After instructing His disciples not to pray as the pagans do, mindlessly repeating the same words or phrases, hoping that repetition will have some effect, Jesus says, when you pray, pray like this:
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”
Though he had an existential slant to his theology, Karl Barth was a deep theological thinker, prolific writer, and an ardent follower of Jesus. When this one who could fill a wheelbarrow with the books he’d written on theology was asked, how do sum up your theology, your view of God, responded “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” I’ve heard this described as simplicity on the other side of complexity. For Karl Barth to quote the words to a child’s tune means much more than when sung by a first grade Sunday School class. For Barth, these simple words were jammed with a depth of meaning that many adults may never comprehend.
I think of Jesus’ words in the Lord’s Prayer in a way. Even a cursory glance at the Gospel of John leaves one with the conclusion that Jesus and the Father are one – knowing each other so intimately that to know one is to know the other. So when Jesus speaks these simple words, only 53 in total, they carry an exponential depth of meaning. They touch the tips of icebergs that we will rightfully spend a lifetime exploring.
Though we cannot treat them exhaustion here, a helicopter view of the portions that breach the surface will do us well. First, note that Jesus introduced the “Lord’s Prayer” with a warning – don’t pray like the heathens – which indicate He intended this as a pattern for prayer rather than a literal string of words for us to repeat. Even so, we often find it useful when praying corporately or individually to use these actual words, particularly when we begin to understand their full meaning. In that way, they become for us simplicity beyond complexity – common words with deep meaning.
The prayer begins first with God and then moves to us, setting the proper relationship and attitude for our own prayer. All but once (while hanging on the cross – “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” – Jesus addresses God as Father. The Jews would have heard this as something unique and new in matters spiritual. We commonly hear how the Jews would not even speak the name of God and as a result, we do not have an accurate pronunciation of His name YHWHW. In contrast, and in keeping with the announcement that the Kingdom of God is near, that new access to God has arrived, Jesus calls God “Father.” Even with such an intimate address, we must still hallow, or hold sacred, or sanctify, or set apart, the name of God. We must use it in consideration of who He is (He’s God and we’re not).
In the second of three phrases focusing on God, Jesus addresses the Kingdom – requesting that it come. Let’s think about that for a moment. What is a kingdom? In common terms a kingdom consists of all that comes under the power and authority of its king. A kingdom exists in the place where activity bends to the will of the king. Sitting in our world with His dicisples, Jesus says we ought to pray that here, were we live out our present lives, God’s kingdom might come. He instructs us to petition the Father to make His presence as King, the one to whom the subjects defer, known.
In the third God-focused phrase, Jesus enforces the idea of God’s kingdom coming now by instructing us to pray for His will to be done just as it is in heaven. In heaven He rules unopposed, without the rebellion of sin. Later on, we’ll discuss how this Kingdom or rule of God ought to extend to every arena of life and how Jesus, sitting at the right hand of God in His place as our King lays claim to every inch of human existence.
After setting the priorities – recognizing who is King, Jesus moves to four petitions that cover the entirety of human existence. First, our sustenance. This directive thrusts at the idea of complete reliance upon the Father for sustenance. It also indicates we ought to pray this way regularly and repeatedly, today for our daily bread. Two other sections of the Sermon flesh out the short phrase, “give us today our daily bread.”
Matthew 6:25-34 begins “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?” And it continues “your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” Rather than worry about our daily bread, we ought to come regularly to our Father, who knows that we need them, acknowledge our dependence upon Him and simply, reverently, and faithfully ask. If we ask, “it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.“ (Matthew 7:7-11). Still, what assurance do I have that God will really do what He says? "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him?”
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