Many of us know it simply as the Lord’s Prayer. Some call it the "Our Father." Both Luke and Matthew record Jesus teaching this prayer. Christians of all denominations, languages, and cultures have learned the prayer. Besides the fact that it is the only prayer that Jesus specifically teaches his disciples in the Bible, what is the allure of this simple prayer?
Surely part of the answer must lie in the way the prayer begins: "Our Father." The beginning of the Lord’s Prayer is personal: Our Father…Our Father. There can be no more personal way to begin a prayer. Into a world of often impersonal prayer and frightening distance between God and his people, Jesus comes with a deeply personal prayer.
The Jewish people of Jesus’ day are used to revering God as Almighty God and Holy God, as indeed he is. They had been taught a certain reverence and formality of prayer, but along came Jesus and he says to his disciples and all those listening, "Don’t worry about all those showy prayers, about all that endless babbling, simply pray like this: "Our Father…". What a way to begin a prayer!
As some of you may know, Jesus probably used the Aramaic word for father when he first taught this prayer to his disciples saying, "Abba." Abba means something like dad, or perhaps even more childish as in "daddy." It is one of the most intimate, child—like forms of address that can be given. "Our Father"—what a way to pray!
In fact, as we move on in the prayer we see that we pray to our Father in heaven, who is holy. Now, this is the amazing part: That we a sinful people—a stumbling, bumbling people—can simply come as children into God’s holy presence. It is precisely this notion of mere children coming into the presence of a holy, heavenly God that so unnerves us in our prayers. We want a "holy man," or a particularly righteous woman to offer our prayers because we don’t feel up to the task. Surely God can’t accept our imperfect attempts at prayer, can he? Well, frankly, "Yes, he can." In fact, as we have seen, Jesus teaches us to pray as God’s children.
I think of it this way. My five year old daughter, Jenna, is not afraid to come into my study, or into my office. She does not worry about proper form or good timing. She’s my child. When speaking to me, she doesn’t worry about whether she can pronounce her s’s and t’s clearly or construct a flowery, grammatically correct sentence—and neither do I. She’s my child. She’s welcomed into my presence. But, when Jenna is in the presence of another father whom she doesn’t know well, she would not dare traipse into his office or meeting places. Although not shy, she tends to get very quiet around fathers whom she doesn’t know. And that’s probably just the way it ought to be. The point I am making, is that we, as the Father’s children through Jesus Christ, can now come into the presence of God. In fact, we hallow his name, by reverently and with child—like trust, addressing ourselves to his holiness. What a privilege to pray, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name."
What we find then, is that prayer, as Jesus teaches it, is deeply personal and deeply intimate. Jesus teaches us, his disciples, that we have the ability to come before the Lord our God, the Almighty creator of the universe, and call him simply, "Father." This new intimate, child—like connection that we have with God, the Father, through Jesus the Son helps us understand and embrace the profound simplicity of prayer. We imperfect, sin—stain people, who often stumble over our public prayers and drift during our private prayers, are invited by Jesus into the heavenly and holy presence of the Father. We don’t receive this invitation because we are so heavenly or holy, but because in Jesus we have become God’s children.
Notice also that this deeply personal prayer between God and his children is written in the plural not the singular. The pronouns "our" and "us" fill the prayer; rather than "My" and "Me." Jesus does not teach us to pray, "My Father," but "Our Father." It is a deeply personal prayer, but it is also a collective prayer.
When ever I think about this fact, I think about my sister Mary. There was a period of time in our family, about five years I guess, where Mary was the youngest child—Dan, Paul, Tim, and then Mary—all of us about a year and a half apart. So you can immediately picture the family dynamics: three rambunctious boys, and then the youngest—a precious, sweet little girl. Mary was the youngest and she was a girl. As a girl she had a special connection with out parents, our mom in particular. Mary had a way about her of connecting with her mom in a special way. I use the phrase her mom intentionally, because that’s the way Mary would speak of her. She would say to us boys, "Well, my mom said…" or, "But my mom told me…" as if we were complete outsiders in the family. Honestly, I don’t think she was doing it intentionally at first; she was just being real personal about her connection with Mom. But we didn’t like it. We used to say to her, "She’s not just your mom, you know." Once Mary realized how much it bugged us, she started saying it all the more (at least, that’s my recollection). She would say it all the time: "My Mom, my Mom, my Mom …"
I am afraid that we bring this same private, exclusive view to our prayers at times—as if it is just the Father and me. But this individualistic and exclusionary mindset is not what Jesus teaches us to bring to our prayers. Christian prayer, which the Lord’s Prayer models for us, is always deeply personal, but it is never individualistic. It is never just about me. In fact, in the New Testament the only person who is ever recorded praying, "My Father," is Jesus Christ himself. We disciples always pray, "Our Father." We do this both to remind ourselves that we can only approach the Father through Jesus, and to remind ourselves that our prayers are connected with all the other followers of Jesus who are God’s children. So when we come together or even when we are alone in our private prayer spaces, we pray, "Our Father," because only together with Jesus and his followers can we approach the throne of God’s presence.
Well then, once we are in the great presence of God of our heavenly and holy Father, what do we do? How do we speak? What can we possibly say in God’s presence? Yes, we can babble and utter our child—like phrases but is that all that God wants or expects from us? Do we children of God have something significant to contribute in our prayers—our conversations with God? Jesus certainly thinks we do. He teaches us to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
When I first learned these words of the Lord’s Prayer as a child, I did not see how I had anything to do with God’s will being done here on earth. I figured that was up to God. "Your will be done, God. We need you to do what you do, God. Your will be done. Do it God!" Even as a young child I knew that things weren’t perfect in the world. I wanted God to fix it, and I figured that was what I was praying for.
Many of us pray this way, don’t we? Yes, we want God’s kingdom to come and his will to be done and so we pour out our prayers before God hoping that he will make all things right. We know that there is little that we can do, so we long for a big, strong, Almighty God to come and fix everything. And so we cry, "Your will be done God! God come down and do something. Make things better. Your Kingdom come, your will be done, just like it is up in heaven where everything is perfect. Make it so God." In fact, some of us feel so little in the presence of a great big God, and some of our human problems are so insurmountable, that we simply want to pray a magic sort of prayer where we just dump our problems on God and he just fixes them all. But, is this really the way Jesus is suggesting that we pray?
Certainly Christian prayer is always directed toward God and the power of his actions on our behalf. And, yes it is about a coming Kingdom and his will being done. It is about heaven coming down here on earth. And, yes, it is also true that we are too small, just the Father’s children, to fix what’s broken. But still, the prayer that Jesus teaches always engages us. Christian prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer specifically, is never abstract or other—worldly in the sense that we just pray about big, abstract, and distant things that God will do by himself. No! When we pray, "Your Kingdom come," we are confessing that we want to be a part of that Kingdom, an agent of Kingdom work of our Father’s behalf. When we pray "Your will be done," we are not just praying for God to be sovereign. (Frankly, God is sovereign whether we ask Him to be or not.) Instead, we are saying that we want to walk in accordance with God’s will. When we speak of "here on earth as it is in heaven" we are not just hoping for some heavenly beings to do God’s work, or for heaven to fall out of the sky and somehow be established here on earth. Instead, as one historic Catechism of the Christian faith puts it, we are asking God to "Help us all to carry out the work we are called to as willingly and faithfully as the angels in heaven."
Well, if we children are to carry out the work of God we certainly are going to need the Lord’s provision. And so, before Jesus ends his prayer, he directs us to pray for what we need.
Jesus begins with the basics, "Give us this day of daily bread." Provision of daily necessities sounds good, doesn’t it? But remember the way children are. We children can often be demanding. The children of Israel grew tired of mere daily bread. The Old Testament book of Numbers tells us that when God provided daily bread for them in the form of manna, some people wanted to collect more manna than they needed, storing it up for the future. They grew tired of the daily routine of collecting manna—tired of the same old taste of manna—they wanted something new and fresh. They grumbled against God. They grumbled because like us they wanted some variety and more than just the bare necessities.
We modern day children also want more than just the necessities. So often we want to pray, "Lord, give me security in my old age." "Lord, give me prosperity in the work place." "Lord, give me more than this tired ol’ chicken and hamburger. I want some smoked salmon and fillet mignon." Now to be sure, the Father loves to give his children good things and therefore often blesses us abundantly. Moreover, there is nothing wrong with prayer for abundance, and rejoicing in it. But it is in the daily prayer that we are reminded that all our provisions come for the Lord. God covets the simple prayers, the daily prayer, for his sovereign provision. Thus, in the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray in a way that reminds us to live "day by day, taking just one day at a time, trusting in God for our basic needs to be met.
In November of last year, wildfires swept through some of the poorest and wealthiest areas of Southern California. Both trailers and mansions were burned. Both rich and poor suddenly found that what they had laid up for themselves on earth was suddenly gone. "Give us this day our daily bread, Lord," we pray, "for we are completely dependent on you."
Having reminded us in his teaching on prayer that God provides for our physical needs, Jesus turns our attention next to our spiritual needs. "Forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors." Jesus is using the Greek word for "debts" as it is often used in the New Testament to describe our sin that leaves us spiritually indebted to God. But Jesus approaches the issue in a responsive way. In other words, he has us pray for God’s forgiveness while also demanding that we confess our forgiveness of others. Jesus is insisting that we disciples of his must live out the very forgiveness of others that we ourselves have received from God. In this way, the prayer is responsive. God speaks his forgiveness to us through Christ and we respond in forgiveness of others.
Thus, even in this simple prayer, even as we are encouraged to pray for God’s forgiveness, we also pray that we will be able and willing to forgive others. After seeing the devastation of the California wildfires, I heard on the news that the fire had likely been caused by a bonfire set by some college students. Imagine losing your home because of some reckless college kids. Imagine. Imagine what our heavenly Father thinks of the devastation that human sin brings to the world. Yet, he sends his Son to provide forgiveness and wholeness and to teach us to forgive as well.
Finally, Jesus wants us children to be free from deadly effects of sin in our own lives. He teaches us to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." I have always thought that by ending the prayer this way Jesus has brought us full circle back to our child—like status before God our Father. Just as children need the protection of their parents, so we need protection from our heavenly Father. Just as children can easily be led into temptation, so we easily can be led into temptation. So Jesus has us pray for deliverance.
One of the things that all children need to learn is that there are bad people and bad things in the world that will harm them. Even with loving parents, there is a real danger of evil. The evil one, as Jesus calls him, is always close at hand tempting us. Jesus, knowing this full well, having been tempted directly by Satan himself early in his ministry, urges us to end our prayer with the protective phrase, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one." So as we come to the end our prayer we are back to where we began: children depending on our Father for all good things.
In my own prayer life I often use the Lord’s Prayer as the prayer to begin my daily morning and evening prayers. It instills in me the simple child—like trust and assurance that I need in order to face my days and nights as a grown—up child of God. It seems only fitting that we end our time together now in the same way, with the Lord’s Prayer. If you know the prayer, say it along with me now. Together then, we pray:
Our Father who is 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 forgive our debtors.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Let all God’s people say, Amen!
Paul DeVries
Rev. Paul DeVries, most commonly referred to as “Pastor Paul”, is the Sr. Pastor of Brookside Christian Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He is married to Diane (nee Vanden Akker) and the father of four children. He graduated from Calvin Theological Seminary in 1989 and served for 12 years as the pastor of Unity Christian Reformed Church in Prospect Park, New Jersey. As a pastor his first love and greatest joy comes in the honor of bringing God’‘s Word to his congregation on a weekly basis through his preaching. He enjoys reading, camping with his family, watching his children’‘s sporting events, and working on home improvement projects - inside and outside his home.
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