A Reflection on The Lord’s Prayer

Dear Readers,

In Matthew 6:9 – 13, Jesus teaches us how to pray.  He gives the Lord’s Prayer, which is meant to serve as a model for Christian prayer.  Before he gives the sample prayer, Christ explains that his disciples should avoid praying in public to be seen of men, to get the praise and glory of men. He tells us first to go into our closets, and then to shut the door, and then to pray.  In other words, pray alone.  Christ is advocating an individual relationship with God.  Public prayer is important, of course, but the prayer that Jesus most frequently advocates is private, individual prayer.  I would argue that individual prayers are more important than public prayers.  For without individuals having personal relationships with God, public prayers done out of a sense of obligation or tradition eventually become empty ceremonies, a hollow traditional act that will eventually die off.

While introducing the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us not to use “vain repetitions.”  This means we should avoid reciting a prayer script.  Instead, we should say what’s in our hearts.  So, Jesus is not saying that we should memorize the Lord’s Prayer and recite it every day, but rather that we should use it as a rough guide for our personal prayers, expressed in our own words. 

Without further ado, here is the prayer:

Our Father, which art in Heaven, Hallowed be thy name.  Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

I’d like to look at this prayer closely and make some thoughtful, faithful comments about each line.

Our Father, which art in Heaven,

Prayers are began by addressing God.  If you haven’t prayed much individually before, it may seem weird.  You may feel like you’re just talking to yourself.  But exercise faith that a higher power is listening, and just give prayer a try.  After a few, or a lot of prayers, you’ll feel more comfortable addressing Heavenly Father, and you’ll feel the love of God, and you’ll feel Him reaching out to you.

By using the term “father,” and the pronouns “He,” and “Him,” Jesus teaches us that God is male, or at least that our finite minds are best served by picturing a male God.  Also, Jesus was a Jew, and the Jews in Christ’s day, and today, thought of God as male.  Jesus continued that mythology of a male God.  Jesus was not a radical transformer that destroyed all of Judaism, wiped the slate clean, and then created Christianity.  He acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of Judaism.  He said that “Salvation is of the Jews.”  He accepted and propagated all the truth and goodness that Judaism had, and then dispensed with all the untrue and bad things that it had accumulated over the centuries.

Some of us modern feminist types aren’t comfortable with a male God.  I suppose that discomfort is understandable.  This is a subject for a longer treatment.  My advice for now is, just go along with it.  That’s what Jesus did.

Another important thing that the first line of The Lord’s Prayer does is establish the dichotomy between Heaven and Earth.  God lives in Heaven.  We live on Earth.  Things in Heaven work differently than they do on Earth.  God is the King of Heaven, and he is a good King.  Things are worse on Earth.  Mankind is fallen.

Hallowed be thy name.

“Hallowed” means sacred, or blessed.  Jesus is reinforcing the importance of sacred things in our lives.  God is special.  God is sacred.  Most of the stuff we deal with everyday, earning a paycheck, tending to household affairs, taking the trash bin to the curb, are not sacred in the way that God is sacred.

Thy kingdom come.  Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.

This means that when we pray, we should want the kingdom of God to come to the earth.  And what does wanting the kingdom of God to come to earth mean, exactly?  It could mean that we want the Christ’s Millennial Reign to occur, when Christ returns and rules as King, and the lion will lay down with the lamb.  That’s a good thing to want. 

Or it could also mean that we should want Heavenly ways to come down to earth, right here and right now.  Each interpretation is good. 

But whether we’re praying for a literal takeover of the wicked Earth by the Righteous Jesus, or whether we’re praying for God’s kingdom to get here in a more figurative way, the point is, we should want to make earth as heavenly as possible.  And we should ask for God’s assistance in endeavor, because we can’t do it on our own. 

Give us this day our daily bread.

We recognize that God is the source of our blessings, and so we pray to him to ask for more.  We recognize that every day we are dependent on God.  This is the moral of the manna from heaven story, when Moses and the House of Israel were wandering in the desert for forty years.  Remember, the children of Israel were not allowed to store the manna.  They had to gather it every morning, except on the Sabbath.  This taught them reliance on God. 

It is sad to see when people get so rich and so comfortable that they think that they don’t need God or his blessings.  Saying the Lord’s Prayer- or a prayer after the manner of the Lord’s Prayer- every day should help remind us that we are dependent on God for our blessings, our food, our shelter, our clothing, our breath and our heartbeat. 

“Give us this day our daily bread,” also teaches us that it’s okay, and in fact encouraged, to ask for more blessings.  God wants to bless us abundantly.

Also, this line teaches that prayer should not be an annual event in which we say, “Give us this year our yearly bread.”  Instead, we ask every day for daily bread.

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

What a beautiful line.  We ask God for forgiveness, recognizing that no one but God can forgive us of our sins.  The prayer asks that God forgives us only insofar as we forgive others.  This brings to mind Matthew 7: 2, which says, “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”   Thus we are praying to forgive all those who owe us money or who have wronged us in any way. 

It’s really liberating to forgive others.  It’s actually a lot harder to hold on to a grudge.  And the great thing about forgiving others is that when we do it, we have assurance from the words of Jesus that we ourselves are also forgiven.  And when we are forgiven by God, we don’t have to worry about being punished for our sins.  We don’t have to hang our heads in shame for our sins and we don’t have to fell guilty all the time, because Christ has forgiven us. 

Now, does that mean that Christ has forgiven us for the sins we will commit tomorrow?  I don’t know.  Um, let’s not get bogged down in theology, okay?  Instead, let’s focus on behavior.  Asking for forgiveness every day helps us behave in a more Christ like way.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

The distinction between good and evil is acknowledged, and we are asking God to set us free from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.

Sincerely,

Telemoonfa