(Against the background of Jesus’

teachings and practice of prayer)

Dr. Paul Tudor Jones

LESSON III – June 26, 1994

Our purpose in this hour is to examine carefully each petition of the Lord’s Prayer and attempt to understand clearly what Jesus meant for us as His disciples to be praying for.  Jesus’ teaching is so compact in this prayer that we cannot understand it unless we take it up word for word, phrase by phrase. This we shall do.

However, it is necessary to remind ourselves again that the prayer is an organic unity.  Jesus was not simply stringing together a number of our needs, but was trying to make us feel that all our needs are connected, and that not one of them can be taken all by itself.  The danger of religion has always been to become one-sided. A man seeks to be morally blameless while his spiritual life is empty. A woman takes her stand on doctrine or pious observances and neglects her practical duties. Some work for the good of others and are careless about their own souls. Most of our religion is of this particular kind, and it fails even in its limited purpose because of the things that are left out of sight. Jesus has given us this prayer in which everything is included and in which all the elements are blended together. (Cf. Scott — The Lord’s Prayer)

In one sense, The Lord’s Prayer is more of an expression of absolute trust than anything else. As a single whole, the prayer can be offered in any sort of circumstance: Battle, shipwreck, sickness, bereavement, etc. Whatever may be our need, we can place ourselves in God’s hands by recalling this prayer.

See how it alternates between petition and confident belief: (Cf. Prayer) So through prayer, these two intentions merge into one another. We tell our desires to God and we try also to understand what He desires so that we may conform our wills to His.  This for Jesus was the real object of prayer.

Then, too, the prayer is both communal and individual. Jesus meant it to be repeated in unison by His followers who were thus to signify that they were brothers and sisters all dedicated to the same way of life. (Cf. Luke 11 on how the prayer was given.) He speaks in the plural of Our Father — Our daily bread, Our debts and Our debtors. Its rhythmical language can easily be memorized and chanted by a company of worshippers.

But while it is the prayer of a community, it is individual in its whole spirit and purpose.  Each person, who thinks when he or she says it, is compelled to think of his or her own aspirations, troubles, shortcomings, and needs. The prayer deals with essential human needs that are felt by every person who lives, but needs which one does not fully realize until one makes oneself one with other people.

The trouble with most prayer is that it tends to make even saints selfish. Not so, this prayer. Jesus has so framed it that in repeating it, we should likewise remember others who are God’s children.

THE SEPARATE PARTS OF THE PRAYER

The outline falls quite naturally into an opening invocation, a closing doxology, or ascription of praise, and seven petitions. Some have pointed out that Jesus picked 7 as the sacred number (Cf. Hebrew and Christian apocalyptic numerical symbolism). But Jesus’ mind did not move in any mechanical way, least of all when He was teaching men and women to pray with utter sincerity. His one aim was to choose out the essential human needs, and He fixed on these seven.

There has been some disagreement over the exact number of petitions. Luke leaves out two that Matthew includes — presumably thinking they are redundant — “ Hebrewisms” – (Cf. Psalms — “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven” — “ Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil”) — But really there is no redundancy in the Matthew recording of the Lord’s prayer, as we shall see when we come to these petitions.

THE OPENING INVOCATION

“Our Father which art in heaven” — all the rest springs from this like branches from a tree. The unity of the prayer is thus made all the more apparent. “Our Father” in Latin is “Pater Noster”. This is the name given it in the Roman Church. Not only because it begins with these two words, but because the “Our Father” are the two most significant words. They tell us how we must think of God and all the petitions follow logically from this opening phrase.

“Father” — Jews prayed thus, but with a different meaning for Father. (Cf. Synagogue prayers we reviewed). For the Jews God was father only to Israel. Jesus put into that word the concept of God’s fatherhood of the whole human race.

“In Heaven” — as we pray to Him, we must think of Him as high and lifted up — far beyond our comprehension. He is in heaven, we are on earth. “His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts than our thoughts.” (Cf. Isaiah — 6 and 40)

But Jesus put the two together — a Father in Heaven gives the worshipper confidence to approach the Eternal One with steadfast trust. He is not an impersonal force, nor a vindictive power, but a loving, forgiving parent.

FIRST PETITION

“Hallowed be Thy name”

Question — Is this a petition, or a part of the opening invocation? Obscure language — (Illus. “Hallibut be thy name” — Sandy Maxwell). Obviously the petition is: “Let Thy name be held sacred, in reverence and awe.” (C. Illus — Thomas Carlyle — childhood memory of Mother kneeling in prayer — “born in me reverence for that holiest of all. I saw the highest I knew on earth bowing before a higher in heaven”)

Why the emphasis on “The Name”? (Cf. Hebrew concept of the name representing the personality.) For them the name of God was so holy that only the High Priest could pronounce it. (Cf. also the custom of changing a name to fit personality changes — Jacob to Israel — Simon to Peter.) Jesus’ remark to disciples: “Whatsoever you shall ask in my name I shall grant it.” Name is equivalent to nature, character.

God’s name is to be made holy — but what is holy? Original idea in Hebrew is “separate” — different from the ordinary. (Cf. Primitive taboos: tree, spot of land, was holy because something out of the ordinary had happened there.) At outset the word had no moral import.  But from early times for the Jews the chief attribute for God was righteousness.  Therefore, the word “Holy” came to acquire ethical meaning. So this petition has an element of self-dedication about it. Noble souls forget self and live to the glory of God.

SECOND PETITION

“Thy Kingdom come”

This is the central petition. All others flow from it. The concept of the Kingdom was basic to Jesus’ teaching – the theme of most of the parables. He taught His disciples: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”

But see how naturally this petition flows from the first — “Hollowed be Thy name”.  Jesus is conscience that the Kingdom can never come until people have learned to acknowledge the holiness of God. Spiritual regeneration must always precede social improvement. Social schemes that do not begin with the hallowing of God’s name will never get to first base.

The Kingdom is coming and present. Really there is no contradiction in Jesus’ teaching on this.

THIRD PETITION

“Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven”

(Left out of early Luke.  Redundant? No.)

This petition makes the kingdom practical and urgent. It reminds us that our Lord specifically taught and bids us believe that it is God’s will that the eternal values and principles of the divine kingdom are to be operative in this life, on this earth.

Also it makes us feel that while God is throned in heaven and we are earthly creatures whose life is but for a day, yet we have our part to play in this higher world. The demand is here that we bring our lives into harmony with God’s righteous will. This was the way Jesus prayed.  (Cf. Gethsemane)

FOURTH PETITION

“Give us this day our daily bread”

Prayer here passes from sublime contemplation to the most elementary of human needs.  Was it strange for Jesus so to pray? Did He not mean that bread should be taken in a metaphorical way or spiritually? “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that precedeth out of the mouth of God?”

No. Jesus never took the ascetic position that man, as a spiritual being, must despise the body and all its material demands. The very mark of the holy man in that day was to fast often and keep aloof from society. But Jesus came eating and drinking. It was part of the splendid sanity of His religion that He allowed material things their rightful place. But to pray for each day’s needs only as it comes. (Cf. Mana — Israel in wilderness.)

FIFTH PETITION

“Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

Jesus undoubtedly meant the sequence here to be important — for us to feel ourselves right with God is just as necessary as to be sustained in life, and we must ask for His forgiveness from day to day as we ask for our bread. (Illus. John Donne compared our need to pray for forgiveness as a washing of our hands in God’s presence.)

Matthew account — “debts” — Jewish concept of God as the great creditor to whom all our service is due, and His forgiveness is the generous remission of a debt.

Luke account — “sins” and “debtors” — a translation from the Hebrew to the Gentile world to make it more understandable. _________ Use of “trespasses” by some comes from another early version of the Bible — Bishop’s Bible — Cranmer’s  Book of Common Prayer.

Phrase, “as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew or, as Luke RSV has it: “Forgive us our sins (Greek _____________ meaning, “ to miss the mark”) for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us” (Greek ____________). (Cf. last Sunday’s question by Julia Allen question re: Luke11:4)

“You, O God, forgive us as we forgive others” is an entirely new idea in Jewish prayers.  Meaning? That God will forgive only in such measure as we forgive?

Here is what the Interpreter’s Bible exposition has to say on this text: “This is one of many recorded teachings of Jesus on forgiveness in which God’s forgiveness of us is described as contingent upon our forgiveness of others.”  (Cf. 6:37, Matthew 6:12,14,15; 18:32-35 — two servant debtors)

The teaching at first sight at least raises difficulties: it seems to make God’s gift of forgiveness not an act of free grace (as forgiveness must always be), but a reward for a virtue on our part. Various efforts have been made to mitigate the difficulty: “Montifiore writes: ‘The gar (Gk._______) or “for,” is rather awkward. The meaning is not: “Forgive us for we have forgiven”; but rather: “We ask you to forgive us, for we have forgiven others.  We have fulfilled the needful conditions.”

Manson explains: “The clause, ‘for we forgive, etc.,’ states not the ground on which God bestows forgiveness, but the ground on which we can receive it.”

Perhaps the best explanation is found in remembering that Jesus gave the Lord’s Prayer as a model for His disciples — for those who have received His teachings and have covenanted to live a life in obedience to the will of the Heavenly Father. Such a lifestyle requires a forgiving spirit toward others, therefore this phrase is just an affirmation of acceptance of this part of the Christian code of conduct.

Sometimes folks have remarked that it was a terrible defect in the Lord’s Prayer that nothing is said there about social duties which the rest of Jesus’ teachings dealt with so fully. However, this is not so, for all that Jesus teaches elsewhere of how we should act towards others is summed up and brought to point in these words on forgiveness. The root of all our social problems is the unforgiveness of men and women, the return of evil for evil. Small injuries give rise to greater ones. We devise laws and complicated systems to give out justice, but the whole immense structure collapses because no system will ever enable people to live happily together if there is no spirit of mutual forbearance. (Illus — Family problems, divorce, spouse abuse, cruelty)

SIXTH PETITION

“Lead us not into temptation”

The sixth petition follows naturally the fifth: “Forgive us our past offenses, and keep us from getting into more trouble in the future.”

“Temptations” means all sorts of trials and adversities, physical as well as spiritual.

“Lead us not” does not imply that God is the author of evil. Jesus would not have taught that. He speaks of Satan as the adversary of the soul. His ministry began with a temptation, but he never doubted that it was Satan who tempted him. Jesus is teaching us to pray that if it be God’s will, that we may be spared temptation and trial, but if it come, may we be equal to it, not in our own strength* but in reliance upon Him we may be given the victory. (Cf. Gethsemene — “Let this cup pass from me, if thou be willing, but, nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.”) (*Ephesians 6:10 – “Armor of the Lord”)

SEVENTH PETITION

“But deliver us from evil.”

This Luke does not include — Redundant? No. The new thought is that we need not only to be delivered from the evil that lies ahead, but we need to be delivered from the evil into which we may already have fallen. The danger is not only of moral nature but takes into account every form of peril and distress. (Cf. James Stewart quote that goes something like this) — “O ye may be saved, but never forget — the hell hounds of pride and temptation and remorse and regret will follow you all the way to the Pearly Gates and leave the bloody slather of their ugly jaws on the golden bars.”

THE FINAL DOXOLOGY

“For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.”

The Doxology was not originally a part of the Lord’s Prayer, perhaps. Luke does not include it, neither do the oldest and most reliable message of Matthew. Undoubtedly it was added about the second century, by the church for use in the liturgy of common worship. It brought the prayer to a fitting close. It was not too good to end on a note of “evil.” (Perhaps derived from the prayer of David in I Chronicles 29:11.)

“Amen” — the Hebrew word for “certainty.” It was the word of response which an assembly spoke at the end of a prayer to make it their own. The words spoken by the leader in worship became that of the whole congregation only as they replied — “Amen.” This word is translated from the Hebrew to the Greek to the English, exactly. In the Gospels where Jesus begins a discourse with “Verily, verily, I say unto you” — the Greek is: “Amen, Amen, I say unto you,” or, “Truly, truly”, or “Surely, surely,” I say unto you.

CONCLUSION

There used to be in churches an old custom. Scrolls would be hung up in the front of the church in full view of the worshippers. On one side of the pulpit would be the Ten Commandments. On the other side would be a scroll of the Lord’s Prayer. This was good. They are counter-parts of each other. (Cf. West End Collegiate Church, N.Y.)

The Law is multitudinous, but all is summed up in the Decalogue. Jesus’ teachings are broad and comprehensive, but all branch out from the Lord’s Prayer. But there is this vast difference in the two: the Law is God’s will imposed from without, while the Lord’s Prayer sums up God’s will which when taken and uttered as a prayer, enables us to serve God not by compulsion, but willingly with a glad heart.