Lord, Teach Us to Pray
Luke 11:1-13
The Christian life is to be one of prayer. And as much as we know this, we seem to have so much trouble praying. The question presented to Jesus is one we all ask. We stumble around and try to pray. We go through a list of names of people to pray for and conclude “in Jesus name, Amen.” We read prayers from others. We know we ought to pray, yet we are unsatisfied. We see when a great tragedy happens on the news and say: “Our thoughts and prayers go with you.” Yet these words seem so hollow. Our critics say we ought to stop praying and start doing. How do we deal with this? Let us take a look at Jesus’ response to this request.
The passage starts with Jesus finishing his prayer in a certain place. Why would Luke include “in a certain place?” What does it add to the text? Is there a certain place to pray? In Matthew, Jesus tells us not to make a public spectacle of praying but instead pray in the closet. But Jesus is in public praying here. It does not record what Jesus prayed. I suppose we would like to know that also. Perhaps Luke’s “some place” is generic in the sense that “any place” is the proper place to pray. It does not need to be in church or temple or at a particular time or such.
The prayer Jesus prays here is shorter, but otherwise similar to the one He taught in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6. Some try to say that it was the same recorded prayer of Jesus which Matthew places in one context and Luke another. Some say that Matthew composed the Sermon on the Mount as a summary of Jesus’ teachings. The contents of the sermon pop up in various places in the Gospel of Matthew. In Luke we see segments of the Sermon on the Mount also. Part of it is in chapter 6, some here and some elsewhere. However, anyone who has preached any length of time recycles ideas from previous sermons. The fact that the two accounts of the Lord’s prayer are not identical indicates that they are similar but not identical prayers spoken at different occasions. These are the words of Jesus which are faithfully recorded here. They are two separate prayers with two separate applications.
The prayer here starts with the simple “Father” rather than “Our Father, which art in heaven.” Jesus does not add the adjectives “our” and “heavenly.” In either case, “Father” is the central term. Calling God “Father” places the believer in the context of being part of God’s family. But one has to be in relationship with God to call Him “Father.” Not everyone, by any means, is a child of God in this sense. This prayer does not promote the universal fatherhood of God. Not everyone is comfortable of calling God by the familiar term, “Father,” for different reasons. Judaism had a hard enough time calling Yahweh by the generic term “God”, substituting the term “under heaven” as a work around. And if Jesus used the Aramaic “Abba” here which means “Pop” or “daddy”, this would have been shocking for the Jews view of the absolute transcendent sovereignty of God. Yahweh was “up there”, “way up there.”
The use of “Father” is actually the perfect blend of the ideas of transcendence and immanence. God is both above us and with us at the same time. His name is to be hallowed as He is a holy God. He is a member of the family. But He is the head of His family as well. His is Lord and we who are in covenant relationship with Him by faith in Jesus are privileged to be part of this family. So prayer begins with a reminder of who God is to and for us. We are petitioning a personal and sovereign God.
The adoration of God is followed by the first petition which here is “Your kingdom come.” This adds further information to who God is. He is a king and He has a kingdom. This should make us pause to think exactly what “kingdom” means. We don’t have many kings on earth today, and many like Queen Elizabeth are figureheads. This does not mean they can’t have influence but that their reign is mostly moral and ceremonial. Also when we think of kings, we think of someone who rules over a country. Kings and queens rule for a period of time and then die. They are replaced by another monarch. But when we think of God, He rules over all forever. His power is limitless. But there is also a privileged part of the kingdom as well. We are His subjects who believe on Jesus which means that He cares and protects us. This is the obligation of the monarch. When we pray to God, this is He whom we pray to. Our God is both willing and able to hear our prayers. Prayer would be mere wishing if God is willing and not able. It would be just as bad if God is able and not willing. God hears our prayers as a Father and answers them as a king. We must remember that He has an eternal plan for us. This means that He answers our prayers according to His will and plan for us and the universe. We must believe that He answers them for our best long-term interest, even when we do not know what that is.
The words “Thy will be done, as in heaven, so on earth” does not appear in all of the ancient manuscripts, and your Bible might omit them or relegate them to a footnote. Jesus does make this thought explicit in Matthew though, so this is perfectly said here as well. When one thinks on these words, we should conclude that, of course, God’s Will will be done. He is Lord of all. He is sovereign of the universe. Therefore, it cannot fail here on earth. So this petition is certainly God’s will. We are reminded that if we ask anything according to His will, He will do it. This prayer has already been answered before we even pray it. What it should do is to encourage us in our troubles in the chaos we call life. Appearances are deceiving. God is at work, working out all “these things for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
The next petition is “Give us our daily bread, according to the day.” I have translated this literally from the Greek. When we normally thing about this, we see the petition as asking God to give us our bread today, tomorrow and each day for as long as we live. Bread is the staple of life. When life is reduced to the very basics we come to bread and water. Jesus calls Himself both. That and the air we breathe are our necessities. All else is extra. I would like to add here that this is true here, but there is something else that needs to be brought out. The children of Israel in the wilderness were to gather only the amount they needed each day. None was to be left over except for the Sabbath day. This daily blessing could not be hoarded.
The next petition asks God to forgive us our sins. To this is added “even as we forgive all who are indebted to us.” This wording is a little different than the prayer in Matthew. It is interesting that where we would expect “even as we forgive those who sin against us” we find “debt.” This change of words is emphatic, but what does it mean? One way to understand this is that one can only sin against God. Even the hurt we do to others is a sin against God. We think of Joseph saying: “how can I do this and sin against God?” So, whenever we break the second table of the Ten Commandments, we are actually sinning against God. When one does a child of God evil, they are sinning against God.
I think another thing brought out by this wording is the idea of debt and obligations. In a literal sense, it would mean forgiving the monetary debts of others. This would lead to the idea of forgiving those who owe you money and cannot repay the loan. So our action of forgiving others their debt is similar to God forgiving our sins. God expects perfect obedience from His creatures. When we disobey, we place ourselves in debt so far as our obligations to our Sovereign are concerned. And since it is perfect obedience that is required, there is no way to satisfy the obligation. It has to be forgiven or it will remain on the account for ever. When we add that monetary debt is not the only debt others might have to us, we are obligated to forgive these unpayable debts, whatever they might be.
The last petition of this prayer is “Do not lead us into temptation.” These are the final words of this prayer. This leads us to think: “Why would God ever lead us into temptation?” The Bible says He tempts no one. The very thought of it is an oxymoron. Of course it is when we are enticed by our own lusts and succumb. God is not the author of our sin. The Pope seems troubled by this line in the Lord’s Prayer and has rewritten the prayer for Catholics. But it is the very foolishness of the idea that is the purpose of this petition. To take the bite out of it by the offered substitution is to take away the opportunity to think on the part of the flock. What we need to do is properly reflect on what the prayer says. It is a call to reflect and think.
What is important to notice about the two versions of the Lord’s Prayer is the commentary which follows. In Matthew, Jesus follows with: “If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive yours.” Reconciliation is what Jesus emphasizes there. Of all the profound statements in the prayer, it is the line “Forgive us our trespasses even as we forgive those who trespass against us” which receives comment. This is further seen in Matthew in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant.” But here, Jesus follows with the story of the man who had unexpected house guests at night and went to the neighbor’s house to ask bread, Why does Jesus do this? Stories are not told for the sake of amusement. What is Jesus illustrating? This should be taken in conjunction with the prayer He has just taught. If we don’t, we will miss the point. It is not a lesson which tells us to prepare for the unexpected better. If the man had just put away a little extra bread for an emergency. Neither is it about bothering one’s neighbor and being persistent with it as a means of getting what you need. It needs to be connected with what Jesus just said.
So the emphasis Jesus makes on this version of the Lord’s prayer is upon the petition: “Give us this day our daily bread.” The One who gives us this bread is not a grumpy old man who has just been awakened from sleep. Jesus tells us not to use vain repetitions like the heathen did. God is not someone that needs to be worn down. He does not sleep like Elijah accused Baal of on Mt. Carmel. They priests of Baal and Asherah prayed and prayed. They even cut themselves till the blood flowed. But Elijah asked once, even after he had poured precious water to soak the sacrifice. And Elijah was heard. I am a pastor in the United Methodist Church. In our Communion liturgy we preface the Lord’s Prayer with the words: “With the confidence of children, let us pray.
Jesus adds to this story the familiar Ask, Seek, and Knock of the Sermon on the Mount. Our persistence in prayer is not based upon making an unwilling God willing but rather serves to remind and assure us of whom we are serving. God only needs to hear our petitions once, but we are in constant need of reminder on the person of the God we serve. When we ask for an egg, would He give us a scorpion? How oxymoronic! What an insult to the majesty of God! But Jesus makes such statements like this and “Lead us not into temptation” which we previously discusses as a goad to prick our hardened hearts.
The life of discipleship is a life of constant prayer. As Paul puts it in Thessalonians: “Pray without ceasing.” It is a time of a lifetime of adoration and a reminder of the God who is our unfailing provider. It should lead us into a life of radical discipleship. Even in the worst of our troubles, Jesus is in the boat with us. This is what we need to learn most from prayer.
