In today’s Gospel text, Jesus teaches us to address the Father as our Father. Even as He has taught us to begin the Lord’s Prayer this way: “Our Father who art in heaven.” What does this mean? With these words, God tenderly invites us to believe that He is our true Father and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we may ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.

A child speaks boldly to his or her father when they say that they are hungry. The child cries out boldly when they are in trouble, expecting their father and mother to help him. Even before they are able to speak, they boldly ask for what they need, and they confidently expect their parents to know exactly what they are asking for, even though their parents can’t make out what they want through the mumbling baby-talk gibberish. Yet, this confidence of a child is the model given to us on how we should pray.

We should pray to God with such boldness and confidence. But how can we pray to God with such boldness? It is because God speaks to us in His Word…in boldness. He promises to hear us with boldness. In His Word, and in the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ, He tells us with clarity and plainness what He has done for us and that He loves us. Our prayers therefore rest upon this clear promise of our Father in heaven that He will hear us and give to us all good things for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Jesus told His disciples that He was going to speak to them plainly about the Father. First, it means that they would be able to pray directly to the Father in Jesus’ name. He then clarifies, just so they understand, that this means that they themselves will be talking to God the Father when they pray. They will be addressing the Father, asking Him for anything they need, confident that He will hear them for the sake of His Son.

Why will the Father hear them? Why does He hear your prayers? Simple. It’s because He Himself loves them and you. They love Jesus. Christians believe that Jesus is the only begotten Son of the Father. Therefore, they can know that the Father loves them. As Jesus had already told them, “Whoever receives me receives the One who sent me.” If you believe in Jesus, trusting in Him, loving and embracing His words of life, then you have the very testimony within that faith that God the Father, who sent His Son to die for you, hears your prayers.

Jesus then plainly explained that He came from God, He has come into the world, and He would be departing the world to return to God. Jesus is the eternally begotten Son of the Father, true God in the flesh. He has come to earth in order to bear the sins of all mankind. He has come in obedience to God, an obedience we all fail to meet up to. He was obedient in our place. He died for our sins. He was raised from the dead, because death could not hold Him. He returned to the Father, demonstrating that he is one God with the Father. He sits at the right hand of the Father with sin, death, and all powers under His feet. He intercedes for us in the glory of the Father. As surely as He is risen from the dead, as surely as His Word is true, it is just as sure that our prayers are heard by God.

Therefore, Jesus promises, “Most assuredly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name He will give you.” Ask anything, Jesus says. Whatever you ask the Father in His name, He will give you. Jesus teaches us this in the Lord’s Prayer. There is nothing you can pray for that is not promised in the Lord’s Prayer. He promises you daily bread, everything for the support of your earthly life. He promises to forgive you your sins, even as He calls you to forgive those who sin against you. He even promises to lead you out of any temptation to sin. He promises to protect you from all evil and guard and defend you from all danger. He teaches you to say Amen, which means, “Truly, truly, I believe it!” He teaches you, in other words, to be confident and bold, convinced that God will answer you.

Yet, from our eyes, it doesn’t seem to happen. It certainly doesn’t happen all at once. But Jesus still teaches us to pray. Ask, and it will be given to you. Knock, and the door will be opened. Seek, and you will find. Don’t stop asking, knocking, and seeking. He doesn’t promise that it will happen all at once. But He does promise this. He promises that your joy will be complete. As surely as Jesus cried out from the cross, “It is finished,” He assures you that when you pray to the Father in His name your joy will be complete. This is because the peace by which your conscience is at rest is already complete in the wounds of Jesus. Your righteousness is already complete in the resurrection of Jesus.

When you pray, you are simply relying on His promise. You are resting on His boldness to take your sins on Himself and to promise you the resurrection of your body and the life everlasting. St. Paul says: All things are made holy by the Word of God and prayer.” It is the Word of God, which cannot be separated from prayer. The Word creates faith in your heart. Faith cries out in true hope to God, resting on the very Word which created it in the first place.

The word Jesus uses for plainly can also be translated as boldly. He spoke plainly/boldly about the Father. He boldly proclaimed the truth even at His death. And it is upon this bold truth that your prayers rest in true boldness.

It was because of Christ’s boldness that His disciples became bold. They said, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech! Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You. By this we believe that You came forth from God.” This is what the boldness of God’s Word does. It gives us boldness to confess. And this is what happens when you confess the Word of God with boldness. It emboldens your fellow Christians to speak with the same boldness, to pray with confidence, and to have confidence that God hears, with the assurance that He will answer in His own time in the way that is best.

When you must confess the Word in the midst of afflictions or persecutions we need His boldness. It’s a hard thing to confess the truth when people are speaking against it. In fact, it’s impossible to do with your own reason and strength. Many times you and I fail, but we repent and are restored and forgiven for the sake of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit, working through the Word of God, emboldens you again to confess it. When you confess the truth in the face of hostility, then this emboldens your fellow Christians to do the same. Listen to what St. Paul said to the Philippians. After writing about the suffering he had to go through because of his preaching of the gospel, he wrote:
“But I want you to know, brethren, that the things which happened to me have actually turned out for the furtherance of the gospel, so that it has become evident to the whole palace guard, and to all the rest, that my chains are in Christ; and most of the brethren in the Lord, having become confident by my chains, are much more bold to speak the word without fear.” (Phil 1:12-13)

When you stand up to your friends, your family, your children, and your grandchildren, telling them that sex outside of marriage between a man and woman, abortion, disrespecting God and despising His Word are sins, when you confess Christ as the only truth and His Word as the only source of truth, then most people, even your family members and closest friends, might deem you to be out of your mind, unreasonable, and mean. When you tell your friends that there is nothing more important for them than that they also know Christ, His baptism, His death, His resurrection, and His righteousness, then they might look at you as a crazy religious nut. Don’t be discouraged. You are confessing the Word of God and it will not return to Him empty.

And pray. Let your requests be made known to God. Let your petitions rest upon the sure promises of Him who called you out of darkness. Yes, remember that God’s Word never returns empty. The faithful hear it. They are encouraged by it. They are emboldened by it. They are moved by it to confess it with you and to call upon God for all they need. God is pleased by such boldness.

So, also, at the Sacrament of the Altar we boldly confess the truth of Jesus Christ crucified and raised and all His teachings besides. Here we encourage one another as Christ comes and encourages and strengthens us with His sacrificial body and blood for us to eat, drink, be forgiven and give thanks.

As boldly as God speaks to you through His Scriptures and His sacraments, just as boldly does He hear your prayers. So, pray with this same boldness. Even when you feel unworthy, even when you find that you have been influenced by the world, stumbled into sin, fallen away from attending church as you should, remember that God’s Word is a promise. It is a sure promise. It is a bold promise. Rest on this Word of promise in Christ. Call upon God in the day of trouble. He will deliver you, and you will glorify Him now and for always, for the sake of and in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Pr. Aaron Kangas