Pray Like Jesus: Pray With Questions
Why do people get planted in the ground?
Why say sorry for screaming?
How do you keep going when people are so unkind?
Does God condemn people?
Is the God of the Old Testament and the New Testament the same God?
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Each of these questions is one I have been asked throughout my ministry by either a parishioner or one of my children. Each was asked with a heart and a context. Carried with vim and vigor, concern and care, preciousness and prayer, each was holy ground. Each was accompanied by prayer. Each was an invitation for God’s presence. None of them invoked anger or condemnation.
Some of us do not pray because our questions frighten us. We cannot imagine an answer that draws us nearer to God. We cannot imagine an explanation that hold up to scrutiny and analysis. We cannot imagine how asking it out loud will do anything other than dig us into a hole with God. We may well have had bad experiences with asking questions of our parents, our teachers, and others. This morning, I want to challenge you that practice of asking your questions is an essential part of your faith journey.
Our Lenten series has challenged us to experiment with various patterns of prayer that might challenge us and draw us in new ways into God’s presence. We had prayed in the closet, with scripture, with color, without words, and last week, for the children. This morning, we pray with our questions. We all have questions. You may have questions like the ones I mentioned before or different ones all together.
Even biblical stories contain questions for God. We know the story of Lazarus. Someone of us think we know it, because it includes the shortest verse in the Bible – Jesus wept. (There are always a couple in every crowd who memorized it when they were required to, because it was the shortest). I hope you heard it again freshly this morning with the different voices. Thank you to our readers!
Lazarus, friend of Jesus and known to the disciples, is dying. We do not know the exact diagnosis, but we know that his sisters are frightened enough to pay someone to get Jesus. Imagine their surprise when Jesus did not come running to his dying friend. The disciples were terrified to hear that their friend and companion was dying – why was Jesus not moving post haste? Question 1.
When Jesus decides two days later to go to see his friend Lazarus, the disciples are incredulous. With the immediate request two days behind them, they are now concerned about the political climate and ask questions about the safety and logic of traveling within the realm of the religious authorities closer to Jerusalem. Question 2.
By the time, Jesus arrives on the scene with Mary and Martha, Lazarus is dead and buried. Mary and Martha minced no words and questions for Jesus – Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. Question 3.
The questions of the crowds are raising – if he has performed, miracles, why wouldn’t he save his friends? If Jesu has given sight to the blind and the lame to walk, why Jesus keep wouldn’t Lazarus from death? Question 4.
The questions are multiplying. Jesus offers hope even before the questions are answered. I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, they shall live again.
But Jesus was not merely offering empty platitudes and sayings to his friends; he too, was moved by the death of Lazarus. In the midst of crowds and concerns, Jesus cried.
When Jesus came to the tomb, he had the stone removed. He knew that God would answer the questions in bigger and more miraculous ways.
Jesus called Lazarus forth, in the way that Jesus calls life to come out of death and destruction. Jesus prayed and then called on the name of God to perform the incredible miracle of death to life!
Unbind him and let him go! No longer let the entanglements of death and destruction limit you.
Lazarus was restored to his family, his sisters. Questions did not limit the miracle, but rather gave a frame for seeing God’ incredible ways of moving in our world.
In this light, we see that questions are never the problem in the story; rather they move the story along. We hear ourselves in the askers – Where is Jesus when I need him? Is sticking with Jesus going to be safe? Will Jesus still perform miracles today? Who is this Jesus?
None of these questions are off limits. With questions, we have no fear in wondering and worrying, curiously quandering and significantly searching. We need not be nervous or anxious. The God who offers every good and perfect gift is waiting for our questions and seeking the best for us in the middle of the most complex circumstances of our lives. Jesus gave us the model: Thy Will be done. As we raise the questions, often we do not have answers. We know that God is with us even in the asking of the questions. Thy will be done acknowledges our dependence and believe that God is working out everything for our good
In asking questions, the unbelievable becomes real. The man who was dead is alive. New life is given to those who mourned and wept for him. What we could not have imagined, becomes true! Questions are the fodder of miracles!
What is we really believe that? We might ask all of our questions. We might call out with our worries and concerns. We would pray when our faith was shaken, instead of hiding. We would pray when life felt unfair, instead of joining the ranks of those who say Curse God and die, like Job’s friends.
We might ask even purpose and meaning questions:
- How God would like me to show your presence at work today?
- Where are you calling me to share the testimony of how you lifted me up?
- How would you have me to life this one wild and precious life?
There are no questions beyond God. Even Jesus on the cross pleaded and beseeched God – why have you forsaken me? Why did you leave me to do this all on my own? Why did even you disappoint and betray me?
We turn to Jesus as we have turned to Jesus for each of the messages in this series to look for inspiration and model for how to pray. Let me say again: Questions are never a problem. God created us to wonder and seek answers
What would it look like for you to use your questions as your prayers? Each time you worried and wondered if you would make it on time to work – pray asking God to why you are late again; and listen for the answer. Maybe the miracle is in how God calls you to be transformed by waking up earlier or adjusting the routine. When you are concerned about your child who is spending time with questionable friend – pray asking God why your child is friends with these characters; and then listen. Maybe the miracle is in seeing how your child is the most stable person in their life of trial. When you are terrified for a medical diagnosis, pray asking God why me? Then listen, to how God who did not cause your ailments, will work to redeem even that.
This week, as you experiment, pray your questions, let them go and let God surprise you and amaze you!
This is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.
Old Testament Lesson: Psalm 130
Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications! If you, O Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand?
But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered. I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning. O Israel, hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with him is great power to redeem. It is he who will redeem Israel from all its iniquities.
Gospel Lesson: John 11:1-45
Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” Accordingly, though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?” Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours of daylight? Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them.” After saying this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.” The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will be all right.” Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was referring merely to sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. For your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” Thomas, who was called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”
When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”
When she had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him. Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there. When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved. He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” Jesus began to weep. So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”
Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Meditations For Your Week
Sunday, April 2 ~ Saturday, April 8
Sunday: “Out of the depths I cry to you, O LORD. Lord, hear my voice! Let your ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications!” Psalm 130: 1-2. God is always more ready to hear your questions than we are to ask them. Find moments today to cry out to God your questions and then wait for God to answer you fully!
Monday: “If you, O LORD, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? But there is forgiveness with you, so that you may be revered.” Psalm 130: 3-4. Sometimes our questions include ways in which we were wronged or ways in which we have done questionable things. In God, there is overflowing forgiveness. Today, turn to God for forgiveness and start a new chapter!
Tuesday: “I wait for the LORD, my soul waits, and in his word I hope; my soul waits for the Lord more than those who watch for the morning, more than those who watch for the morning.” Psalm 130: 5-6. Anytime you have awoke in the middle of the night and cannot go back to sleep, you know the desire for the morning to come. Take time today to wait for the Lord with that same desire.
Wednesday: “So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” John 11: 3-4. Mary and Martha turned to Jesus. Jesus did not ignore them, but rather knew an even better time. Where is God pointing you to wait for the even better timing?
Thursday: “Jesus began to weep.” John 11: 35 Jesus weeps with us in the midst of the most difficult moments. Turn to Jesus today and know his love for you.
Friday: “I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” John 11: 32. Jesus prayed for Lazarus out loud and let God use the difficult circumstance to show the larger crowd the power of God for redemption and new life.
Saturday: “When Jesus had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.” Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.” John 11: 34-45. Jesus calls each of us out of the pain, suffering, addiction, and negative behaviors that lead us to death. Jesus calls us to be unbound and go into new life!