Today we start an exposition of the Lord’s Prayer. It is fitting to start this today, since this is Fathers’ Day in the United States of America. In this prayer, Jesus shifted the paradigm of our relationship to God. Look at His words as Matthew recorded them.
“9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. 11 Give us this day our daily bread. 12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
Jesus introduces the prayer by telling us to pray like this. He isn’t telling us to repeat His words verbatim, but telling us that all of our supplication to God should be modeled after the one He has given us here. We have become used to the words and cadence of the prayer Jesus gave us. So we merely repeat His words, not even in vesting them with meaning from our own hearts. This is not as Jesus intends. If you chose to pray these words verbatim, at the very least understand and agree with them in your heart. Anything else is vain repetition.
In the address of the prayer Jesus changes the way we relate to God. Until this very moment in history, humanity saw God as a despot, a king, a creator, a lawgiver and a judge. From the moment of this sermon to now, God is far more intimate with us, our Parent. The relationship is revealed as one of a father to his child because in the culture Jesus addressed that was where the power and love abide. We have a more egalitarian culture today, thanks in most part to Jesus’s treatment of women, that views a mother as equal or even superior in love and authority to a father. So in our times when we see God referred to as “Father” we ought to remember that the love and nurture of both parents is manifest in God and He (another anachronism held over from the ancient culture) is both Father and Mother.
Jesus goes on to specify that God our Father is in Heaven. Jesus is not implying that God the Father is remote and disconnected from His creation. On the contrary, God permeates everything that is. By His very Name we know He is existence itself. (See my post on The Name of God.) But no other being is in Heaven like God. Heaven is His Throne, and the Earth is His Footstool.
Jesus specifies which Father we are addressing when He uses the phrase Who art in the heavens. That is the literal translation. The Greek word rendered heaven is plural. This could refer to multiple realms above our own, or to the majesty of the realm of God. I am unable to glean from the body of writing on the subject a good and definitive answer. But I actually like them both. God created all realms, and permeates His entire creation. This phrase does not specify that God is not on Earth with us, no sir. It merely specifies that God is the only Father we have that is in all the realms above at the same time.
After the address, Jesus lists seven petitions. The first three are intercessions, requests of God on behalf of someone or something outside of ourselves. The last four are supplications, requests for the fulfillment of our own needs. We will look at each one as they are listed.
First is the request to make Gods name holy. The verb is in a very difficult form to properly render into English, third person passive aorist imperative. I am not going into diagramming Greek verbs, that puts me to sleep. But in this case it is important because the meaning of what is said is conveighed in the verb. Passive voice means the action is being done to the Name of God. Third person means that although we are speaking directly to God, our command is directed toward His Name. Aorist means that the action is done over a period of time, in this case all of time from beginning to end. Imperative means it is a command by us to the Name.
Looking at all of that, we are asking God to see to it that His Name is made holy in all of time by Himself, by ourselves and by all people. Obviously God’s Name is often blasphemed by the words of unbelievers, heretics and backsliding Christians. God’s name is also blasphemed by the actions of Christians who miss the mark of holiness, that is sin. The misinterpretation of Christian martyrdom also blasphemes God’s Name in the minds of unbelievers. So God has His work cut out for Him to see to it His Name is kept holy.
The second petition is also in the aorist tense, but this time it is active. We ask God’s kingdom to come. Are we asking for some end-of-the-world establishment of the physical Empire of God on Earth? Yes and no. Jesus’s teaching on the Kingdom of God in other parts of the Gospel clarifies what He means in the prayer. Up until the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew tells us Jesus preached that the Kingdom of God is at hand, that is to say here and now. In some places He tells us the Kingdom of God is in our midst, in the middle of our gathering. To Pilate, He said the Kingdom is not of this world. And the Apostles taught a future perfection of the Kingdom of God reigning on Earth. The Greek word used can mean the place the king rules, the realm. But in most of the usage of the New Testament, the word means the condition of God’s rulership, and the people over whom He rules.
The third petition, and the last intercession, is interesting in that it lays out certain spiritual principles that are universally recognized by others, but not practiced enough by Christians. The verb is again active aorist third person, with all the meaning that entails. The subject is God’s Will. We are commanding God’s Will to be accomplished. It is interesting to note that the wording in the Greek is opposite the English rendering in the King James Version. The Greek says, literally, “as it is done in the supernal, higher realm of Heaven, so also on Earth.” This phrase is echoed in pagan magic rituals and in shamanistic rites. “As above, so below,” is a prayer to God to accomplish His will on the Earth even if the Pagans and Shaman don’t recognize it as such. I feel it is a disservice to Christ to flip the order of the clause, because the emphasis on as it is in Heaven is lost, emphasizing the Earthly aspect instead.
This ends the petitions. that intercede on behalf of outside things. The next four petitions. are direct supplications for our own needs, and that makes this a good place to break it off for the day. I will break down the supplications and the Doxology on my next post, hopefully tomorrow.
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