Hear O Lord: Praying to Jesus – A Survey of Commentaries on John 14:14

This is the third in a series of posts responding to Michael Bugg on the issue of praying to Jesus. In this post I’m going to take a brief survey of what the commentaries I have at my disposal say about praying to Jesus in John 14:14.

Merrill C. Tenney, John (EBC 9; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1981), 146.

The power of the disciples originated in prayer. Jesus could hardly have made more emphatic the declaration that whatever they should ask in his name, he would do. The phrase “in my name,” however, is not a talisman for the command of supernatural energy. He did not wish it to be used as a magical charm like an Aladdin’s lamp. It was both a guarantee, like the endorsement on a check, and a limitation on the petition; for he would grant only such petitions as could be presented consistently with his character and purpose. In prayer we call on him to work out his purpose, not simply to gratify our whims. The answer is promised so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. The disciples’ obedience to him will be the test of their love.

F. F. Bruce, The Gospel of John: Introduction, Exposition, and Notes (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983), 301.

If something is asked for in Jesus’ name, the request is probably viewed as addressed to the Father. The Father denies nothing to the Son, and a request made in the Son’s name is treated as if the Son made it. The textual evidence in verse 14 is fairly evenly divided between the omission and retention of ‘me’; but the logic and the thought here favour its omission, which indeed seems to be demanded by the plain sense of 16:23a. Such is the reality of the mutual indwelling between the Father and the Son, however, that a request addressed to either in the Son’s name is assured of an answer in the Son’s name (cf. John 15:16; 16:23b). The promise is a Johannine counterpart to the Synoptic promise of Matt. 18:19.

Raymond Brown, The Gospel and Epistles of John: A Concise Commentary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 1988), 76.

All that is needed is prayer in Jesus’ name, a theme familiar to the Synoptics (although only John has Jesus himself answering the prayer; normally we hear of the Father answering the prayer through Jesus’ intercession).

D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (PNTC; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1991), 497, 498.

The reason why the ‘greater things’ are done consequent upon Jesus’ going to the Father (v. 12) is now clarified further: the disciples’ fruitful conduct is the product of their prayers, prayers offered in Jesus’ name. Whether this prayer is directed to the Father or to Jesus (cf. ‘You may ask me’, v. 14 – but cf. Additional Note, below), it is offered in Jesus’ name and he is the one who grants the request (I will do it, v. 14).

[…]

Amongst the witnesses that support the verse are a minority that drop the me in the first clause, thereby giving the impression that the prayer is addressed to the Father in Jesus’ name, rather than to Jesus in Jesus’ name. Textual evidence favors the inclusion of the pronoun. The seeming awkwardness of ‘ask me in my name’ is paralleled elsewhere (Pss. 25:11; 31:3; 79:9). In any case, it is very doubtful that the Evangelist would be interested in drawing overly fine distinctions in the proper object of prayer, since he can happily refer to the gift of the Spirit as the result of the Son’s request to the Father (vv. 16, 26), or as the Son’s own emissary (15:26; 16:7).

Thomas L. Brodie, The Gospel According to John: A Literary and Theological Commentary (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), 464, 65.

The sense of dynamism is heightened by a closer look at the structure. Each of the subsections—those dealing respectively with faith, hope, and love—has two steps:

Faith leads both to works such as Jesus does and also to greater works, “because I am going to the Father” (v 12);

Asking involves asking in union with Jesus (lit., in his name) and, still in union, asking Jesus himself, “that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (v 13);

Love implies keeping Jesus’ commandments and Jesus will ask the Father “and he will give von another paraklētos to be with you…” (v 15).

[…]

Then Jesus says twice that he will “do/make” whatever is asked, poiēsō (13, 14). The connection with the process of creation is heightened by the fact that creation was described as “works” (erga, Gen 2:3).

At each stage of this process, as the believer comes closer, Jesus is active, is doing what the believer asks. There is no impeding of this process. Provided what the believer asks is in union with Jesus (“in my name”), Jesus does it.

René Kieffe, “John” in The Oxford Bible Commentary (eds. John Barton and John Muddiman; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), 987.

Here Jesus is the one who hears the prayer, in the other two texts it is the Father.

Craig S. Keener, The Gospel of John: A Commentary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003), 2:949.

Jesus’ promise, “I will do it” (14:13), may well echo God’s word to Moses in Exod 33:17; this epitomizes the apparent paradox of Johannine Christology: like the Father, Jesus answers prayer (14:13-14), but the Father’s rank remains superior, so that the Father is glorified in the Son (14:13).

Andreas J. Köstenberger, A Theology of John’s Gospel and Letters: The Word, the Christ, the Son of God (BTNT; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 240 cf. 541.

Also, believers are encouraged to direct believing prayer to Jesus once he has been exalted to the Father (vv. 13-14).

J. Ramsey Michaels, The Gospel of John (NICNT; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 781.

“And whatever you ask in my name,” he promises, “this I will do, so that the Father might be glorified in the Son” (v. 13). Then, for emphasis, he says it again: “If you ask me anything in my name, I will do” (v. 14). The emphatic “I” is evident once more, signaling again that Jesus is not simply backing off, leaving the authority to do “greater” works in the hands of his disciples. We might have expected, “And whatever you ask in my name, the Father will do, so that the Father might be glorified in the Son,” and “If you ask the Father anything in my name, he will do.” We have come to expect Christian prayer to be directed to the Father through the Son, and this is in fact what we find in this Gospel’s other passages on prayer (see 15:16, “so that whatever you ask the Father in my name, he might give you”). Here, by contrast, even though the prayer if offered in Jesus’ name, it is Jesus himself (now “gone to the Father,” v. 12) who “will do” what is asked. In a sense, the promise that “I will do” (v. 14) echoes and reaffirms his previous reference to the works that “I am doing” (v. 12). He who carries out the Father’s works in his ministry on earth will continue to perform “greater” works from heaven in response to the prayers of the disciples he left behind.

Urban C. von Wahlde, The Gospel and Letters of John, Volume 2: Commentay on the Gospel of John (ECC; Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2010), 638-39.

In 1 John, the members of the community had been urged to make petitions of God and God would grant them. Here, the petitions are to be made in the name of Jesus. But, when Jesus grants a request, it does not redound to the glory of Jesus but to the glory of the Father. Thus, in spite of the fact that Jesus himself exercises a power ordinarily reserved to God, his exercise of it continues to honor and glorify the Father. In v. 14, Jesus again promises that whatever they ask for in his name, Jesus will grant.

The lesson on petitionary prayer that Jesus teaches is simple. The believer is able to ask for anything. There is no limit to the possibilities of needs that can be addressed. Second, the believer is to ask “in the name of Jesus.” This is specifically how the believer should ask. Third, the Son is glorified in the Father. Just as in 1 John the promise of having one’s petitions heard by the Father gave assurance to the believer, so here equal assurance is given that one’s petitions will be heard and answered by Jesus.

While I recognize that truth isn’t determined by popularity or consensus, I find it telling that most of the exegetes writing commentaries on John in the past 30 years have come to the same basic conclusion that in this passage Jesus is said to receive and respond to prayer.

B”H