GOD OF THE HOW MUCH MORE
Luke 11:1-13
Illustr. Some years back, during a family dinner, my mum swallowed a fish bone. My younger daughter, who was then three years old, walked over to her grandma and spontaneously prayed, “Lord Jesus, please help grandma’s fishbone…bless it to her body in Jesus name. Amen”. Kids say the darnest thing. Glad that grandma was alright!
Illustr. On another occasion, Ann and I were babysitting two young boys, aged three and five. As we tucked them in bed, we led the boys in prayer and the younger one prayed with great contriteness, “Dear Lord, forgive our bad sins; and give us good ones”! We took the opportunity to gently remind the boys that there are no “good sins”.
Illustr. Kids are not the only ones who make bloopers in prayer. A hilarious blooper was made at a Youth Camp. The Camp Commandant called for a leaders’ prayer meeting, just before the rest of the campers arrived. As the camp speaker, I was delighted to join them in their prayer meeting. They walked through every room and hall in the whole camp site to pray for the Lord’s blessings there, praying things like “Dear Lord, we consecrate the hall for your use” and “we consecrate the rooms for your use” etc. Then we came to the toilet area and one of the young leaders prayed with mindless sincerity, “Dear Lord, we consecrate this toilet for your use”! The group burst out laughing. Someone got to teach us to pray!
There is no better way to learn about prayer than to pray…Prayer is not merely what we say to God but what the Holy Spirit inspires in our hearts to lift up before the throne of God. That is why I often begin my prayers with “Lord, lay upon my heart the things that are upon yours”.
Illustr. In early 1994 while I was on sabbatical in the States, Rev Marty Voltz, the Senior Pastor of North Suburban EFC in Deerfield, Illinois, invited me to share at his Church Board meeting about prayer. At the end of that evening, three of the deacons came up to me with a request: “Pastor Chan, could you teach us to pray?” Together, we represented four different decadal generations. I was then in my mid-thirties, there was one in his forties, the other in his fifties and another in his sixties. They all said most sincerely: “we want to learn to pray”. As there is no better way to learn about prayer than to pray, I invited them to meet me for an hour each week for prayer. At our very first meeting, without any introduction whatsoever, I just entered into prayer. And they followed along. At the end of the hour, when we concluded our prayers, one of them exclaimed to the affirmation of all the others, “I can’t believe it, the hour passed so quickly!”. They learnt the first lesson on prayer. There is a supernatural naturalness to prayer. When we are in the presence of God, we are borne along by the Holy Spirit in our prayers. Prayer is not merely what we say to God but what the Holy Spirit inspires in our hearts to lift up before the throne of God. That is why I often begin my prayers with “Lord, lay upon my heart the things that are upon yours”.
Teach Us To Pray
There was a time when time stood still for the disciples when they were watching the Master Himself praying. And by the time Jesus finished, they went up to Him and said, “Lord, would you teach us to pray”. And Jesus gave them a mastery lesson on prayer , that is such a foundational building block to a deeper prayer life, that none of us should ever forget it. Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke 11.
The introductory verse in Luke 11 is most interesting: “And it came about while He was praying in a certain place, after he had finished, one of his disciple said to him ‘Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciple’” (v1). I want to point out that biblical narratives are historical records with a theological purpose. And in recounting history for a spiritual lesson, the Bible does not waste words. Then why the apparent redundancy? Why did the Bible write, “And it came about while He was praying in a certain place, after he had finished , one of his disciple said to him ‘Lord, teach us to pray’”. This introductory verse could simply be written as, “And it came about after Jesus finished praying, one of his disciple came to him and say ‘Lord, teach us to pray.’”. That would have been accurate.
Why add those superfluous words, “And it came about while He was praying in a certain place, after he had finished…?” I surmise that it was emphasising the fact that the disciples were waiting patiently for Jesus to finish His prayer. We are now drawn to the significance of the moment. Something happened to the disciples while Jesus was praying. Something stirred deeply in their hearts. As they stood there watching the Master praying, it was deeply impressed upon their hearts how important the agenda of prayer is in the life of their Master. Prayer must be eminently important to Jesus for it was eminently prominent in His life. How important prayer must be that even the Messiah, Jesus the Son of God, came praying. And while He was praying, something stirred within their souls so deeply that they asked Him to teach them to pray. When you see a man of God praying, you feel that you stand on holy ground. So when they saw the Son of God praying, they must have stood riveted, waiting until the Master had finished and they burst came forth with their urgent request, “Lord, teach us to pray.” What a request!
But notice now the exact nature of their request. They had something very specific in mind. You see, as Jesus was praying, the disciples knew that they were witnessing something that was quite extraordinary. I can imagine them nudging one another and asking, “What is Jesus praying about? What prayer formula is our Master using? What was the content of His prayer?” None of them knew. So one of the disciple took courage to ask Jesus, on behalf of the group, something to the effect, “Lord, what prayer formula did You use? Could You teach us that prayer formula?”. So, when they said “teach us to pray” they weren’t saying “teach us about prayer” but “teach us what to pray”. They were asking specifically for a formula to pray with.
That is why their specific request was: “teach us to pray just as John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray”. Now how did John teach his disciples to pray? In the tradition of the Jewish rabbi, he would give them a prayer formula. And the students being mentored thus would take this prayer formula and they would repeat it. That’s why Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “don’t repeat your prayers meaninglessly”, because that’s what some of them do. They would take a prayer formula and repeat it, thinking that it’s pleasing to God. So what they were asking of Jesus is, “Can You give us a formula, so that we could use it. Teach us to pray, as John taught His disciples”.
Now, what would you do if you were the Lord Jesus? Your disciples came to you and asked for a simple prayer formula, just as John the Baptist give a formula to his disciples. If we were in Jesus’ shoes, we might be tempted to say, “Come on, grow up! A formula is for spiritual babes. You are apostles-in-training! You should know better than that. Just talk to the Father. And by the way, how dare you compare Me with John the Baptist?”. Obviously our Lord is not like that. Our Lord Jesus condescended to answer them according to their request. And then according to Luke 11, He answered beyond their request and thus gave to them, and us as well, the most fantastic and fundamental lesson on prayer! Do you remember what He taught them?
An Approved Pattern: The Lord’s Prayer
Let’s examine the Scriptures. Jesus first gave them what they requested. A simple prayer formula. He says to them when you pray, say: “Father hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our sins and for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation” (v2-4). He thus gave to them what is called the Lord’s Prayer. It is a misnomer because this is actually the Disciple’s Prayer, given to them by the Lord, according to what they had asked. Now, there are many things to be said about this Lord’s Prayer and it is not my present purpose to expound on it. A good deal of solid exposition has already been made of the Lord’s Prayer.
Rather, I want to call your attention from this formula to something else that Jesus said. Something which I believe is the true significance of what Jesus intended to teach about prayer. Something that integrates theology with prayer! And this is something that must be grasped before the Lord’s Prayer has any form of significance and meaning. So instead of expounding on the Lord’s Prayer, I want to help us to see the larger picture. For if we miss it, the Lord’s Prayer is but vain repetition!
Here’s the big picture in Luke 11. The disciples were watching Jesus praying. They felt they were on holy ground; and they went up to Jesus and said in effect, “We don’t know what You were praying, Lord; but there must be a formula. Teach us to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciple to pray. Give us a prayer formula to recite in our prayers”. So Jesus acceded to their request and gave them a simple prayer called the Lord’s Prayer. But He did not stop there. There was something else more important for His disciples to grasp. So He told them a parable, in order to explain to them a dynamic principle of prayer.
In other words, He gave them three things in His extended reply: (1) an approved pattern, (2) an astounding parable and subsequently, (3) an abiding principle. Thus, Jesus answered their question but He also answered beyond their question. They asked for formula, He gave them a formula but he gave them something beyond the formula, without which the formula doesn’t make sense.
An Astounding Parable: Beyond A Prayer Formula
So, what did Jesus give them? Listen to this great parable: “And suppose one of you who has a friend and shall go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he shall answer and say ‘do not bother me, the door is already been shut and my children and I are in bed, I cannot get up and give you anything’. I tell you even though he will not get up and give him anything, because of his friend but yet because of his perseverance, he will get up and give him as much as he need”. (Luke 11:5-8).
What exactly is this parable about? In studying any New Testament parable, there are three things that we must look out for in order to understand its meaning: (1) the setting of the parable; that is, the occasion in which the parable was told; (2) the story in the parable, that is, the plot and what highlighted in it; and (3) the significance of the parable; that is, the point of the story in answer to the issue raised by the occasion.
Obviously, to appreciate the story, we must know something of the background in which the parable was told. In this case, we often fail to see the desperateness of this man knocking for bread because we miss the culture of the day. In our modern thinking, we would wonder “why all the fuss over the bread? Just tell your friend to drink some water or milk, and tomorrow morning we can go to the bakery to get bread!”. Not until we realise that in the background of this parable is the culture of the day where it was an utterly shameful lack of hospitality, if you cannot provide food and hospitality for the one who has come from a far journey to visit you, that we empathize with the desperation of this man.
What then is the significance of this parable? Well, we know from the setting, that this is a parable in answer to the disciples’ request, “Lord, teach us how to pray”. Jesus was teaching them about prayer. But what exactly was Jesus pointing to in relation to prayer, in the telling of the parable? It has often been said that the significance of this parable is the teaching about perseverance. So we teach that according to Luke 11:5-8, Jesus is teaching His disciples about persistence in prayer. In a sense, on the surface level, it is true that Jesus was pointing to the fact that we must have persistence in prayer.
However, I want to suggest to you that while persistence in prayer is a good principle, we totally missed what Jesus is talking about here, if we think that this parable is primarily about persistence. Persistence is not the primary emphasis here. There is something else locked within this parable that must be understood in its context, so that we can meaningfully understand what was Jesus really pointing to.
We embrace an entirely wrong theology of a reluctant God; the result of which, we have an entirely wrong theology of prayer!
Wrong Theology. You see, if we understand this parable to be about persistence, it gives us a warped theology and an entirely erroneous picture of God. We wrongly assume that God is like the friend who refused to get up because he is already asleep! Wrong theology. The Bible says Psalm 121 that God neither slumber nor sleep. Furthermore, it wrongly assumes that God is like the sleeping friend who is not only asleep but is most reluctant to get up, until we come and persistently bang at his door. We embrace an entirely wrong theology of a reluctant God; the result of which, we have an entirely wrong theology of prayer! We subconsciously see prayer as twisting the arm of a reluctant God until He say, “OK, I give up. Stop pestering Me. I’ll bless you!”. A totally misguided picture of the fatherly heart of generous God. And if we based our prayers on such a weak theology of a reluctant God, our prayers become a difficult duty rather than a grateful delight.
Thus, Jesus was talking about something totally opposite. God is not reluctant to bless, He is exceedingly ready to bless! This is something absolutely radical. You see, when Jesus told this parable, he set it up in such a way that he was in fact using the rabbinical method of contrast. The Jewish teachers often used that and his disciples would no doubt be familiar with it. Thus, Jesus taught by way of contrast when He said, “there were two men, a wise man and foolish man”. That’s a contrast. When He said “the wise man built his house upon the rock, and the foolish man built his house upon the sand”, that is a contrast. When He said in the parable at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, “the house of the rock stood firm and the house of the sand fell flat”, that was a contrast. You can study the Gospels and find this pedagogy of contrast to be frequently used.
Now, Jesus is applying the same Jewish educational technique of employing the use of contrast here in the Luke 11 parable. His whole teaching must be understood from this point of contrast in order to grasp something about God that is absolutely radical, totally fundamental to our understanding of prayer. Jesus is in fact saying. “There was a man who was asleep and was most reluctant to get up and give his friend what he needed. But because of his friend’s perseverance, he reluctantly gives in to him and provided what he needed. But God is not like that!” Therefore, “I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be open unto you. For everyone who ask, received, everyone seek, find and everyone who knock, to him shall be opened” (v9-10).
How do we know that this is the meaning and purpose of the parable? Because of the context. Immediately after the parable, Jesus gave the principle and then the key to unlock the parable itself! The meaning is thus: Because God is not like the reluctant friend but is more than ready to give, therefore “ask and it shall be given”.
Now I can imagine the disciple are nudging themselves and saying, “We got it! We must keep on asking, keep on knocking and keep on seeking and we shall find it! That’s the secret of prayer. How wonderful!”. They thought they knew the point but they entirely missed the principle.
To reinforce the principle, Jesus the Master-Teacher suddenly gave them the major theological premise to lead them to the very heart of what He was talking about all along. And He did so in the form of another analogy in verses 11-13. When I first studied this text, verses 11 to 13 puzzled me greatly. How does this connect with the context? What’s the main point? What’s the abiding theological principle?
An Abiding Principle: The God of the How Much More!
Look at verse11 to 13. Jesus gave another parabolic illustration: “now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish, he would not give him a snake instead, will he?” (a rhetorical question, “of course not!”). Verse 12, “or if he asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he?” (stated as a rhetorical parallelism for emphasis). Verse13, “If you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (emphasis mine, and Jesus would have most certain approved!).
Suddenly, a different light is seen on this teaching. It is no longer “you must press on, grid your teeth, persevere in prayer, keep asking. Don’t let up. Put in more effort. Do more!”. No. Suddenly, prayer is no longer a performance that we must get it seek to get right. Suddenly, prayer is not about a right formula. Rather, the entire emphasis on prayer is not on how we perform but on who God is. For now we have a glorious picture before us of the kind of God we call Father. He is the God of the “how much more!”.
“Come on”, Jesus is saying in effect to His disciples, “God is totally opposite of the reluctant friend in the parable! You guys missed the picture entirely. If you as fallen human fathers know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more would God! If then this earthly friend gave his neighbour his bread, how much more will your Heavenly Father give you these good things. How much more! And suddenly it entirely changes the picture of a reluctant God to that of the God of the “how much more!”.
“Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is co-operating with His highest willingness”.
Finally we are getting our theology right. Finally we are integrating right theology with prayer. Finally we have a sound theology of prayer. We no longer fall in the deception of a reluctant God who folds His arms and say, “Sorry, I will only answer if you are good enough, if you perform correctly, if you say the right words, if keep repeating it”. We are no longer labouring under a deception of a God who shouts, “You can do better than that!”. Rather, it moves us to see the God who truly wants to bless! The God who wants to bless His children over and above what we ask or imagine! And how much more!
Right theology produces right prayers. In Luke 11:1-13, we learn the most important principle about prayer. Prayer is coming boldly in the name of Jesus to the God of the “how much more who is just waiting to bless. I think it was E. Stanley Jones who said, “Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is co-operating with His highest willingness”. He’s got it right! Prayer is not twisting the arm of God. It is believing that in a God who hears our prayers, answers our prayers and even exceeds our prayers!
There are many restless Christians, few rested ones. The people of God would be far more rested if we come back again and again to this profound truth. We live at peace because we know that God is not reluctant to give us what is ultimately good for us. We live at peace without feeling that we must play junior Holy Spirit to control everything because God is in control. He answers over and beyond what we ask. We live at peace if such a theology is embraced. The God of the “how much more”! We become very theocentric, very God-centred, in our prayers. We become Christians with a profound restedness in God rather than a prevailing restlessness that is prominent in our culture, even in many Christian circles today. We are restless only because we do not know the God of Rest. The God who want to bless. The God of the “how much more”!
Now we might ask the question, if this is the teaching Jesus intended, why did Jesus say “because of his perseverance” in verse 8: “Because of his perseverance, he will get up and give him as much as he needs”. Isn’t Jesus clearly talking about perseverance here? I believe that the word “perseverance” is a weak translation for the Greek word ‘anaideia’ in Luke 11:8. The word ‘anaideia’ basically means “without shame” or “boldly”. That’s why the alternative rendering in the NASV version is “shamelessly, without shame”. The thing that causes us to come reluctantly to God is because we see Him as a reluctant God. We feel a lack of boldness or courage to approach such a wrongly conceived God. The Bible says we are to come to God “without shame”. With a holy unabashness because we see and delight in God as He really is - the God of the “how much more”! Only then, in the light of this wondrous truth can I come running readily before the father without shame, boldly to ask that which I know God delights in giving. What a privilege! I can come to God in Jesus’ name. Without shame!
Reviewing The Big Picture
Now let’s reconstruct what Jesus is teaching here. As it is important to study the Bible in its entire context, please indulge me here. Follow with me as we reconstruct the episode right from the beginning to firmly grasp the big picture, so as to understand the most important truth that Jesus ever taught about prayer!
As Jesus was praying, the disciples saw Him and suddenly realised that they were standing on holy ground. The Master is praying! They were deeply impressed with the fact that the Son of God prayed. And in the magic of the moment, their souls longed to cry out in prayer. But they didn’t really know how. What should they say that would apt before the Almighty God? What prayer formula did Jesus use? So immediately after Jesus finished praying, one of them represented the group and boldly came to Him and said, “Lord Jesus, would You teach us to pray, just as John the Baptist taught his disciple to pray. Give us a formula for prayer, something we can recite. We don’t know what to say!”.
You’ve missed the most important thing. Prayer is not about you, prayer is all about God! It is not primarily about how deep your prayer is, or how great your prayer is, or how long your prayer is, or even how eloquent your prayer is!
Prayer is all about who God is.
The Master-Teacher answered more than they bargained for. He first acceded to their request by giving them a pattern known as the Lord’s Prayer. But He gave them something more important than just a pattern, he told them a parable. The parable has a setting, a story and a significance. The significance of the parable was its main point. Prayer is not about what they did or what they say, prayer is entirely about who God is. Prayer and theology must be integrated because prayer is entirely contingent to who God is! As such, Jesus told them a common parable in the customs of the day that they well understood. A man had a visitor at midnight and had nothing to set before him. He went to his neighbour but his supposed friend refused to get up to get him some bread. Finally, because of this guy who was banging away without shame, the reluctant neighbour finally supplied him with what he needed. Immediately after this parable, Jesus gave the exhortation: ‘Ask and it shall be given’. Without understanding the full implication of the parable, the disciples must have nodded in superficial understanding, “yeah, we got it. We understand what Jesus is saying. We got the prayer formula and now we have this additional teaching that we’ve got to keep on asking! So we have got to keep on repeating this prayer formula. Great!”
“No,” Jesus said in effect, “You missed the picture altogether. You don’t understand because you’re thinking prayer in relation to yourself, you are thinking prayer in relation to your initiative, your action, your performance and your words! You’ve missed the most important thing. Prayer is not about you, prayer is all about God! It is not primarily about how big your prayer, or how deep your prayer, or how great your prayer, or how long your prayer, or even how eloquent your prayer is! It is all about who God is. You miss this understanding of the heart of God, then even the Lord’s Prayer is meaningless to you. You people think of God as a reluctant God who is most difficult to please. You think of God as One who is a miserly or severe. But My Father is not like that at all! He’s the God of the “how much more!”
Having said that, Jesus pressed home His point: “Come on, if your young son come to you and ask for a fish or an egg, you won’t give a snake or a scorpion, will you? Of course not! If you as fallen earthly fathers know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give you His unreserved blessings! Don’t miss it, your Heavenly Father is the God of the “how much more!” Everything in your prayer is contingent to the fact. This is your God!”.
And suddenly we see. And when we do, our faith is deepened, our prayers are empowered and our lives are transformed. The Lord’s Prayer makes sense only because when we pray,“Our Father who art in heaven, hallow be Thy name, Thy kingdom come”, we know that this is the God commands His blessings in Christ to those who would seek Him. For to those who ask, it shall most readily be given. To those who seek, He shall most readily be found. To those who knock, it shall most readily be opened.
Herein is theology and prayer integrated and inseparable. This is the greatest lesson Jesus ever taught about prayer. Every other biblical lesson about prayer is established upon this foundational building block. For prayer must be centred upon such a theology. The theology of the “God of the “how much more!”
This is the greatest lesson Jesus ever taught about prayer. God is the God of the "how much more"! Can you see it?
