NL 124: The Lord's Prayer
image: Anonymous. Lord's Prayer in Arabic Calligraphy, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=56216 [retrieved January 21, 2023]. Original source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/7136286@N04/16230721991/
Matthew 6:7-21 [25-34]
Initial Thoughts
Different in several ways from Luke’s version in Luke 11 - a great analysis of this by Rob Myallis
Continuation of the sermon on the Mount: Lord’s Prayer and Not to Worry
What is skipped - Matthew 6:22-24 - Light, darkness and the inability to serve God and wealth
What comes before vv. 1-6 - giving and praying in secret - about motivation. If you are giving or praying in order to be seen as being generous or pious, then your motivation is all backwards. However if you are being open about your generosity and praying to inspire others to be generous with the focus on helping those who need it and on God, that is altogether different.
Bible Study
Lord’s Prayer
“The African Christian theological Tertullian of Carthage believed that the Lord’s prayer was a shorthand version of the Gospel as a whole. He says, ‘How many edicts of the prophets, Gospels, and apostles, how many discourses, parables, examples, and precepts of the Lord, are touched upon in the brevity of a few short words, how many duties summed up all at once.’” Michael Joseph Brown, “Matthew”, True to Our Native Land, p.93
v. 7 Be intentional - don’t just talk at God, think about what you want to say or how to want to be before God
“The prayer is not based on human desires, ambitions, or selfishness but on God’s wisdom. When we pray the Lord’s Prayer we affirm that God knows what we need and confidence in the goodness of God’s actions.” Brown, p. 93
Direct contradiction to the prayer and petition offered to the emperor which included long lists of names and titles.
Ex: “Emperor Caesar Galerius Valerius Maximianus, Invictus, Augustus, Pontifex Maximus, conqueror of the Germans, conqueror of the Egyptians, conqueror of the Thebans, five times conqueror of the Sarmatians, conqueror of the Persians, twice conqueror of the Carpathians, six times conqueror of the Armenians, conqueror of the Medes, conqueror of the Adiabeni, Tribune of the people the twentieth time, Emperor the nineteenth time, Consul the eighth time, Father of his country, Proconsul;”, Eusebius Church History 8.17.3-10; cf. Lactantius On the Deaths of the Persecutors 34 (link)
See Ecclesiastes 5:2 - “Don’t be quick with your mouth or say anything hastily before God, because God is in heaven, but you are on earth. Therefore, let your words be few.”
A note on language - the first word of the Lord’s prayer is Abba- “father” through which we can assume “Jesus taught his disciples to pray in the Aramaic of daily communication rather than the classical Hebrew of written texts. The Aramaic-speaking Jew in the first century was accustomed to recite his prayer in Hebrew, not Aramaic…The use of Aramaic in worship was a major upheaval in the assumptions of Jesus’ day. It meant that for Jesus no sacred language was the “language of God.” When Jesus took the giant step of endorsing Aramaic as an acceptable language for prayer and worship, he opened the door for the New Testament to be written in Greek (not Hebrew) and then translated in other languages. It follows that is there is no sacred language, there is no sacred culture. All of this is a natural growth from the incarnation. If the Word is translated from the divine to the human and becomes flesh, then the door is opened for that Word to again be translated into other cultures and languages.” Kenneth Bailey, Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes, p. 95.
v. 8 - Prayer isn’t just about asking for things- God knows what you need.
Doesn’t mean you can’t ask God for things, “Give us this day…”, but God is not a divine vending machine.
“Your Father knows what you need…” not what you want - we need bread, we don’t need much that we think we need
vv. 9-10 What God needs
The first three petitions are about what God needs - hallowing God’s name, coming of God’s kingdom, doing God’s will.
The fact that these things are not reality indicates the brokenness of the world - things are not as God would have them and we need to assist God in the creation of a beloved society.
“For centuries African Americans have realized that evil continues because those who could do something do nothing.” Brown, p. 93
“Jesus also invites his disciples to pray that God’s name be hallowed or kept holy (hagiastheto). The passive voice indicates that we ask God to hallow God’s own name, to act in such a way that God’s name is held in honor. The petitions that follow flesh out what this means. When God’s name is hallowed and God’s kingdom comes, there is daily bread for all, forgiveness is practiced, and God delivers the faithful from the time of trial” (David Lose, Working Preacher)
“Hallowed be thy name,” is an invitation for God to act in the world. It is not simply praise. It is not say, “Holy is your name,” it is a request for God to act in the world so that God’s name would be made holy.
vv. 11-13 - What we need
Our daily bread - not my daily bread - recognizes those who are hungry (blessed are the poor) who are, in fact, starving in our midst. God does not give bread (like Manna of old) but God has given us the ability to feed the world, yet 821 million people are chronically undernourished (see here)
The translation here is unclear - could also mean “bread for tomorrow” indicating - like the gift of manna, that all we have is God’s, we cannot hoard our manna/possessions/wealth (or worms, rust, and thieves will take it), so we must share and rely on God for tomorrow’s needs.
Forgiveness
In Matthew’s Gospel the word is οφειλημα which refers to debts and debtors, sins were considered debts against God or one another. Luke uses the word for sin in his telling of the Lord’s prayer. In the following verses 14 and 15 Matthew changes the word to
The verb to forgive is in the present tense - as in the act of forgiveness is happening in this moment, not in a future moment
Freedom from evil
Recognition of mutuality - we need to share our resources, like bread, we need to forgive one another, the evil we need to be freedom from is often perpetrated against one another or ourselves
“As human beings we are all mutually connected to each other and dependent upon one another for our emancipation and our survival.” Renita Weems, “Womanist Reflections on Biblical Hermeneutics,” in Black Theology: A Documentary History, vol 2. p. 218
“For thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory. Amen. This is in the Didache, around 100-110 AD...not in the oldest copies we have of Matthew's Gospel.” Rob Myallis, Lectionary Greek Blog
Discipleship
vv.14-15 Forgiveness - check out Rob Myallis’ excellent commentary on this - Must we forgive others? “To put it another way, the Greek in these passages does not intensify the English meaning. If anything, they provide us with a more earthly than eternal framework for understanding its significance. Regardless, our forgiveness before God and the forgiveness of others are bound together. Jesus didn't wait until enough humans had forgiven each other to die on a cross!”
Heavenly Treasures - the sin of economic injustice and the biblical theme that materialism has spiritual implications
How do we build up treasures in heaven? By sharing what we have (ensuring everyone gets their daily bread) and forgiving one another (including ourselves)
Thoughts and Questions
“The Lord’s Prayer can’t be just words that we recite. It is a prayer that we live. It is one thing to say the words of the Lord’s Prayer, but it is an entirely different thing to live the Lord’s Prayer… When you live the Lord’s Prayer, it becomes more than words that you say. It is the choices you make, the grace you show, the forgiveness you give, and the bread you share.” (Robb McCoy, The Fat Pastor)
Opening music: Misirlou, One Man 90 Instruments by Joe Penna/MysteryGuitarMan at MIM
Closing Song by Bryan Odeen