| As many of us continue to “stay at home” in combatting the coronavirus, today we continue another reflection on “staying at home” with Jesus in John 15:
“But if you make your home with me, and if my Words can find a home in you, well then, whatever you want, just ask for it and it’s yours!” (John 15:7)
I always approach such promises with mixed feelings.
On the one hand, I want to take Jesus at his word. Probably more to the point, I don’t want to be counted among those “of little faith” who are not bold enough to trust the promises of God.
On the other hand, I’ve had many conversations with earnest, serious Christians who asked, “I prayed as hard as I could! Why didn’t God answer me?”) Yes, “God always answers prayers, but sometimes says ‘no’. ” But does this offer much comfort when we feel the exuberance (!) of Jesus’ “whatever you want” offer?
Jesus even repeats this promise five more times in his Upper Room discourse:
- “I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13)
- If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” (John 14:14)
- “And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.” (John 15:16)
- “Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you.” (John 16:23)
- “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.” (John 16:24)
Gospel of John commentator Dale Bruner summarizes:
“The “whatever” is put up in the front of the promise for emphasis. The “in my name” gives the correct direction or motivation to our “whatevers”–we could translate “in my name” with the words “in my mission” and get the right meaning.
If my Words find a home in you…
The only time Jesus deviates from his “in my name” formula is John 15:7: “if you make your home with me, and if my Words can find a home in you…”
I discussed in an earlier article what “make your home with me” looks like. What about “if my Words can find a home in you…”?
Commentator B.F. Westcott helpfully explains:
“The petitions of the true disciples are echoes (so to speak) of Christ’s words. As He has spoken, so they speak. Their prayer is only some fragment of His teaching transformed into a supplication, and so it will necessarily be heard.”
If we “stay at home” with Jesus, his Words become familiar to us. From repeated listening, we get the gist of how Jesus thinks, what is important to him, and, most of all, the intent or character behind his words. Thus, our prayers take on the imprint of his purposes and nature. As he spoke in the gospels, so we speak (pray) back to him.
Not a Divine Vending Machine
There are dangers in Jesus’ open-ended “whatever’s”. One major one today is how Jesus’ invitation to bold prayer is twisted into a shameless travesty by prosperity or “health and wealth” gospel preachers.
The prosperity gospel is a cancer eating into the Body of Christ worldwide, especially in Africa. (In fact, many African prosperity gospel preachers learned their trade from Americans like Paula White, Joel Osteen and many others.)
The basic idea is that God wants you to be healthy and wealthy; so give your money as a down-payment and wait for God to pour down blessings. The fact that the money raked in by prosperity gospel preachers supports their obscenely lavish lifestyles only proves their point: “Look how wealthy I’ve become–God will bless you also.”
While in Addis Ababa this past January, Ethiopian friends told me about “prophets” with “retreat centers” where people pay huge amounts to stay so the prophet can visit them for perhaps 5-10 minutes to bless them. Other Christians pay huge sums to healers, yet when their loved-ones die (as they often do), they are left impoverished both materially and spiritually (oppressed by guilt that their loved-one died because they weren’t worthy enough).
When Jesus’ Words “find a home in us,” we see this is contrary to every fiber of Jesus’ being. Jesus did not expect compensation for helping people. Jesus was poor all his life; he had “nowhere to lay his head” (Matt. 8:20). Jesus never promises health and wealth to his disciples; if anything, he promises trouble! (John 16:33)
Trusting Jesus to Pray Boldly
Dale Bruner points out (via R. Brown, another scholar) that John 15:7 can be interpreted as promoting the goal mentioned in the next verse, John 15:8:
“Here is how my Father is glorified: when you bear much fruit and become discipled to me.”
Thus, as a wholesome filter for our “whatever” requests, we might ask this question: will this help me bear fruit for God’s Kingdom (not myself) or advance my journey as his disciple?
As I wrote last week, our fruit-bearing is intimately connected with using the spiritual gifts God has graciously given us. Using our spiritual gifts should help us feel both Fulfilled and Fruitful.
My primary gifts are in preaching, teaching and leadership. Yet my retirement (plus moving to a new city and state where I knew no one and no one knew me) left me with few opportunities to use my gifts. During the Lenten season, I practiced the same self-examination I was encouraging in my weekly articles. I came to realize I was feeling neither fulfilled nor fruitful, with negative spiritual consequences that harmed both my own life and those around me.
So this week I started earnestly praying that the Lord would give me more opportunities to use my gifts. For me, it’s a bold prayer! It sounds way too selfish to me, yet I think it does express Jesus’ desire (as stated in John 15:8 above) that I am fruitful for him.
I found these words from Martin Luther (quoted by Bruner) speak to me about my sense of unworthiness:
“My dear friend, [Jesus is saying to us] it does not matter in what condition you are.
If you cannot pray on your own authority and in your name–as indeed you should not–then please pray in My name. If you are not worthy and holy enough, let Me be holy and worthy enough for you.
Living in the Tension
My book Paradox Lost: Rediscovering the Mystery of God shares how authentic Christianity lives within many paradoxical tensions. Today we have discovered another one:
- Jesus says we can boldly ask for “whatever” we want
- Jesus says we must only ask “in my name”
We’re like balls careening back and forth between these two endpoints.
But if Jesus “Words can find a home” in us, then each side of this tension corrects the other, nudging us back and forth slowly toward the center between the two extremes, until perhaps we discover the delicate paradoxical “sweet spot:” “whatever you want, just ask for it and it’s yours!”
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