“Lord, teach us to pray.”
My, oh, my. The disciple that asked Jesus this question in Luke chapter 11 had no idea what he was getting into, and neither do we.
Prayer is a complete and total enigma. Every religion has some form of prayer or at least something similar to prayer. Among Christians, prayer can be a source of bitter judgment and it can, quite literally, change the world. Some Christians will fight, tooth and nail, to defend how we pray and what we pray in the Christian faith. There is even sometimes a debate about who it is we pray to exactly: Jesus? God? The Holy Spirit? The Saints? The Holy Mother? The Trinity? Who do we address in our prayers? In the Jewish faith it was pretty straight forward: God. The Jewish traditions oftentimes held no mixture of misunderstanding to whom we pray. There also was little debate about how to pray to God. The Law had laid everything out very clearly and there wasn’t much room for differing interpretations (though there were definitely some!). But by the time Jesus comes into the picture with His good news of God’s love, grace, redemption, salvation, and His overwhelming desire for all to be brought back into right relationship with Him the disciples, who were Jews, began to wonder if maybe there was something more they were missing out on when it came to prayer. So, the boldest of them in Luke’s account asks the fatal request, “Lord, teach us to pray.”
Luke’s account gives a shorter version of the Lord’s Prayer, and the one that many Christians have memorized or tend to memorize is the Lord’s Prayer located in the gospel according to Matthew chapter 6. I will be mainly referring to the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew for this post.
If you need to reference it, then here it is:
Matthew 6:9-13 (NLT)
“Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
May your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins,
as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation
But rescue us from the evil one.”
Side note: I have chosen the NLT because it is one of my personal favorite translations, but I will bring up some translation differences that I feel are worth pointing out and will reference those as they come up.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrestled with some of the same questions and thoughts the disciples did when it came to prayer. It seems that he felt there was something more, something he was missing when it came to prayer. This eventually led to him writing a brief book on the Psalms and prayer. Here is a quote from his book, Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible, that really begins to capture where his struggle began and where it ended, “If we are to pray aright, perhaps it is quite necessary that we pray contrary to our own heart. Not what we want to pray is important, but what God wants us to pray." Bonhoeffer’s struggle stands where many of our struggles stand: how do we pray? And his conclusion seems to be that, perhaps, there is something God DOES want us to pray and even HOW to pray. Naturally, the next step includes the request of the disciples and Jesus’ response, the Lord’s Prayer. In fact, Bonhoeffer states, “All the prayers of Holy Scripture are summarized in the Lord’s Prayer, and are contained in its immeasurable breadth.” Bonhoeffer goes on in his book to say that the Lord’s Prayer is the complete summation of the Psalms and since Jesus the Christ, being God, prays the Psalms and the Lord’s Prayer, then to pray any of these are to pray with Jesus and to pray the very words of God. To summarize Bonhoeffer, as we pray and read the Psalms we are praying with God about the things God wants us to pray about, and all these are summarized by Jesus the Christ in the Lord’s Prayer.
Sorry if that seemed a little convoluted but I truly believe it carries some vast significance. If you want to read up on Bonhoeffer’s thoughts here I highly recommend checking out the book, “Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible” by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. It isn’t even 100 pages so it is worth the read, although it can be a little dense and intellectual sometimes.
If the Lord’s Prayer is a summary of the Psalms, which are the words of God spoken and prayed by Jesus, then what is the Lord’s Prayer really about and why aren’t we paying closer attention to it?
Let’s break it down briefly. “Our Father in heaven.” Good. We now know who we are praying to. Jesus kept it simple. We pray to our father in heaven. Now, we could talk about everything that this could imply but let me just say this…rather than offer up my theology of what it means to address “Our Father” and somehow force my ideology on you, I would recommend doing some research on your own, talking to some solid Christian friends, a pastor/preacher, etc. about what it means to pray “Our Father.” The significant thing here is that Jesus gives us some direction. When in doubt, pray to “Our Father.” That’s what Jesus did and that is enough for me to start with!
“May your name be kept holy.” Okay. What is this about? Indulge me for a second as I point out that the Greek here is actually in the imperative and so the word used here, “may,” implies the possibility or the hopeful request for the Father’s name to be kept holy but the Greek actually implies a command. “Your name be kept holy.” No need for the confusion of the word “may” because we get a better idea of what Jesus is saying without it. Jesus is summarizing possibly one of the main reasons the Psalms were written, to glorify God. When we pray to our father we always seek for his name to be made holy and for him to be glorified. Glance at pretty much any Psalm and you will see the glorification of God proclaimed passionately.
“May your Kingdom come soon.” Again, “may,” let’s just ignore it. “Your Kingdom come soon.” Part of the Jewish Messianic prophecies included the coming Kingdom of God brought about by the Messiah. This hope and prayer was present all throughout the Psalms. In the Psalms there is a deep desire for the Kingdom of God to come as quickly as possible. Just take a look at Psalms 23, 87, 145, just to list a select few.
“May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.” Bye, “may.” Imagine heaven on earth. That is basically what is going on here. That’s where this phrase probably comes from! (I actually don’t know if that is true at all, but it could be!) But really. Jesus is saying that our prayers to our father in heaven, who we want to see glorified in every single way and whose Kingdom we desperately want to see here on earth, should include that we want nothing more than for his will and his desires (which we know are always centered around love and, therefore, must be ultimately good) to be done here on earth just as they are in the heavens. Again, this idea ties to the themes of God’s glory and his coming kingdom mentioned all throughout the Psalms. Pick a couple and check it out.
“Give us today the food we need.” The translator here chose some interesting word choices. Briefly, the word translated “today” has recently been up for scholarly debate on its exact meaning. Here the words “we need” have been added with “today” to summarize a popular translation of the word epiousion (ep-ee-oo-see-on). It is typically translated “as daily” but has more recently been seen with the idea of “just enough for today.” But what is the point? Maybe Jesus is reminding us of the Jews utter dependence on God throughout the Old Testament. At one point, while they were in the wilderness outside the Promised Land, they were receiving food from God directly and part of the restrictions with this food was that they could only take as much as they needed. (Take a gander at Exodus 16) Sound similar to what Jesus is suggesting we pray here? When we pray to our father we must go humbly, seeking his glory, his kingdom, his will, and then we need to recognize that we must depend on him daily and that it is he who provides for us from day to day. To ask for more than what we need today is to ask that we don’t need him tomorrow. It is to literally ask God, “Give me enough so that I don’t need to ask you for anything tomorrow.” If we view our journey as a relationship with God, then doesn’t this seem ridiculous and crazy? Shouldn’t we want to be in conversation with someone to build a relationship? I know it’s a tired argument “talk to God to grow a relationship just like you talk to your friends and family every day” but it really is true. Especially when Jesus, when he is teaching us to pray, is implying that it needs to be a daily conversation and request. The Psalms are riddled with instances of daily petitions to God from some need to be met. Specifically, look at 77, 79, and 86 (some of my favorites that have to do with the daily presence and petitions to God).
“And forgive us our sins.” I feel as if I don’t need to explain this one much. Again, look at any handful of Psalms and you will find the request for forgiveness of sins. It is, in fact, fundamental to ask for the forgiveness of sins and seek to turn from them.
“As we have forgiven those who sin against us.” This part is a bit trickier and needs at least a little bit of explanation. Psalms 32 and 51 both touch on the subject of forgiveness. Jesus puts these Psalms into perspective in the verses after giving the disciples the Lord’s Prayer. In verse 14 and 15 he says, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your father will not forgive your sins.” The Psalms provide such a beautiful tale of the honest search for forgiveness and then, when God grants forgiveness, the outpouring of love and glory to God. Jesus is saying here in the Lord’s Prayer that extending forgiveness to others opens us up for this gracious forgiveness.
“And don’t let us yield to temptation.” Boy, oh, boy do the Psalms talk about temptation and giving into temptation. Look at a few random selections from the Psalms attributed to King David and you will learn of yielding to temptation. David carried a great regret when he gave into temptation and had an intense affair with Bathsheba and then killed her husband. It is also important to note that there is very little implication of the willingness of Bathsheba in any of this (yes, times were different then, but there is still room to argue for the “less-than-consensual affair”). David knew temptation. His passionate Psalms about these temptations, sins, and the seeking for forgiveness can attest to this. Jesus is asking us to pray long, hard, and often for God to give us the strength to resist temptations.
“But rescue us from the evil one.” Lastly, the Lord’s Prayer ends with a plea for our father to protect us, rescue us from evil. Now, there is a translation issue here that can swing one way or the other. The phrase, “the evil one,” which is used here, is a neuter noun in the Greek and can mean “the evil one” or can mean the abstract concept “evil.” So the question is: was Jesus saying we should pray to be rescued from “the evil one” or “evil”? I would like to argue two things; first, it could be both and maybe the translation doesn’t matter one way or the other, but, second, that he intended for it to be “evil.” I think Jesus was worried more about us being protected from evil in general because, if you look at the other parts of the prayer, a pattern emerges. Each line of the prayer encompasses something that is not in our natural tendencies to do, if that makes sense. “Give us today the food we need” has a lot to do with daily dependence and communication with God but we tend to want to say “give me something once and for all.” And then, “forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us” even though we typically never want to forgive people. There is something about doing the right thing that we just simply do not want to do. I talked in depth about that a couple weeks ago. So look there for reference on “The Reason Why I Do What I Do Not Want To Do.” You could refer to this "evil" as our sinful nature. You could refer to it as the work of Satan or the devil or demons. You could refer to it as both. I tend to lean towards the possibility as both. Jesus is saying that we must ask God to rescue us from Satan, the devil, demons, etc. AND from evil that exists in the natural world and within our own sinful natures.
So what is the deal with the Lord's Prayer? It gives us a pattern to follow. It is a summation of all of the prayers written down in the Psalms which were prayed thousands of years ago. These Psalms were prayed by God through the mouth of Jesus the Christ. These Psalms were inspired by the Spirit and exhaled by the Spirit in Jesus the Christ. As we pray the Lord's Prayer we pray with Jesus and we pray with God himself for that which God wants us to pray.
I am not saying that we need to only pray the Psalms and the Lord's Prayer. But I am saying that our prayers should be strongly modeled after that which was prayed by Christ. That is the power of the Lord's Prayer. The Lord's Prayer teaches us a guideline for our prayers and offers shape for our prayers. With this in mind, I have taken it upon myself to begin praying this pattern, as well as the Lord's Prayer itself, daily.
As usual, thank you for reading! And I would love to hear any questions or concerns!
Seeking the Truth,
Dylan
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