Mel Prestamo, Elder PCUSA
First, let me begin by admitting that a lot of this message below comes from out of my studies of the commentaries of William Barclay on the Gospels and the in specific here of the Lord’s Prayer. So, if I spark interest on your part to discover more, I recommend Barclay’s book on the Lord’s Prayer. It is not a difficult read – just over 100 pages.
The words given to us by Jesus in The Lord’s Prayer appear in two of the four Gospels. There is a short version in Luke 11. There is a slightly longer version that appears in the Gospel of Matthew 6.
The scene in Luke 11 is that the disciples are watching Jesus pray. When he concludes, one comes forward and asks that Jesus teach them to pray. This was not unusual – that a Rabbi would teach his followers a prayer or how to pray. The fact was that it was customary to teach their disciples a prayer out of their own theology so that their followers could go to God in prayer.
The Jewish heritage of prayer goes back to the time of Moses in Hebrew history. The Jews were characteristically a praying people. The ancient Jews believed with absolute confidence that God not only heard prayers, but that God desired them and listened to them fervently. A Rabbi in Israel’s tradition taught that “the Holy One” yearned for the prayers of the righteous. In Psalm 145, the Psalmist tells us that “the Lord is near to all who call upon him.”
Moses gave the people a wonderful style of prayer. It was the habit of “blessing” the Lord. It was an attitude of continual thankfulness toward God that expressed itself through brief prayers that acknowledge God as the source of every good thing.
It goes back in the Scriptures…(Deut. 8:10-11, when Moses admonished the Israelites not to forget the Lord. Moses instructed the people:
When you have eaten and are satisfied, you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God.
The Jewish people never doubted the power of prayer. One Rabbi taught that “prayer was the weapon of the mouth and as such is mighty.” Did you hear that? “Prayer is the weapon of the mouth.” The people believed that even if God had set God’s mind on punishing Israel for its sins that they could appeal to God and petition to God to change God’s mind and instead be merciful to his people.”
Also, it was a Jewish tradition that prayer should be constant. We should not reserve prayer only for those times when we are in need of God’s intercession but be in continually conversation with the Holy One. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, we are taught “…before misfortune comes, anticipate and pray.” [Eccl. 33]
Bible Scholar William Barclay makes this comment, “Prayer is not so much an emergency appeal in times of need as it is a continuing and unbroken conversation and fellowship with God.”
That is a beautiful thought, isn’t it? That we should think of our prayer time as an ongoing, unbroken, life-long conversation with the creator God that is a Father to us all – a Father that loves us and wants to hear us when we pray.
Here’s another thought on prayer from a nineteenth century Jewish scholar by the name of Michael Friedlander. He suggests that in prayer, we should first bring our love to God. In Psalm 34, the psalmist tells us, “I will bless the Lord at all times: his praise will continually be on my mouth.” Please make the connection here that Friedlander makes. That when we go to God in prayer, the praise we bring should be an act of love.
Friedlander next suggests that when we pray, we must be mindful of the holiness of God. A Rabbi Simon taught, “In our prayer, we should think that the holiness of God is right there before us. When we go to God in prayer, we should be mindful that we are entering a sacred and holy place. These are all examples of how leaders of the Jewish faith community taught their followers how to go before God and pray.
As I had said before, it was a common practice for Rabbis to teach their disciples prayers. As we heard in the text, John did it for his disciples and Jesus’ disciples wanted a prayer from him that they could pray.
Why was this important? Prayers that the Rabbis taught their disciples would be a distinguishing element that might set one group of followers apart from others. Perhaps, followers would be able to say I follow John, this is the prayer we pray. So, Jesus’ disciples wanted to be able to say, the Lord has taught us this prayer. Whatever the motivation, Jesus taught them the prayer we refer to as the Lord’s prayer.
Jesus told them, when you pray, say:
Father,
Hallowed be your name
Your kingdom come
Give us each day our daily bread
And forgive us our sins
As we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us
And do not bring us to the time of trial.
Luke’s version of the Lord’s prayer is shorter than the one that appears in the gospel of Matthew. Luke omits the lines, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And at the close after the phrase about temptation, Matthew closes with, “…and deliver us from the evil one.”
This is a simple seven-line prayer. It is not long-winded. It is not an arduous prayer. Jesus does not set a difficult high bar for us. He has made prayer quite simple. It tells us much about how Jesus prayed and how he would want us to pray.
This prayer that Jesus taught his disciples can be viewed in two ways. First, that it is a stand-alone prayer for them and us to use when we don’t have the words or know how to approach God. For those times when our minds go blank, Jesus has given us the words.
But be attuned to what more he has given us. It is not intended to be a litany. It is not a pages long confession. It is not a prayer that drones on or that becomes repetitive and prattles. In Matthew’s Gospel, we have heard Jesus criticize the Pharisees that pray in public for all to hear. Jesus’ criticism is because they are not praying to God but instead putting themselves on public display so that they can be admired for their piety. That is not this prayer. If you were to stand on a street corner and start saying this prayer aloud, you would be finished before anyone took note of you. It is a short and simple prayer that brings us to the heart of how we should come to God. It is simple but it gets the job done.
But it is also more than a simple prayer. It is a template for prayer. It is a form for us to use when we come before God in our own private prayer. Let’s take a look at what Jesus is telling us about how to approach our God in prayer.
The first word of Jesus’ prayer tells a lot. It is that we should address God as “Abba, Father.”
In this opening word, Jesus gives God a personage, not one of male personage. Instead, it is used to impress us that God is more like a loving parent than an uncaring, far-off deity. Jesus did not want his disciples, or us, to approach God as a far-off impersonal deity, as a terribly fearsome God who we should approach with trembling hearts and certainly not one with whom we have no relationship. Jesus makes it so we can approach God with a confidence in knowing that God has showered and continues to shower us with blessings upon blessings. No, Jesus wants us to approach God as a loving parent whom we can know, whom we respect. Yes, we should be in awe of God, but not so fearful that we cannot understand the love God has for us. This is a God who we can live and interact with us every day of our lives, and one in whom we can have the confidence of knowing we are loved. This God that Jesus calls Father is a loving parent.
The next line, “Hallowed be thy name.” There are two things going on here. The initial thing before all else, is that we need to praise the “Name” of God. “Hallowed be thy Name.” This is an elemental and first criteria of Jesus’ prayer. It is to first praise God’s name. Give due reverence to the holiness of God. Realize that in prayer we are entering a sacred place before our God.
The second thing about this line is that Jesus is telling us that we can know the “Name” of God. This is important to understand. That is because in ancient cultures to know a person’s name meant that you truly know who that person was on an intimate level – inside and out. It means to know the whole character of a person. For instance, for me to say, I know a person’s name would mean I know as much about that person as their spouse does or any of their closest friends. Jesus wants us to know God with that kind of closeness and intimacy.
Knowing God’ name means to know the whole character, mind and heart of God so that once you know God in this way, you can put your trust and confidence in God. That is how Jesus wants us to know God.
This is the relationship Jesus wants us to have with God – intimate and personal. Now we will never know all there is to know about God, but Jesus reveals enough so that we can have a start at knowing God. So, this line calls us to praise and know the Name of the God we call Father.
“Your Kingdom come.” Here, Jesus is telling us that God’s kingdom is at hand and that we should actively pray for it and expect it. This line means that we should pray for a time when God’s rule will cover all of creation, that all of creation will turn to God and that all the brokenness of this world will be healed.
“Give us this day our daily bread”. This is a line that is sometimes misinterpreted. Muslims criticize Christians for having the audacity of asking God to provide food for us each day. In the Exodus story we know that God provided manna each day so that the Hebrews could be fed – so that their physical needs could be met.
But for us, “food” is not alone what “Daily Bread” means. As Christians, our daily bread is the “Word” of God spoken to us by the Christ. This is the food of life that Jesus is telling us to ask God for. Jesus is telling us to ask that God provide for us the “Word” that will sustain and feed us as we go through our daily lives.
Also, this line is telling us that we should not be concerned about the future days of our lives. That would distract us. That would be too burdensome. No, focus only on the day before us. Ask for what we need today. Ask for the Word that will feed us and nourish us today. And where do we find that nourishment? We find it in God’s Word spoke to us in Scripture. For in Scripture, we will find the Spirit of God that can fill and guide us through our day.
“Forgive us our sins.” This is simple enough. But Jesus is making the point that we cannot approach the righteousness of God with sinful and unrepentitive hearts. We cannot go before the Holy One thinking that we can stand before God in a righteousness of our making. We have to stop and make the point of confessing that we are sinners, to ask to be forgiven and ask God to cleanse our hearts. Only then can we come before God.
As an aside, I would like to share an insight with you about how we Presbyterians order our Worship. We place the confession of sin right at the very start of our worship. In fact, if you look at it, our Presbyterian order of worship is built upon the Lord’s Prayer. It is the template that we use. We are called to come before God, praise God’s name in song, confess our sins, hear the Word, affirm our faith, make our petitions and give Thanksgiving.
The next line is, “As we forgive those indebted to us.” That is a “Red Flag” for us. It is a challenge if you will, isn’t it? Jesus is telling us that forgiveness works both ways. We can ask for forgiveness of God for our sins but if we harbor ill will towards anyone, if we deny anyone reconciliation for a deed or action, that “ill will” would become an impediment to our being forgiven. It is a challenge to us to be forgiving.
“And do not bring us to a time of trial.” There are a couple of things going on here. First, many of us will think in terms of asking God to keep us from sin. We equate temptation with sin. And this line certainly has that meaning. But it is more than that. Temptations can be any of the trials in life. A temptation could mean not dealing fairly in business, it could mean allowing ourselves to submit to the temptation of anger. It can be any situation that could be a test of a person’s humanity, integrity, and fidelity. We cannot escape these trials in life, but we can meet them and work through them if God is with us.
You will recall I pointed out that Matthew’s version specifically refers to keeping us from the evil one. In omitting the last line Luke gives temptation a much wider meaning. That is not to say that temptation does not come from the evil one, but it does say to us that temptation can come from a wider horizon of possible storms. And it is with God’s help that we can weather those storms.
Now this passage continues beyond the words of this simple prayer.
Jesus then tells the disciples a parable. Now it is important to understand what Jesus is doing in this parable. It is not a lesson that teaches us how God reacts to our prayers. It is the antithesis of God reacts.
The parable is about a man who receives a guest knocking at his door that he is not prepared to receive so late at night. In his own home, he lacks the resources to greet and provide for his late arriving guest. This is a major faux pax in ancient cultures. In desperation, this man goes to HIS neighbor house knocking at his door asking for the things necessary to receive his own guest properly. At first, the sleepy and annoyed neighbor refuses to get up out of bed to help. Go away! Can’t you see my door is shut. Don’t bother me. That is a typical human reaction, don’t you think? I mean, if you got a phone call in the middle of the night say 2:30 am, from a friend asking you to come out to help them set up a barbeque for a party because some late arrivals had just showed up, you would not receive that call with a joyous and loving heart, now, would you?
But Jesus tells us that if for nothing else that neighbor’s obstinacy can be worn down with persistence. Now remember I said that this parable reflects negatively on the truth of how God hears our prayers. Jesus is not saying that God receives our first petitions with a deaf ear and that we need to be persistent so that we can wear God down. What he is saying is that we can expect much more from a God that loves us than from a neighbor who is annoyed with us.
So, this passage closes with some very familiar phrases.
“…Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
Now this is not card blanche. There is some fine print.
Ask, and it will be given.
What will be given? Everything that YOU want? No, you will be given everything that God knows you need.
Seek and you will find, what? Seek the Word of God and you will find it.
Knock and it will be opened to you. What door? The door to your neighbor’s house? The door of opportunity? No. You should not expect that these doors will suddenly swing wide. But you can expect that the door to the kingdom of God and eternal life with God in God’s house will be opened to you.
Now that’s pretty FINE print, wouldn’t you agree?
This is the prayer that Jesus gives us. One very simple prayer for when we can’t find the words. But also, a template that can provide structures for how we can speak with God. Jesus tells us when you pray, say this. Not only with these words but with the assurance of the underlying love that the Father has for you.
And finally, Jesus gives us the assurance that when we do pray to God, God will hear, and God will answer our prayers not with every we want or demand but with everything we need.
