Read Matthew 6:9-13, John 16: 23-24, and Hebrews 4:14-16Recently, Lee and I got to attend the Greek Orthodox Church's annual Greek Festival, which is something we've done every year since we first started dating. I know it doesn't sound all that exciting, and I was skeptical at first too... But let me tell you, we have such a blast there each year! One thing that was different about our experience this year, was that we had the opportunity to go into the actual church. The festival is held on the church grounds, but the sanctuary is only open at certain times, and in the past it always seemed to be closed when we were there. Anyway, this year we were able to go inside, and when we went in, we heard one of their pastors/priests (not sure what they call them), speaking about their church doctrine. He was speaking on the issue of prayer, and explaining why they pray to saints, specifically Mary, mother of Jesus. Much to my dismay, he went on to give a completely wrong interpretation of the passage of Jesus' first miracle (turning water into wine at a wedding in Cana), as a defense for this practice.
To make a long story short, he basically was saying that this passage showed Jesus submitting to His mother Mary. Because of this, we should ask Mary to intercede for us in heaven, because Jesus listens to her. Without getting into it in depth, I have to say that this interpretation is dead wrong. This passage glorifies Jesus as God in the flesh, in which He is displaying His power in this incredible supernatural miracle. It is absolutely in no way glorifying Mary or showing any power that she has over Jesus. He is God, and this miracle is about His power, not hers. Anyway, all of this got me thinking that there is probably some clarification needed on why evangelicals pray the way they do. Why don't we pray to saints? Is there a scriptural model for prayer? Well, I'm glad you asked! Let's look at the text.
Obviously the first place to look would be the Lord's prayer, which is the response Jesus gave to His disciples when they said, "teach us to pray" (Luke 11:1). In Matthew 6:9-13, we are given a model of how we should pray. In this model, which Christians now call "The Lord's Prayer," it is clear who the prayer is addressed to...God the Father. This is plain in the text. We also see that the prayer ends with the word "Amen," which is how Christians should likewise end their prayers. What does "Amen" actually mean? The Blue Letter Bible Commentary says that "Amen" means "may it be fulfilled," "surely," "truly," "so it is," or "so be it." According to this commentary, it is an expression of absolute trust and confidence.
So now we have found a biblical basis for the reason we pray to God the Father, and why we close our prayers with "Amen," but why do we pray "in Jesus' name?" We see the biblical basis for this is John 16:23-24, in which Jesus says, "In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full." When Jesus says "in that day," He is speaking of the time after His ascension into heaven, so He is referring to the time we are living in now. Before Christ came and the cross occurred, Jesus did not play the role of intercessor on our behalf. Now that He has come to earth and died for us, He has become our great high priest, the one who intercedes to God for us.
Because of the cross, we can now go directly to God in prayer, in Jesus' name. The author of Hebrews describes this in Hebrews 4:14-16 when it says, "Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." Because Jesus acts as our priest and advocate before the Father, we can approach God's throne with confidence when we pray.
Oftentimes we do things in church out of habit, but we have never researched whether those things we do have a biblical basis or not. There is a danger in that. Regarding specific things which our church does differently than other denominations within Christianity, it is especially important to examine our reasons for doing things differently. On this specific topic of prayer, different denominations approach the practice differently. My aim in this blog post was to show you from a biblical standpoint why we pray to God the Father, why we pray in Jesus' name, and why we close our prayers with "Amen." While some may use certain scriptural passages to defend their practice of praying to the saints, they are off base in my opinion. There is absolutely no biblical basis for this practice, and the passages that are looked to defend the practice are grossly misinterpreted. We have no evidence that past believers can hear our prayers to heaven, or that they are speaking to God on our behalf. Even if they could hear our prayers, this practice wouldn't make any sense to me. I mean, why would you pray to a saint when you have a privilege of going to God directly?? Like I said, it makes no sense logically or biblically. This is a bit different than my normal posts, but I felt the need to make a clarification on this certain point, and I hope it was helpful to you!
