What Do You Really Want

What Do You Really Want?

Back in August, we embarked on a study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. We started with the section that is commonly known as the “Beatitudes” – the “blessed are” statements where Jesus pronounces blessings or abundant life, on those who would follow him wholeheartedly. He lets his followers in on a secret: God isn’t all about those who look the part; God is most interested in the heart and the motives of those who would be His people. So it is possible to look “religious” and completely miss the mark.

We took a break from the Sermon on the Mount for Advent, where we focused on preparation for Christmas and for Christ’s return. We looked at the four words of Advent: Hope, Love, Joy, and Peace, and on Christmas Eve we celebrated Jesus who is the fulfillment of each of those words. He is our Hope. He is Love. He is Joy, and He is Peace.

Today we dive back into the Sermon on the Mount with Matthew 7:7-12. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If 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! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

What did you ask for this Christmas? Did you get it? I don’t remember when I made my first Christmas list, but I know what it looked like. We would get the toy catalog and my brother and sister and I would put our initials by any toy that we wanted or circle the toy. This week I overheard someone talking about family Christmas. It seems that her sister-in-law always gives her a very specific gift list for her kids, and the expectation is that she must buy precisely what is on the list. I had to laugh, because that’s the kind of list my family members have always wanted for my kids so they know exactly what to buy!

It can be pretty disappointing to get the wrong gift – both for the giver and for the receiver! But here’s the other part of this: there are plenty of times when we know what our kids want, but we make them “make words.” Just grunting in the direction of something doesn’t count either.

As Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount, he tells his followers to ask, seek, and knock. I have always wondered why exactly Jesus tells us to ask. He already knows what we want and what we need, so why doesn’t he just give it to us? In fact, Jesus knows better than we know what we want and what we really need, and there are times when what we want isn’t what we need. When I came into the United Methodist Church, I was already ordained in another denomination, but because of denominational regulations, I had to go through the Supervised Years process. I didn’t want to do it. But God had some things He wanted to teach me through it, and even some friends to make through it. God knew what I needed, even if it wasn’t what I wanted.       

So I sometimes wonder why God tells us to ask. I came up with several reasons. The first is that God values relationship, and relationship comes as we talk with one another. So while God is telling us to ask for what we want from him, it could be more about the relationship that the conversation brings about than even the request itself. While I believe this is true, in this passage, Jesus actually says that whoever asks, receives.

So it’s more than just about the relationship, but I believe that’s a starting place. Jesus tells us to ask him for what we need because he wants us to know that we can trust God. This is why he draws the comparison between God and a human father. He asks the fathers, “if your child asks for something to eat, who is going to give him a rock or a snake?” This is, of course, a ridiculous question. Of course the human father will give his child something to eat, or, at the very least, not give the child something harmful. And, as Jesus says, we human fathers, as loving as we try to be, are at root sinful. So how much more can we expect to get good gifts from our heavenly Father?

Does this mean that he will give us everything we ask for? No. It doesn’t. But, as we already heard from the Sermon on the Mount, it does mean that God will take care of our needs, so we need not worry about what we will eat or drink or wear. God has all of that covered.

There are times when God wants us to ask to clarify what we want. Is this really what we want? In John 5, we find Jesus by the pool called Bethesda, where the disabled used to lie. This pool was apparently linked to a miracle; it was said that from time to time, an angel would show up and stir up the waters, and if you were the first one in, you’d get cured of whatever disease or infirmity you had. Jesus met a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?” (John 5:6)

What kind of question is this? Do you want to get well? Of course he does. Or does he? I believe Jesus asked this question on purpose and not just to get the man to say, “Duh!” He wanted the man to evaluate what he really wanted. Did he really want to get well?

He also asked him the question so that the man would consider and evaluate what had happened. When we have our hearts set on something material, but God shows us that we might be better off without it. There are other times when we might know what’s right, but do we really want it? The disabled man might have thought, “I have been disabled for this long; my whole identity is that of a disabled person. What might happen to me if I get well? Will I have to find a job? I won’t be able to beg; I’ll need to go to work. Will I succeed? How hard is it going to be?”

My brother went off to Northwestern University to college, and one time when I visited him, we went downtown Chicago on the El. I was kind of dozing when I was startled awake by a beggar near my seat. He was going car to car with a sign hung around his neck proclaiming that his name was Michael and he had been terribly burned and any money would go toward medical treatment. I was so horrified at his appearance that I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t move and I couldn’t speak and I couldn’t even reach for my wallet. You just didn’t see things like that in Kokomo, Indiana.

I remembered him for years, so when I read an article about him in the Daily Northwestern, I knew exactly about whom it was referring. The Daily reported their findings: local hospitals had offered to do reconstructive surgery for free, but he had refused it. It seemed that he didn’t want to give up his main source of income. So Jesus’ question was legitimate. Do you really want to get well?

And Jesus tells us, when we have a need, ask him. Sometimes just putting thought to word will help us evaluate if we really want it or not.

Jesus also wants to make sure that God gets the credit. Some months ago, Jerry asked for prayers for a co-worker who was having knee problems. Jerry made sure that the co-worker knew that our church was praying; when something happens, the co-worker will know that we were praying. Maybe they will still think it’s due to medicinal science or coincidence, but certainly seeds have been planted. One of the big reasons why we have a time to share joys is that many times we pray for someone but we never hear what happens. After a while, they just quietly go off the prayer list. We have an obligation to give God glory and credit when we get the answer to prayers!

Jesus tells his followers to ask, but also tells us to seek. I believe seeking goes a bit deeper than simply asking. How is this? A seeker is not a passive person who wonders but doesn’t do anything about their question. It isn’t someone who just wishes they had something; they go out seeking it in an active way. Seeking in the context Jesus presents involves faith and trust.

In Matthew 13:45-46 Jesus tells a story about a pearl. “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” The pearl merchant is seeking something specific: he wants to find that perfect pearl. He knows there is something out there, so he goes looking. He doesn’t just wait until someone brings it to him; he goes actively looking.

Today, if I told you that there was money hidden under one of your seats, what would you do? Would you trust me enough to look? Or you might just shrug your shoulders and think, “He won’t make me look like a fool.” Jesus tells us to seek and the promise is that if we seek, we will find.

I remember having a conversation with a teenager who self-identified as an agnostic. After asking him if he minded if I shot straight with him, I asked him if he knew what “agnostic” meant. It literally means “no knowledge.” Gnosis is Greek for knowledge, and “a” is the negating prefix in Greek. So to call yourself an agnostic is to say you don’t know, and we’ve applied that to knowledge of God. So an agnostic is one who doesn’t know if God exists. I challenged him: if you are an agnostic, that’s fine as long as you are seeking. Otherwise you’re just willfully and intentionally ignorant.

Just a word here about doubts. I believe that our God is big enough for our doubts and questions. If you are truly seeking God, you will encounter resistance, and not all of it will be external. You probably will have questions and doubts at times, and that’s not wrong or bad or heretical or blasphemous. Jesus tells us to seek, and if we already had the knowledge, why would we have to seek?

Jesus also tells his followers to knock. This reminds me of the story Jesus told in Luke 11:5-8 about a friend who comes at midnight, knocking on the door, asking for a loaf of bread. It seems like an imposition: the door is locked and the kids are already in bed. Luke 11:8 I tell you, though he will not give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

Now, in our culture, we can imagine not offering hospitality, but that was unheard of in Jesus’ culture. Of course, if your friend came, no matter what the hour, you would gladly offer that friend some bread to eat. And furthermore, the term “friend” (which Jesus uses four times in this story) is much more than the friendship of our culture. This isn’t a Facebook “friend” who you might not even know in real life. The kind of friendship that Jesus is talking about is a “best friend” with whom one would share everything. There would be a real sense of “What’s mine is yours,” in a relationship of this kind. So the request is not out of character. But the way Jesus tells the story, it would come across as ridiculous. The original audience would have gotten to the first part, the part where the friend came knocking, and they would already be preparing the bread.

They would know that of course they would invite the friend in, not only because hospitality rules required it, but because of the relationship involved. And so it is with God. When we come to God, asking, seeking, knocking, we often behave as if we are inconveniencing God, as if God has better things to do. In the old movie, Bruce Almighty, Jim Carray’s character, after questioning God, gets the “gift” of doing God’s job. Now he can hear prayer requests, and it’s overwhelming for him. There are just too many to deal with, so he just gives a blanket “yes” to all of them, not taking into account what it might mean if every prayer was answered “yes.” (and, of course, as this is a comedy movie, all hilarity ensues).

Sometimes we act as if God is bound by our human limitations. “I don’t want to bother God with this request.” But here’s the problem with that: there are times when God is just waiting for you to ask. James 4:2b says, You do not have, because you do not ask God.

The point that Jesus is making is that God is not bound by human limitations. God isn’t sleeping. God doesn’t try roll over and put a pillow over his head to ignore the sounds outside.  God isn’t inconvenienced by our prayers. The very point of Jesus’ story is that of course God will answer our prayers. But are we bold enough to ask?

But when Jesus tells us to ask, seek, and knock, he is doing something else. And this is one reason why verse 12 fits in with this passage. Jesus finishes this section with the Golden Rule: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12). Jesus offers a succinct summary of his teaching: if it’s the way you want people to treat you, then treat them that way. This is a whole sermon in one verse, and it should and could warrant a whole sermon or even kick off an entire sermon series, but today I just want to look at it in its context.

Jesus tells us to treat others as we would have them treat us. And when he tells us to ask, seek, and knock, he is not telling us to “do as I say, not as I do.” Indeed, asking, seeking, and knocking are indispensable aspects of God’s very character. One of the most famous of Jesus’ parables came in Luke 15 – Jesus actually told three interrelated stories. The first was about a lost sheep, where a shepherd had one hundred sheep and loses one. The shepherd leaves the ninety-nine and goes out after the lost sheep.

Then Jesus tells about a lost coin. A woman had ten coins and lost one, so she lights a lamp and carefully searches the house until she finds it.

Jesus ends with a story about a lost son. Many of us know this story as the story of the Prodigal Son. A father has two sons, but one of them decides he’s had enough of living in his father’s home, so he takes his share of the inheritance and leaves and squanders his money.

In the first story, God represents the shepherd, going out seeking the lost sheep. In the second story, God represents the woman, searching diligently for the lost coin. And in the third story, God represents the father, watching and waiting, with tears in his eyes, for his lost son to return, and when he does return, the father runs to him and lavishes him with gifts and throws a party, for this son of mine, who was lost, is now found, was dead and is now alive! And God rejoices when the lost is found.

You see, not only does Jesus tell us to ask, seek, and knock, but God himself is a God who asks, seeks, and knocks. Indeed, in Revelation 3:20, we hear Jesus say, “Behold! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. This is God’s character, and as we seek after him, we become more and more Christlike!

So as we go from this place, let us go, asking, seeking, and knocking. Let us give every request to God, for he cares for us.