The “Our Father” Prayer
Today I want to take you with me into the gospels for an in-depth bible study on prayer – the Lord’s prayer. The Lord’s prayer is a very interesting subject to explore like John 3:16 and other passages that are very familiar to a very large audience. But even though it is familiar, it has a tendency to be misunderstood. So let’s take a really close look at what Jesus is teaching in these passages. We’re going to break this up into eight distinct parts so that we can really master each concept about prayer that Christ presents.
- Hypocrisy
- Vain Repetition
- Our Father in Heaven, Hallowed be Thy name
- Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done
- Give us this day our daily bread
- Forgive us our debts
- Deliver us from the Evil one
- For thine is the kingdom
So – if we really want to understand the Lord’s prayer we need to go back to the two occasions in the Gospels where it is referred to and let Jesus himself explain what the Our Father prayer is really all about. The first of these occasions is found in Matthew Chapter 6 and is part of the sermon on the Mount which is covered in Matthew chapters five, six and seven; which is in the sermon on the mount.
In the sermon on the Mount Jesus is addressing a number of topics where he is contrasting what true righteousness is like in comparison to what the religious leaders of that day were teaching. Understand that this sermon is a direct challenge to their authority and Jesus is teaching as one with authority.
- He’s not teaching with footnotes
- He’s not referring to various rabbis
- or rabbinical traditions
He just flat out saying:
this is what I say it is
and what I say it is is the truth.
And then he brings up the subject of prayer.
Prayer was a very important part of Judaism in that day and it is still a very important part of Judaism today. The question is: “how does God want us to pray.” Obviously, God does want us to pray. God wants us to talk to him and he wants to answer us.
In Matthew 6:5-7 he tells us what christian prayer is not supposed to be. We read these words:
“When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. “But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you. And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.”
The prayer that is to form a the core of your spiritual growth is supposed to be:
A Conscious Conversation with God
and this conversation should be held in a Private Place
Obviously, the first kind of prayers to master are personal, private daily prayers. This is between you and God – no one else is listening in and the answers are completely up to Him. There are occasions in the christian life for public prayer, but that is not the topic Jesus is sharing here. Apparently, unless we have engaged in a life of effective, truthful, private prayer, any public praying we do really is just a show. This is obvious from the fact that Jesus condemned the religious leaders of his day in this passage. They were called hypocrites because they basically prayed to be seen praying whether it was in the synagogue are even out in the street
Hypocrites means – “play actors”
The term comes from the Greek stage. In Greek theater they didn’t wear makeup – they wore a mask to indicate what role they were playing. Even today the symbol of the theater is two masks – one frowning mask and one smiling mask; that all comes from the Greek theater. The frowning mask was for dramas or tragedies the smiling mask for comedies. Everyone in the first century world of the Mediterranean was familiar with the Greek theater. Alexander the great had spread Hellenism and Greek culture all over that part of the Mediterranean world and the near East
So it was quite a put down to say that the Pharisees were actually playacting – that they weren’t doing anything any more religious than an actor on the stage playing out a role.
They were just putting on a show and Jesus warned people that if that’s what you’re doing in prayer then all the reward you’re gonna get is the fact that people see you doing it. They were deceiving others and they were deceiving themselves. Jesus said when you pray go into your secret prayer room and pray to God and have a real conversation with God
Vain Repetition
Jesus then says that the prayer is not supposed to be a vain repetition. He points out that pagan prayer of that day and most of the pharisaic praying of that day was basically a long recitation of written or formal prayers that are said over and over again. This is still true of non-biblical prayer today – it’s not how to pray to God. There are many extemporaneous and spontaneous prayers in the Old Testament. But by the time of Jesus the rabbis had many written prayers that were supposed to be followed that’s what the most devout religious people used for prayer.
One of the tragedies of the Lord’s prayer is that it has become a kind of vain repetition
People use it in a rote fashion and that’s exactly what Jesus said not to do.One of the hallmarks of pagan religion to this very day is repetitious prayer that is not really a conversation with God. Even in Islam with its emphasis on praying five times a day toward Mecca:
- those are memorized prayers
- spoken in Arabic language
- which many of the prayers don’t even understand
In fact, it’s immaterial whether they understand what they are saying or not. It is just a prayer ritual to be performed. Jesus said that is vain repetition
in Christian history over the centuries prayer books have been developed and I suppose it’s fine to use a written prayer if you’re actually thinking about what you’re saying and transforming it into your own words. But just talking through religious words even the words recorded here in what we call the Lord’s prayer is not really effective prayer. In the church tradition that I grew up in we had a form of lowbrow rote prayer: certain phrases that are reused when praying for the offering or praying in public and you hear these phrases over and over again. Even those become a sort of vain repetition it really isn’t praying to God in the sense that Jesus indicated.
- We’re supposed to really talk to God
- and think about what we’re saying
- the pharisees were just going through a religious exercise
Jesus then points out that prayer is not supposed to be haphazard
When we go to God in our private prayer time we’re to think about what we’re saying. It’s not to be a “stream of consciousness” prayer – not something merely haphazard. God said we are to worship Him with all of our heart and soul and mind and the greatest of these gifts is our ability to think – the mind. So Jesus says that were not supposed to be like the heathen during prayer – a kind of unthinking process.
we have a great privilege we get to talk with the Lord of all creation it should not be random on the other hand it should be a real conversation from our soul and our heart to Him. We’re not to use prayer as an occasion to show off publicly, although there is a place in the church for public prayer.But the sort of prayer Jesus is talking about here is in our private prayer life where we talk to God -
- it is to be sincere
- a real conversation
- organized and not just haphazard
And with this understanding of the difference between how God wants us to pray and how religions typically turn prayer into self promotion or a worthless babble of words – we can now dive into what Jesus says prayer SHOULD be.
I hope you’ll Join me again at hungryfortheword for “the Lords Prayer” Part 2
