The Lord's Jewish Prayer
READING: Mt.6.5-15
The Lord's Prayer in Luke 11.2-4:
Father
Sanctified is your Name
May your Kingdom come
May you give us sufficient bread for each day
And forgive us our sins
as we also forgive our debtors
And do not bring us into testing
The Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6.9-13: (Underlined is in Luke)
Our Father who is in the heavens
Sanctified is your Name
May your Kingdom come,
May your will be done on the earth as in heaven
May you give us sufficient bread for today
And forgive us our debts
as we also forgive our debtors
And do not bring us into testing
But deliver us from the evil (one).
(For yours is the Kingdom, the Power and the Glory
For ever, Amen)
The only real differences are:
- Luke is shorter
- Luke says 'forgive our sins' not 'forgive our debts'
- Luke says 'bread for each day' not 'bread for today'
I think Luke is an abbreviation of Matthew, which was already a short version
- when Jesus was telling them what to pray, he didn't give the exact words
- he gave an outline which would remind them of all the elements needed
- if they memorised this outline, they could expand it later
- and Luke shortened the outline even further
- so instead of 'Our Father who is in the heaven' he simply has 'Father'
- they would add their own description of the Father, eg 'who is in heaven'
- and he left off 'May your will be done on earth as in heaven' because this was implied in the previous line 'May your kingdom come'
- if God's Kingdom comes to earth, his Will will be done here
- and 'Deliver us from the evil one' is implied in 'not lead into testing'.
The bit at the end of the Lord's Prayer was added to Matthew
- the 'Yours is the Kingdom, Power, Glory, for ever, Amen'
- or perhaps it was removed later - it doesn't really matter
- because it is an obvious to any Jewish worshipper
- they said that all prayers should have three parts:
- Glory or Sanctification, Petition and Thanks or Praise
- the Lord's Prayers starts has Sanctification and Petition
- ie it says how Holy and special God is, then asks for things
- but there is no Thanks or Praise at the end. And no Amen
- so someone has added the obvious reminder for the ignorant
- 'Don't forget to praise God, eg for his Kingship, Power, Glory
- 'And don't forget to add the normal ending 'For ever, Amen'
It is very likely that this ending is actually the words of Jesus
- because the Jews started using 'for ever and ever, Amen'
- this change happened some time in the first century
- the Sadducees said that 'for ever' meant literally 'for the age'
- ie, they said, it was only for THIS, age, and there was no heaven
- so the Pharisees changed it to 'for ever and ever' meaning 'for this age and the next age'.
- but it didn't catch on till after the Destruction of Jerusalem in 70 CE
- so whoever added this ending probably did so before the NT was finished
- but it was omitted from most of manuscripts of Matthew, as too obvious
We actually use the Lord's Prayer in a way it was not intended
- we recite it as though Jesus was giving us the exact words to use
- that's why we are concerned that there are different versions in Mt and Lk
- but Jewish prayers in the 1st century were only outlines
- and anyone who said a prayer by rote was considered to be insincere-
- in the 2nd century prayers became fixed, like Anglican or Catholic prayer
- I don't know which is best, but Jesus is giving us an outline
- it is similar to other outlines which have survived from the 1st century
OK, so the Lord's Prayer is an outline. So what does it teach us?
- we have to be a little clever here, and learn from Jewish prayers
- because lots of prayer language is simply that - just language
- when we say 'Amen', we mean 'Yes, I agree, and that's the end'
- (or something like that - you might mean something different)
- the point is, we don't mean 'Faithfulness' (the literal meaning of Amen)
- we're not sure how Amen came to be used, but everyone used it
- so when Jesus uses it, we don't give it any special significance
- we don't say that Jesus was emphasising the Faithfulness of God
- he was just using the language of the time
So, to understand Jesus, we have to understand Jewish prayer
- we have to know what they meant by different phrases
- and, most important, we have to see what was new and different
- what were the phrases and ideas which Jesus introduced or emphasised
- what phrases have made Jews sit up and open their eyes and think
- what phrases would have sounded out of place or theologically different
For example, one might say Jesus emphasised the Kingdom and God's Name
- because the Lord's prayer mentions these right at the start
- but in fact virtually EVERY Jewish prayer mentions these two things
- in fact it became a rule soon after this, that they HAD to mention them
(that was in the 2nd century when the Jews made lots of rules about prayer)
- so there was nothing special about this - it was just the normal way to pray
- not that Jesus didn't want to worship God for his Kingdom and holy Name
- but he wasn't teaching us anything special that was different from normal
One obvious jarring note comes right at the start when God is called Father
- not that it was strange to think of God as the Father of Israel
- but this was a rather personal and informal kind of address
- especially as this was almost certainly 'Abba', not 'Ab'
- children or close relatives used 'Abba' of a person, but others used 'Ab'
- rather like 'Dadda' or 'Pappa' instead of 'Dad', 'Pa' or 'Father'
- 'Abba' trips off the tongue of a baby much better than 'Ab'
- in fact, once when I was preaching, there was a pram in front of the pulpit
- (the only space in a small church, and it was a big old fashioned pram)
- and when I mentioned 'Abba', the gurgling baby repeated it 'Abba'
Most Jews started their prayers with 'Blessed be God, King of the Universe'
- and Jesus says 'Dear Daddy in heaven' - a big big contrast
- this emphasised that we can talk to God personally, and he loves us
- and perhaps it emphasises that we have a special relationship with him
- there was another Jew who prayed 'Abba', and was criticised for it
- but he was a special saint, Honi, who prayed for rain and it fell
- he obviously did have a special relationship with God, so they let him off
- but Jesus is implying that we all have this special relationship with God
- God loves us all, and wants us to come to him like little children
- who aren't afraid to ask for whatever comes into our heads (like children)
- so long as we realise that God is wise, and answers according to his will
- like children have to learn, that adults sometimes know what is best
Jesus adds 'Your will be done on earth as in heaven'
- There is an interesting Jewish saying from a later time:
- "when your people pray, give us what you think is best, but
when the heathen pray, give them what they ask for"
- well, we ask for things, but we only want what is in God's will
- we ask like simple children, and we recognise that God knows best
Asking for God's will to be done was a very significant point
- there was a debate in Jesus' day about God's will
- some people said that we all do God's will automatically
(a bit like Calvinists or Muslims today)
- others said that we have free will so we can chose what to do
(a bit like non-Calvinist Christians today)
- but Jesus points out a middle way which is very significant
- he said that we have our own choice, but we should do God's will
- so he prays that God's Will be done, and tries to do it
- this is similar to his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane
- 'Not my will, but your's be done'
Then comes your general prayers of petition, or asking prayers
- you can add as many requests as you like at this point
- Jesus give three examples: for food, forgiveness and protection
- all three are normal, though significantly different in some ways
The request for food is significant because of the language used
- the Greek is not high-sounding Greek, but domestic gutter Greek
- the phrase for 'daily bread' is not found anywhere else in literature
- scholars thought it had been made up, till someone found a papyrus
- it was a scrap of writing which turned out to be a shopping list
- this was an ordinary slang word which the scholars avoided
- but Jesus used ordinary normal language when talking to God
The common language fits in with Jesus' use of 'Abba'
- and it is in stark contrast to normal Jewish and Christian prayer
- even in non-conformist churches, we tend to use special prayer language
- when we say 'we beseech you, O Lord, to grant our supplications' we really mean 'you ask you, Master, to give us what we request'
- I think we should follow Jesus' example and use ordinary language
The prayer for forgiveness is significant because he makes a deal with God
- the deal is that we forgive those who owe us, and God will forgive us
- I don't think this just means owing us money, but who have hurt us
- in other words, we have to forgive those who have done us wrong
- and then God will forgive us when we do wrong
Jesus emphasises this point immediately after the Lord's Prayer in Matthew
Mt.11.14-15: "For if you forgive men their offences, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. (15) but if you do not forgive people their offences, neither will your Father forgive your offences."
- and Jesus rubs it in with his parable of the servant whose master forgives him a million pound debt and who then goes and demands payment from someone who owes him ten pounds, and sends him to debtors prison. When his master hears what he did, he decides not to forgive him after all. (Matt.18:23-35)
But there is one proviso to forgiveness - we have to repent
- ie we have to not want to do it again, and try to change our ways
- it's no good asking for forgiveness every time we hit someone
- or every time we steal something, without any intention to stop stealing
- and equally we are required to forgive those who wrong us and repent
Luke 17:3-4: "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day and seven times comes back to you and says: I repent, forgive him."
This is revolutionary because there is nothing else we have to do
- we don't have to pay penance for God to forgive us
- we don't have to say lots of prayers or flagellate ourselves
- we don't have to do lots of good deeds to outweigh our bad deeds
- we don't have to bring a sacrifice to the Temple or money to the priest
- we just have to ask God, and of course we have to forgive others
The last petition which Jesus prays is for protection from evil
- this was a thoroughly normal prayer for Jews of the time
- in Jesus' day, the Jews understood 'the evil' to be 'the evil one' ie Satan
- though in the 2nd century this changed to 'the evil inclination inside us'
- and the meaning in the church changed in a similar way, some time later
- but I'm fairly certain that Jesus meant 'the evil one'
- he had a very keen sense of the reality of Satan and his fallen angels
- and he wanted us to be on our guard and ask God to protect us
- otherwise the prayer makes little sense, if it is just our evil inclination
- we would be asking God not to test us and protect us from ourselves
- well, this is a bit of a cop-out, asking God to give us an easy time
- sometimes God does lead us through testing times, which is good for us
- and I don't think Jesus would ask us to pray for an easy life
- but we certainly do need to pray for protection from the Enemy
The final Thanks or Praise and Amen are not there in all the Manuscripts
- but that doesn't mean it isn't important, but just that it is too obvious
- no Jew would think of ending a prayer without Thanks or Praise
- though come to think of it, I don't usually do so myself
- most of our prayers have Thanks and or Worship at the start
- then we have petitions, asking, and then 'in the name of Jesus, Amen'
- well, perhaps we should learn from the Lord's Prayer how to pray properly
Jesus gave his disciples an outline prayer which they could use every day
- starting with Worship, then Asking, then Praise
- think of the new generation of WAP mobile phones Worship, Ask, Praise
- and Jesus emphasises a few things by being different from Jews of his day
1) he says to address God as Daddy, and using normal language.
2) he says we should seek God's will and praying that it will come about
(and, we might, as in Gethsemane, have to ask for strength to do his will)
3) he says that forgiveness is free, but we should similarly freely forgive
4) he says that the Enemy is real, and we need to pray for God's protection
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