James writes that we should be doers of the Law and not just hearers. When we hear God's Word and then go and forget it, it's like looking in a mirror and forgetting what you look like. Today is Mothers Day. Mother's know what St. James is talking about. A mother can have eye contact and the full attention of her child, tell them to do something and then five minutes later the child has already forgotten what Mom told them! And don't we do the same thing when Mother Church speaks God's Word to us? We come and hear the preaching of the Word here in church and then immediately go out and do the opposite. We hear how we're supposed to forgive others and we go out and get angry and hold a grudge. We hear how we are to love and serve our neighbor and we go and live as if we're the only ones in the world who need anything. We come and hear how great the forgiveness of sins is, yet we don't eagerly desire it and we avoid Christ and His Word and gifts. Be doers! Not just hearers but doers! Don't just LISTEN to what is preached and taught. Go do it!
But do you ever get the feeling that even though the Lord teaches us His Word, He operates on the assumption that we're NOT going to keep it? Consider the Israelites. Instead of asking for what they needed they grumbled and complained. So much so that the Lord sent them snakes to kill them. But when they cried out, Moses prayed for them and He told Moses to make the bronze serpent for them to look at and be saved. He punished them and yet rescued them. Consider Jesus' words to His disciples. He speaks tenderly and lovingly to them, telling them how they may ask anything in His name. But then He proceeds to tell them that they will all be scattered like sheep! It's like He's telling them to trust in Him while lecturing them that they won't do it! Like when the boy tells Mom, “I'm sorry! I won't do it again.” And Mom knows good and well that he's going to go away right now and do it again! The Lord knows good and well that when He tells you something, you're not going to do it! He knows you're going to forget it and be a hearer and not a doer. That's why Jesus teaches His disciples that He has overcome the world.
When Israelites were being bitten by snakes, their salvation was to look at the bronze snake lifted up before their eyes. When sinners are being killed by their sins, Jesus is lifted up on a cross so that we may be saved. Notice that the thing which saves the Israelites is the image of what is killing them: a snake. So it is with Jesus. When He is lifted up on the cross, it is as a sinner, as a God and neighbor hater, as an idolater, adulterer, murderer, coveter, thief and every other kind of sinner. When the Lord is lifted up on the tree of Calvary, He is lifted up there as...you! There with your sins. Your failings. You're hearing but not doing. Your complaining instead of rejoicing. Your saying one thing and doing another. Your bad religion which glorifies yourself instead of helping those in need. All of it. All of your sin, your iniquities, your transgressions are heaped upon Jesus so that He can take them away for you. By this, Jesus overcomes the world. When he dies for your sins and rises again, He has overcome the world and anything that can destroy you.
So Jesus teaches His disciples to ask the Father for anything in His name. Now our first reaction might be to fold our hands and beg the Lord for that winning lottery ticket. But that would be being a hearer and not a doer! What we have heard is that what we need most is to be rescued from our sin. From our always turning away from the Lord, complaining and not paying attention to His Word. So we should learn to pray for hearing His Word, understanding it, and the will to do it and keep it. We ought to pray that when we walk out of the doors of church on Sunday that the Lord's Word will stick with us and that the Spirit, by that Word, will actually make us people who glorify God and serve others by what we say and do. We ought to pray that if the Lord forgives our sins, we can forgive others and let things go. We ought to pray that if God wants us to hear and learn His Word, we read and study it every day. We ought to pray that if God's Word says to love others, that He make us willing and able to help and support others in their needs.
But when you pray, how do you know the Father is paying any attention to you at all? Because Jesus says so! “For the Father loves you because you have loved me and believed in Me.” The Father loves you because of Jesus! Because in Baptism He has washed away your sins and by His Word you have been given faith in Jesus. Because you have been given the body and blood of Christ. Those things are your proof that the Father loves you and hears your prayer: because of Jesus. That's why when you ask for something, you ask it in Jesus' name. That doesn't mean we necessarily end every prayer with the words “in the Name of Jesus.” It means that we believe and know that the Father only hears us in and through His Son. Take away Jesus and the Father is deaf to us. But with Jesus we have a Savior who volunteers to do the Father's will and be lifted up on the cross for sinners so that forgiven, they may ask anything of the Father. So go ahead! Ask the Father! Anything! An don't set the bar low on junk that passes away with this world! Ask for the good stuff: the knowledge and understanding of His Word, the forgiveness of sins, the Spirit so that you will believe His Word and lead a holy life, a bronze serpent, that is, Jesus lifted up to rescue you from the sin which attacks. Ask for it in and through Jesus and know that it is yours from the Father's gracious hand!
Kids listen to their parents and do don't do what they are told. We listen to the Lord and go and do something else. But when the Father told Jesus to go and save us by dying and rising for us, there was no question, no argument, no forgetting; no hearing but not doing. The Son heard and the Son did. He was born into this world and He overcame this world. Therefore no matter what tribulations you have, no matter what sufferings, no matter what pain, no matter what is against you—know that Christ has beaten all of it. And His victory means that you have access to call upon the Father to give you His Word and Spirit so that you too overcome all these things in Christ. What has been heard has been done by Jesus so that you who are hearers may also be doers in Christ to His glory and the benefit of others. In the Name of Jesus. Amen.
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