Matthew 6: 5-13 (January 8, 2012): The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer

The Text

“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7“When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that 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.

“Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.

Perspectives/Questions

How does the Lord’s Prayer summarize Jesus’s teaching?

The Lord’s Prayer is a basic Christian prayer. As a model of prayer, every Christian learns it by heart. Though we memorize it as a set formula, the Lord’s Prayer shouldn’t be repeated mechanically or without thought. Its purpose is to awaken and stimulate our faith. Through this prayer Jesus invites us to approach God as Father. Indeed, the Lord’s Prayer has been called a summary of the gospel.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. An infinite chasm separates us from the transcendent God. In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus invites us to draw near to God who is beyond human understanding, who dwells in mystery, who is all holy. We can call God “our Father.” By calling God “Father,” Jesus teaches that we have a filial relationship with God; God sees us as if we were a daughter or a son. And we, on our part, can approach God in the familiar confident way a child approaches a loving parent. What is more, we approach God through God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, who unites us to himself.
Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus often said that God’s power would appear and renew all creation. God’s kingdom would be marked by peace and justice. Good would be rewarded and evil punished. The kingdom, according to Jesus, is not far off, but already present in our midst, though not yet revealed. In the Lord’s prayer we pray that God’s kingdom come, that God’s will, which is for our good, be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. We are God’s children. What can be more childlike than this petition in which we pray for our daily bread, a word that describes all those physical, human and spiritual gifts we need to live. With the confidence of children we say: “Give us this day what we need.”

Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. This petition of the Lord’s Prayer is a demanding one. Not only do we ask God’s forgiveness for our daily offenses, but we link God’s forgiveness of us with our forgiveness of others. Forgiving others is not always easy to do. We need God’s help to do it. But it must be done or we ourselves cannot receive God’s mercy.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen. Life is not easy. It is a daily battle. Trials like sickness and failure can crush our spirits. False values and easy promises can entice us and even destroy our souls. And so we ask God to keep us from failing when we are tested, to help us to know the right thing to do, to deliver us from the evil which awaits us in life.

The Lord’s Prayer sums up the teaching of Jesus. It is also a prayer that offers the grace of Jesus: his reverence for God, his childlike confidence in his Father, and his power to go bravely through life no matter what comes. When we pray his prayer, his spirit becomes our own.

b. Why should prayer be brief and done in secret?

The Lord’s Prayer (6:7-14) is inserted between the teachings on praying and on fasting. Matthew introduces the prayer with a warning about the gentiles and their many words and follows it with an important two-verse commentary on the single petition concerning forgiveness.

The position of the Lord’s Prayer in the text clearly lifts it up as the example of faithful discourse with God. It is a prayer that is simple and private, in marked contrast to the hollow, public piety of the first-century religious leaders and gentiles. But why does Jesus consider the secret chamber to be the most appropriate place for prayer? Why the exhortation to brevity?

Jesus does not command a secret piety because he has a thing against trumpets. Nor does he teach brevity in prayer to indicate that the one who works hard enough to simplify the prayer is the one who is heard by God. Jesus commands brevity in prayer to keep the disciples from being distracted by anything they might do themselves. He offers them a prayer that does not even once ask God to make them holy, and he sends the disciples behind closed doors to pray because he doesn’t want them to be worrying about what other people think. Not one petition asks God to make them look good.

This prayer of Jesus is intently focused upon God, not the self or others. And the private room is worthy of prayer because it helps the one who prays to focus on God. Jesus’ prayer, the private room, and brevity keep the one who prays from looking anywhere else than to God. The secret chamber also reminds the disciple that prayer primarily has to do with one’s relationship with God. As the marriage chamber represents the intimacy of that relationship, so the prayer chamber is the place of openness and closeness with God. Like the Holy of Holies, it is not open to the public, nor is it a place to be preoccupied with the opinions of others.

c. Piety

Piety carries a breadth of meaning that the word “faith,” in its everyday usage, seems to have lost. Faith often seems to mean only intellectual knowledge of God and grace. But piety implies the response of the whole person. We are to love God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind. That is piety language; it describes righteousness that is lived out in daily life.

But there is one thing that can stand in the way of our piety – our unwillingness to forgive. Here we also find grace. The word Matthew uses forgive, aphiemi, most frequently translated as “to leave,” or “to let go.” The disciples “left” their nets (4:22). The fever “left” the woman (8:15).The dead are “left” to bury their dead (8:22). And in death, Jesus “let go” of his Spirit (27:50).

Forgiveness of sin means to stop hanging on to it: to cease that which damages us and our relationships. Even when we forgive, we have salvation by grace—not deeds done by us in righteousness.

And yet, how determined we can be to grasp resentments. How can we learn to loosen our grip on what hurts us the most? Jesus offers a prayer and directs our eyes to a dominion outside ourselves. In this brief prayer, which summarizes all of Jesus’ teaching, Christ himself is present.

“Letting go” frees us to let go of that which we hold against ourselves and against our neighbor. We relate genuinely, ask for forgiveness, and offer it. Out of this quiet work of God we are affected, changed, enriched. We are no longer the same. In Jesus’ prayer we are connected and bonded with each other. We find our health, our integrity, and our righteousness; that is true piety.