To be clear, Jesus is not a genie. He is not trapped in a magic lamp that if you rub it in just the right way, saying just the right words, he will then grant you whatever you wish. But he sure does say some things that sound like that’s the case.
“I will do whatever you ask in my name.”
“You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
Whatever? Anything? Those are some wide limits. I could fill up whatever with a lot of things, and my list of anything could be pretty dang long. As long as I use your name? You will do it all? Sounds too good to be true. Because it is.
There is inherent tension in these words from Jesus. And tension will usually cause us to bounce hard to either one side or the other. In this case, option one is to become name-it-and-claim-it fanatics who boldly demand every bit of comfort and luxury and success we can think of. Or option two, to become jaded cynics who never ask for anything because time and time again our requests seem to go no further than the ceiling.
There is tension between Jesus’ invitation to us to ask for anything, and the reality that he does not seem to hold up his promise to do whatever.
*sigh*
Jesus introduces tension to draw us in, to make us curious and hungry. Even desperately frustrated. To cause us to dig deeper into the mystery of what it means to ask anything “in my name.” My hunch is that right there is the key. Somehow, we must learn to match our asking with his name.
