John 16:21-30 February 24, 2002
A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. [22] So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. [23] In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. [24] Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
And then from Mark 5:24-34
A large crowd followed and pressed around him. [25] And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. [26] She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. [27] When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, [28] because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed." [29] Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.
[30] At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"
[31] "You see the people crowding against you," his disciples answered, "and yet you can ask, 'Who touched me?' "
[32] But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. [33] Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. [34] He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
CCI: Prayer brings us into the joyfilled presence of God.
Intro: "The Family Circus," by Bill Keane is at times a fountain of wisdom. In one of Bill's cartoons, the older brother leans on a crushed football and says, "I need a new football. I don't know if I should send up a prayer, write a letter to Santa Claus, or call Grandma."
Hmmm, how often does that picture characterize our prayers?
As Jesus neared the end of his ministry with his disciples, he knew that it was critical that they understand the nature of prayer for prayer was going to be their lifeline in the future.
I. The Analogy in John 16
A. Sorrow
The disciples were standing at the gateway of a path of sorrow that was beyond their imagination. Jesus had told them that his death was near, he had warned them that they would face trials, but they still did not get it. And so, one more time, Jesus presented it to his disciples.
"I tell you the truth, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. Tears, sorrow and grief, this is what awaited the disciples in the days to come. The early writers of the church called it the dark day of the soul. Each of us have been in that time when sorrow and tears and grief dominated the landscape, perhaps you are there right now. It may have been at a time of death when a parent or a child or spouse was ripped from your life. Or maybe a time of transition when a child moved out, or a job vanished. Perhaps your dark night of the soul was precipitated by a time of heartbreak and betrayal when it felt like your heart would never again be whole. Jesus told his disciples that a day like that was coming.
And then he used an analogy that sounds very strange to my ears as a man in the 21st century. Jesus said, this pain will be like "A woman giving birth to a child who has pain because her time has come." Now as a man who has only watched labor and birth, I can understand that there is pain, but sorrow? Today, birth is a relatively safe event, however, in the 1st Century and throughout most of human history, giving birth was a life threatening event. The pain of a woman in labor was often the foreshadow of death and sorrow. In an article entitled: DYING TO HAVE A BABY, Dr. Ian Carr wrote: Because so often mothers died in childbirth and children in infancy, attitudes towards birth and babies were different from ours. Parents expected that children would die in infancy, and death in childbirth was an expected tragedy. So frequent was death, that the pains of birth were associated with sorrow.
However, when the child was born, the sorrow was replaced with exuberant joy, that nothing could take away. Life had been snatched from the jaws of death. And Jesus told his disciples that their sorrow would be dealt with in the same way. They would have sorrow, but the sorrow would be transformed because LIFE would be snatched from the jaws of death.
B. Joy
And when Jesus rose from the grave, they found life. The joy they experienced that day was to be a joy that would sustain them throughout their mission. And this is how that joy was to be sustained: "Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."
Jesus' Resurrection is the source of joy in our lives. And because he has risen, we can come before God in prayer and know that God will answer our prayers.
But what is prayer? Lin Yutang, in his book The Importance of Living, tells how he was alienated from alleged Christianity by what seemed to him a false theory of prayer. "A relative fervently prayed for fine weather for a Chinese Funeral, and the questions thronged. If a neighbor's crops need rain or sunshine shall our convenience outweigh his need? Is God so indulgent and foolish that everyone may pray successfully for his own weather? Do we know what is best for mankind? Shall our petty hankering cloud the Eternal Eyes?"
Very often our prayers are similar to those of Lin Yutang's relative. Often what we call prayer could just as easily be presented to Santa or Grandma. We know what we want and so make a list and present it to God, and then we call that prayer. I would suggest that the Bible knows nothing of that kind of prayer. Rather the scriptures present prayer as an active pursuit of a relationship with God.
The Psalms are prayers of God's people. They are filled with blessing and praise and adoration and confession and complaint. Paul's prayers for the churches are that they would grow in faith and be strong in witness. Jesus prayers were that his followers would know the Father better and that they would be strengthened in the face of temptation. Even in the Lord's prayer the only request like that which we so often voice is the line, "give us this day our daily bread."
At times I have been asked to pray for specific things because "Your prayers should get through since you're a pastor." As much as I would like to believe that, it is not true. The privilege of prayer is God's gift to each of us. It is given as a tool that will result in joy as we step out in faith and come to know God.
II. The Illustration in Mark 5
A. the Story of the woman with the bleeding is a perfect illustration of the nature of true prayer. For twelve years this woman had been suffering. She had bled daily for that whole time. Mark tells us that doctors had made her suffering worse. You must understand that a woman who is bleeding us considered ceremonially unclean. Anything she touched was unclean and she was not permitted to go to worship during that time. This woman had been ostracized for 12 years. She had nothing left.
Then she heard about Jesus and she took a risk. When we meet her, Jesus is on his way to help the leader of a synagogue. He is going to the home of the most righteous person in town. There is a large crowd, in fact they are all pressing in trying to get close to Jesus. This week when President Bush was in China, children pressed in to see him and to shake his hand. I think that may have been the scene around Jesus when this poor, ruined, sick and lonely woman began forcing her way through the crowd.
At any moment the ruler of the synagogue could have sent her away, the disciples could have pushed her away, or the crowd could have walked on top of her and none of them would have felt badly about it. This woman was so discouraged, that she did not even have the courage to speak to Jesus. Instead, she thought, if I can only touch his robe. Her longing was to be in His presence. She believed that he could make a difference in her life and so boldly, in the midst of her fear, she reached out her hand and touched his robe.
Immediately Jesus stopped and said, "Who touched me." The disciples were shocked, everyone near him was touching him. And the woman was terrified. She knew something had happened to her, but she was not sure what. So she remained quiet.
Don't we do the same thing at times? We have experienced God's goodness, but we are afraid. Have we gone too far? Have we pushed the limit? And then Jesus asked again, "Who touched me?" And the woman, trembling with fear, not knowing what would happen slowly rises to her feet and confesses her act. And Jesus said, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."
Do you think she went straight home? I don't, I think she stayed right with Jesus at least for the rest of the day. Having tasted his goodness and healing she wanted to know him better.
And that is where this story reveals the nature of prayer. Bill Hybles has said, You don't have to pester God to get his attention. You don't have to grovel. You don't have to flail yourself. You don't have to bite your lip and groan and moan and all of these kinds of things people do to show God they really mean business.
"If one of my kids ever called me and said, "Daddy, please, please, please, I beg of you, I petition you, I'm pleading with you to listen to my need."
"I'd say, "Time out. I don't like the underlying assumption here. You don't have to go through all those gymnastics. What can I do for you? Nothing in my life is more important than you." What gives me greater pleasure in life than meeting the needs of my children? What?
And that is what the woman chose to believe and it is the relationship Jesus invited his disciples to enter. "Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete."
The problem is, we often don't ask. On June 6, 1981, Doug Whitt and his bride, Sylvia, were escorted to their hotel's fancy bridal suite in the wee hours of the morning. In the suite they saw a sofa, chairs, and table, but where was the bed? Then they discovered the sofa was a hide-a-bed, with a lumpy mattress and sagging springs. They spent a fitful night and woke up in the morning with sore backs.
The new husband went to the hotel desk and gave the management a tongue-lashing. "Did you open the door in the room?" asked the clerk. Doug went back to the room. He opened the door they had thought was a closet. There, complete with fruit baskets and chocolates, was a beautiful bedroom! Opening all the doors in a honeymoon suite is like obeying all the words of Jesus. Discipleship is the door to happiness. Prayer is the key.
Maybe in the past you have used prayer as a tool of last resort. Watching Bart Simpson pray one night, Lisa identifies prayer as the last resort of the desperate. Perhaps you have seen it as a wish list. You have a list of things and people that you put before God so he won't forget to take care of them. Maybe prayer to you has been more like the bottle that a genie lives in. You rub it and make a wish for a parking place or an extra 20. There are times God may honor these requests.
But the experience of prayer to which Jesus is inviting his disciples is not a last resort or a wish list, rather it is an invitation to a relationship.
I want to challenge you over the next 48 hours to slowly read this story from Mark 5 several times. And then get some paper and with a pencil or a crayon or even paint, offer a prayer that grows from this passage. What statement or word do you identify with? How does that word affect you. Let God speak to you through this passage. Then offer your prayers. See if there is a different tone. Return to this story again and let God speak to you.
Folks, it is time for us to learn to pray, not for our needs, we do that far too well, rather that we may experience the promise of Jesus and find our joy full.
