Hard Sayings Of Jesus - Ask Anything In My Name Series

When the 1960s ended, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and most of the hippies moved down the coast to Santa Cruz. They had children and got married, too, though in no particular sequence. But they didn't name their children Melissa or Brett. People in the mountains around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children playing baseball with little Time Warp or Spring Fever. And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love and Precious Promise all ended up in public school.

That's when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand. Every fall, according to tradition, parents were asked to apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus. So it was for Fruit Stand. The teachers thought the boy's name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.

"Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?" they offered. And later, "Fruit Stand, how about a snack?" He accepted hesitantly. By the end of the day, his name didn't seem much odder than Heather's or Sun Ray's.

At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses. "Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?" He didn't answer. That wasn't strange. He hadn't answered them all day. Lots of children are shy on the first day of school. It didn't matter. The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children's bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags. The teacher simply turned over the tag. There, neatly printed, was the word "Anthony." (Luanne Oleas in Salinas, Calif., Reader's Digest.)

I think that's hilarious but it shows that names are important. Do you know what your name means? Todd means "fox." Sara means "princess." Bo means "big, mean white dog." But most of the time, parents today don't put a lot of thought into what their kids' names mean. They just like the name or they name them after somebody in the family and that's fine. But in biblical times, names meant a lot more.

When Esau and Jacob were born, Genesis 25 tells us that baby Esau was very red looking so they named him Esau which means hairy. Isaac came out grasping Esau's heel so they named him Isaac which means heel-grabber or supplanter. Names were important in the New Testament as well. Jesus gave new names to Peter and to Paul which better reflected their personalities. And even the name Jesus means salvation or "the Lord saves." In Matthew's account of Jesus' life, God tells Joseph, "You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins" (Matthew 1:21).

I bring all this up because in John chapter 14, Jesus makes a pretty incredible promise that has to do with His name. As always, context is important here. In fact, I think you will see that the context of Jesus saying this is most important. We are continuing our look at some of the hard sayings of Jesus. Some of them are hard to understand. Some are hard to accept. And some are just unbelievable. This one may be a little of all of that.

But in John 14, Jesus is preparing His twelve disciples for His departure. He's not going on a normal trip to some neighboring city. He has told them that He is about to be betrayed and killed and will go back to Heaven. And as you can imagine, they aren't taking it too well. They don't understand why or how or much of anything. This whole conversation has been a hard saying of Jesus to them.

So, Jesus starts by telling them not to worry. Trust God. Trust Him. It's going to be okay and He is going to send the Holy Spirit to them and it will be alright. In fact, they will do greater things with Jesus gone than they did with Him here. And then in verses 13-14 He makes a big promise. Read along with me as I read it out loud. John 14:13-14 says, "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it."

Now, wait just a minute. Did you read that? That can't be right. Maybe He didn't really mean it. Maybe the Greek words don't translate to English or something. He just said that all we have to do to get what we want is add, "in Jesus' name" at the end of our prayers and He will say yes. Right? Well, if that's the case, then why aren't we all driving around in new cars with healthy bodies and fat bank accounts? How come I don't have a new bass boat? How come some of you have cancer? Surely He didn't mean it. Maybe He misspoke.