The beginning of Luke 11 contains a curious question to me. People had been uttering prayers to their gods for thousands of years. Jews had been praying to Yahweh for around 2000 years. So there should have been no mystery about praying. People had been asking for protection and revenge, asking for rain for their crops, asking for children, asking for safety on trips, and asking for peace for a long time. They had been lauding their gods' actions, thanking them, and seeking their wishes and wisdom for just as long.
So, when the Twelve were with Jesus, and one day they wanted him to teach them to pray, it strikes me as a really curious request. Sure, they saw Jesus pray, sometimes short utterances, and sometimes all nighters. I suppose they thought they were missing out on something. Perhaps they saw his healings and thought there must be something special about Jesus' prayers that weren't in their own. Perhaps they thought there were words they weren't using or that they should start using, like an incantation of some sort, that would give them the powers that Jesus had. Their motive was unclear. But, Jesus complied.
The more famous version of this prayer is in Matthew 6, but Luke 11.2-4 contains the content as well, just not the same concluding part.
Πάτερ, ἁγιασθήτω τὸ ὄνομά σου
(Father, your name is honored.)
ἐλθέτω ἡ βασιλεία σου
(Allow your realm to be established.)
τὸν ἄρτον ἡμῶν τὸν ἐπιούσιον δίδου ἡμῖν τὸ καθ’ ἡμέραν
(Give us our bread for the day each day.)
καὶ ἄφες ἡμῖν τὰς ἁμαρτίας ἡμῶν καὶ γὰρ αὐτοὶ ἀφίομεν παντὶ ὀφείλοντι ἡμῖν
(Forgive our failures as we have forgiven those who have failed us.)
καὶ μὴ εἰσενέγκῃς ἡμᾶς εἰς πειρασμόν ἀλλὰ ῥῦσαι ἡμᾶς ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηροῦ
(And don't make us stand trial for evil but rescue us from it.)
If a person analyzes what Jesus said in his model prayer for his followers, one finds that Jesus makes sure that his father's name is honored above all names. He shows concern about the father's realm being established on Earth. He looks to God for daily needs like hunger. He asks for forgiveness based on his own forgiveness, and asks for God's grace.
So, how is that different from the prayers humans had been offering to all of their gods over the thousands of years prayers had been offered? The first sentence is something that Jesus didn't change at first glance. Honor God. The second showed his enthusiasm for the establishment of a new understanding for God's "kingdom," one that would be spiritual, the domain of the mind rather than the physical, a domain of geography. That was different. The third sentence shows reliance on God for his daily provisions and kindnesses. Many people want more, for example stored provisions (wealth) and greatness (as opposed to kindness).
The fourth is a little astounding since it has two parts. The first part is standard for every prayer to every god. But, Jesus' father is different, so the second part is really different from other prayers. God wanted attitudes to be right. Jesus' father didn't want people to come to him in their haughtiness. That would be what was happening for those trying to always do right things, then coming to God for forgiveness of their minor infractions. No, Jesus' father wanted people to love him and others. He knew that if people forgave others, they would know first-hand what God was forgiving them for - their failures of all kinds and sizes - their release in order to love better and love more. In fact, Jesus put it another way in the scene with Mary and the alabaster jar in Luke 7.47: the person who has been forgiven little, loves little.
The fifth part has been so enigmatic to me for most of my Christian life. I could not fathom that Jesus would say to pray for God not to lead me into temptation. Why would he do this? So I could fail? To show my character? Does God lead people to hard testing to prove themselves to him? And why would I have to then pray for God's deliverance if he led me into temptation in the first place? But, learning Greek has helped me understand the words better that Jesus was using. The first term, εἰσενέγκῃς, is to bring someone into something. The second term is the word for trial, πειρασμόν, literally and figuratively. Jesus models a request to God not to bring someone to trial. Why? Because we have more than a few evils in our lives to condemn us and sentence us. Jesus shows us to request God not to bring us to trial for our misdeeds, but to rescue us from them. No one wants to incur the wrath of God due to his condemnation. Instead, we want someone to forgive, give us a second chance, to deliver us from our circumstances of wrongdoing. This way of thinking matches perfectly what the message delivered later to the Roman world was all about. It was a wording for the idea of grace.
Grace is always a tasty morsel to swallow and savor. But there was another very tasty morsel. It appeared in the very first utterance of the prayer, "Father, your name is honored." With a second glance at this phrase, one can notice a really different prayer from the first phrase on. Yes, honor God's name, for sure. But who is God - the holy one of all, the name above all names, the Lord of Hosts, God creator of all? Of course! But those attributes are not his name. Yahweh, was the name of God for every Jew. Other nations called their Gods by different names as well. But what is Jesus' God's name? The common name for the person who raises you, loves you, protects you against the world, cares for you, gives you food every day, forgives you when you fail, doesn't hold things against you as if you're standing trial, but gives you that second, third, and fourth chance to get something right. Oh yes, that name... Daddy, Father, Papa! He knows a person in and out.
As sweet a sound as these words are to us, the scholars of the Talmud and the Pharisaical sect couldn't stand the thought. The God of their understanding was so great, mighty, untouchable, and holy that they would not allow someone, no matter who they said they were, to denigrate Yahweh.
But not me. This prayer is special. It ends with the grace I need. It offers the stuff I rely on every single day I live as a provision from God. It helps me always to check my attitude of love through forgiveness. But sweetest of all... it begins with me calling my papa's name, who else!
Lord teach me to pray.
[I used the Nestle-Aland, 28th edition, text for this prayer, but it follows the critical analysis for the "hard reading" of the passage. That usually means the barest reading from all the variants. But, I had to break from the "hard reading" approach because there are two phrases that are lockstepped together. I also think the manuscript families are too divided on this passage to make a "hard reading" judgment call against the semantic and grammatical lockstep of thought for the part traditionally translated, "Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name," and "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."]
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