unbelievers wouldn’t do it; they wouldn’t care about God’s command, and wouldn’t see any use in it. But I’m not talking to that crowd here; you are believers who are moved by Holy Spirit. You know of God’s grace. So, why wouldn’t you want to pray?
Well, it might occur to us that God’s prophet Isaiah once spoke these words to the people:
your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear (Isaiah 59:2).
And when we read those words, it reminds us that we have situations in our lives in which we find it awkward to go to someone with some sort of request, or even just to talk with the person. It’s awkward when we know they have something against us. We wonder where we stand with the person. How are they going to receive us? Will they slam the door in our face? Hang up the phone in disgust? Will they receive us that way?
And You might ask, Will God receive me that way? Can I approach Him even as a sinner, even feeling so guilty about my sins, even with nothing to offer to make anything right? Will He receive me mercifully? Will it be to my good, or to my harm? It becomes a certain sort of doubt, doesn’t it; a sort of unbelief? God is offering; and you are wondering whether it’s on the up and up, whether what He’s offering is really there for you.
I was preparing this message out on my back porch the other day, and I saw a little lizard inside the screen (where there isn’t any food, and where it will die if it remains there). But, of course, my effort to “save the poor little creature” was in vain. He kept running from me. He was afraid that I was out to hurt him rather than to help.
In answer to peoples’ objection that perhaps God is out to hurt rather than to help (that Jesus anticipates in our text), He makes a reasonable argument: What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? We read those words a moment ago, about peoples’ iniquities, their sins making a separation between them and God. Leading into that, Isaiah has this to say:
Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save,
or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; [so, it isn’t that God’s goodness doesn’t exist or has somehow gone away]
But then He goes on to say those words,
but your iniquities have made a separation
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden his face from you
so that he does not hear
So, he’s saying, this distance isn’t on God’s part; it’s on your’s. It isn’t that He doesn’t stand ready to have mercy on you in your penitence (to help you in your need), but that your doubt, your unbelief prevents you from receiving it from Him. God doesn’t change; it’s your perception of Him that changes because of your guilt. You perceive Him as being unwilling to hear you and to help you. It’s awkward, you feel. How do you even approach when you know, nothing’s hidden from Him. How does God feel about me?—that’s what this really gets down to, right? How does God feel about me?
Our Old Testament lesson offers insight. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you (Jeremiah 29:11ff). The prophet Jeremiah (there) is talking to God’s people a long time ago, the same crowd to whom Isaiah was speaking for the LORD those earlier words.
It means the same thing to us that it meant to them, though. God says to sinners of all times: ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. And it even goes on to mention His great desire to give you the Holy Spirit in your asking. So this isn’t just about having enough money to pay the bills (though that’s important); it’s about receiving the solution to the even more important problem of your sin, too.
In my teaching of the Catechism the other day in the school, a question came up in the workbook, about whether or not someone who’d sinned the day before should come to communion. Jesus once said, “Those who are well don’t need a physician, but those who are sick (Matt. 9:12).” Theologians have referred to the Lord’s Supper as the medicine of immortality. The spiritually sick go to receive the medicine that makes them well.
Pastor Faugstad had a good statement related to this the other day in chapel. He noted that sick people don’t say to themselves, I’ve got to wait till I’m well before I can go see the doctor to get medicine. How silly would that be?! When you’re sick is when you go. And again, Jesus refers to a spiritual sickness that people have for which He has come to help.
There’s a real connection between prayer and the Supper in that in both, we’re going to the LORD to provide for us what we need in our brokenness, in our unworthiness, in our lostness. It’s clear in both, that we’ve been invited to do so. Prayer isn’t a Sacrament like the Lord’s Supper; but those other things, the two have in common.
So, the answer to that question in the Catechism workbook is, of course, that person who sinned yesterday should go to the Lord’s Table in repentance and in faith to receive Christ’s body and blood for his benefit. I asked the student who was answering the question, “On what day haven’t we sinned?” That’s what the whole thing’s for. We’re receiving God’s grace and His comfort and His strengthening to sustain us as we wait for Him in this world.
All of it is there for you in Christ, your Savior, Whose record is spotless. The One Who never had any doubts or unbelief has made payment for you and I, who have. His perfect blood has paid the price. Your sins are forgiven. You are connected to Christ through faith. In Him you need have no fear of God, of approaching Him as He has invited you to do. He’s the one Who says, I have no pleasure in the death of anyone…so turn, and live (Ezekiel 18:32).
Do you know you’re guilty before God? Do you regret what you’ve been? Jesus is inviting you in our text to receive the grace that God is offering. In Christ’s Name, go before God with all of your concerns related to this world and the next. His very strong encouraging of it indicates His very strong interest in helping you. What He’s offering is really there for you.
In Christ, you have forgiveness and salvation. Along with it, God invites you to ask and receive all other needed things (to ask in confidence as His dear child). Amen.
Other Lessons Today:
Jeremiah 29:11-14
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have driven you, declares the Lord, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile.
James 1:22-27
Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing. If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.
St. John 16:23-30
[Jesus said,] “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.
“I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures of speech but will tell you plainly about the Father. In that day you will ask 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. I came from the Father and have come into the world, and now I am leaving the world and going to the Father.” His disciples said, “Ah, now you are speaking plainly and not using figurative speech! Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you; this is why we believe that you came from God.”