If you’ve been following this blog
from the beginning (and if there is anybody who's actually done that, then
God bless you), then you might recognize some of this from our discussion about
Jesus back the 1st year of my writings. I spent almost two weeks
talking about the nature and work of Christ, and one of my entries
was about Jesus’ work as our High Priest and Advocate. I’ve also talked before about
what it means to use Jesus’ name at the end of our prayers. So for any material
that’s already familiar to you, I apologize for repeating myself. But I can’t
do a series on prayer without talking about the means by which we do so.
What am I talking about with
“means”? I’m not talking about the means as in the mouth and brain you’re
using. No, I’m talking about how we have access to the Father.
I’m a sinner. God is holy. He can't abide the presence of sin. He utterly
hates it, and because of who he is, he can't ignore it, wink at it, condone
it, or allow anyone into his presence without punishing it according to what it
deserves—destruction in Hell. So we have a problem, or maybe it’s more accurate
to say I have a problem. How can I approach a holy God?
That’s where this passage comes in,
one of my favorites in all the Bible. A priest is needed to be the “go
between,” to stand in the gap between sinful people and a holy God. He
represents the people before the Almighty, pleading their case before him. To a lesser
degree, he also represents the Lord before the people, having the responsibility of
teaching them his ways and providing an example for them to follow.
The closest equivalent in our
society (although it’s a bit of a rough one) is that of defense attorney. It’s
an attorney’s job to represent his client before the Judge. He has his client’s
interests at heart. He pleads his client’s case before the Bar. He tries every
legal and ethical means (yes, I’m taking an idealistic view of lawyers) to get
his client acquitted or to get him the least possible sentence. But he has to
be recognized by the Court (you can’t just volunteer to be an attorney, you
have to have a license), and he has to faithfully have his client’s best
interests at heart. He represents his client before the court, and he represents the court to his client ("This is what the judge meant when he said. . .").
That’s what Jesus is for us. He’s
our Defense Attorney. He pleads my case before the Father. And what’s his plea?
That I didn’t really “do it”? Um, no. No, his plea for me basically is that of
“double jeopardy.” You know, the principle that under our system you can’t be
tried for the same crime twice? All of my sins have been paid for in full. He
holds up his hands and shows the scars. That’s enough.
So why do we pray “in Jesus’ name”? Why
do we tack on “in Jesus’ name” or some permutation thereof at the end of our
prayer? What does that mean? It means a lot of things.
First, here’s what it does not
mean. It's not a magic incantation. It’s not a magic word that you tack onto
the end of a prayer to make an unacceptable prayer acceptable. Prayer is
talking to a person, not manipulating impersonal forces.
It does mean you’re officially invoking the
authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in your petition. Wow. Yes, that's what it means.
You’re asking for Jesus to take your prayer and make it acceptable before the
Father. If it isn’t something that he wants, then that’s fine. Going back to
the example of an attorney, you make a request of the Judge through your
attorney, not by approaching the bench by yourself.
But there’s a huge responsibility
here. This also means that you pray for things with Jesus’ interests in mind.
In the passage
where Jesus says he will do whatever we ask in his name, he specifically says
he will do this “so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” Not for
indulging your selfish pleasures.
But it’s an awesome thing to
approach the Father through Jesus. Think about it the next time you end a
prayer in the name of our Savior, our Advocate before the Father.
Lord Jesus, there’s so much meaning just
in the few words of invoking your name at the end of my prayers. Wow. Thank you
for what that means.
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