The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

 

 

 

 

 

“Once Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ Jesus said to them, ‘When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come.  Give us each day our daily bread.  Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.  And lead us not into temptation’” (Luke 11:1–4).

 

 

 

(1)    Today I would like to meditate on the teaching given through the Lord’s Prayer found in Luke 11:1–4, together with Matthew 6:9–13, and receive the lesson that the Lord gives us through it.

 

(a)    One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When He finished praying, one of the disciples said to Him: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples” (Lk. 11:1).

 

(i)          From the fact that this disciple knew that John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray, and that he asked Jesus to teach them as well, it seems that he had a strong interest in prayer. Perhaps the reason was that he had often seen Jesus praying up close.

 

·            This brings to mind Mark 9:29: “This kind can come out only by prayer.”  Perhaps that disciple knew, according to these words of Jesus, that the source of spiritual power lies in prayer.  It may be that whenever he saw miracles happen after Jesus prayed, or saw the strength Jesus gained for His ministry through prayer, he developed a longing in his heart, thinking, “We also want to pray a life-giving prayer like that.” (cf. internet).

 

(i)                 When I meditate on Luke 11:1, a certain memory comes to my mind.  A long time ago, when I was serving as an assistant pastor at Victory Presbyterian Church, I once asked my father—who was the senior pastor of that church—something out of curiosity. I asked him something like: “Do you overcome all difficulties through prayer?”

 

·         The reason I asked him this question was that, from my perspective, my father seemed to be facing very difficult situations both in the family and in the church.  Yet I saw him continually praying. So I wondered whether he was overcoming the hardships caused by those difficult circumstances through prayer.

 

(ii)               The power of prayer that I long for is found in Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Father, if You are willing, take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet not my will, but Yours be done” (Lk. 22:42).  In particular, I want to experience first the part that says “not my will.”

 

·            In other words, the power of prayer that I ask God for is that the Lord would drive out my own will—like a “demon” within me—moment by moment, every day.  Therefore, I desire to experience the power of prayer through which the Lord enables me to obey according to the will of God the Father.

 

-          This reminds me of the first verse of the hymn “My Jesus, As Thou Wilt”: “My Jesus, as Thou wilt!  Though seen through many a tear, Let not my star of hope grow dim or disappear.  Since Thou on earth hast wept and sorrowed oft alone, If I must weep with Thee, my Lord, Thy will be done.”

 

(b)    Jesus said to that disciple: “When you pray, say…” (Lk. 11:2) (cf. “Therefore you should pray like this,” Mt. 6:9).  Jesus did not say what to pray but how to pray (Hochma).  In other words, Jesus was explaining the “way to pray” that the disciple had asked about (Lk. 11:1).

 

(i)        Personally, there are many times when I do not know how to pray to God the Father. Because of this, the passage that gives me much grace is Romans 8:26–27 and 34: “The Holy Spirit also helps us in our weakness.  When we do not know what we ought to pray for, the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.  And God, who searches our hearts, knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God” (Rom. 8:26–27).  “Who then is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us” (v. 34).

 

·            When I pray, I sometimes apply this passage by memorizing and personalizing it like this: “The Holy Spirit also helps James in his weakness.  When James does not know how he should pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for James with groans that words cannot express. God, who searches the hearts of people, knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for James according to the will of God… Who then can condemn James? Christ Jesus died and was raised to life and is at the right hand of God, always interceding for James.”

 

-          The reason this passage gives me such grace is that it tells me that whenever I do not know how to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for me according to God’s will with groans that cannot be expressed in words.  Not only does the indwelling Holy Spirit pray for me, but Jesus Himself is also at the right hand of God continually interceding for me.  This truth gives me great grace.

 

(c)    Jesus’ first teaching on how to pray is, “Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come” (Lk. 11:2).  Matthew 6:9–10 records this in more detail: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

 

(i)        Jesus tells us that the object of our prayer is “Father” (Luke 11:2), that is, “our Father in heaven” (Matthew 6:9).

 

·            God in heaven, the object of our prayer, is our very own ‘Father,’ our ‘Dad.’  In Luke 11:11–13, Jesus says: “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? Or if he asks for an egg, will you give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

-             What father would give his child a snake when asked for a fish?  If we, though we are evil, know how to give good things to our children, will not our heavenly Father give good things to us who ask Him?  Do we have this confidence in the answer to our prayers when we pray to God the Father?

 

·            In the Lord’s Prayer taught by Jesus in Matthew 6:9, what does it mean that the object of our prayer is addressed as “Father”?  This expression is the familiar way a child calls his father and, in the Bible, represents covenantal theology (Kim Se-yoon).  The Bible describes the relationship between God and Israel in various ways.  For example, the Bible depicts God as a king and Israel as God’s people.  It also depicts God as a shepherd and Israel as a flock of sheep.  However, referring to God as “Father” or “Dad” in Matthew 6:9 signifies that Israel is God’s son.  In other words, God, to whom we pray, is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters (children).

 

-             We are God’s children.  And God is our Father.  This unique relationship exists because Jesus, God’s only Son, died on the cross in our place and was resurrected, thereby making us God’s adopted children.  That is why the Apostle Paul says the following in Romans 8:15–16 and Galatians 4:6: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, by which we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God” (Rom. 8:15–16), “Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba, Father!’” (Gal. 4:6).

 

n  To say that we have become children of God means that we are “heirs.”  The term “heir” implies that we can inherit all the riches of our Father.  Dr. Se-yoon Kim states: “To inherit means that I can draw upon the boundless riches of God, which are never lacking.  The act of us, as creatures, drawing upon the riches of God, the Creator—that is prayer” (Kim).

 

·            What we must keep in mind as we pray to God the Father is the fact that God the Father, the object of our prayer, is “God the Father in heaven.”  What this emphasizes is precisely God’s transcendence. In other words, while calling God, the object of our prayer, “Father” or “Dad” emphasizes intimacy, the phrase “who is in heaven” emphasizes God’s transcendence (Kim).

 

-             In other words, God the Father in heaven, to whom we pray, is someone we can pray to with a sense of intimacy, but He is also the One we ought to revere.  Since that God is our Father, we must pray to God the Father with an attitude of dependence and obedience. Furthermore, we must pray to God the Father with the assurance of His love (Kim).

 

n  As we see in Matthew 6:8, this loving God the Father is the One who knows all our needs.  Furthermore, our God the Father is the One who cares for us (v. 26) and knows everything we need—food, drink, clothing, and more (v. 32). It is to this God the Father in heaven that we offer our prayers.

 

(i)                 Jesus says, “Hallowed be Your name” (Lk. 11:2; Mt. 6:9).

 

·         This prayer is one of the three petitions addressed to “You” in the Lord’s Prayer: “Hallowed be Your name.”

 

·         Here, the “name” refers directly to God Himself.  In other words, since God revealed Himself through His name (Exod. 3:13), knowing God’s name is equivalent to knowing God. Therefore, God’s name is God Himself (Kim).  Jesus teaches us that we must pray to God that He, as God, may be hallowed.  

 

-             Since we are on earth and God the Father is in heaven, praying that the name of God the Father—who is transcendent—be hallowed means we must pray to God with a heart of reverence.  And when we pray to God the Father with a heart of reverence, we must dedicate ourselves to living holy lives on this earth, just as God is holy.

 

n   However, if we lack a heart that fears God, we will not live a holy life on this earth.  Furthermore, rather than giving glory to God, we will fall into the folly of committing the sin of idolatry by seeking glory for ourselves (Kim).

 

·         When we pray to God our Father in heaven, “Hallowed be Your name,” this teaches us that we must acknowledge that our God the Father is the holy God who is in heaven, and that we should pray to Him with humility and a heart of reverence.  This prayer also teaches us that, as God’s holy people, we must live in such a way that we exalt God’s holy name on this earth.

 

-             However, when I think about how God might be speaking to us now, a passage comes to mind: Ezekiel 36:20: “And when they came to the nations where they went, they profaned my holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, and yet they had to leave His land.’”  Like the people of Israel in the days of Ezekiel, because we do not fear God, we commit the sin of idolatry ourselves. As a result, not only do we defile ourselves, but we also profane God’s holy name in this world.  Yet we have hope. Look at Ezekiel 36:21–23: “But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations where they had gone.  Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them.  And the nations will know that I am the LORD,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.’”

 

n  God has cleansed us by the precious blood that Jesus shed on the cross, purifying us from all our uncleanness and from all idolatry.  Therefore, we have become God’s holy people. As a result, under the guidance of the indwelling Holy Spirit, we are able to pray to our holy Father in heaven, “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.”

 

(ii)               Jesus says, “Your kingdom come” (Lk. 11:2; Mt. 6:10).

·            This prayer is one of the three “You” petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, namely the petition “Your kingdom come.”

 

·            Among the prayers offered by the Jews in Jesus’ time, there was a relatively short prayer called the Kaddish, and a longer prayer known as the “Eighteen Benedictions,” or Shemoneh Esreh (Kim).  When we look at the Eighteen Benedictions, we can understand somewhat how the Jews in Jesus’ time thought about the kingdom of God that they were praying for, expecting, and waiting for.  They believed that when the Messiah came, He would free the Jewish nation from slavery under the Roman Empire and restore the Jewish people scattered among the Gentiles (Kim).  Not only that, but the Jews also believed that when the Messiah came, He would restore the golden age of Jewish history, reestablish a just judicial system in Israel, and bring about the rule of a wise and righteous king.  They also believed that when the Messiah came, He would establish and sustain a pure community of faith that would not be corrupted or mixed with heresy—a community of people belonging to God’s righteous kingdom.  In short, the Jews in Jesus’ time understood the restoration of Israel as the rule of God (Kim).

 

-          But was the purpose of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, in coming to this earth merely to bring about the nationalistic restoration that the Jews imagined?  Did Jesus come to bring political liberation for the Jewish nation, social justice, and economic prosperity as they expected?  The prayer that Jesus teaches in the first half of Matthew 6:10, “Your kingdom come,” is a prayer asking that God’s rule may come.  In other words, this prayer is essentially saying, “Let Your reign come” or “May Your rule come” (Kim).  However, the kingdom of God that Jesus speaks about here was certainly not the nationalistic restoration that the Jews of that time were expecting and praying for.  Rather, it refers to the eschatological community of God’s people ruled by God Himself. It is not liberation from slavery under the Roman Empire, but liberation from sin, eternal death, and Satan.  It is the kingdom in which God rules—His church—where believers enjoy all the abundant spiritual blessings given in Jesus Christ and where the righteousness of the eternal kingdom is practiced.  That is why Jesus also says to us in Matthew 6:33: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”  Therefore, as we pray the prayer Jesus taught us—“Your kingdom come”—to our Father in heaven, we must first seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

 

(iii)             Jesus says, “Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” (Mt. 6:10).

 

·            This prayer is one of the three “You” petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, namely the petition “Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

 

·            This prayer teaches us that when we pray to our Father in heaven, we must seek God’s will completely.  Jesus not only opened His mouth to teach us that we should seek God’s will, but He also actually sought God’s will when He prayed in a place called Gethsemane on the night before He died. Look at Matthew 26:39: “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”

 

-          John 12:27–28 says: “Now My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save Me from this hour’?  But for this purpose I came to this hour.  Father, glorify Your name.”  Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and will glorify it again.”   Although Jesus asked the Father to “save Me from this hour,” He knew that He had come to this earth for that very purpose.  Therefore, for the glory of God the Father, He obeyed the Father’s will even to the point of dying on the cross (Phil. 2:8).  In this way, Jesus not only personally showed us the example of praying to seek God’s will, but He also fulfilled that will even to the point of dying on the cross.

 

n   Should we not also pray to seek God’s will as Jesus did?   As in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus taught us, we must pray: “Father, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”  In order to do so, we must lay down our own will.  We must discern what the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God is, and seek that will.  To do this, as the Bible says in Romans 12:2, we must not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds.  When we do so, we will be able to pray to God the Father that His will in heaven may also be accomplished on this earth.

(d)    The second teaching of Jesus concerning how to pray is: “Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation” (Lk. 11:3–4).  Matthew 6:11–13 records it more fully: “Give us today our daily bread.  And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.  (For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.)”

 

(i)        Jesus says, “Give us each day our daily bread” (Luke 11:3; Matthew 6:11).

 

·         This prayer is one of the three “we” petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, namely the petition “Give us today our daily bread.”

 

·         This prayer, which asks “Give us today our bread,” has its background in the story of the manna in Exodus 16 (Kim).  Look at Exodus 16:4: “Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Behold, I will rain bread from heaven for you. And the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in My law or not.’”  The background of this passage is that when the Israelites were in the wilderness during the Exodus, they grumbled against Moses and Aaron, saying: “If only we had died by the LORD’s hand in Egypt! There we sat around pots of meat and ate all the food we wanted, but you have brought us out into this desert to starve this entire assembly to death” (Exod. 16:2–3).  It was when they said this that God spoke to Moses (v.4).  In other words, God heard the complaints of the Israelites (vv. 8, 9, 12) and caused bread to rain down from heaven for them.  When He did so, God commanded them that each person should gather “only as much as he needs to eat” each day (v.16). Moses also commanded the Israelites: “No one is to keep any of it until morning” (v.19).  However, they did not obey Moses. Some kept part of it until morning, and it became full of worms and began to smell (v.20).  When God provided bread from heaven, on the sixth day He allowed each person to gather twice as much food (vv. 5, 22).  The reason God did this was because the seventh day was the holy Sabbath to the LORD (v.23).  Therefore, the Israelites were to gather the heavenly bread, manna, for six days, gathering twice as much on the sixth day so that they would not need to go out to gather on the Sabbath.  But Exodus 16:27 says: “Nevertheless, some of the people went out on the seventh day to gather it, but they found none.”  Some among the Israelites had disobeyed God’s word.

 

-       When you pray before meals, do you say, “Thank You for giving us (or me) our daily bread today”?  Or perhaps some of you have complained at the table like a child, saying things like, “Why is there nothing to eat?” and expressing dissatisfaction.  As I meditated on Exodus 16 during early morning prayer meetings, what amazed me and made me thankful was this: God heard the complaints of the Israelites who said they were starving because they had nothing to eat.  Yet God supplied them with the heavenly bread, manna, for forty years in the wilderness (v.35).  This was astonishing and deeply moving.  Did the Israelites do something good that caused God to keep supplying them with daily bread for forty years?  Certainly not.  Rather, the Israelites “put God to the test by demanding the food they craved” (Ps. 78:18).  Nevertheless, God continued to give them their daily bread. What else could this be but the grace of God?

 

-        Are we really that different from the Israelites?  As we live in this world, because of the greed within us, instead of offering prayers of thanksgiving to God who gives us our daily bread every day, do we not often complain in dissatisfaction?  Furthermore, are there not countless times when we fail to obey God’s commands even though He gives us our daily bread?  Especially, as Jesus says in Matthew 6:25 and 31, are we not worrying about what we will eat?  Clearly Jesus says that worrying about “what shall we eat, what shall we drink, or what shall we wear” is “what the Gentiles seek” (v. 32).  Yet in reality, are we not seeking these things with anxiety just like unbelieving people in the world?  Why do we ask for these things with such worry?  The reason is that we do not believe that our heavenly Father knows that we need all these things (v. 32).  This unbelief ultimately causes us to complain to God in dissatisfaction and furthermore leads us to disobey God’s commands.

 

n   What then should we do?  First, we must know and believe who our heavenly Father is.  Our God the Father knows all our needs—what we need to eat, drink, wear, and everything else. Believing in this God, we should pray, “Give us today our bread.”  We should also pray with thanksgiving to God who gives us our food today.  We must never complain against God out of greed in our hearts like the Israelites did.  Rather, we should pray with thankful hearts to God who preserves our lives by giving us our daily bread (Kim).  And as Jesus tells us in Matthew 6:33, we must live a life that first seeks the kingdom of God and His righteousness. When we do so, God will add all these things to us.

 

(i)                 Jesus says, “Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us” (Lk. 11:4; Mt. 6:12).

 

·         This prayer is one of the three “we” petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, namely the petition: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

 

·         If we look carefully at this prayer, in Matthew the author writes, “forgive us our debts,” while Luke says in Luke 11:4, “forgive us our sins.”  Then how can we know whether Jesus originally said “debts” or “sins” when He taught the Lord’s Prayer?  According to Dr. Se-Yoon Kim, a New Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, Jesus originally said “debts,” as Matthew records in Matthew 6:12.  We can know this because in the original Greek text of Luke 11:4, the latter part of the verse also says, “for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.”  Then why does Luke say “our sins” in the first half of Luke 11:4 if Jesus originally used the word “debts”?  The reason is that the Jews understood sin as a debt to God and also a debt to one’s neighbor, and Luke reflects this understanding.  In other words, instead of saying “forgive us our debts,” Luke expresses it as “forgive us our sins.”  He wrote it this way for Gentile readers who were not familiar with Jewish idioms, in order to make clear the fundamental issue of sin against God and against one’s neighbor (Kim). 

 

-      We are people who are indebted to God.  In other words, we are those who have sinned against God.  Yet through the atoning death of God’s only Son, Jesus, on the cross, all our sins have been forgiven for those of us who believe in Him.  Therefore, we are now people who owe a debt of love to God.  As those who owe God a debt of love, how should we live?  We should live by loving our neighbors, as Jesus commanded.  What does it mean to live a life of loving our neighbors? It means that when our neighbors sin against us, just as God forgave our sins, we also forgive those who sin against us.  This is love for our neighbors.  That is why, after teaching the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9–13, Jesus says in verses 14–15: “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”  What does this mean?  Jesus commands that after praying the Lord’s Prayer He taught us, we must actually forgive those who have wronged us in our daily lives.  When we do so, God will forgive our wrongs.

 

n  However, in reality, as we pray the Lord’s Prayer to God every week during Wednesday prayer meetings and at other times, I wonder whether we might still be refusing to forgive even one person who has wronged us or sinned against us.  If we do so, Jesus says that our heavenly Father will not forgive our wrongs either.  What then should we do?  We must forgive those who have sinned against us.  When we do so, God’s forgiveness will be manifested to our neighbors through us.  As Jesus says in Luke 7:47, “He who has been forgiven little loves little.”  Conversely, we can say that those who have been forgiven much by God love God much.  If we truly love God greatly, we will greatly forgive our neighbors when they sin against us.  But if our love for God is small, we will forgive our neighbors’ sins against us only a little.  My hope is that all of us may be filled with God’s love and, because we love much, sincerely forgive those who have sinned against us.

 

(ii)               Jesus says, “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one” (Lk. 11:4; Mt. 6:13).

 

·         This prayer is one of the three “we” petitions in the Lord’s Prayer, namely the petition: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”

 

·         This prayer asks God not to allow us to fall into temptation and to rescue (save) us from Satan (evil) (Kim).  Why do we keep falling into temptation?  The apostle James says in James 1:14–15: “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”  What does this mean?  The reason we fall into temptation is that we are drawn away by our own desires.  If we continue to live being led by our desires, we will inevitably live a lifestyle of sin according to the old self (Eph. 4:22), following the former way of life that is being corrupted by deceitful desires.

 

-       Satan continues even today to stimulate our desires and tempt us so that we may sin against God.  In particular, he tempts us in three areas. The apostle John speaks of these three areas in 1 John 2:16: “For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.”  Satan stimulates and tempts us through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.  As a result, he not only prevents us from living a life that seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, but instead leads us to seek the things of the world. In doing so, he causes us to sin; sin grows and ultimately brings forth death (Jam. 1:15).

 

n   A good example of this is the scene in Genesis 3, where the woman eats the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  In Genesis 3:6, the Bible records: “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate.”  When Eve saw the fruit, it was “good for food” (lust of the flesh), “a delight to the eyes” (lust of the eyes), and “desirable for gaining wisdom” (pride of life).  This shows that she fell into Satan’s temptation—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—and disobeyed God’s command.

 

-      The world in which we live is a world ruled by Satan.  Therefore, Satan continually tempts the church, which consists of God’s children.  The reason is that although we live in a world ruled by Satan, we belong to the church that is under God’s rule.  We who believe in Jesus have already been delivered from Satan’s kingdom and have entered the kingdom of God.  And this kingdom of God is ruled by God Himself.  Since we are now living in this kingdom where God reigns, we must live a life that seeks first the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33).  We must never live like the people of this world, who are under Satan’s rule, worrying about what we will eat, what we will drink, or what we will wear.

 

n  Therefore, we must stay awake and pray to God the Father so that we will not fall into Satan’s temptation (26:41).  We must ask God the Father to deliver us here and now from Satan’s rule of sin and death.  And with hearts that long for God’s reign, we must pray to the Father that the kingdom of God may be fully completed soon (Kim).