1. We are accustomed to read today's Gospel on this Sunday
because it treats of prayer and this week is called Rogation (Supplication)
week, in which we give ourselves to prayer and to processions with crosses.
Those who first instituted it, no doubt, meant it well, but it has proven
to work harm. For, in the processions heretofore, many unchristian things
have been practised, and there has been no praying at all or very little;
so that the processions were rightly abolished and discontinued. Often
have I admonished that we should persevere in prayer, for there is great
need of it. Since the outward prating and muttering of prayer is done away
with, we no longer pray in any way. This is a good indication that we heretofore,
notwithstanding our many prayers, never prayed.
2. The Lord points out here five things necessary to constitute true
prayer. The first is God's promise, which is the chief thing and is the
foundation and power of all prayers. For he promises here that it shall
be given us if we ask; and besides he swears: "Verily, verily, I say unto
you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my
name." He promises that we might be sure of being heard in prayer; yea,
he censures the disciples for the reason that they are lazy and have not
therefore been praying. As if he would say: God is ready to give more quickly,
and to give more than you ask; yea, he offers his treasures if we only
take them. It is truly a great shame and a severe chastisement for us Christians
that God should still upbraid us for our slothfulness in prayer, and that
we fail to let such a rich and excellent promise incite us to pray. We
let this precious treasure lie there, and seek it not, nor exercise ourselves
to receive the power in such a promise.
3. So God himself now founds our prayer upon his promise and thereby
encourages us to pray. If it were not for this promise, who would have
the courage to pray? We have hitherto resorted to many ways of preparing
ourselves to pray--ways with which the books are filled; but if you wish
to be well prepared, take the promise and lay hold of God with it. Then
your courage and desire to pray will soon grow, which courage you will
never otherwise get. For those who pray without God's promise, imagine
in themselves how angry God is, whom they wish to propitiate by means of
their prayers. Without faith in the promise, there is then, neither courage
nor desire to pray, but mere uncertain delusion and a melancholy spirit;
there is, therefore, no hearing of prayers, and both prayer and labor are
lost.
4. By these words Christ now chastises the unbelief of those who, by
reason of their foolish worship, consider themselves unworthy to pray,
and gauge the worthiness of their prayer according to themselves and their
own ability, and not according to the promise of God. There is then, to
be sure, nothing but unworthiness. However, you should, by all means, be
conscious of your own unworthiness, taking confidence not from your own
doings, but from the promise of God, and be so completely conscious, that
if you were all alone, and no one else in the world prayed, you would nevertheless
pray, because of this promise. For you can point me to no true saint who
prayed, depending upon his own worthiness, and who did not rely only upon
God's promises, be he Peter, Paul, Mary, Elijah, or any one else. All of
them have been unworthy. I would not give a nickel for all the prayers
of a saint if he prayed because of his own worthiness.
5. The second requisite of true prayer, following that of God's promise,
is faith--that we believe the promise is true, and do not doubt that God
will give what he promises. For the words of the promise require faith.
But faith is a firm, undoubting confidence in God's promise that it is
true; as James says: "But if any of you lacketh wisdom, let him ask of
God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not; and it shall be given
him. But let him ask in faith, nothing doubting: for he that doubteth is
like the surge of the sea driven by the wind and tossed. For let not that
man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord." James 1, 5-7. Moreover,
he who doubts and yet prays, tempts God; for he doubts in respect to God's
will and grace. Therefore, his prayer is nothing and he gropes after God
like the blind for the wall. John also speaks of this assurance of faith
in I John 5, 14-15: "And this is the boldness which we have toward him,
that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth: and if we know
that he heareth us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions
which we have asked of him." John describes with these words how a truly
believing heart is disposed in prayer, namely, that it is concerned about
nothing else than that its prayer be heard, knowing that it has even then
obtained its petition. That is also true. Such faith and definite assurance,
however, the Holy Spirit must impart; therefore, without the Holy Spirit,
surely no prayer will be offered.
6 Try it, now, and pray thus. Then you will taste the sweetness of God's
promise. What courage and consolation of heart it awakens to pray for all
things! It matters not how great and high the petitions may be. Elijah
was a man of like passions with ourselves; yet when he prayed, it did not
rain for three years and six months, and when he again prayed it rained.
I Kings, 17, 1; 18, 45. Notice, here you see a single man prays and by
his prayer he is lord of the clouds, of heaven and earth. So God lets us
see what power and influence a true prayer has, namely, that nothing is
impossible for it to do.
7. Let everyone now ask his heart how often he has prayed during his
whole life. Singing Psalms and saying the Lord's Prayer is not called praying.
These are instituted for children and untutored people, as exercises, to
make them athletes in the Scriptures. Your prayer, however, no one but
yourself sees and feels in your heart, and you will truly know it, when
it hits the mark.
8. The third requisite of true prayer is, that one must name definitely
something that he brings to God or for which he prays; as for strong faith,
for love, for peace, and for the comfort of his neighbor. One must actually
set forth the petitions; just as the Lord's Prayer presents seven petitions.
This is what Christ means by the words: "If ye shall ask anything of the
Father." "Anything," that is, whatever you are in need of. Besides, he
himself interprets this "anything'" and says: "That your joy may be made
full." That is, pray for all things you need, until you have acquired even
all and your joy is made full; and his prayer will first be fully answered
on the day of judgment.
9. The fourth element in true prayer is that we must desire, or wish
that the petition be granted, which is nothing but asking; as Christ says,
"Ask." Others have called this "Ascensum mentis in Deum," when the soul
ascends to God and desires something from him, and sighs from its depths,
saying: Oh, that I had this or that! Such sighing St. Paul praises in Rom
8, 26. It is an intercession of the Spirit that cannot be uttered. That
is, the mouth wants to, but cannot speak as rapidly and strongly as the
heart desires; the yearning is greater that any words and thoughts. Hence
it is, also, that man himself does not feel how deep his sighing or desire
is. When Zacchaeus sought to see the Lord, he himself did not feel how
strongly his heart wished that Christ might speak with him and come into
his house. However, when his desire was fulfilled, he was very happy, for
he had succeeded according to all his wishes and prayers; he had received
more than he had dared to ask by word of mouth, or desire. Lk 19, 2ff.
Moses, likewise, cried so that God spake to him: "Wherefore criest thou
unto me?" Ex 14, 15, and yet his mouth kept silence; but his heart, in
its extremity, sighed deeply and that was called crying unto God. In like
manner St. Paul writes to the Ephesians: "God is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that we ask or think. Eph 3, 20. Now, temptation, anxiety and
trouble induce this sighing; they teach us what true sighing is.
10. The fifth requisite of true prayer is, that we ask in the name of
Christ, This is nothing more than that we come before God in the faith
of Christ and comfort ourselves with the sure confidence that he is our
Mediator, through whom all things are given to us, without whom we merit
nothing but wrath and disgrace. As Paul says to the Romans: "Through whom
also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand;
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Rom 5, 2. It is praying aright
in Christ's name, when we thus trust in him that we will be received and
heard for his sake, and not for our own sake. Those, however, who pray
in their own name, who presume that God will hear or regard them, because
they say so many, such long, such devout, such godly prayers, will merit
and obtain nothing but wrath and disgrace; for they wish to be people whom
God should regard without a mediator. To them, Christ here is of no consideration,
nor is he of any service.
11. We observe that all five requisites of prayer may be complied with
in the heart, without any utterance of the mouth. The oral part of prayer
is really not to be despised, but it is necessary to kindle and encourage
prayer inwardly, in the heart. The additional conditions, however, of which
I have written enough elsewhere, should and must be omitted that we specify
to God the time, person, place, and measure. We must leave all that to
his own free will, and cling only to asking; we must not doubt that the
prayer is heard, and that what we petitioned is already ordered--that it
will be given--as certainly as if we already had it. This is pleasing to
God and he will do as he here promises: "Ask, and ye shall receive." Those,
however, who set the time, place and measure, tempt God, and believe not
that they are heard or that they have obtained what they asked; therefore,
they also receive nothing. The Gospel lesson continues:
"Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name."
12. It may be that they knew, as yet nothing of such prayer, and of
this name; besides they felt no need that urged them to pray in this name.
They imagined that so long as Christ was with them they needed nothing
and had enough of everything. But, now that he is to separate from them
and leave them, trouble immediately comes and they will have reason enough
to move them to pray.
"These things have I spoken unto you in parables (dark sayings)."
13. When he says, "these things," he means that which he had just before
spoken: "A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while,
and ye shall see me;" and, "Because I go to the Father;" also, the parable
of the woman in travail. For these were nothing but parables, that is,
dark-obscure sayings, which they did not understand. John calls these dark,
hidden sayings "parables," although the German language does not designate
them so, but calls them enigmas or veiled sayings. We are accustomed to
say of one who has uttered an enigmatical saying: "That is a covered dish
or a covered meal," when the words have a meaning not on the surface. In
parables, the meaning to be conveyed is expressed in a way that not everyone
understands. Of this nature were all the sayings of Christ, which he spoke
to his disciples on the night of his farewell and his going to the Father;
they could understand nothing of them. They thought his going would not
be dying and coming into another existence; they thought of it as a pleasure
walk and that Christ should return in the body, as one journeys to another
country and returns. Therefore, although he spoke plainly and clearly,
yet going and parting were a "covered meal" to them. Hence, he adds:
"The hour cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in dark sayings
(parables), but shall tell you plainly of the Father."
14. That is, what I now speak to you, while in the body, and my parables
ye understand not, which I will thoroughly explain to you through the Holy
Spirit. I will plainly speak of my Father, that you may then understand
who the Father is and what my going to the Father means. You will clearly
see how I ascend through suffering into the Father's life and into his
kingdom; that I sit at his right hand and represent you and am your mediator;
that all this is done for your sake, that you may likewise come to the
Father. "I shall tell you plainly of the Father" is not to be understood
to mean that he will tell us much about God's divine nature, as the sophists
fancy; for that is unnecessary and the divine nature of God is incomprehensible.
But Christ will tell us how he goes to the Father, how he takes upon himself
the kingdom and government of the Father; as a king's son returns
to his father and assumes the government of the kingdom. Christ says
further:
"In that day ye shall ask in my name."
15. For then, in your many tribulations, you will have not only reason
to pray, but will also know and perceive what my name is and how you should
esteem me. Then will you be taught by praying itself what you now do not
at all understand, and that hitherto you have never prayed. Therefore,
he adds:
"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 forth from the Father."
16. How, then? Will Christ not be our mediator? Shall we not pray in
his name? How lovingly and sweetly the Lord can speak, and woo us to himself,
and, through himself, to the Father! Here he, himself, explains how it
will be when we pray in his name: "Ye," he says, "have loved me, and have
believed that I came forth from the Father." That is, ye love me and know
me; have me and my name and are in me as I in you. For Christ dwells in
us, not because we can think, speak, sing or write so much about him; but
because we love him and believe in him. We know that he is come from the
Father and returns to the Father; that is, how he emptied himself, in his
passion, of all his divine glory and returned again to the Father in his
kingdom, for our sake. This faith brings us to the Father, and thus all
then is done in his name.
17. So we are sure that Christ needs not to pray for us, for he has
already prayed for us. We, ourselves, may now approach through Christ,
and pray. We no longer need a Christ who prays for us. This one Christ
is enough, he who has prayed for us and accomplished this work. Therefore,
he says: "The Father himself loveth you." It is not your merit, but his
love. He loves you, but for my sake, because you believe on me and love
me; that is, he has regard for my name in you. Hence, thereby have I fulfilled
my office, and you are now brought, through me, to where you may yourselves,
in my place, appear in his presence and pray. It is not necessary that
I still pray for you. These are marvelous words, that we, through Christ,
become like Christ and are his brethren, and may glory in being children
of his Father, who loves us for Christ's sake. He says in John 1 16, 'Grace
for Grace," that is, God is gracious unto us, because he is gracious to
Christ, who is in us and we in him.
18. And here we also see that to "believe in Christ" does not mean to
believe that Christ is a person who is both God and man; that does not
help any one. But that this same person is the Christ; that is, that he
went forth from the Father and came into the world, and again leaves the
world and goes to the Father. The words mean no less than that this is
Christ, that he became man and died for us, rose again and ascended to
heaven. Because of this office of his, he is called Jesus Christ, and to
believe this concerning him, that it is true, means to be and to abide
in his name. There follows further in this Gospel:
"His disciples say, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no
dark sayings."
19. Here you see that to speak "plainly" ("frei heraus"), or to speak
in clear terms, means to speak without parables, or without dark and covered
words. And the good disciples think they understand very well what he tells
them, that Christ comes from the Father and goes to the Father; but they
do this as good, pious children of Christ. They are easily able to understand
it, and in love they tell him so. In ordinary conversation, people sometimes
say to one another Yes or No, or give assent, saying, It is so, and in
a sense one understands, even though he is still far from the meaning of
another's words. In such case the conversation is without hypocrisy and
in true simplicity. The Evangelist hereby shows what a beautiful, plain,
friendly and loving life Christ led with his disciples, since they were
so very able to understand him. Then the disciples say further:
"Now know we that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any
man should ask thee."
20. That is, you anticipate and explain yourself and speak no more in
parables, concerning which we must question you; for you know in advance
where we are lacking in understanding. All this reverts to the fact that
they wished to ask what the "little while" meant, and he noticed it and
explains by saying that he must go to the Father; which they still did
not understand, and yet it was clearer than his words: "A little while
and ye will not see me." Now, because he saw their thoughts--that they
wished to question him--they confessed that he comes from God and knows
all things, so that we need not to ask him, for he himself sees very well
where the trouble is.
