“Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, ‘Lord, teach us to pray…’” (Luke 11:1).
Prayer is one of the essential ingredients for fueling a life that is busy doing the will of God – even for God Himself. You see, Jesus, the Son of God, who is fully and completely God with the Father and the Holy Spirit, spent much time in prayer.
§ Even at His Baptism, when He fulfilled all righteousness for mankind, He was praying (Luke 3:21-22).
§ Even before Jesus chose His Twelve Apostles, “He went out to the mountain to pray, and all night He continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12).
§ And even when Jesus took with Him Peter, James, and John atop the Mount of Transfiguration, He prayed (Luke 9:28-36).
§ And who can forget Jesus praying at Gethsemane as He spoke to His Father about His coming crucifixion at the hands of sinful men to which He would atone for the sins of mankind through His death (Matthew 26:26-46).
Jesus prayed. He prayed a lot. And His disciples caught on to Jesus’ prayer life. They observed the very active prayer life of their Lord and Master.
Now, to be sure, a rabbi, or teacher, praying was nothing new. Abraham himself prayed. As we heard in today’s Old Testament lesson (Genesis 18:17-33), Abraham prayed to God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. He pleaded to God to deliver those cities for the sake of the righteous who might dwell there.
Prayer was nothing new. However, each rabbi had a particular way of petitioning God, and Jesus’ disciples are aware that John the Baptist had taught his disciples how to pray. And not only John, but some Pharisees had taught their hearers to pray (Luke 5:33). But for some reason, Jesus had not yet taught His disciples how to pray.
So, one of His disciples asks Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). It is interesting that the Lord’s Prayer or “The Our Father” is actually evoked by a request, a request by one of the disciples. And some trivia is found here. As this is the only occasion on which any of the disciples ask Jesus to teach them anything. I find that very interesting.
So, there is something to Jesus saying later, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened” (Luke 11:9-11). So, ask. Because a disciple asked, Jesus gives. He gives by teaching them and us how to pray.
Now, before I get into Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer, it is worth noting that his version is shorter and more direct than Matthew’s version – the one we recite each Lord’s Day. So, why is there a difference?
Well, Matthew’s version was part of the Sermon on the Mount. Luke’s version follows the event with Mary and Martha on the proper way to worship. It could be that each Lord’s Prayer telling were completely different events. And it could be that Jesus wanted to focus on different petitions of the Lord’s Prayer for the right occasion. Anyhow, each version does have same basic structure. For both Matthew and Luke’s account, the Lord’s prayer is a petitionary prayer, and it is used to teach us a pattern, or an outline, on how to pray.
First, Jesus teaches us to petition God as Father because Our Father is the giver of all good things. Now, calling upon God as Father can only happen when the Father first bestows sonship. Jesus is only able to address God as Father because of His eternal relationship as the Son of God. So, by Jesus teaching the disciples to call God their Father, He is placing them – as well as us – into that same relationship with God the Father as He has – from eternity.
Only Jesus can teach them and us to pray this way, because Jesus is the One who makes us, who are poor, miserable sinners, into God’s children. We can only call God our Father because Jesus has reconciled us back to Him through His death on the cross.
By Christ’s blood shed for you and me, which atones all sins, He invites us to petition God as Father. So, when you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be Your Name” (Luke 11:2). Here, we petition our Father first by who He is. God’s Name has been given to us. He gave you His Name when you were baptized in His Name, which makes you, His child.
“Your kingdom come” (Luke 11:2). This is what God does. He reigns. His kingdom comes in two ways. First, here, through His Means of Grace – His Word and Sacraments; and secondly, through eternal life given to us. This kingdom of heaven has been given to us through the King of kings, Jesus Christ, our Lord, through His defeat of the power of the devil, sin, and death upon the cross.
“Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation” (Luke 11:3-4). In these final three petitions, Jesus teaches His disciples to pray for blessings that we need as we live out our lives here on earth. There is a need for daily bread. There is a need for forgiveness. There is a need for divine help against the temptations that will come. And the most critical of these temptations is the danger of falling away from faith and losing the eternal reward.
It can be said these three final petitions correspond well with table fellowship – both temporal (now) and eternal (forever). God gives the daily bread. He gives us forgiveness. He gives us divine help against temptation.
Physical bread is needed for life in this world now; and divine bread, which provides the life to come even now. Today’s daily bread includes everything that belongs to our entire life in this world, such as food and drink, clothing, house, home, sound body, good wife, children. And not only that, daily bread also includes our work, our craft, our occupation, and good friends, as well as a good government, and protection from all enemies, including the devil. Also, we cannot forget that Jesus Himself is the Living Bread that came down from heaven, so anyone who eats of this bread, will live forever. And the bread Jesus is referring to is His flesh (John 6:51).
God gives and He gives, and He gives. He gives what we need for our temporal needs – again, food, shelter, and the like – and He gives what we need for our eternal needs through Word and Sacrament.
And like I said, these three final petitions do correspond well with table fellowship. The forgiveness of sins balances the petition for bread. So, just as bread is the essential staple of physical and spiritual life, so forgiveness is the essential sustenance of spiritual life, and the need for forgiveness is constant and ongoing, which is why the Lord’s Supper is the regular meal that provides forgiveness. And it is only because of that forgiveness that fallen man may call on God as Father, and His kingdom comes through the forgiveness of sins.
And like bread that is both heavenly and earthly, forgiveness involves our relationship to God and to fellow man. And because Christ has forgiven us, we are called by Him to forgive one another without limits.
Both bread and forgiveness of sins shed light on the final petition: “And lead us not into temptation” (Luke 11:4b). The Father who gives all good gifts allows even His Son to be tempted by Satan in the wilderness. So, trials and sufferings will come because we are in Christ. We will be rejected just as He was rejected. But what we are to pray here is to not succumb to that temptation. So, as we are assailed by the devil, the fallen world, and our own sinful nature, we are to pray to God our Father so that He would preserve us from falling away from the one true faith.
Now, taken together, these last three petitions help us be kept in the one true, saving faith, so that we may prevail and gain the victory. In short, Jesus encourages us to be persistent in our prayer petitions. He says that no matter the circumstance, God is honorable and gracious, as He supplies what we need. He says He is the giver of all good gifts. So, keep asking! Keep seeking! Keep knocking! God the Father is not reluctant to give. He is eager to give. He is eager to answer every prayer. All we have to do is: ask. So, when you pray, say:
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven; give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; | and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen. |
The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +
