The annual State Opening of Parliament takes place every year, usually in May. It’s an ancient ceremony, when the monarch presents the legislative proposals for the year. As part of the ceremony, once King Charles is seated in the House of Lords, a gentleman known as the Black Rod will go to the House of Commons, where the door is slammed in his face! (Thus signifying the independence of MPs.) At this point, Black Rod invokes the name of the King and invites the MPs to come and listen to the King’s Speech. This they do. The door opens and many walk across to the chamber of the House of Lords, in order to listen to the king.
Nowadays it may seem to be a quaint ritual, but the point is: the name of the monarch opens doors. Things happen when the king’s name is declared.
And what is true in this world is also true in the world to come. The name of Jesus matters. The name of Jesus opens doors in the heavenly realms.
Names, in fact, are vitally important in biblical theology. One of primary ways that human beings bear the image of God is that they name things. One of Adam’s first jobs is to name the animals. Thereafter humanity names its offspring – and usually these names convey meaning and purpose. When Moses meets God, he asks God for his name, so that the Israelites’ ‘door would open’ to him. God replies: ‘This is what you are to say to the Israelites: “Yahweh has sent me to you.”’ (Exodus 3:14) God has a unique name – usually translated ‘I am’ or ‘I am who I am’.
As Jesus is about to leave his disciples, he also wants to remind them of the power of his name. In fact, great as Jesus’ works have been, from this point his followers will do even greater things, ‘because I am going to the Father’ (v12). In other words, Jesus will not be limited by his human body. His Spirit will enable great things to be done by the Body of Christ everywhere, across the world.
These great things will be done in his name. And it’s quite a promise, isn’t it: (v13) ‘I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.’ Whatever we ask. It sounds too good to be true. And Jesus knows this, which is why he repeats it, immediately: (v14) ‘you may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.’ Anything. Wow!
The key, of course, is that it has to be something which Jesus can put his name to. We can’t pray in Jesus’ name for things that would harm us or others – because Jesus couldn’t put his name to it. That said, there is still a mystery to this. Some of you may feel that you have asked for good things in Jesus’ name and they haven’t happened. We have to trust that this is because we don’t know the whole picture – that Jesus knows about bad outcomes to what seemed like good prayers.
But for all that, it’s good not to overthink it. Jesus promises to act, to change situations, to open doors when we pray ‘in his name’. Why not take Jesus at his word – what do you want to pray ‘in his name’ today?