I am happy to say that we are still celebrating Easter. I don’t know if any of you have noticed this, but over the last three Sundays, we have remembered Easter in the accounts of three different evangelists. On Easter Day, we had Matthew’s story of the two Marys kissing the feet of the risen Christ on Easter Day. Then last week, we had our Lord’s appearance to the disciples in John’s Gospel, focusing on the breathing out of the Holy Spirit and on Thomas’s reaction in particular. Now, this week, Luke tells us that beautiful story of the two disciples, Cleopas and probably his wife, who met Jesus on the road to Emmaus. I don’t want to talk about that in any depth this morning, but I do want to note two verses. While they were walking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. This is how the story begins. And it ends When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed, and broke it, and gave it to them. Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight. It is curious how sometimes the most significant moments can only be seen in retrospect. And I want to talk about my own Easter weekend because I, too, experienced a moment when Jesus drew near.
It was Easter Saturday, and I spent the morning in church. I came partly because it seemed right to open the church on Easter Saturday, and I had a few things to do, like preparing the Easter candle. But I came above all to read and to pray with you the prayers that had been put into the Lenten offering envelopes. And it was reading those prayers that brought me this experience of being close to all of you, but also, in retrospect, touched by the presence of Christ. Most of your prayers were requests for simple blessings: on your families, on your loved ones, sometimes for people who live very far away. Many of your prayers asked blessings on your children and on your careers and job prospects. And through it all, I could feel not only your love for each other, for your families, but also your faith. It was a touching and humbling experience which reminded me of what a privilege it is to serve as your pastor. Indeed, reading your prayers put me in mind of some of the verses that we have read in our Psalm this morning. “I love the Lord, for he has heard the voice of my supplication, because he inclined his ear to me on the day I called to him.” “How shall I repay the Lord for all the benefits he has given me? I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.” And this last verse, verse 12, is repeated as a verse 16. “I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.”
Anyway, I came away from that experience of sharing in your prayers with the conviction that I should share with you the Prayer of Jabez. Now, how many of you have even heard of Jabez? Hand up… I thought not. Jabez was God’s little Big Man. We only know two things about him: his name means ‘pain’ – whether he caused his mother pain in childbirth, or whether he had a difficult start in life we don’t know; and we are told he was an honourable man. That fact is important; hold on to that! Anyway, his prayer is one of the shortest and yet most striking prayers in the Bible. It appears in First Book of Chronicles, in just two verses. Hidden among a long list of names – indeed, nine long chapters of names – we suddenly read about a man called Jabez who prayed a very simple prayer to God. He prayed, “Oh that you would bless me indeed, enlarge my territory, let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm.” And the remarkable thing is that the Bible simply adds: and God granted what he asked. It is a bold prayer, but it is not a selfish or greedy one. Jabez is not asking for riches or comfort. Rather, he is asking for God’s favour on his life, for greater opportunity to serve, for God’s presence to guide him, and for God’s protection along the way. It is the prayer of someone who believes that God truly hears and answers those who call upon him, and who is willing to place his whole life—its hopes, responsibilities, and challenges—into God’s hands. What’s more it is the prayer not of some great saint, not of some great prince, but of a very ordinary person, and one who, as his name tells us, had come from hard beginnings.
It is all right to ask for God’s blessing on our lives. After all, Jesus said to his disciples, Ask and you will receive, knock and the door will be opened. So when I took your prayers on Easter Saturday, and prayed them with you, I felt I had dozens of Jabez prayers in the making. So I am encouraging you to take this prayer away and begin every day by praying Jabez’s blessing for yourselves. Indeed I have had these little prayer cards made up: please take them away and make use of them. And also, in a minute, we shall be using the Prayer of Jabez as the core of our intercessions.
Please don’t misunderstand me: this is no magic bullet. Jabez is no fairy godfather whose prayer will make all your troubles suddenly disappear: he was simply an honourable man, from difficult beginnings, who turned to God and asked God’s blessing on his life. And God granted what he asked. May He do the same for each of you – in the name of Christ.