THE PRAYER OF A RIGHTEOUS MAN
JAMES 5:16
“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
In the name of Jesus:
I have always wondered about this passage. Not that I have doubted God and His word, but these words have always been a mystery to me. The prayer of a righteous person has great power. Why is that? Prayer is powerful to be sure, but why? Where does prayer get its power? It is in the person, his righteousness, in the words that are used? What is it about the prayer of a righteous person?
Prayer has great power, but that power is not found in the person or in the person’s righteousness. What person has power to change things? I mean, to really change things? As the world teeters and totters in a recession, does any one person have the power to change things for the better? Can the power of words affect things in a positive manner? The simple answer is no. Just look around at all of the words that people have spoken since the recession began. No one word of a human being, nor series of words have changed things for the better. The recession is still with us.
Look also at the state of institutions affected by the recession. Businesses struggle to balance the books. People are affected by the decisions that are made. No one word or words can change the outcome. One doesn’t say cheer up and then one’s outlook is brightened. Words certainly mean things but simple words, said by humans, avail nothing.
This stark reality hits home in death. When a loved one dies, no words can bring that love one back to life. When death comes to someone’s door, the news and the reality hits hard. Words may comfort, but they do not change the reality of death.
So it is not the mere words of prayer that changes things. Power doesn’t rest in one’s ability with the English language. No matter how verbose a person is, things will not change for the better. Nor is it the righteousness of the person who prays. After all, who is really right with God because of his or her own works? Look at what the Bible says, that our righteousness is like filthy rags! There is no one righteous, not one! For all have sinned and fallen short of God’s expectations, each and everyone of us has sinned, and that which we earn because of our sin is death. Sin pays off in death. So it isn’t the righteousness of the person who prays that changed things, or is powerful. We are indeed powerless to change things! The power of prayer is not found in our words, our righteousness, our deeds, our works, or even our well meaning good intentions. So why is it, and how is it, that the prayer of a righteous man has great power?
The power of prayer lies not in anyone of us, but in God! For God so loved us that He sent the Righteous One in our place, in life, suffering, death, and resurrection. As Paul says wretched people that we are, who WiLL save us? Thanks be to God, God HAS saved us in His Son Jesus Christ. God was in Jesus Christ, reconciling the world to Him. Jesus was righteous in His life lived for us, in the payment of His life, offering Himself up unto death for us, and His offering was accepted before God in the resurrection. You and I have been bought with a price, not with silver or gold, as Luther says, but with the precious blood of Jesus, all so that we would be His own and live under Him in His kingdom, serving God with our lives in innocence and blessedness. The power of prayer doesn’t rest in who we are, but in who Jesus is. The power of prayer doesn’t rely on who we are, but on WHOSE we are.
You and I belong to God. For in the waters of Baptism God has washed away our sins. In our Baptismal waters God has given to you new life in Christ. You have been saved: “not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, [6] whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7] so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:5-7).
There is power in prayer because prayer turns away from self and to God. Luther put it well: we are beggars, all of us. Nothing in our hands we bring, simply to the cross we cling. And so we cling to God in Jesus Christ. We cling to Jesus for forgiveness, and He gives it. We cling to Jesus for hope, for our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness. We cling to Jesus for the things we need in this life, and He gives us what we need for He is the Bread of Life. We cling to Jesus to lead and guide and so He does for He is our Good Shepherd. We cling to Jesus in the challenges and changes of life, and we find peace and stability for Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We cling to Jesus as we live our lives in the midst of sin and death, and He gives us eternal life for He is the Resurrection and the Life. We cling to Jesus for we are a lonely and despairing people without Him, and He promises to be with us always even unto death. Yes, we are beggars, really beggars, and in our prayers we beg God and He hears and answers us, because of The Righteous One, Jesus. We ask God in prayer and He answers, for our God is an ever present Help in time of trouble.
What is it that troubles you today? Know that God hears you in Christ. There is power in prayer because our God is powerful and able to save. He has saved us, and so we pray .
In Jesus’ Name,
Amen
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