Luke 11:1-4; Matthew 6:9-13
Today we’re going to talk about the Lord’s Prayer. Our passage in Luke begins with the disciples observing Jesus at prayer. They ask him to teach them to pray like John the Baptist taught his disciples. We’re not told what John taught. But Jesus responds by giving them a special prayer, which Christians call the Lord’s Prayer or the Our Father.
You may notice that Luke’s version is shorter than the version Christians normally recite. It’s Matthew’s version of the Lord’s Prayer that we commonly pray.
We don’t know if Jesus himself taught two versions of this prayer. Or if Luke shortened it for some reason. Or if Matthew made some additions, perhaps to help readers better understand the prayer’s meaning.
Luke’s version begins with the words, “Father.” Jesus and other Palestinian Jews spoke in the Aramaic language, and the word he used for “Father” was “Abba.” The word Abba is both respectful and intimate. It identifies God as our Tender Parent, not an authoritarian patriarch.
Some of us may have had a father who was distant and hard to please. Perhaps even a harsh and cruel father. A friend once told me that his own father acted toward his children like the CEO of corporation. He treated them like employees who had to earn his love by their performance.
God is not that kind of parent. He loves us and delights in us. Each of us is a cherished child of God.
Getting to know God as our Abba, our Tender Parent, can bring us healing from hurtful experiences with our own imperfect parents.
Matthew’s version of the Lord’s prayer begins, “Our Father,” “Our Abba.” We live a faithful Christian life within the community of Jesus-followers. We belong to a family of brothers and sisters in Christ where we are known and loved.
After beginning “Our Father,” Matthew’s version adds the phrase “in heaven.” Matthew wants us to be clear that our God is in heaven.
Many things on earth are worshipped as gods. In Bible times people worshipped idols of wood and stone. For some people today the most important thing in their life is money, power, sex, or politics.
That’s what they focus their life around. It’s what excites their strongest feelings, their greatest efforts, their primary hopes. That’s their idol, their god. They worship something on earth rather than focusing their lives on loving and serving God who is in heaven.
But our God is in heaven, and we want him to be at the center of our life, the sun around which everything revolves.
Our God is in heaven, yet he’s also close by. “Closer than a brother,” Scripture says. Jesus says that God’s Spirit, God’s own presence, is with us and in us.
After invoking God in heaven as our Tender Parent, the Lord’s Prayer turns to the petitions. Luke’s version has five petitions, Matthew’s has seven. Each petition asks God to do something.
The first three petitions focus on God: God’s name, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. Our priority in prayer is for God to carry out his purposes in our lives and for the world. After that, the Lord’s Prayer addresses some of our specific felt needs, for daily bread, forgiveness, protection against temptation and rescue from the Evil one.
Today we’re going to focus on the first three petitions. Next month, God willing, we’ll look at the second half of this special prayer.
“Hollowed be your name” is the usual translation of the first petition. But there are others: “Sanctify your name.” “May your name be revered as holy.” I like the translation in the Message version of the Bible: “Reveal who you are!” That is, “God, show yourself to us.” “Show yourself to the world.” We ask God to make himself and his holy character known to all.
The word holiness is often misunderstood. Holiness isn’t a rigid and narrow morality or a stuffy sanctimony. God’s holiness is revealed in Jesus. Holiness is the character of Jesus Christ. In Jesus’ self-giving love on the cross we see the holiness of God. Holiness is what the Holy Spirit is also bringing forth in us: love, joy, peace, faithfulness, kindness, and all the fruit of the Spirit. That’s what holiness means.
What then are we asking for when we pray the first petition in the Lord’s Prayer? We are asking God to come and be present in this suffering world. We’re asking God to show up for us and for the world. We are praying, “God, we need you. Come and rescue us!” “Reveal yourself in love and power!” That’s what we’re saying when we pray “Hallowed be your name.”
Many times, God answers our desperate cry for his presence and help. Though not always in the way we expect. Sometimes, though, our prayers for God to come and save us will only be fully answered in the world to come. Our hope isn’t for this world only.
Our prayer, “Reveal yourself, Lord,” is ultimately a prayer for Jesus’ return in glory. The early church prayed, “Maranatha, come Lord Jesus.” And that’s our prayer too. Come, Lord Jesus!
This leads us to the second petition: “Your kingdom come.”
Our hope in Christ is for the Reign of God to come fully to earth, for heaven and earth to be united as one renewed creation. Life in this world, blessed as it is, is damaged and incomplete.
We long for God’s Kingdom to come in fullness. Where every good thing in this life will be filled to overflowing, gloriously perfected. And where every heartbreaking loss will be restored a hundredfold.
We yearn for a world where, as Scripture says, “the hungry are filled with good things, “nation will not lift up arms against nation,” “no one will be made afraid,” and “creation itself will be freed from decay.” Our ultimate salvation is resurrection to immortality in creation made new. A place where love is everywhere, and justice is at home. A creation in which God’s presence and glory will fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. “Your kingdom come, O God!” we cry out.
Yet God’s kingdom isn’t only in the future. In Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit God’s kingdom has already begun to enter our world. When we pray, “your kingdom come,” we implicitly offer ourselves as God’s instruments, as God’s hands and feet, to bring something of God’s kingdom now.
There’s a story from the life of Quaker founders George Fox and Margaret Fell. Margaret was expressing frustration and sorrow about the cruel way children were treated by the criminal justice system in the 17th century in England. Very young children were imprisoned with adults and even hanged as young as 8 years old.
Margaret wondered how God could let that happen. Why he didn’t do something about it. George Fox replied, “All God has is thee, Margaret.”
All God has is us.
It’s not quite accurate to say that God only acts through people. God acts in many wonderful ways. But as the Body of Christ, as Christ’s flesh and blood on earth, we are God’s primary instruments for expressing his kingdom now. We are called to touch the world with God’s love and healing.
Matthew adds at this point a petition that’s not in Luke: “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Matthew wants us to know that God’s kingdom isn’t just a spiritual experience, but that it means doing God’s will.
When God’s Kingdom comes in fullness all things will be in harmony with God’s wishes. The love that fills heaven will also fill our world. We pray for the coming of that glorious Day.
But we also pray that God’s will is done in our everyday world now. Much that happens in this life is not what God wants, is not God’s will. That is tragically obvious. God doesn’t determine everything that happens. Indeed, he leaves much to us. Our free choices create new possibilities, and our prayers help shape the future. That’s why Jesus tells us to pray for God’s will to be done on earth.
It’s astounding to think that God works through our prayers to implement his will in the world. When we pray for God’s will to be done in specific ways, we participate in an astonishing power for good.
After teaching this prayer, Jesus assures us that God hears us. “Ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened,” Jesus says. A more accurate translation is, “Keep on asking and you will receive, keep on seeking and you will find, keep on knocking, and the door will be opened.” That’s Jesus’ promise. The answers to some prayers take time, but don’t be discouraged, Jesus is saying. Keep praying and don’t give up.
Today’s passage begins with the disciples asking Jesus to teach them how to pray. Teach us to pray, Lord, is a good prayer for all of us. We can all grow in intimate conversation with God.
As the 19th century French saint Fr. John Vianney wrote: “Humanity has a noble task: That of prayer and love. To pray and love, that is humanity’s happiness on earth.”