²⁴ “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be made full.

Upper Room teaching is not exhaustive, but it is profound. Jesus wasn’t saying everything there is to say about prayer at that time, but He is laying down foundational principles that will carry the disciples into their post-physical-presence-of-Christ life. Until this point, the disciples had become used to the idea that Jesus was “the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt 16:16). They were increasingly comfortable with taking all their questions about God to Him. In the Upper Room, questions continued to flow. In response, Jesus had increasingly taken them deeper in their understanding of the spiritual life that God requires.

Yes, they had asked him many questions. But “Until now you have asked for nothing in My name,” Jesus asserted. This must have left them in a quandary, where was Jesus going with this line of thought? To ask the Father in Jesus’ name was a completely new idea, yet probably not a completely foreign concept. He was moving them one further step closer to the Father, and did not their hearts burn within them? Their Master, for whom they had left all to follow, was inviting them into direct access to God, the Father. Following Christ meant entrance into the presence of God.

We know from later Scripture that Christ is our mediator (and our only mediator – 1 Tim 2:5), and our intercessor in relationship to righteousness and judgment (Romans 8:34). But in relationship to our prayer requests, we approach not with Jesus as our intercessor or mediator, but we approach in His Name. He is sending us on His behalf, with all the full benefits, privileges and prerogatives that He has as the Son. We know that the Spirit intercedes for us when we don’t know how we ought to pray (Rom 8:26-27), but that intercession is not in place of our going directly to God, but it is a coming alongside of us as we approach the throne room of God. Likewise we don’t pray to Jesus, who then takes our requests to the Father. Jesus sends us to the Father directly! Is that not amazing?! Is that not sobering?

Until then, the disciples, as with all of God’s people, approached God through quite the involved ritual, but now we can go in the authority of Jesus, who is the holy One of whom God said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased” (Matt 3:16). When we approach God in Jesus’ name, God is likewise well-pleased with us as His children (John 1:12).

Father, I come to you in Jesus’ name. Teach me to pray more consistently and faithfully, to learn to commune with You daily.