APPENDIX I
Development of the version in use today
of The Lord's Prayer (as described
in the website http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09356a.htm )
Although the Latin term oratio dominica is of early date, the phrase "Lord's Prayer" does not seem to have
been generally familiar in England before the Reformation. During the Middle Ages
the "Our Father" was always said in Latin, even by the uneducated. Hence it was then most commonly known as the Pater noster. The name "Lord's prayer" attaches to it not because Jesus Christ used the prayer Himself (for to ask forgiveness of sin would have implied the acknowledgment of
guilt) but because He taught it to His disciples. Many points of interest are suggested by the history and employment of the Our Father. With
regard to the English text now in use among Catholics, we may note that this is derived not from the Rheims Testament but from a version imposed upon England in the reign of Henry VIII, and employed in the 1549 and 1552 editions of the "Book of Common Prayer".
From this our present Catholic text differs only in two very slight particulars: "Which art" has been modernized into "who art", and "in earth"
into "on earth". The version itself, which accords pretty closely with the translation in Tyndale's New Testament,
no doubt owed its general acceptance to an ordinance of 1541 according to which "his Grace perceiving now
the great diversity of the translations (of the Pater noster etc.) hath willed them all to be taken up, and instead
of them hath caused an uniform translation of the said Pater noster, Ave, Creed, etc. to be set forth, willing
all his loving subjects to learn and use the same and straitly commanding all parsons, vicars and curates to read
and teach the same to their parishioners". As a result the version in question became universally familiar to the nation, and though the Rheims Testament, in 1581,
and King James's translators, in 1611, provided somewhat different renderings of Matthew 6:9-13, the older form
was retained for their prayers both by Protestants
and Catholics alike.
As for the prayer itself the version in St. Luke, xi, 2-4, given by Christ in answer
to the request of His disciples, differs in some minor details from the form which St. Matthew (vi, 9-15)
introduces in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, but there is clearly no reason why these two occasions should
be regarded as identical. It
would be almost inevitable that if Christ had taught this prayer to His disciples He should have repeated it more
than once. It seems probable, from the form in which the Our Father appears in the "Didache" (q.v.),
that the version in St. Matthew was that which the Church adopted from the beginning for liturgical purposes. Again, no great importance can be attached
to the resemblances which have been traced between the petitions of the Lord's prayer and those found in prayers
of Jewish origin which were current about the time of Christ. There is certainly no reason for treating the Christian
formula as a plagiarism, for in the first place the resemblances are but partial and, secondly we have no satisfactory
evidence that the Jewish prayers were really anterior in date.
Upon the interpretation of the Lord's Prayer, much has been written, despite the
fact that it is so plainly simple, natural, and spontaneous, and as such preeminently adapted for popular use. In the quasi-official "Catechismus
ad parochos", drawn up in 1564 in accordance with the decrees of the Council of Trent,
an elaborate commentary upon the Lord's Prayer is provided which forms the basis of the analysis of the Our Father
found in all Catholic catechisms. Many points worthy of notice are there emphasized, as, for example, the fact that the words "On
earth as it is in Heaven" should be understood to qualify not only the petition "Thy will be done",
but also the two preceding, "hallowed be Thy name" and "Thy Kingdom come". The meaning of this last petition is also
very fully dealt with. The
most conspicuous difficulty in the original text of the Our Father concerns the interpretation of the words artos epiousios which in accordance with the Vulgate in St. Luke we translate "our daily bread",
St. Jerome, by a strange inconsistency, changed the pre-existing word quotidianum into supersubstantialem in St. Matthew but left quotidianum in St. Luke. The opinion of modern scholars upon the point is sufficiently indicated by the fact that the Revised
Version still prints "daily" in the text, but suggests in the margin "our bread for the coming day",
while the American Committee wished to add "our needful bread". Lastly may be noted the generally received opinion that the rendering of the
last clause should be "deliver us from the evil one", a change which justifies the use of "but"
in stead of "and" and practically converts the two last clauses into one and the same petition. The doxology
"for Thine is the Kingdom", etc., which appears in the Greek textus receptus and has been adopted in the later editions of the "Book of Common Prayer",
is undoubtedly an interpolation.
In the liturgy of the Church the Our Father holds a very conspicuous place. Some commentators have erroneously supposed,
from a passage in the writings of St. Gregory
the Great (Ep., ix, 12),
that he believed that the bread and wine of the Eucharist were consecrated in Apostolic times by the recitation
of the Our Father alone. But
while this is probably not the true meaning of the passage, St. Jerome asserted (Adv. Pelag., iii, 15) that "our
Lord Himself taught His disciples that daily in the Sacrifice of His Body they should make bold to say 'Our Father'
etc." St. Gregory gave the Pater its present place in the
Roman Mass immediately after the Canon and before the fraction, and it was of old the custom that all the congregation
should make answer in the words "Sed libera nos a malo". In the Greek liturgies a reader recites the Our Father aloud while the priest and the people repeat
it silently.
Again in the ritual
of baptism the recitation of the Our Father has from the earliest times been a conspicuous feature, and in the
Divine Office it recurs repeatedly besides being recited both at the beginning and the end.
In many monastic rules, it was enjoined that the lay brothers, who knew no Latin,
instead of the Divine office should say the Lord's Prayer a certain number of times (often amounting to more than
a hundred) per diem. To count these repetitions they made use of pebbles or beads strung upon a cord, and this apparatus
was commonly known as a "pater-noster", a name which it retained even when such a string of beads was
used to count, not Our Fathers, but Hail Marys in reciting Our Lady's Psalter, or in other words in saying
the rosary.
see
also The Prayer Jesus Taught Us
by Victor Hoagland, C.P.
based on the New Catholic Catechism 2759-2865
http://www.cptryon.org/prayer/teach.html
also there is a DVD-style movie of the Lords Prayer (a slightly different version) at http://www.interviewwithgod.com/playprayer.htm
Another site authored by Dr.A.L.Barry, President,
The Lutheran ChurchMissouri Synod
describes the Lords Prayer in terms of Seven Petitions http://www.lcms.org/graphics/assets/media/LCMS/wa_lordsprayer.pdf
See also
http://www.jesuswalk.com/greatprayers/1_lords_prayer.htm
The Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:5-15)
by Dr. Ralph
F. Wilson
Audio Version 38:13
Adapted from Manifesto of the Kingdom (2004)
5"And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing
in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward
in full. 6But when you pray, go into your room, close
the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward
you. 7And when you pray, do not keep on babbling
like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
James Jacques Joseph Tissot (1836-1902), "The
Lord's Prayer," from The Life of Christ (1899).
9"This, then, is how you should pray:
" 'Our Father
in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10your
kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give
us today our daily bread. 12Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from the evil one.'
14For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
We read and recite the familiar Lord's Prayer. The Bible, of course, nowhere calls
Jesus' prayer "The Lord's Prayer," nor is it called the "Our Father." How are we to look at
it?
Is it
- An example prayer?
- A pattern prayer? or
- A prayerbook prayer to be repeated?
It appears, from the context, to be a pattern prayer. Jesus has just criticized some
of the abuses of prayer prevalent in his time: such as prayer "for effect" (verses 5-6, perhaps typified
by the prayer of the righteous Pharisee contrasted by the tax collector's "Be merciful" prayer, Luke
18:9-14). Jesus has also contrasted righteous prayer with wordy prayers (vs. 7). He seems to be showing his disciples
how to pray properly, avoiding some of the pitfalls, and including an appropriate mix of praise and petition.
Was this the only prayer the disciples were to pray? No. We have many prayers recorded
by Jesus, his disciples, and the Apostle Paul. None of them has a word for word correspondence with The Lord's
Prayer, but all of them follow patterns Jesus taught in this prayer.
Salutation: Our Father (6:9b)
The prayer begins by addressing God as "Our Father".
Bible scholars pretty much agree that behind the Greek word pat r, "father", is the word `abba in Jesus' native Aramaic tongue.1 Rather than the formal word for "father," `abba is the family word, something like the affectionate "Dad" or "Daddy" that we
use in English. (See also Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). There is a formal word for "father,"
but the word apparently used here stresses the intimate family relationship. This is striking. Jesus was teaching
his disciples to understand God as their Father. Though the rabbis spoke of God as the Father of the people, Jesus
is teaching them to address God as their own personal Father, a new and wonderful revelation.
When you meditate on this a moment, the awe and wonder of it begins to break over
you. The God who created the universe is our Father. The God who revealed himself in fire and smoke and thick clouds
is our Father. "Father" is a relationship word, and to consider that we have the relationship of child
to father with God himself is an awesome thought.
In Jesus' day, "father" included the concepts of care, love, responsibility,
discipline, hopes and dreams for one's children, respect, authority, and blessing. In the West, fathers have no
where near the life-long patriarchal authority that fathers have in the Middle East and Far East. Our fatherhood
is but a shell of the powerful concept of "father" that Jesus communicated through this intimate word.
Some of the Middle Eastern father is depicted in Jesus' parable of the Father and the Prodigal Son to illustrate
the loving, searching, longing quality of our Heavenly Father (Luke 15:11-32).
"Father's Love Letter," originally written for a sermon illustration by Barry Adams, a pastor in St. Catherine's,
Ontario, Canada, is a wonderful meditation of what kind of Father our God is. I strongly recommend that you read
it, and take it personally. You'll be enriched (www.fathersloveletter.com)
Some in our generation have excised the word "Father" from their prayers
on the basis that too many bad fathers have hurt too many children, and the image of father makes it hard for some
to want to come to God. Resist this teaching that contradicts the express teaching and example of Jesus. As you
meditate this week on the Lord's Prayer, I encourage you to reclaim for yourself the term "Father." Seek
to find out in what ways he is a Father to you.
Notice that Jesus teaches us to call out to God as "our Father." Not just
a self-focused "my father," but a communal "our Father." The Lord's Prayer is intended to be
prayed not only privately, but especially in the community of God's people, the Church.
Who Art in Heaven (6:9)
Jesus then teaches us to pray to God "who art in heaven," which adds infinity
to our understanding of God. Though Solomon built a temple for God, he prayed, "But will God really dwell
on earth? The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"
(1 Kings 8:27) Yes, God is greater than his creation, but "the heavens" is a way to understand the greatness
of God's dwelling. And when we reflect on God's greatness, it is easier to have faith to ask of him things that
seem difficult to us.
Petition 1: That His Name Be Reverenced
(6:9c)
The first petition is "hallowed be Thy name." The Greek word is hagiazo, which means "to treat as holy, reverence."2 Our word "Halloween" is short for "All Hallows Eve," or "All Saints' Eve").
"Hallowed" comes from the English word "holy." Why does Jesus include the concept of "hallowed"
in the "stripped down" version of his prayer? Because without it, our understanding of "Father"
can be distorted.
Our understanding of "Father" could become sentimental to the point of
presuming upon and taking advantage of the Father's graciousness towards us. "Hallowed" reminds us that
the Father is holy, set apart from sin. That he can be both the Father of sinners and set apart from sin requires
Jesus' atonement to reconcile. When we pray, though we pray with the privilege of intimacy to our "Abba, Daddy,"
we are never to imagine that we are buddies with God, or his equals. He is always our Father, and he is holy and
exalted. Jesus teaches us to call God our Father, recognize his exalted place of dwelling, and to reverence him.
The phrase "hallowed be Thy name" may seem a little awkward to us, but
in the Near East the idea of "name" stood for the person, his authority, his character, and his activity.
When Jesus tells us that the Father's "name" is holy, he means that the Father's whole Person is holy.
"Name" can be used as a substitute for a person himself. To paraphrase, "Father, hallowed be your
name," means, "Father, may you be treated with the respect and honor that your holiness demands."
It is common for Christians, particularly Christians who come to faith later in their
lives, to have a rather profane vocabulary. To be in the habit of using God's name often, and sometimes almost
as a swearword. If, when being surprised, we say "Lord!" or "Christ!" or "Jesus!"
or "God!" we are using God's holy name in a profane and common way. We are not reverencing his name,
but debasing it. Disciples discipline their mouths and their hearts to reverence the Father's name.
Including "hallowed be your name" in our prayers means that we are to approach
the Father, not only with familiarity, but also with reverence and respect for his greatness and holiness. He is
our "Dad" but he is also Holy. And as we are learning to pray, we must not forget this.
Petitions 2 and 3: For His Kingdom and
Will (6:10)
When we pray, too often we want to get on quickly to our own concerns. But in Jesus'
model prayer, we first pray about the concerns of God's Kingdom and his will. This is not the petitioner's prayer
so much as the disciple's prayer. This is how disciples are to learn to think and pray and act, with God's Kingdom
foremost and predominant in their minds.
"Thy kingdom come...." What are we asking? We can't take this phrase or
fragment without looking at the rest of the sentence, since the meaning is found in the context.
"Thy kingdom
come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
The Kingdom of God
The idea of the Kingdom of God is complex. It goes far back into the Old Testament,
at least to the book of Exodus, where God reveals himself as Israel's King. He makes a covenant with them in the
form of an ancient suzerain-vassal treaty, a treaty made between a great king and a subservient people (Exodus
19:3-6). The tabernacle in the wilderness is the throne room of a desert monarch. He leads them by day and night.
Having no king but Yahweh is one of the unique marks of the Israelites, to the point that their clamoring for a
king under Samuel's judgeship is considered a sin (1 Samuel 8).
Saul was Israel's first human king. David, born in Bethlehem, of the tribe of Judah,
was the second king and becomes the archtypical king. He is promised that one of his sons will always sit upon
the throne (2 Samuel 7), fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ. (I cover this in greater detail in my essay "What Is the Kingdom of Heaven?" www.jesuswalk.com/manifesto/kingdom-of-heaven.htm)
John comes proclaiming, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near" (Matthew
3:2), and Jesus takes up the same message (Matthew 4:17). He sends out his disciples with the authority to do miracles
and proclaim to villages, "The kingdom of God is near you" (Luke 10:9, 11). The kingdom of God comes
when Jesus proclaims God's reign, and demonstrates that reign by preaching good news to the poor, freedom for the
prisoners, sight for the blind, release for the oppressed, and the Jubilee Day of the Lord (Luke 4:18-19). The
kingdom is here in Jesus and his disciples -- and in you and me -- but it will come fully and completely when Jesus
returns to earth to reign over all as King and Lord (Revelation 11:15).
May Your Kingdom Come
Jesus asks us to pray that the Kingdom of God come soon. As one of the last phrases
of the Book of Revelation says, "Amen. Come, Lord Jesus" (Revelation 22:20). The Kingdom will only be
present fully when Christ returns, when "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of
his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever" (Revelation 11:15).
When we pray, "Your kingdom come," we are asking God to manifest the power
and glory of his kingdom in us, and throughout our world. What a prayer! We are praying that Christ might reign
over all. We are also asking the Father to hasten the return of Jesus Christ to this earth. Amen!
May Your Will Be Done on Earth
This petition is also a condition for prayer, that all our prayers conform first
to God's will. How can we pray the kind of prayer that Jesus wants of us, and still ask for our petty desires which
are so clearly contrary to God's revealed will in the Bible? Teach us to pray, Jesus, we say. Part of that teaching,
surely, is to determine God's will and pray along those lines. Prayer for disciples is not to be selfish prayer,
but prayer in tune with and guided by God's will.
Petition 4: For Daily Needs
The fourth petition in this prayer is for our own needs: "Give us this day our
daily bread." This is a curious phrase, because in one short sentence it includes two words that are specific
to the current day:
The word translated "This day" is Greek sem ron, a fairly common word that means "today". But also in the sentence is an extremely rare
word, which is usually translated "daily," the word epiousios. While its exact derivation is a matter that scholars love to debate, it probably means either
"for today" or "for tomorrow."3 Whichever it means, it is a prayer for the immediate and not distant future.
Bread, of course, is the staple of life. The word is often used for food generally,
since bread is the most important food, and is extended here to mean, all of our needs, all those things that we
need to sustain us.
Receiving from God
So, the prayer means something like, "Give us today what we need for today,"
and fits very well with Jesus' teaching later in the chapter, "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own" (6:34).
The implication here is that we are to come to God with our daily needs. When we
say "Give us," that doesn't mean we don't expect to work for our living, but that we recognize God as
our Provider. So often in the Western world we have a regular salary that comes like clockwork, month after month,
and we take our livelihood for granted. Only when we are laid off or touched by serious illness do we begin to
ask daily for his provision. Jesus teaches us to learn to become dependent upon our Father, and to bring to him
our daily needs -- though we disciples are to put our own needs after the Father's holiness and kingdom and will.
Our Strong Desire for Independence
It's strange, but we long to break free from the necessity of praying this prayer.
We would like to store up enough money so that we don't have to worry -- or pray -- about where our next meal will
come from. We would like to be "comfortably" well off, if not rich. We don't want to have to pray for
our next meal.
I don't think that Jesus wants us poverty-stricken (though that may happen to us
and in that he will be fully able to meet our needs). But he does want us to get in the habit of relying upon the
Father -- for everything. Should we thank God for our food if we have earned the money for it by our own labor?
Of course!
"You may
say to yourself, 'My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.' But remember the Lord
your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore
to your forefathers, as it is today." (Deuteronomy 8:17-18)
Since it is God who gives us the ability to earn a living, then in a real sense,
it is he who "gives" us our daily bread. He strengthens us, and provides through us. So often, when we
have our health, we take this ability for granted. Jesus is teaching us to look to the Father for every provision.
Sometimes you hear the teaching that we should pray for others' needs, but never
for our own, that God will provide without us even asking. Though that teaching sounds pious and faith-filled,
it goes directly counter to Jesus' own teaching. We are to ask God for our daily needs. He is interested in our
jobs. He cares about your school. He is concerned about the health of your business. He cares about your marriage,
and children, and relationships. Your church matters to him.
Jesus teaches us, "Give us today our daily bread." How is it that we so
often confuse such a simple concept?
Petition 5: Forgiveness (6:12, 14-15)
The fifth petition is for forgiveness. But like the daily-ness of the fourth petition,
the fifth petition, too, has a twist. The prayer is:
Forgive us our
debts,
as we forgive our debtors.
Three Greek words are used in relationship to sin in The Lord's Prayer in Matthew
and Luke. Christians from different traditions use different words as they recite The Lord's Prayer.
"debt" (Matthew 6:12), Greek opheilema, 1. "debt = what is owed, one's due." 2. In a religious sense debt = sin
(as Aramaic hobah in rabbinical literature).4
"trespass" (Matthew 6:14-15, KJV), Greek paraptoma, "in imagery of one making a false step so as to lose footing: a violation of
moral standards, offense, wrongdoing, sin."5 Paraptoma is a compound word from para "beside or near" and pipto "to fall". Thayer defines it as "a lapse or deviation from truth and uprightness;
a sin, misdeed."6
"sin" (Luke 11:4), Greek hamartia "sin. The action itself as well as its result, every departure from the way
of righteousness
."7 Literally, "a failing to hit the mark."8
But this prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," is
a sort of trick prayer. It is a prayer Jesus uses to teach his disciples the elements of praying aright. The Greek
word hMs, is a conjunction marking a point of comparison,
meaning "as."9 Jesus teaches us to ask God to forgive
us "as" we forgive others. In other words, if we forgive others only a little and hold grudges, we are
asking God to forgive us only a little and bear a grudge against us. Wow! How many people pray the Lord's Prayer
thoughtlessly, and each time they pray, they pray a curse of unforgiveness down upon themselves!
Jesus is making a point in this prayer, a point which he explains in more detail
just after the prayer:
"For if
you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive
men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins." (6:14-15)
How could it be plainer? Jesus had just told his disciples not to seek retribution.
"Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven"
(5:44-45). Now he makes it clear that we must forgive, if we are to be considered sons of the Father. Otherwise
he will not forgive us.
It is a hard saying, but it is God's way.
Quintessential Forgiveness
Perhaps the most powerful example is that of Jesus himself. "He came to his
own [people]," John records, "and his own [people] did not receive him" (John 1:12). His miracles
and bread attracted the crowds, but when he had to say some hard things, they would leave as quickly as they had
come (John 6:66). A number of times, when he said something they didn't consider Kosher, they tried to kill him,
but he slipped away from their grasp (Luke 4:28-30; John 8:59; 10:31). But the time finally came that God had planned
(Galatians 4: 4-5). Jesus knew it was coming, and though it filled him with pain to think of it, he faced it openly.
This time when his enemies sought to arrest him, he stood forth, said "I am the man," and allowed them
to take him. He allowed a mock trial filled with patently false and unsupported charges. He could have called legions
of angels to deliver him -- the armies of heaven were at his beck and call -- but he did not. Soldiers spit in
his face and mocked him with a cruel crown of thorns and a purple robe they said made him look like a king. They
scourged him nearly to death. Pilate washed his hands and ordered his crucifixion. And as they crucified him, he
said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).
If we are to know and understand God, we must love. We must know and understand forgiveness.
If we reject this part of God, we reject the kernel of who he is (1 John 4:16-21). So when Jesus puts it so bluntly
in our passage (6:14-15) -- you must forgive to be forgiven -- we dare not reject this truth.
Isn't this a sort of "works righteousness"? some ask. If you are required
to do something before you can be forgiven, then isn't this righteousness by works? No. There's an old story of
how to catch a monkey. You chain a cage to a post, and put an orange in the cage. Then when the monkey tries to
grasp the orange, and can't pull it through the bars he is trapped. Can't he just release the orange and escape?
Yes, but monkeys don't let go of the things that enslave them. They hold on tightly -- just like people. And so
he is captured, just as surely as if he were in the cage itself.
To be free you must let go of unforgiveness. Is that meritorious so as to earn heaven?
No, not any more than repentance from sin is meritorious. We don't earn heaven by repentance or by forgiving. But
we must let go of our bondage to sin and hate if we want to receive something better.
The Struggle to Forgive
Forgiveness is sometimes terribly difficult. It's usually not so hard to forgive
people we don't know. The people with whom we have a relationship of trust who turn on us, who betray our trust
-- those people are the hardest to forgive. Husbands, wives, fathers, mothers, children, and boyfriends and girlfriends
and our best friends. They can turn on us and wound us deeply. Sometimes we even doubt that "It is better
to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all." Maybe we should withdraw and protect ourselves and
never venture out again.
No. The path of health is forgiveness. The path of healing is forgiving.
Sometimes we resist forgiveness because we mistake it for substitutes. In my article "Don't Pay the Price of Counterfeit Forgiveness" (Moody Monthly, October 1985, pp. 106-108; http://www.joyfulheart.com/maturity/forgive.htm), I try to distinguish
true forgiveness from its chameleons. True forgiveness does not minimize the sin or the hurt, nor excuse the sinner.
True forgiveness chooses not to hold the sin against the sinner any longer. True forgiveness is pardon.
You may be freshly wounded and find your anger too massive to forgive. The injustice
may be ongoing, the outrage constant. Perhaps you do not feel you are able to forgive right now. Then I ask you
to pray this prayer: "Lord, I find it beyond my ability to forgive this person. I ask you to make me able to forgive in the future." Even that prayer may stretch your faith (or obedience)
to pray, but pray it anyway. The God of Forgiveness answers prayers like that. He makes a way where there is no
way. He takes us beyond ourselves.
Two simple lessons we disciples learn from this petition: (1) we must ask for forgiveness
time and time again, and (2) unforgiveness blocks God's blessing.
Petitions 6 and 7: Help When Tempted (6:13)
"And lead
us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one." (6:13)
The sixth petition goes beyond asking for forgiveness; it asks for help in our times
of trial and temptation so that we do not sin so as to require forgiveness.
Keep Us from Temptation
On its face it is hard to imagine God leading us into temptation at all.
"When tempted,
no one should say, 'God is tempting me.' For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each
one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed." (James 1:13-14)
Sometimes we disciples flirt with temptation. We don't exactly seek temptation, but
we are attracted to sinful things and so we sort of wink at them. Our resistance is low; we are being "dragged
away and enticed" by our "own evil desire," as James puts it. This prayer, "and lead us not
into temptation," helps teach us how important it is for us to stop flirting with sin but to actively flee
and resist it. That is to be part of the content of our prayers.
Some of you are saying, "But if God knew what I really thought about, or wanted
to do, he wouldn't have anything to do with me." Some of you are ashamed of your secret sins, but afraid to
open them up to God himself. My dear friends, there is nothing we have done or said or thought that can surprise
our Father. The miracle of the cross is that he cares about us in spite of our rebelliousness. This part of the
Lord's Prayer reminds us to call upon the Father for strength when we are tempted. We are not to fight a secret
war against sin; the Father wants to be our continual partner. He knows your weakness, and mine. And wants to free
us and make us whole. What a wonderful Father! What wonderful grace.
But God does test
us. He allows circumstances that stretch and try us to make us pliable enough that he can remold us into his own
image.
"Consider
it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith
develops perseverance." (James 1:2-3)
Job was tested. So were Abram and Jacob and Joseph -- and Jesus. Trials can be positive,
and Jesus wouldn't be teaching us to pray to escape what is strengthening us. So it is probably better to see "Lead
us not into temptation," as the negative of its positive counterpart, "but deliver us from evil."
Testing may involve temptations, but God's desire is to help us escape temptation -- and the tempter. Here we're
praying: Don't lead us into places where we can be tempted, but lead us in places where you are, and where we can
be free.
Rescue Us from the Evil One
This seventh petition is a prayer for deliverance or rescue from the evil one. It
is recognition of the spiritual nature of our warfare against sin. There is not just our own temptation, but a
tempter. In our own selves, we are no match for him. So we call out to God for rescue, for deliverance, for salvation
from our enemy.
Together, petitions six and seven are asking God: "Keep us from giving into
Satan's temptations."
Petition five deals with forgiveness; six and seven with delivering us from sin.
Together they make up a prayer that helps us follow Jesus on his path.
A Doxology (6:13c)
"For Thine
is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory
forever.
Amen."
Having been raised a Protestant, the first time I heard the Catholic version of the
Lord's Prayer that left off the last doxology, I was shocked. It was like waiting for the other shoe to drop --
and it never did. Actually, the Catholic version may be closer to Jesus' own words than the Protestant version.
Let me explain.
The Protestant version of the Lord's Prayer includes a doxology. Our English word
"doxology" comes from two Greek words, doxa -- "praise," and logos
-- "word"; a "word of praise". Sometimes it is called an ascription, since these qualities
are "ascribed" to God.
Our best guess is that the doxology was added -- perhaps on the basis of 1 Chronicles
29:11-13 -- to adapt the Lord's Prayer for liturgical use in the early church. Although the doxology was probably
not part of the original text, Jewish practice was to conclude prayers with a doxology, so it is unlikely that
it was offered in New Testament times without some form of doxology.10 One of my favorite parts of the Lord's Prayer is the doxology. I love to speak out loud as words
of declaration and praise, "For Thine is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory," for all these are
his in abundance. Praise is a fitting way to conclude our prayer.
The Disciples' Prayer
The Lord's Prayer is deceptively simple. We may pray it often and by rote. We may
take its words for granted. But this week -- especially this week -- let the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples
to pray fill your thoughts and meditations. And may its vocabulary become yours.
As we've examined the Lord's Prayer, you can see it isn't a prayer for everyone.
It's not for those who hunger for God to rubber-stamp their selfish plans, for it begins with "Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven." Nor is it for those who feel righteous, for it leads us to ask forgiveness.
Nor is it for the vindictive, for it bids us leave our hatred at the altar if we would be forgiven. Nor is it for
the self-made man who shuns dependence, for it teaches us to ask God for bread daily. It is a prayer for the obedient
disciple who would know God as he is, in his Fatherhood and glory and holiness. I commend it to you. Pray it thoughtfully
and reverently, and let it guide your prayers.
Prayer
Father, teach me to pray the right way, the way Jesus taught us to pray. I confess
that my way of praying is often self-centered and self-serving. Teach me to pray. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.
