If you could ask Jesus to do something for you, what would it be?
Would you ask Jesus for healing for yourself or someone you love? Would you ask for a struggling relationship to be restored, or maybe to be removed from a toxic relationship or situation? Would you ask to get that new job you want so much? The list could go on and on.
Take a moment and think of all the things you might ask Jesus if you had met him 2,000 years ago as he traveled around preaching and ministering to people. Then get it down to the one thing you would ask.
While you’re pondering that, it might be helpful to think about all the different kinds of things people did request from Jesus. I’m not talking about the trick questions the Pharisees asked him trying to find fault with his answers. That’s another topic all together.
What did people ask Jesus for?
I’m talking about when someone came to him with a specific request. They were very intentional and had probably given it quite a bit of thought ahead of time. They often went to a lot of effort just to find Jesus or get his attention to ask for healing or to solve some problem.
There were so many people who came to Jesus asking for healing. They were usually pretty straightforward about it. There’s no way to talk about them all. Here’s just one example.
I’m thinking of Jairus.
Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” Mark 5:22, 23 NIV
And there’s so much more to that story, but Jesus did restore Jairus’s daughter to perfect health, even though she had died before he got to her. He brought her back to life.
But think of the earnest request that Jairus made to Jesus.
There are so many more examples of people requesting to be healed. Who do you think of that asked Jesus for healing?
Some ask Jesus for advice
There were also people who asked Jesus for advice. Luke tells us about two different men who came to ask Jesus what they needed to do to inherit eternal life. The first one is in
On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 10:25 NIV
Jesus turns the question back on him by asking what the commandments are, and then approves his answer to love God and love your neighbor as yourself. Then man then asks, “Who is my neighbor?” And Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan and says that’s the way you need to be a neighbor to people, and basically saying everyone is your neighbor.
The man was asking for advice about what to do, at least on the surface. On a deeper level, he was seeing if Jesus really knew the Scriptures. But Jesus took the request way beyond just a doctrinal belief to a practical application in daily life.
Same question, different answers
Luke tells of another man who made the very same request of Jesus.
A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Luke 18:18 NIV
First, Jesus talks about obeying the commandments, just as he had with the other fellow, but then he responds with a very different answer. This time he tells the man to sell everything he has and give the proceeds to the poor and follow him, Jesus. The young man went away sad because he was very wealthy.
I love the way Jesus responded to the same request from different people with different answers. He knew what each person needed to hear. As I often say, there are no formulas about how to answer questions.
The point I’m making here is that these two men came to Jesus with a request and Jesus gave them the answer they needed.
Being specific doesn’t always get the answer you want
Another time a man came to Jesus with a very specific request. But Jesus responded differently.
Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Luke 12:13, 14 NIV
In this case Jesus did not grant his request. We’ll talk about why in a few minutes.
Some ask Jesus for a sign
There were other times Jesus declined a request, or at least he didn’t answer the request the way it was asked.
One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”
But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation [that’s quite an insult, by the way] would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man [referring to himself] be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.” Matthew 12:38-40 NLT
A similar thing happened in
But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
“All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
“What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?”
But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body. John 2:18-21 NLT
You don’t always get exactly what you ask for
In both these situations, the religious leaders wanted a miracle right in front of their eyes, which they somehow imagined would convince them Jesus had authority from God to act with such authority.
Instead, Jesus gave them a sign that would happen in the future to prove he was the Messiah. He was referring to the crucifixion and resurrection. But that didn’t satisfy them and it certainly didn’t satisfy them when the resurrection and the crucifixion took place. And even if he had given them right then the sign they were asking for, it wouldn’t have satisfied them.
Have you ever noticed the irony of the Pharisees asking for a sign, when Jesus had been healing and showing enough signs and wonders to persuade any receptive and unbiased heart that he was the Messiah.
The people didn’t need a sign
The people on the streets, the normal people who came to Jesus for healing, saw these healings and didn’t need to ask for any other signs. In fact, many of them came to the conclusion,
Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in him. “After all,” they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?”John 7:31 NLT
Everyone wasn’t convinced though. The debate about who Jesus was got so intense at times that some people made a very direct request.
The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.” John 10:24 NLT
Unexpected answers
Jesus answered their request, but once again, it was not in the way they wanted.
Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name. John 10:25 NLT
When had he told them? Think about when he had preached in his home town of Nazareth, he quoted verses from Isaiah.
The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, Isaiah 61:1, 2 KJV
You probably recognize this passage, which Jesus quotes in Luke 4:18, 19.
Jesus actually is, indirectly in a way, answering their request to show them he is the Messiah by pointing them back to the Scriptures. They wanted a simple yes or no answer. But that wasn’t really what they needed. Once again, Jesus gave a deeper answer that required them to think and discover the answer for themselves.
James and John ask Jesus for a BIG favor
Sometimes even Jesus’s disciples had requests.
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.” Mark 10:35-37 NIV
Jesus did not grant this request, not even indirectly. He said,
…to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared. Mark 10:40 NLT
What is James and John had asked this instead…
My wife and I were talking about this verse a couple of weeks ago. She made an observation that blew me out of the water. She said: Instead of requesting, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask,” what if they had said, “We want you to do for us whatever God wants you to do for us.”?
What a difference!
James and John were still thinking in terms of what they wanted.
Jesus was always, not just thinking about, but doing God’s will. The disciples hadn’t quite grasped that yet, but they would at some point.
Better requests
There were times, however when the disciples made more appropriate requests.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV
Imagine the delight Jesus must have felt when this request was made. He immediately shared what is Luke’s version of what we so often call the Lord’s Prayer.
Here’s another request from one of the disciples. On the night before Jesus was crucified,
Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? John 14:8, 9 NIV
In a way, Philip was a little bit like the Pharisees when they asked for a sign. He was asking for something that was already there.
Jesus’s answer
Jesus answered Philip’s request by explaining this very point: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.”
Is Jesus saying he is the Father? Not at all. Jesus was not talking about those who saw him literally. The Pharisees had seen Jesus, but they didn’t really see him. They didn’t see who he was. They didn’t understand him. They didn’t know him as the Son of God.
I think Jesus is really saying, Anyone who sees me and all that I am doing will know what God is like.
Why do I think this? Because Jesus made it clear to his followers that he was only doing and saying what God told him to. I quote these verses a lot.
Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.John 5:19, 30 NIVFor I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken. I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. John 12:49, 50 NIV
Jesus always did God’s will
Everything Jesus did and said was God’s will. The way he lived his life, the way he treated others, and the way he spoke; all of these give us a crystal clear picture of God’s true nature.
If you want to know what God’s will and perspective are on something, just look at how Jesus responded to a similar situation.
Let’s come back to Philip for just a minute. Jesus responded to Philip’s request in a way that opened Philip’s eyes to see the answer had been right under his nose all throughout Jesus’s ministry. He had seen how Jesus lived and interacted with people all along, and as a result could get a clear idea of, could see God’s nature.
What would you ask Jesus?
Now, in thinking about all these people and the requests they came to Jesus with, let’s come back to the original question I asked: “If you could ask Jesus a favor or make a request, what would it be?
From the patterns we’ve talked about, it’s pretty clear that if you ask for something that’s not in alignment with God’s will, you shouldn’t really expect to get what you want.
But look at the requests Jesus did fulfill. All of them, to some degree, were in alignment with God’s will or Jesus wouldn’t have responded the way he did.
I encourage you to take an honest look at how you pray: what you’re asking for, what you’re expecting, what you’re affirming.
Are you asking for a personal favor, like James and John did, for something you want? Or do you have a deep desire to know and do God’s will.
The best request
That is an excellent request, to know and do God’s will. How often do we actually pray this prayer? And I don’t mean just saying the words. That’s easy to do. How often do you, with all your heart, earnestly desire to know what God’s will for you is, and then are willing to do it, whatever it might be?
And let’s talk for just a minute about God’s will for you. How on earth do you figure out what it is? I talk a lot about this on The Bible Speaks to You Podcast, and there’s one episode I’ll recommend here: It’s Episode 79, How Do You Know if Something is God’s Will?
Here’s something to think about. In the Lord’s Prayer Jesus taught us to pray for God’s will in heaven to be done here on earth. So you can always start with what God’s will for you is in heaven. Think about that for a while. Actually, think about that a lot. Go really deep with it. What is God’s will for you in heaven? In a word, it is only good.
That means God’s will for you here on earth is only good. He wants you to flourish, to thrive, to have an intimate, two-way, covenant relationship with Him. He wants you to love people the way Jesus did, and love yourself that way too.
The more you live these general aspects of God’s will, the more you’ll become aware of the specific things God wants you to do.
It doesn’t mean you won’t have challenges. But it does mean you’ll turn to God as the solution.
Who should we pray to?
Now, there’s one more thing I want to add about prayer and making requests. Jesus made it pretty clear that he wanted us to pray directly to the Father instead of to him. In the Lord’s Prayer, he says we should always pray to the Father. And he makes this same point in John:
In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. John 16:23, 26, 27 NIV
The point here is that Jesus is telling us how to pray, but you could also look at it as Jesus making a request of us to pray directly to the Father in his name. Just something to think about: Are you praying to Jesus or directly to the Father in Jesus’s name. And what does that really mean? You might enjoy a previous Episode 121 that talks about this: Praying in the Name of Christ.
Ever since that recent conversation with my wife, I’ve wondered what Jesus might have said if James and John had asked him: Hey Jesus, we want you to do for us, and enable us to know and do, whatever is God’s will for us.
So the question I’ll leave you with is: How will God answer your request when you pray that way?
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James Early, the Jesus Mindset Coach, is a Bible teacher, speaker, and podcaster. He conducts Bible workshops online and in person. His focus is on getting back to the original Christianity of Jesus by embracing the mindset of Christ in daily life. Contact him here.
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Bible References
Mark 5:22, 23 NIV
22 Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet.
23 He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.”
Luke 10:25 NIV
25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Luke 18:18 NIV
18 A certain ruler asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Luke 12:13, 14 NIV
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?”
Matthew 12:38-40 NLT
38 One day some teachers of religious law and Pharisees came to Jesus and said, “Teacher, we want you to show us a miraculous sign to prove your authority.”
39 But Jesus replied, “Only an evil, adulterous generation [that’s quite an insult, by the way] would demand a miraculous sign; but the only sign I will give them is the sign of the prophet Jonah.
40 For as Jonah was in the belly of the great fish for three days and three nights, so will the Son of Man [referring to himself] be in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights.”
John 2:18-21 NLT
18 But the Jewish leaders demanded, “What are you doing? If God gave you authority to do this, show us a miraculous sign to prove it.”
19 “All right,” Jesus replied. “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
20 “What!” they exclaimed. “It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple, and you can rebuild it in three days?”
21 But when Jesus said “this temple,” he meant his own body.
John 7:31 NLT
31 Many among the crowds at the Temple believed in him. “After all,” they said, “would you expect the Messiah to do more miraculous signs than this man has done?”
John 10:24 NLT
24 The people surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”
John 10:25 NLT
25 Jesus replied, “I have already told you, and you don’t believe me. The proof is the work I do in my Father’s name.
Isaiah 61:1, 2 KJV
1 The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
Mark 10:35-37 NIV
35 Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
36 “What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.
37 They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
Mark 10:40 NLT
40 …to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.
Luke 11:1 NIV
1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”
John 14:8, 9 NIV
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”
9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?
John 5:19, 30 NIV
19 Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.
30 I can do nothing on my own. I judge as God tells me. Therefore, my judgment is just, because I carry out the will of the one who sent me, not my own will.
John 12:49, 50 NIV
49 For I did not speak on my own, but the Father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.
50 I know that his command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say.
John 16:23, 26, 27 NIV
23 In that day you will no longer ask me anything. Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name.
26 In that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
27 No, the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.
