On the Lord's Prayer

Photo by Fa Barboza on Unsplash

Therefore, you should pray like this:
Our Father in heaven,
Your name be honored as holy.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
on earth as it is in heaven.
 Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power
and the glory forever. Amen. (Matt 6:9-13 HCS).

John Wesley said “There is nothing which we have need to ask of God, nothing which we can ask without offending him, which is not included, either directly or indirectly, in this comprehensive form” (Sermon 26). In meditating upon the Lord’s prayer I’ve come to see Wesley’s point. The Lord’s Prayer contains all other prayers. It is the biggest prayer in the world. Gregory the Great said “scripture is like a river, broad and deep, shallow enough here for a lamb to go wading in, but deep enough there for an elephant to swim” (Commentary on the Book of Job, Section 4). The Lord’s Prayer is no exception, it contains simple childlike devotion and requests, yet possesses depths and profundity which make the wisest ponder.

In Matthew, the longest version of The Lord’s Prayer, also called the Model Prayer, is found. It occurs within the broader context of Sermon on The Mount. So it is helpful to look at the prayer’s place within the sermon on the mount before examining the prayer itself. 

The Sermon follows a clear structure with parallels which indicate purposeful literary design. It has a chiastic (a common Hebrew poetic design) literary structure which puts the climax at the center. Imagine the Sermon on the mount as a mountain with the Lord’s Prayer as the peak.

The Model prayer is a carefully constructed poem. As a poem the arrangement and structure of the prayer conveys meaning as well as the individual words. There are two distinct sections. The first is vertical and about heavenly things, the second is horizontal and about earthly needs. The bridge in between the two sections is “on earth as it is in heaven” This structure follows the pattern of the Ten Commandments. The first four look and relate to God, the last six relate to humans. The great commandment or summary of the law–love the Lord your God and love your neighbor as yourself–also shares this arrangement. 

The first section of the prayer deals with the love of God. It is important that we look to heaven before we look to earth, because what we worship impacts how we live. Worship means to give something worth and honor. If, for example, money is what a person gives ultimate worth and honor to, they may listen to money’s voice, which could tell them to steal, cheat, and lie. The human soul is much like a mirror. Whatever we are focused on is what we reflect. If a mirror is pointed at a dark corner, it will reflect darkness. If that same mirror is pointed at the sun that mirror will shine forth light. Psalm 115:8 says of idols, “Those who worship them become like them” Earlier the Psalm describes idols as unable to see, hear, smell, or walk. Those who worship idols become like them, spiritually blind and deaf. What we worship has ethical and transformative implications impacting how we see life, what we value, and where we direct our love.

The second half of the Lord’s prayer covers our earthly needs and is related to love of neighbor. By praying for provision, we are depending on God to provide. We are not depending on stealing, lying, or murdering to get what we need. When we ask God to forgive our trespasses, we are immediately reminded to forgive others. God has forgiven us, and this forgiveness ought to be given to others. When praying for deliverance from temptation, that includes temptations of sins which harm others. All the petitions ultimately are directly or indirectly related to love of God and neighbor. 

The prayer contains seven petitions. I would like to make some brief observations and interact with what Cyril of Jerusalem and Martin Luther have said of these petitions.

Preface: Our Father in Heaven

Cyril of Jerusalem wrote in Catechetical Lectures (23), “O the most surpassing loving-kindness of God! On them who revolted from Him and were in the very extreme of misery he has bestowed such a complete forgiveness of evil deeds, and so great participation in grace, as that they should call Him Father” ( Veritatis Splendor Publications, 2014, 682). The fact that Jesus tells us to relate to God as Father and not as, say, judge is incredibly merciful. The bedrock of Christian hope is that  “to all who did receive Him, He gave them the right to be[ children of God.” All who are in Christ can pray to God as our Father and relate to him as children rather than addressing him as judge, relating to him as lawbreakers.

Petition One: Your name be honored as holy.

Talking about God’s holiness leads to worship and reverence. God is both close and transcendent. We love him as our father with childlike faith, yet also worship him as the Almighty with reverence and awe. The Lord’s prayer keeps intimacy and closeness balanced with awe and wonder. Cyril said this petition that God’s name be holy means “not that it comes to be holy from not being holy, but [that] it becomes holy in us, when we are made holy, and do things worthy of holiness” (682) So often the church profanes God’s name with scandals and sin. This is a request that God’s reputation be holy or honored, especially in our hearts, actions, and sphere of influence to show the world the radiance of His glory.

Petitions Two and Three: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 

These 2 petitions could be considered one petition. God’s will is better than any human’s will and His kingdom is greater, richer, and more magnificent than any kingdom a human being can dream of. Martin Luther, writing on the Lord’s prayer in his Larger Catechism, said 

You see that we do not here pray for a mere crust of bread, or for a temporal, perishable blessing, we pray for an eternal, priceless treasure and all that God -himself can give. It would be far too great for any human heart to presume to ask, if God had not himself commanded us to pray for it. Because he is God, he claims the honor of giving far more richly and abundantly than any can comprehend–like an eternal unfailing fountain (The Luther Press, 1908, 142)

 Dry bread is the best thing the beggar can imagine, and might be the first request a beggar would ask of a powerful King. But Jesus instructs us beggars to ask for something far greater than we would ever dare to ask on our own: we ask for the kingdom. This petition covers everything from our individual lives to the redemption of all of creation. Jesus is instructing us to make a personal yet cosmic request in these petitions.

Petition Four: Give today our daily bread.

We trust the Father for the provision of our needs. Trusting God to provide is not an excuse to be idle or irresponsible but rather frees us from undue anxiety. We acknowledge that all our provisions are gifts from God in the first place. Our skills, opportunity, and energy to work come from him. So even though God often uses paychecks, salaries, and other such means to provide, we realize it all comes from him. In his Larger Catechism Luther says, “In brief, this petition includes all that belongs to our temporal life.”(147) It includes food, shelter, clothing, etc. But this is also a prayer for the bread of life and our spiritual sustenance. There are many people who have full stomachs and satisfying meals but possess empty souls and hungry hearts. We pray for God to give us physical sustenance for today and for our daily spiritual sustenance.

Petition Five: Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.

Jesus tells us to pray for forgiveness. We all need it. When we pray for forgiveness we are praying to a Heavenly Father who runs to meet the prodigal and clothes us in the best robe. This forgiveness we obtain is to be passed on others. Jesus will reiterate this point in Matthew 6:14-15d: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Does this mean God’s forgiveness is conditioned on our forgiving others? We don’t want to depart from the force of what Jesus says, that our unforgiveness can in some sense cut us off from the forgiveness of God. Yet at the same time, we need to realize that none of us is capable of forgiving others, unless God works in our hearts. We cannot give what we ourselves have not received. Luther says: “But if you forgive, you have this comfort and assurance, that you are forgiven in heaven. This is not because of your forgiving. For God forgives freely and without condition, out of pure grace, because He has so promised, as the Gospel teaches. But God says this in order that He may establish forgiveness as our confirmation and assurance, as a sign alongside of the promise” (151).

Petition Six: Lead us not into temptation.

This is a prayer that God would deliver us from sin and give us the strength to resist sin. Cyril of Jerusalem in his Catechetical Lectures compared temptation to a raging river (683). Everyone will face this river; there is no avoiding it. We request that God would not merely lead us to the raging waters, but through them. A related request is found in Psalm 51:10: “God create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” 

Petition Seven: Deliver us from evil.

The last and final petition is to be rescued from the dominion and effects of Satan. Luther said, “You see again how God wishes for us to pray to Him also for all the things that affect our bodily interests, so that we seek and expect help nowhere else except in Him. But He has put this matter last. For if we are to be preserved and delivered from all evil, God’s name must first be hallowed in us, His kingdom must be with us, and His will must be done. After that He will finally preserve us from sin and shame, and, besides, from everything that may hurt or harm us (156). 

Conclusion: Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. 

This is probably taken from 1 Chron 29:11 “Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the splendor and the majesty, for everything in the heavens and on earth belongs to You.” The closing line of the Lord’s Prayer expresses confidence that God has the kingdom, power, and glory. We can ask for the Kingdom not because we are worthy but because the Kingdom is God’s to give. When we are weak our confidence is that He has the power to answer. When we are ashamed we remember in Christ we are the Father’s beloved children and it is his glory to give to us abundantly. 

This prayer starts by crying out to our Father in heaven, it ends with praying for deliverance from the gates of hell and covers everything in between. It’s the biggest prayer in the world, and Jesus has given it to his church.

Caleb Jordan is an ordinand in the Christian and Missionary Alliance