God’s Constitution, Pt 28 Ask and Seek

Matthew 7:7-12                     7“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 9“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

James 4:2-3                            2You desire but do not have, so you kill.  You covet but cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight.  You do not have because you do not ask God.  3When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, that you might spend what you get on your pleasures.

Leviticus 19:18                      18“‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD’.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5               4Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.

We are getting near the end of the Sermon on the Mount, having remaining only sections addressing true and false prophets, and true and false disciples, so it is natural to expect a sort of summary here of the Sermon.  We have seen passages having to do with righteous living, and dealing with opponents, and helping the unfortunate on our society.  It seems surprising though, in light of such Godly teaching, to come to a seemingly incongruous passage as this.  What is a passage having to do with talking with God doing here?

But considering the difficulties of achieving the goal of righteous and holy living laid out by Jesus in the three chapters of the Sermon, this passage on prayer is exactly where it should be.  Too often, people take this passage to mean they can ask of God whatever they wish.  Another thing I heard often while growing up was that God didn’t much care anymore.  The ones who acknowledged his existence (agnostics) said that while he once had done some good things once here on earth, he was now off concerned with some other people on some other planet, and that one had to literally nag him to get his attention.  Both statements are utter nonsense.  The truth is that while God is not suggesting we can ask for any frivolous thing we want, he is suggesting we can ask for continuous and long-lasting help with the things he has been stressing in the Sermon.  We should ask for help when we are being persecuted (5:11), when we bear anger against someone (5:22), or when we hesitate to forgive someone (6:15).

Another thing to consider is that the whole of the Sermon has been about the areas in which human beings fall short of righteous and holy living.  One might come to the conclusion that God is a distant and cranky God who is just not satisfied with the way we live our lives; that we just aren’t living up to our potential.  These verses argue against that:  They portray a God who is loving, caring, and compassionate and who is willing to give us what we need if we only just ask.  Do you notice there is no condition placed on the asking?  There is no clause saying, ‘if you really believed’, or ‘if you lived better lives’.  Once again God is showing us his unconditional, ever-present love.

Finally, another thought.  We have talked before about translation between languages occasionally brings difficulty in following the thought.  A similar concept lies in the languages themselves.  In this case, while in English ‘ask’, ‘seek’, and ‘knock’ in the present tense convey a simple action, in Greek the present tense they convey a present and continuing action.  Jesus is saying it is OK to be persistent in our prayer.  Why is that?  Is it OK to nag God?  That’s not the point.  Every one of those nagging episodes is a person talking to God.  Every one is a prayer.  God loves it when we talk to him, even if we are yelling.  It implies relationship.  It means the person recognizes he is in need and is asking for help.  It means the first and greatest commandment is in action; to love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  And the next is in play too; to love your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus reminds us here and in other passages that these two commandments sum up the entirety of Scripture.