The Lord's Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer may be insincerely quoted by more people more often than any other Biblical teaching in church history.

In a recent 7 Prodigals post, The Secret to Fulfilling Prayer, I made the case that Jesus preceded The Lord’s Prayer by teaching the secret to fulfilling prayer: pray often, focused, and sincerely.

Countless writings on The Lord’s Prayer teach points based on the whole of Scripture rather than the specific context of The Sermon on the Mount where The Lord’s Prayer was introduced. They focus on teachings not yet introduced, and in some cases even contradict what Jesus just taught in the same sermon.

The Lord’s Prayer sits smack dab in the middle of The Sermon on the Mount. There are 116 verses before it and 114 verses after it.

Do you think the greatest teacher in history would divert from his sermon’s themes right in the middle?

Would he insert ambiguous references to future events, then jolt back to those themes after such a diversion?

Or is it more likely that his message was fluid, seamless, and comprehensible from beginning to end?

Let’s jump into the text and I’ll show you what I mean.

Pray then like this:

“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day 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.”
Matthew 6:9-13 ESV

The controversy begins with the first word: “Our.”

Many well-meaning writers, preachers, and teachers suggest this plural tense demands a corporate rather than individual prayer. They use that logic to insist on praying The Lord’s Prayer as a community within worship services.

I have a love/hate relationship with this practice.

First, I absolutely love the beauty of hearing a community of believers praying in harmony. I can close my eyes and instantly be in awe of God’s design and the unity of the Body of Christ.

Yet I hate how such rhythmic recital so easily draws words from rote memory. People may recite without being sincere or focused on the words coming from their mouths. The corporate praying of The Lord’s Prayer can easily become the kind of religious ritual Jesus was preaching against in the two verses immediately preceding it.

My point is not to condemn the corporate praying of The Lord’s Prayer. I’m suggesting it’s meant to be far more than just a corporate prayer. It also holds profound beauty and purpose as an individual prayer. Perhaps it’s both/and rather than either/or. I find myself thinking that if more people understood the personal nature of this prayer the impact of praying it together in worship would be exponentially greater.

Why start an individual prayer with “Our?”

It’s helpful to know that the only place Jesus refers to “Our Father“ is within The Lord’s Prayer. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus refers to his father. But it’s only when teaching us how to pray that he shares this priceless relationship with us in this way.

Perhaps Jesus is reminding us that we don’t approach God the Father alone. Jesus will always be there as an advocate with us. But perhaps Jesus is also suggesting something else. When we approach God this way—proclaiming his holiness, committing to his will, and recognizing him as our provider—we have solidarity and community with all believers who have and will pray this way.

Then he adds, “in heaven.” When I read “in heaven,” I imagine the King sitting on the throne, surrounded by angels, with countless decisions and proclamations to make. Then his children enter the room and he stops everything. With unfathomable responsibilities, he stops everything to give us his full attention.

“Our Father in heaven” suggests we have the opportunity for intimacy with the Almighty.

“…hallowed be your name.”

The tense here is crucial. Jesus isn’t just suggesting we recognize God’s name as holy. He’s suggesting we voice our sincere desire that God’s name will be recognized and acknowledged by all people as holy. All that it stands for—who he is, what he’s done, and what he promises.

We’re acknowledging that no part of God’s name or reputation should be taken or spoken in vain. That means when we hit our thumb with a hammer or someone cuts us off in traffic, we don’t shout, or even mumble, the Lord’s name in vain. It also means we don’t proclaim ourselves as belonging to him or identify ourselves with his name while knowingly living in ways that would tarnish his reputation or twist others’ perception of him.

While it’s not a proclamation of perfection, it’s a much more serious commitment than most consider while simply reciting the words in a worship service. I suspect the mood of many worship services might completely change if we grasp the gravity of what we so casually pray.

“…your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”

To get this phrase, let’s go back to the Garden. Adam and Eve were permitted to do virtually anything except eat from that one tree—The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God never wanted mankind to get caught up in defining good and evil. He just wanted us to trust him. To trust his will. Sin is simply choosing to define good and evil in any situation apart from his input. It’s choosing our will over his.

So how does “your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven“ become a reality?

At the risk of over-simplifying: when each of us commits to increasingly trusting and submitting to God’s will over our own.

We tend to corporately pray this as if it’s something that’s just going to happen out there in the world somehow. But each time we pray, “your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven,” we’re committing to something personal. We’re committing to increasingly humble ourselves and submit our egos. We’re committing to submit our own desires to fit in or control situations and other people. We’re committing to increasingly align our personal thoughts, words, and actions to God’s will.

Perhaps more people might fall out of rhythm with the crowd if they grasp the reality of the personal commitment they’re making.

“Give us this day our daily bread,”

Yes, Jesus later claims to be “the Bread of Life.” Yes, many theologians much smarter than me have tied this phrase to communion through foreshadowing. I’m not claiming to be smarter than them. I’m only asking if it could at least be both/and.

Could Jesus simply be asking us to acknowledge that God is our provider of even the most basic necessities of life?

Could Jesus be suggesting that we ask God for our needs rather than our greeds?

I don’t know how one could read the rest of Matthew 6 (still part of the Sermon on the Mount) where Jesus clearly addresses our treasures, trust, and worries and miss seeing the connection with this phrase. The phrase “give us this day our daily bread“ can simply be taken at face value. It’s one sermon with the same common themes running throughout it.

Why would one think he’s gone a completely different direction in this one phrase then bounced back as if he has a bad case of ADD?

“and forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors.”

Luke’s version of The Lord’s Prayer literally says “sins” (Luke 11:4). I’ve been chewing on this passage for years. I could write pages on this without really clarifying my thoughts. Instead, let me try to articulate it as clearly and briefly as possible, knowing I may leave some with more questions than answers.

I believe the assumption is this: if we lack the humility to forgive someone else, then we lack the humility to ask God to forgive our own sins. There’s a sense that if we’re expecting someone else to earn our forgiveness, we must believe we’ve somehow earned our own forgiveness.

In other words, it takes more humility to acknowledge that I am a broken, sinful man with a corrupt and selfish heart and can offer absolutely no personal justification for God’s forgiveness - No works, not years of worship, no amount of giving, not years of service, nor ministry has ever earned even an ounce of God’s forgiveness. That takes way more humility than it takes to simply step down from being someone else’s judge and jury and offering them forgiveness.

Since accepting grace requires more humility than offering grace, if I lack enough humility to offer grace, then I lack the humility to accept God’s grace.

How can a large group of people sincerely pray that line—”forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors“—out loud in worship without someone being overwhelmed by conviction?

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”

If sin is about looking away from God and his will and doing what we want, then this line is asking God to hold our attention. Help us focus. We’re acknowledging that we need help overcoming our favorite distractions. Help us pursue your will over our own.

Most of us don’t end The Lord’s Prayer here. We’ve been taught a doxology. It’s beautiful and Biblical in essence, but not actually in Scripture. Jesus ended The Lord’s Prayer with the word, “evil.”

I think that ending is significant. The Lord’s Prayer begins with “Our Father” and his will and ends with “evil.”

Why is that important?

It’s important because the whole prayer addresses where we live—between Our Father and evil.

Evil is simply the result of man’s failure to trust God. The entire prayer is a commitment to trust God more. It’s an acknowledgement that each of us lives somewhere between fully trusting God and fully trusting ourselves.

The Lord’s Prayer is a personal commitment to continually move toward trusting God more. That’s the process of repentance that sums up not only the Sermon on the Mount, but all of Jesus’ teaching—”Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at Hand“.

Thanks for Reading,

John