Message by Pastor Samuel Kim
July 10, 2022
Passage: Matthew 7:9-11 (Heidelberg Q&A 26)
Have you ever had such a troubling experience that you could not pray? How is it possible to pray when we are flooded by pain and distress? Sixteen years ago, I was in a hospital for six months due to a serious traffic accident at a missionary site in the Philippines. I had to undergo a total of five surgeries, including three brain surgeries and one orthopedic surgery, and was in ICU for a month. I have no memory of an entire month of unconsciousness. When I regained consciousness, I found that my head, stomach and feet had surgical marks and bandages wrapped around them. The moment I saw myself in the hospital room, I was shocked. In addition, my entire right side was paralyzed, and I couldn’t move at all by my own power. Of course, my brain wasn’t perfect after brain surgery, but my very appearance was a severe tragedy. I could never understand why God gave me such pain. My heart was filled with anger, and I could not pray during this hospitalization.
The disappointment in God, and the feeling that he had forsaken me, made it more difficult to pray to God. Misunderstanding is a common reason for the breakdown of communication in a relationship. This is what fractures relationships between people, between family members, among church members or in any organization.
More than once we have become upset when our request is rejected. We react this way when we pray for an answer, when the time is pressing in on us and things end up in a way we did not desire. But, it can also happen when we had good intentions that the other person failed to understand.
A typical conversation between a mother and daughter could go like this:
“Mom, I need a new Iphone:” “What? You got a new phone less than a year ago”. “Yeah, but everybody in my class has an Iphone”. “Use it for another year then we talk again”. Heartbroken, the daughter responds: “You don’t love me. For you, money is more important than I am”
This breaks the mother’s heart.
Other common heart-breaking responses from child to parent that reflect misunderstanding include
“You are too old to understand me… the world has changed”. “You are a dictator in this house”.
One of the main characteristics of misunderstanding is the presence of blame, anger, and resentment. These arise because one has a problem to solve that can’t be solved alone, and the help doesn’t come in the way and in the time that one desires. Misunderstanding is not only a problem for today’s society but it was also an issue for people of the 1st century Jewish community.
The text we read is located later in the sermon that Jesus delivered to the disciples and the crowd who followed him. Jesus’ intention in preaching was to give insight about God and God’s Kingdom, which the audience mostly misunderstood. Since wrong ideas about their God and about prayer became entrenched, they could not hear the voice of God for 400 years nor was there any sign of the coming promised Messiah. They could not see any activity of God, leaving them hopeless, frustrated, powerless…
Jesus was talking to the crowd and the disciples who followed him to the mountain. The crowd was comprised of not only those who were healthy and well but mostly those who were in need and sick. The news that a person who seemed to be the messiah with authority and power to heal the sick spread from person to person. All the poor, ill and weak, all the woman and children who were socially marginalized came to follow him. Many of them felt that God was far away from them.
The disciples were the ones who had more understanding of Jesus, God and His Kingdom, since Jesus had instructed them exclusively with further teaching and understanding. However, they also constantly showed their misconceptions about Jesus. They saw him as a Messiah who would liberate them from the Romans and build His political Kingdom. Their interest was focused on the reward when the last day would come, and they frequently entered into discussions of who was the greatest among them and who was the closest to Jesus.
A life of prayer in their community was lacking because they were worn out by poverty, painful sickness, and the absence of any hope for the future. The main subject in this passage is the continuation of verses 7-8 which is the instruction of Jesus to give them hope. The main message is to keep praying because their prayer will be answered. Jesus presented it through three verbs: Ask, Seek, Knock because God is a father who is willing us to give the best to us.
People might be disappointed and tired, but Jesus is encouraging them by focusing on the source of prayer, the father- son relationship between God and us.
9. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11. 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!
As I said before, many of us abandon our prayer life because we find ourselves not trusting Jesus’ command to pray because the promise of an answer seems so distant, unrealistic, or even out of reach.
However, verse 9-10 is the core of the teaching in the text, focusing on the relationship between God and his people as a Father and son. Here we see God represented as one who gives what is good, who knows what is best for us.
Jesus also makes a comparison with a human father who, though sinful, wants to give good things to his children. I remember as a child being served grilled chicken, a luxury in early 80’s in Korea. My mom and dad ate last saying that they were not hungry; they waited for my sister and me to eat the best parts. Later, once an adult, I realized that they waited even though they were hungry because of the joy of giving us the best. If an evil father can give a good gift to his son, how great would be desire of perfect father God, to give. And this should be the foundational reason for a prayer life.
Let’s see how the understanding of God who is a father is broadly detailed and expressed in Question and Answer 26 of the Heidelberg Catechism, in Lord’s Day 9. The Heidelberg Catechism is a Reformed confessional document based on Scripture that organizes the core of Christian belief in Question and Answer format. Question and Answer 26 of Catechism in Lord’s Day 9 gives a detailed but concise description of who God is:
Question 26: What do you believe when you say: I believe in God the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth?
Answer: That the eternal Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who out of nothing created heaven and earth and all that is in them, and who still upholds and governs them by His eternal counsel and providence, is, for the sake of Christ His Son, my God and my Father. In Him I trust so completely as to have no doubt that He will provide me with all things necessary for body and soul, and will also turn to my good whatever adversity He sends me in this life of sorrow. He is able to do so as almighty God, and willing also as a faithful Father.
Our God is not a God made of wood or stone! Neither is he far away so that he cannot hear our petitions, nor is he one who is always angrily searching for our faults so he can punish us. Our God hears even our still small voice like that of a father whose full attention is focused on the groan of his newborn.
The God in whom we believe is described as:
1) God is Creator, who providentially sustains and governs the creation.
2) God is providently working in your life to make it good.
3) God will provide all necessary things.
4) God will turn to good even our pains.
5) Because the Almighty is our God, he is Faithful as our Father.
Knowing that the God in whom we believe is Almighty and a faithful loving father, it gives us comfort in our souls and minds, along with power and confidence. The Catechism presents these truths based in the Scripture:
It is God who planned and intended our salvation.
It is God who took initiative to redeem us when we were fallen under sin.
It is God who sent his son into the world and made him a sacrifice for our sin.
It is God who resurrected him in victory over sin to give hope to us.
It is God who prepared and sent a messenger so we could hear the Gospel. Think for a moment of a person who was this messenger for you.
It is God who inspired us when we heard the Gospel so we could believe.
It is God who enjoys being with us, his children.
Now it is God who wants to give the best gift by making even all incomprehensible situations work toward good.
It is God who is Almighty and faithful father.
We can pray with confidence, even when the situation is against us. We must persevere, because we believe in Him, because we know He is gracious, almighty and a faithful father who will work for good.
There was a family whose son just graduated from a University.
He packed his luggage to leave for the largest city, because the town where his family lived was a small country town.
When the son was leaving his father gave him a Bible saying, “whenever you face a difficult situation, open it and read it”. This was a disappointment for him. His mother gave an envelope with money.
Once he came to the big city, he worked in a restaurant, delivery company, and even started his own business, but things did not go as he had planned. When he was under financial pressure he wrote a letter home asking for help. The reply was simple: “Open and read the Bible”. But for him it seemed ridiculous, and he did not take it seriously. He was kicked out of his apartment and ended up living in a tiny basement room.
One day tired of life, he went to a park. The sunny day seemed perfect for those families who came out for picnic, but for him was nothing happy. Only worry and frustration filled his day. As he was watching a family, a dad playing together with his son, he remembered his father and going to church by taking his dad’s hand when he was child. So, he took the Bible and opened it up. There was a check with a great amount of money stuck to a page in the Bible. His misunderstanding and anger towards his parents for being careless melted away for he knew the real love and intention of his father.
Understanding who God is helps us to pray in confidence. And that was also the key for my return to prayer after the serious accident I mentioned at the start of this message. I did not pray to God for most of my remaining six-month hospital stay. However, my misunderstanding of God was solved by an event. After my last brain surgery in Korea, I was going to be discharged. But the entire right side of my body was unable to move due to paralysis, not even my fingers could move voluntarily. In that situation, I turned to God in a time of despair. It was a scream. “If you restore my body, I will be your servant for my whole life.” This confession was offered on the last day, and then I was discharged. And on my first Sunday after discharge, I rode the subway with my father’s help. I suddenly wanted to move my finger, and as soon as I tried to move my finger, I suddenly started moving my right-handed finger a little bit. I experienced this miracle by crying sadly in the subway at that moment, and today I am living as a servant of the Lord. It was a miracle that a finger that has not moved for six months started to move! Isn’t it really amazing ?! It was a moment when I personally felt God called me. My recovery after that was still slow and painful, but I was assured that my Father had not forgotten me.
The Lord says “though a father who is evil by nature wants to give good gifts to their children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Let pray.
Almighty and Faithful Father, thanks for your great mercy and patiently waiting for us even though we misunderstand you and our attitude of anger and blame makes us pretend we do not have father who care us.
Help us to be humble and trusting to you and make us rest in your endless love, mercy and care. In Jesus name we pray. Amen