Sixth Sunday of Easter (1880)

John 16:23-30

The Lord Jesus prayed much in the days of His flesh and in particular has offered prayer
and supplications before and in His passion with strong crying and tears
1
, and in this way
proved Himself as our true High Priest. As little as He had to pray for His own sake, as to
hunger, to thirst, to suffer, and to die. His prayer is an important part of His meritorious
obedience. At the same time, however, with this the Lord wanted to give us an example and
model that teaches us how we should gladly and diligently pray. Yes, He did not let the matter
rest with His own example, but repeatedly exhorted His disciples to diligent prayer. We find in
the Gospel this Sunday such a very friendly exhortation to prayer that gives us at the same time
multiple instruction about prayer itself.

What should we learn from Christ's friendly exhortation to prayer. This is three things in
particular:

1. why prayer is necessary; it is necessary
a. because of existing or impending distress and temptation.
2
The Lord had
recently talked about the fact that His disciples would no longer see Him in a
little while, would cry, howl, and be sad, and therefore strongly exhorts them
to prayer; because one can do no better in distress and temptation than to call
and cry out to God;
b. because of the explicit divine command.
3
"There stands the commandment
that He not only wants to exhort to prayer and to have strengthened, but also
applies the commandment to us and requires it of us, that we should pray to
God for obedience, and this commandment should force us and compel us,
that it should and must be prayed, thus I otherwise love Christ and will be
obedient, I am as unworthy as I wanted"
4
;

2. how we should pray, namely
a. not in our own name, from our own righteousness, because such a prayer is
vain, even an abomination before God
5
,
b. not even in the name of the still to be expected Messiah.
6
Until now, the
disciples still recognized the Messiah in Jesus, even prayed, but only as the

1
Hebrews 5:7; Luke 6:12.
2
John 16:23, cf. 16:20.
3
John 16:24; Matthew 26:41; Luke 11:9; Psalm 50:15.
4
Luther.
5
John 9:31; Isaiah 64:6.
6
John 16:24.
fathers of the Old Testament in faith in the future Christ. "Therefore He said:
'You have asked nothing in my name, as you should"; for you are still not in the
knowledge and in faith in my suffering and resurrection, therefore I will fulfill
everything. But when such is done and preached, then a new prayer and
divine service will go out into all the world, that one will rightly pray in my
name."
c. but in the name of the appearing Christ, of Jesus of Nazareth
7
, i.e.
. in faith
. both in His divine-human person
8
,
. as well as in His accomplished work of redemption
9
, namely that
He is leaving the world through His meritorious suffering,
death, resurrection, and ascension and going to the Father;
. in faithful appropriation of His merit, that we, as it were, are clothed in
His righteousness, in the person of the Mediator Himself, come
praying before the Father;

3. what kind of a glorious promise our prayer has; it is
a. pleasing to the father for Christ's sake.
10
(This is not to be understood as if
Christ did not want to ask for them because He had promised them that
11
, He
does this
12
, He is still our advocate
13
; rather, He wants to say that not He alone,
but also they themselves would pray to God as His faithful disciples.) It
should
b. also be certainly heard; it vouches for
. the given repeated promise
14
,
. in particular the two-fold "truly".
15
It should
c. have the effect of an accomplished joy
16
,
. the heart feels great joy already in this life after each answer to prayer,
. this joy will be quite perfect in heaven.
Georg Stckhardt

7
John 16:23-24, 26.
8
John 16:28.
9
John 16:28.
10
John 14:26-27.
11
John 14:16.
12
John 17:9.
13
Hebrews 7:25; Romans 8:34; 1 John 2:1.
14
John 16:23-24.
15
John 16:23.
16
John 16:24.