Prayer
Meditations
Applications
Several years ago[1],
I set out on an intense study of the Lord’s Prayer; this proved to be necessary
because I had no real understanding of the prayer; all the standard
explanations led to impossible contradictions: as a result, I was just mouthing
senseless repetitions without any meaning or understanding. I pondered these mysteries for decades,
before beginning research. However,
praying with understanding and meaning is exactly what Jesus commands.
Opinions
This is not a collection of opinions. If you doubt what I have written here, go ask
your pastor or priest to get out his Greek grammars and lexicons and look it up
for you. All I did was look these things
up and report them: you are free to draw your own conclusions.
Facts
There is only one present tense verb in the entire prayer,
and that is not a request: it is an understood expectation. All the other verbs in the prayer are in the
past tense. So, Luther is wrong when he
analyses the Lord’s Prayer as a set of petitions, things we must ask God to
give us. Rather, the Lord’s Prayer is a
set of Declarations, Gratitudes, Praises, Thanksgivings for what God has
already done for us.
Listen
God does not need a recitation of our want list. He already knows, far better than we will
ever know, what our true needs are. I
need the discipline of the disease and pain that strike at my legs, because it
makes me a better man. If God relieves
this disease and pain through the services of doctors, good and well. If I die as a result of that disease and
pain, so much the better. The possible
tragedy would be that I never listened or learned the lessons of my own
mortality.
Rock
God, knows our every need, and has moved to provide for all
of these needs far before we were ever born.
We don’t need to ask; it does no good to ask: we’re not going to change
God’s mind. We’ve already received all
of these needs as gifts: so, stop asking for what we cannot possibly understand
from a highly defective English translation, and give attention to what the
words truly say... if in doubt, check
them out.
The Prayer
The Father’s Name
“Hallowed be Thy Name.” No, no, no, a thousand times no. Think about what we are saying. What could we ever do to add to or subtract
from the holiness of God’s Name: our requests for such may be well intended;
yet, they are entirely useless; that is not what it says. What it says is, “Your Name was consecrated, hallowed,
or sanctified[2]!” We are not told who or how God’s name is set
apart from the ordinary. A little
thought explains this to us. We might
have suspected that God was not ordinary, when we first discovered that He
created us in Genesis 1:1. If this is
not enough, then the conversations of God with various people throughout the
rest of Genesis must provide clues. Then
God talks to Moses at the burning bush and tells him about His Name in no
uncertain terms (Exodus 3:2-15). In case
we think this is idle talk, God proceeds to demonstrate that He is truly
different by destroying all the idols of Egypt.
The Egyptian politicians immediately set out to create a spin cover up
of their embarrassment, so that we cannot find much archaeological support for
these events; which may be why Egypt remains in poverty today, to remind them
of their mortality for once despising the Name of the Living God. The first pillar of our faith is that God’s
name is truly different; He consecrated His own name from creation every onward:
that is an establish fact, upon which we may not improve. Thank You, dear Father for eternally consecrating
Your Name for us: we live and die by Your Consecrated Name.
The Father’s Kingdom
“Your kingdom came!”
Not, “your kingdom come.” God’s
kingdom is not a future thing for which we must ask. God’s kingdom is automatically present wherever
God makes His Presence evident: we just weren’t listening. Ever since God walked with Adam in the cool
of the day, the kingdom of God has been among us. Ever since Jesus was Incarnate… Ever since
the Holy Spirit was first given at Pentecost, 33… Ever since we were born… Ever
since we were baptized, we were surrounded by the kingdom of God. This is the second pillar of our faith. Thank You, dear Father for continuing to
allow us to live and die in your heavenly kingdom. We have not listened. We do not deserve such a gift.
The Father’s Will
“Your will was born!” Who or how, the Lord’s Prayer itself does not
explain. Yet, is it not self-evident that
the will of God is Jesus Himself. He
alone has come to do the Father’s will (Psalm 40:6-8; John 1:13; 4:34; 5:21, 30;
6:38-39; Hebrews 10:6-7). Jesus is the
will of God. We enter into the will of
God, only through the miracle of being made Christ-like. This is the third pillar of our faith. Thank You, dear Father for continuing to
allow us to live and die with Your Will planted in our hearts by Christ.
The Father’s Infinity
“As in heaven, also on the earth.” Everything that we understand about God’s
government of the created universe, also governs earth, especially in the
affairs of men. Only the deceit of Satan
has made it seem otherwise: but Satan is a false god, exposed for what he is by
the same events that exposed the idolatry of Egypt… by God’s Consecrated
Name. The great pillars of faith that
rule in heaven, also reign on earth: The Father’s Consecrated Name, The Father’s
Kingdom, and The Father’s Will. These
three things remain unchanged, undisturbed, unmoved, and unmovable, undisturbable,
unchangeable. They are invincible! ΙΣ ΧΣ ΝΙΚΑ! Jesus
Christ Conquers! Thank You, Father.
The Father’s Bread
“He gave us our bread
today, the epiousion.” It’s already
served up on our plates, we don’t need to ask for it. The only puzzle here, is in the meaning of
this epiousion, this special bread, what might that be? We must think about what this epiousion, this
upon-substance could possibly mean. It
most certainly does not mean daily, except as that might be hidden in the
Mystery. Again, and again in the preaching
of Jesus, and in the epistles, we hear of the manna[3],
that Jesus Himself is the true Manna (Matthew 6:25, 31; 26:26-28; Mark 14:22-24;
Luke 9:17; 12:22; 22:19-20; 24:25; John 6:31, 33, 35, 48, 49, 51, 54-56, 58; Acts
20:7; 1 Corinthians 10:16-17; 11:24-26; Revelation 2:17; 10:9). Exactly, how much evidence did you
require? There is only one thing that
this epiousion can possibly be. The epiousion
is the precious broken body and like precious blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son,
our Savior and Lord. Every crumb that we
eat and every drop that we drink comes as a by-product benefit of the death and
resurrection of Christ. Every tender morsel
of steak is at His behest and His provision.
We need not pray for bread. Our
Father knows that we have need of bread, and all other provisions. We need to give hearty thanks for the gift of
Christ, from whom all these physical things are given. Thank You, Father.
The Father’s Forgiveness
“You forgave us our
debts.” For Christ’s sake in His
suffering and death, “[the Father] forgave us our debts.” These are not trespasses, these are things
owed to God, they are obligations. As
Matthew 18:23-35 so abundantly, clearly, and painfully emphasizes: the
unforgiving servant might have been forgiven his infinity of debt without even
asking. His forgiveness of his neighbor’s
debt is not the condition of his forgiveness; the Father forgives without any qualification,
for the sake of the Son: we are expected to live by the laws of this kingdom of
God’s forgiveness. “As we forgive our
debtors.” We are as children, so these
are shoes we will have to grow into.
Yet, if we never learn the nature of the Father’s loving forgiveness,
and the necessity of reproducing it in our lives: only unspeakable terror
awaits us; the tormentors will surely come.
Thank You, Father: for making us a forgiving people.
The Father’s Deliverance
The last phrases indicate
a concession on our part. “Even though
You did not lead us into peril or temptation.”
God tempts no one. We have no one
but ourselves to blame for the many perils and temptations into which we have
fallen: we are the cause of every one of them.
Even so You delivered us from the evil.”
Deliverance has already taken place.
Learn to say thank You, Lord.
Were these things not at Satan’s instigation? Yes, of course they were; but, Satan has
never had power over our wills: we let ourselves be persuaded. We do need to exercise our wills against
Satan’s wiles: but we don’t especially need to pray about that. What we do need to pray for is wisdom (James
1:5). Thank You, Father.
A Liturgical Response
The words, “Because, from You is the kingdom, the power, and the Glory, into the
ages. Amen.”, are not part of the Lord’s
Prayer; they are the appropriate liturgical response of the people, whenever
the Lord’s Prayer is read in a public worship service.
The Son’s Explication
The words, “For if you forgave men their
side-falls, then Your heavenly Father will forgive you. Yet if you forgave not men their side-falls, neither
will your Father forgive your side-falls.”, are not part of
the Lord’s Prayer either; they are Jesus’ explication of the true
meaning of forgiveness. If we need additional
details we look to Matthew 18, 25, and 28; passages where we learn that God has
a world full of forgiveness. These
particular passages (Matthew 18, 25, and 28) each summarize the arguments of
the previous materials, all of which build in these passage as the summary and
climax of the point: God forgives.
The Popular Talisman
Now we are freed from
using the Lord’s Prayer as a heavenly “rabbit’s foot”;
which, if only rubbed the right way, forces God to grant us every item on our
wish list. The Father’s plan is perfect
from beginning to end. It cannot be
increased or decreased; it cannot be changed.
The purpose of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving is not to change God’s
will, which is carved in stone; the purpose of prayer, praise, and thanksgiving
is to change us: are we paying attention, are we listening? It is appropriate to be thankful and to say
thank You. It is appropriate to become
more forgiving every day. It is
appropriate to seek wisdom: The Spirit is a patient teacher.
Imperatives
Doubtless, someone will now claim that these verbs are all
imperatives, which is the normal form of prayer. This claim is true; let me explain why it
cannot apply.
Please
If this were the normal Hebrew form of prayer, which we might
expect; it would include the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word for please:
this word is missing. We do not boss God
around. We do not tell Him what to
do. We cannot come to Him without
respect: this much should be obvious.
You
The normal form of prayer is always cast in the second
person, which is the only form of imperative found in the English
language. Yet, the first three of these
verbs are in the third person: “Your Name was consecrated by Him; Your kingdom
came in Him; Your will was begotten with Him.
The normal form of prayer does not explain any of these uses. English does not know what to do with a third
person imperative: we suggest that an exclamation point be attached to each
verb. The third person cannot be made
into a request; but, it can be understood as a Praise!
Present
The normal form of prayer is always cast in the present
tense. Humans are simply incapable of asking
in the past or in the future: the only thing that human beings have is now.
Unsought
If the fourth verb were in the present tense, the second
person imperative might be interpreted as a prayer; but, the manna came without
the Israelites asking: it was only appropriate that they show their gratitude. Similarly, when Jesus, the true manna came,
they rejected Him, when gratitude is the only appropriate response. The verb is again cast in the simple past
tense: appropriate for Praise; but, not for petitions.
Unlimited
The same thing is true of forgiveness, which is also cast in
the second person imperative, simple past tense. God has already forgiven us, we need to
listen, be thankful, and become forgiving.
Obligation
“We forgive” is the only verb cast in the present tense: it
expresses what we must do, what we must become like.
Hypothetical
The verb is not imperative, it cannot be a request at all;
it is subjunctive: “You [Father] could, should, or would not have led us into
peril or temptation.
Deliverance
The last verb returns to the second person imperative, simple
past tense. How are we, who are so
insensitive to our own danger supposed to have wisdom to ask for deliverance? God has already delivered without our asking. He delivers from dangers that we do not even
realize exist.
Conclusion
Nothing about this structure conforms to the standard second
person imperative, present tense of prayer, which is always rendered politely
with the word please.
[1]
It was long before 2010
[2]
These words all mean the same thing: to set apart from the ordinary.
[3]
A Hebrew exclamation, a declaration of surprise, meaning, “What is it?”
[4]
If you have been blessed or helped by any of these
meditations, please repost, share, or use any of them as you wish. No rights are reserved. They are designed and intended for your free
participation. They were freely
received, and are freely given. No other
permission is required for their use.
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