Luke 11:1-13 (NRSV)
He was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.” 2 He said to them, “When you pray, say:
4 And forgive us our sins,
11:1-13 Sayings and Parables on Prayer
Luke 11:1-13 (Year C July 24-30) contain the Lord’s Prayer, a parable of the friend asking for bread at night, and sayings around asking, seeking, and knocking. The organizing theme for Luke is prayer. It continues to invite us to reflect on what it means to love God completely, which involves learning to pray. Jesus has referred to the Father five times in two verses in 10:21-22, expressing the unique relationship Jesus has with the Father. He invites his followers to address God as Father, a father who is generous, compassionate, caring, and and faithful to those who have become children of the Father. There is a message of faithful assertiveness running all through this passage that encourages us to be bold in prayer and confident in the results. I trust that throughout this discussion, I will offer just reason for taking so much time reflecting upon this prayer. I also have spent much time reflecting upon the love of God and neighbor and the Ten Commandments, both of which I think justify extensive meditation, study, and reflection if we are to embrace the Christian life. If I were to author a book on the Christian life, I would give priority to the word of God in shaping that book by focusing upon these three texts. Such a life would embrace the vocation of being a Christian while rejecting both moral rootlessness and ethical legalism. Here is my long contribution to a study of the Lord’s Prayer.
11:1-4 Lord’s Prayer (Mt)
Luke 11:1-4 (Matt 6:9-13) is the Lord’s Prayer, with an introduction provided by Luke. As we discuss this prayer, we will see that the distinctiveness and uniqueness of Jesus occurs in the course of actual human history. His contemporaries could understand him and relate to what he taught. In teaching the disciples to pray, Jesus uses the language of later Judaism.[1] The prayer is for disciples. Every line is about disciples forgetting their own desires and plans for their lives and desiring only what God wills. In that sense, the prayer becomes dangerous for anyone who prays it.[2] We will also see that Jesus commands his followers to pray.[3]
In the canonical context,[4] Luke 10:25-28 has Jesus agreeing that the summary of Jewish Law is to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbors. He told the parable of the Good Samaritan to show that we are to learn to be neighbors to all persons we meet. He visited the home of Mary and Martha, which became an example of what it means to love God with all that you are. You are to listen to Jesus. If you do this, you will find abundant, meaningful life.
For Luke, it is while Jesus is praying at his baptism that he receives his heavenly vision (3:21-22). It was his habit to pray alone (Mark 1:35). He withdrew from the crowds to pray (Luke 5:16). After the feeding of the 5000, he withdrew into the hills to pray (Mark 6:46). Before the choosing of the Twelve, he went into the hills to pray (Luke 6:12). He spent time alone in prayer, and only then does he ask the disciples who people say he is (Luke 9:18). He took three disciples with him to pray, and in the process the three have a vision of Moses and Elijah with Jesus and a declaration from Heaven that he is the Son of God (Luke 9:28-29). People brought children to Jesus for him to lay hands upon them and pray for them (Matthew 19:13). He was well acquainted with the traditional Jewish prayer, the Shema (Mark 12:29, Matthew 22:37, Luke 10:27).
Jesus followed the pattern of personal piety typical of his day. He attended the synagogue for corporate worship and learned its prayers. He had the regular practice of morning, noon, and evening personal prayer. He knew liturgical prayer. Jesus needed these times alone, away from the demands of the crowds so that he could gain clarity with his heavenly Father. He acted with clarity when he prayed regarding his mission, the choice of disciples, his sonship, and how people perceived his ministry. He gained clarity about the will of God and the strength to do it. Prayer enabled him to deal with the struggles that fulfilling the call of God upon his life would bring.
We are told what Jesus prayed in Luke 10:21-22/Matthew 11:25-27, a prayer similar to Ecclesiasticus 51:1, where he gives thanks to the Lord and King and will offer praise to the One who is God my Savior, as well as in Qumran, where I give you thanks, O Adonai, for you have given me understanding of your truth and has made me to know your marvelous mysteries and your favors to sinful humanity and the abundance of your mercy toward the perverse heart (1QH7:26), where you have hidden the source of insight (1QHV 25-26), and where unheeded and recognized remains the seal of the mystery (1QHviii, 10-11). In this prayer, Jesus says the meaning of his ministry is a mystery to the wise, while only babes can see clearly. He then says that all things have been given to him by the Father, but right now, only the Father knows the Son and only the Son knows the Father, but also the prospect that the Son will reveal the Father to others. Jesus is claiming a unique knowledge of the Father and that he is the mediator of that knowledge to others.
A second prayer of Jesus is in Mark 14:32-42/Matthew 26:36-46/Luke 22:39-46. Jesus becomes an example to all followers of Jesus who pray that the will of the Father be done, regardless of the nature of our desires or requests. He addresses God as Abba, Father, admits his desire that this cup of suffering pass, but that regardless of what happens, he does not want his own will accomplished but the will of the Father, with Matthew adding that if the cup cannot pass, your will be done, which is remarkably similar to the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew. Jesus confronts the temptation he has to will something other than the will of his Father. He does not surrender to that temptation and submits to the will of the Father. As Jesus gains strength through his prayer, the disciples are asleep and in their weakness flee from Jesus at the critical moment when the soldiers arrive. The failure of Peter to pray led to his denial of Jesus in the end. Jesus stands in sharp contrast to his disciples as he was tested but stayed true to the purpose of the Father while the disciples were tested and failed.
We are also told of a final prayer of Jesus from the cross. Luke has a version in which the asks the Father to forgive those who crucified him, for they do not know what they do and at the last he prays to the Father that in the hands of the Father he commits his spirit (Luke 23:334, 46). In John, Jesus simply says that it is finished (John 19:30). In these prayers the cross is a fulfillment of the purpose of the Father. In another version of the final prayer of Jesus from the cross, Jesus prays, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34/Matthew 27:46) Here is a prayer connected to how who he is as the Son can also be the crucified one. Here is the reason that the cross is not the final act in the life of Jesus. Rather, resurrection by the Father and through the life-giving power of the Spirit is that final act.
Jesus will also give guidance regarding prayer. He urged that prayer arise from the motivation to pray to the Father rather than for pious display before the crowds (Matthew 6:5-6). He will urge simplicity of prayer and trustfulness in prayer before the Father, who knows what we need before we ask (Matthew 6:7-8). Greek and Roman philosophers could write of those who fatigue the gods with their endless prayers (Seneca, Epistles, 31:5). It reflects the criticism of the worshippers of Baal who tried to get his attention (I Kings 18:26-40), and the Lord says the people can spread forth their hands and make many prayers, but the Lord will hide them from sight and not listen (Isaiah 1:15). The people are not to repeat themselves in their prayers (Ecclesiasticus 7:14). All this contrasts sharply with the simplicity and calm assurance of the Lord’s Prayer. The follower of Jesus can pray with calm assurance of coming before the heavenly Father as a loved child of the Father. Luke will focus on listening to Jesus as the proper stance in meditation and prayer, using the story of Mary and Martha to make his point, where Mary has made the best choice in this situation (Luke 10:38-42). The saying was to let your house be a meeting-house for the sages and sit amid the dust of their feet and drink in their words with thirst (Aboth 1:4). Martha may have been trying to listen to Jesus while she was preparing an elaborate meal. Mary adopts the position of a disciple or pupil. Such an attitude toward women was not universal, as one saying says that may the words to the Torah be burned should they be handed over to women (jSota, 10a, 8). Others thought knowledge of Torah was merit for the woman caught in adultery, which was the basis for R. Eliezer to say it is better not teach women the Torah for it would lead to lewdness, although Ben Azzai disagreed because she needed to know she had required merit (jSota 3:4). In any case, Jesus has no problem with accepting Mary as a disciple and Luke has no problem offering her as an example of an ideal disciple. Martha could have offered a less extravagant meal, but Mary has chosen the one thing needful in this moment. Jesus also taught that it was better to rely upon the grace of God in prayer rather than any achievements in spiritual life one might have (Luke 18:9-14). Jesus urged confidence and persistence in prayer, as asking, seeking, and knocking are done by people at prayer even in the use of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:9-13/Matthew 7:7-11). Regardless of the original intention of the parable, Luke uses a story of going to a friend at an inconvenient time asking for help in showing hospitality and receiving a negative answer to stress that going to our heavenly Father in prayer is more like going to faithful friend in our need (Luke 11:5-8). Luke also uses a story of a worthless judge who agrees to the plea of a widow in need so that she stop nagging him to say that prayer is a matter of persistence upon our part, recognizing that we come before a loving Father with our needs (Luke 18:1-8).
The prayer Jesus taught the disciples to pray became central to the public worship and personal prayer of Christians. It was so for the first century Christians. If we look upon the context in which the prayer occurs in Luke and Matthew, we see indications of its importance. In Luke, the prayer is immediately introduced by the disciples seeing Jesus pray, and then asking the Lord to teach them to prayer. It was typical of rabbis who had students to give them an example of proper prayer, and the disciples are asking Jesus for that example. Jesus responds with saying that when they pray, they are to say…. This is not an option. It is a command of Jesus to pray in this way. In addition, the larger context in Luke heightens the importance of the prayer. Luke 11:1-13 is organized around the theme of prayer, and the Lord’s Prayer begins that section and sets the tone. For Luke, the Lord’s Prayer conditions his interpretation of the friend who comes at midnight to ask for bread from a neighbor, since it is suggested by the fourth petition in the Lord’s Prayer. He then includes the sayings about asking, seeking, and knocking, and the saying about God giving good gifts, as encouragements to pray, with the pattern of that prayer being established by the Lord’s Prayer. If we step back even further, it follows the way Luke presents the command to love God with all that we are and to love our neighbor. In Luke, Jesus offers the parable of the Good Samaritan to elaborate upon love of neighbor, and then he presents the story of Mary and Martha and this segment on prayer as elaborating upon loving God with all our we are. In Matthew, the context heightens the importance of the prayer. It becomes an example of how to pray as Jesus advises his listeners to pray like this. It is in direct contrast to the prayer of the Gentiles, who have many words and empty phrases. The Lord’s Prayer has few words that are packed with meaning. the larger context stresses its importance. The central section of the Sermon on the Mount is organized around the themes of the Lord’s Prayer. It is an exposition or commentary on the prayer. Therefore, the first three petitions correspond to 6:19-24, hallowing of the name of the Father by giving allegiance to God. The fourth petition corresponds to 6:25-34, asking for daily bread in a spirit of trust that God will provide for the people of God. The fifth petition corresponds to the 7:1-5, forgiving others by not judging others. the sixth petition corresponds to 7:6, not being led into temptation by not taking discipleship seriously and becoming apostate. Both versions of the prayer become invitations to pray in the context of the pattern of prayer established in the Lord’s Prayer, so that God will graciously grant the request of a person who prays like this.
This prayer was in use in the public worship of the Christians in Palestine at the time of Matthew. The longer form found in Matthew is typical of liturgical texts to add material and to make the text balance. The early church supplemented the Lord’s Prayer with material from the rich tradition of prayer in Judaism.
There are other indications in the New Testament that the Lord’s Prayer was important in the worship of the Gentile churches as well. In this case, the evidence is not as firm. Paul, writing to encourage people that they are children of God, and not slaves, says they have received the spirit of being a child of God when we cry, “Abba, Father.” In an equivalent way, he will say that God sent the Spirt of the Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father.” The emphasis upon the plural pronoun and the Aramaic beginning of the Lord’s Prayer are hints that Paul is referring to some liturgical usage in which the community refers to God as Father, a liturgical text like we find in the Lord’s Prayer. John 6 becomes a commentary upon the Lord’s Supper as understood in the Johannine churches. After a long dialogue with the crowd, Jesus speaks of the true bread from heaven. This bread gives life to the world. The crowd asks that the Lord give them this bread always. The request is like the fourth petition of the Lord’s Prayer. When Jesus says he is the bread of life, he is interpreting the significance of the bread of communion. This interpretation is made clear when Jesus speaks of eating the flesh of the Son of Man and drinking of his blood, and by doing so having eternal life, for his flesh and blood are true food and drink, and those who eat his flesh and drink his blood abide in Christ and Christ abides in them (John 6:35-7). The suggestion is that the Lord’s Prayer in these churches was used with the communion service and that John is giving a commentary on the meaning of the fourth petition by combining it with the Lord’s Supper account known from the Pauline and synoptic Gospel traditions. As we might expect, in John, the fourth petition is not simply a prayer for physical bread, but for spiritual bread, for it is Jesus who brings salvation. This is the spiritual nourishment that we need to be asking for from the Father in the Lord’s Prayer.
The connection that John makes between the Lord’s Prayer and the Lord’s Supper is heightened in the second century church. The Didache was written between 80 Ad and 120 AD. The text was written for the instructions to new candidates for baptism. In the immediate context, they are taught to pray this prayer three times a day. In the larger context, there is instruction concerning the meaning of baptism just preceding and instruction concerning the thanksgiving of the eucharist just following. In the early church, unbaptized persons were dismissed after the agape meal, and only baptized persons were allowed to participate in the Lord’s Supper. It would appear that at least in the community served by the Didache, only the baptized members of the community said the Lord’s Prayer, emphasizing the specialness of the prayer, and that it was for followers of Jesus (Didache 7-10). A further piece of evidence for this connection is given by the gnostic heretic Marcion, who made several alterations in the prayer in 140 AD. First, he added to the beginning of the prayer the invocation that the Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us. This was a traditional baptismal prayer in the early church. He also works with the fourth petition, changing it to a request for “thy bread for the morrow give us day by day.” Marcion makes this petition relate to the Lord’s Supper. A further illustration of this tradition is that in 350 AD in Jerusalem, Bishop Cyril gave a series of Lenten lectures for baptismal candidates. These were people who would be receiving communion for the first time. In his instruction he gave a detailed instruction about the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord’s Prayer was important in the early church, an importance it gained from the first century church. That importance focused on both public worship and private prayer. It served as a model prayer and helped believers to focus on what Christian prayer is. The next step is to focus on the individual petitions of this prayer. There will be an attempt to relate them both to Old Testament and Jewish concepts, as well as using the first commentary on this prayer ever devised, that is, the exposition in Matthew.
The faithful assertiveness Jesus commends in the context begins with the prayer Jesus taught his disciples. It is a succession of imperative statements: "teach us to pray," "When you pray, say," "hallowed be your name," "Your kingdom come," "Give us" and "forgive us" (plus two textual variants: "Your will be done" and "deliver us"). First, the prayer is pure petition. Second, the prayer is short. Jesus also advised that his disciples pray, they are not to heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. They are not to be like such persons because they can have the confidence that their Father knows what they need before they ask (Matthew 6:7-8). Third, the prayer gets right to the point. Instead of heaping one phrase upon the other, customary in addressing deity of the time, the disciples is to address deity with the simple address, “Father.” Disciples do not approach deity as they would in the official court of the king. Rather, they approach with the intimacy of the Father-child relationship. In a family, people speak to each directly. When things are right in the family, people speak to each other with profound mutual understanding. Fourth, the interest of God comes first. The structure of the prayer illustrates what Jesus taught when he said disciples are to strive first for the rule of God and the righteousness of God, and God will add other things as well. Thus, in the version in Matthew, the first petition focuses on concerns of God, while the next three concern the interests of disciples concerning food, sin, and temptation. Fifth, the prayer assumes that God acts through people. The passive form of the petitions could refer to the acknowledgement that only God can fulfill the petition. However, the form is ambiguous enough that we could understand it to refer to the importance of the actions of human beings in fulfilling the petition. The point is, both are correct. Yes, the focus is on the responsibility of God to fulfill the petitions. However, disciples are to hallow the name of God, make space for the reign of God, and do the will of God. God takes the initiative, but because of the independence and freedom involved in creation, God can do nothing in the world unless there are people prepared to participate in the divine initiative. The prayer summarizes all that Jesus wanted and hope for in his mission on earth.[5]
The prayer reflects the specific situation in life of Jesus traveling through Israel with his disciples. Jesus lived an irregular life. He was on the move, announcing the coming rule of God. They rarely knew what each new day would bring. Foxes have holes, birds have nests, but the Jesus has nowhere to lay his head (Matthew 8:20). Jesus also had local followers. He healed some, he had friends, supporters, sympathizers, and those curious in a good sense. The traveling Jesus and his disciples, defenseless and without means, needed these local followers to survive. The life situation of Jesus and his disciples distinguished him strongly from the zealots who were also on the move in Israel, gathering followers and weapons for their revolt against Rome. The mission discourse in Luke 10 sharply distinguishes Jesus and his disciples from the zealots as they stood for peace rather than violence and war. Jesus wants to gather eschatological Israel as a place of peace, rejecting violence and holy war. The disciples left home and family and form a new family. In inviting the disciples to address God as their Father, Jesus is acknowledging the new family and a new way of life. God cares for them as their biological fathers had previously done. They can trust in God unconditionally. His disciples leave their old, natural families for the sake of announcing the reign of God. They have found a new family with hundreds of new brothers and sisters (Mark 10:30).[6]
We may best define who a Christian is by saying a Christian is one whose life is a calling upon God to make the Lord’s Prayer a reality in oneself, in the church, and in the world.[7] Approaching the prayer this way reminds us that Christian life is not a legalistic approach to life. Rather, the Christian life is a prayer that we spend a lifetime learning to pray. The prayer looks forward to the day when God will make this prayer a reality. We will see repeatedly that this prayer is teaches us that prayer is not a technique by which we get what we want. Rather, prayer is a matter of bending our will to what God wants. The Christian life, then, is a journey in which we steadily learn to bend our will to the will of the Father. The prayer involves the Christian life in an eschatological orientation. Eschatology refers to the goal of history toward which the Bible moves and the biblical factors and events bearing on that goal. Thus, the Christian life is one lived in the time between the ascension of Christ in the power of the Spirit and his return, when Christ will perfect the will of the Father for creation. The Christian life intimately connects with the gathering of the people of God in the church, as the power of the Spirit constitutes the church in order to witness to the coming rule of God.[8] Now is the time for the people of God to hear the promises of God and respond with a hope embodied in its prayers. Thus, the key theological question confronting the Christian life is the effect the approaching end of the world should have on the everyday existence of the people of God.[9] In the end, I will want to provide a plausible intellectual vision combined with a compelling account of a way of life.[10] This prayer invites us reflect upon what we may know, what we must do, and for what we can hope.[11]We have the opportunity of learning the meaning and correct grammar of God regarding the Christian life.
Luke provides the setting. The prayer Jesus teaches his followers to pray emerges from an episode in the relationship between Jesus and his disciples. After he prayed, one of the disciples addressed him as Lord (Κύριε), and asked him to teach them to pray as John the Baptist taught his disciples to pray. This shows that the disciples regarded themselves a defined fellowship within Judaism. It is not a request for the right technique. The reference to the example of John the Baptist shows that they ask Jesus for a prayer to distinguish them and hold them together as his disciples. To have a distinctive order of prayer was a mark of fellowship for religious groups of the time, including the Pharisees and the fellowship at Qumran. The request shows the followers of Jesus view themselves as his community. Thus, while the prayer offered is a model for proper prayer, it is also a formula, a token of recognition.[12]
Jesus offers a prayer for them to use. The response of Jesus focuses upon nurturing a relationship with the Father. The simplicity of the address bookends nicely with the parable which follows in which Jesus makes the pointed observation that God does not need to be browbeaten into submission before he acts upon our petitions (11:9).
The prayer Jesus now recites is another way to create in his followers the proper attitude they should maintain as disciples of the kingdom. Jesus was trying to instruct his disciples how to pray, not so much what to pray.
Our Father ... your name be revered. Impose your imperial rule, ... Provide us with the bread we need for the day. Forgive our debts to the extent that we have forgiven those in debt to us.
In Luke, the disciples of Jesus fear they will not have the language of prayer in accord with Jesus, so they ask him, “Lord, teach us to pray” (11:1). Jesus responds by instructing them to speak to God as they would speak to a member of their own family, calling God “Father” — an expression of intimacy and familiarity. This is how followers of Jesus are to address God. This is followed by two short petitions in the second person, your name be revered. Impose your imperial rule, and two longer petitions in the first-person plural, Provide us with the bread we need for the day. Forgive our debts to the extent that we have forgiven those in debt to us. and a short closing petition, lead us not into temptation,[13] asking God not to withdraw the divine hand from them, keeping them against tests from ungodly powers that accompanies all affliction.[14] They should ask for bread, for forgiveness, for deliverance, and they should trust God to give them whatever they need. Intimacy, trust, and expectation. These are the attitudes that Jesus advises his disciples to adopt as they begin to learn the language of prayer. He encourages them to approach God in the same way that they would approach a loving parent, and to trust God to hear their prayers and answer them in ways that meet their needs.
Luke's version of the Lord's Prayer has six basic points: honor God (11:2b), yearn for God's reign (11:2c), rely on God's daily providence (11:3), seek God's forgiveness (11:4a), forgive others (11:4b), trust God's protection (11:4c). This is a community empowerment prayer, not a personal piety prayer. It is a prayer about being in relationship with God and humankind where the interface of the divine-to-human and the human-to-human specifically centers in forgiveness.
The Father is not going to grant any request that does not conform to the priorities of the kingdom of love, peace, and justice. The language of prayer has its own internal logic. Prayer assumes that you are in a relationship with God and desire to be the person God wants you to be. One of the most important rules is that the requests of a disciple must agree with the intentions of the Lord.
The sanctity of the name of God revisits the common Jewish understanding of God's name being above every other name. The name of God was so holy; they hardly dared to speak it. It reminds us of the many ways we profane the name of God. We can profane the name of God by how we live. To "hallow" is to praise God, to be in gratitude, for what God has done. To "hallow" or "revere" is to give honor, to set apart, to focus, upon the reality and power of God. Jesus wants God’s name to be held in the deepest respect. To revere God’s name is to treasure the essence of who God is. To “hallow” the divine name is to honor and love who God is. When we say these words, we are saying that we want God’s holiness in our lives. This prayer gives us an opportunity think more about the Father and less about ourselves.
The rule of God is not distant, for where God is, the rule of God is beginning. One who prays this prayer prayers to the Father who is near. The rule of God has already come in Jesus, so to pray this prayer is to participate in that reality. This petition is a major theme of the preaching of Jesus in the soon-arrival of the rule of God. This rule would not come by human activity. As in the Kaddish prayer: “May he let his kingdom rule, in your lifetime and in hour days and in the lifetime of the whole house of Israel, speedily and soon.” This is an eschatological prayer. Both petitions have the appearance of God as Lord in view. When the glory of God is revealed, the name of God will be hallowed and all will submit to the rule of God. these two petitions have enthronement themes. They prayer for the coming of the hour when the glory of God will become visible and the rule of God fully manifests itself. it presumes the present is under the rule of Sata and that evil triumphs. Followers of Jesus, out of their distress regarding the present, cry for the conquest of Satan and the revelation of the rule of God. these two petitions express trust in the promise and mercy of God. For the followers of Jesus, this gracious work of God has already begun in the word and deed of Jesus.[15]
Given that the first two petitions reflect the Kaddish, it would follow that the stress is upon the new element that Jesus adds in the “we” petitions.[16]
Give us this day our daily bread is the first petition for daily needs. I direct you to an interesting parallel: feed me with the food that is needful for me (Proverbs 30:8c). The bread to sustain the family tomorrow would indeed have to be given today, for there was no way to store it. Tomorrow’s bread, that is, the bread of life, the bread of the time of salvation, give us today. This eschatological understanding of the petition is consistent with the rest of the prayer. When Jesus broke bread with his disciples, but also with publicans and sinners, to was also the bread of life he shared. Every meal had eschatological significance. Every meal with Jesus is a salvation meal, an anticipation of the final feast at the consummation of the age. That is why they were the Lord’s meals (I Cor 11:20).[17] In Luke 12:15-25 we have the best example of trusting God for our needs. This is a commitment to not worry about such matters. We are to live our lives entrusting ourselves and our basic needs to God. God is the giver. God is the one who gives us what we need. God keeps on giving day by day. We are dependent upon God for all of life. God has provided the resources for our needs to be met. This does not mean we are to work any less. It means we dedicate the use of our talents to the giver of life. We receive from God by faith all that we need to meet the demands of life.
We need forgiveness, a gift that is as necessary to our well—being as basic food and water. Without this gift from God, we would gradually be crushed by the burden of our guilt, a load that grows higher and heavier with every sin we commit. Without forgiveness, we would lose all hope for the future and sink into despair. However, with this gift come release and renewal, inspiration and encouragement, an assurance of pardon and a deep sense of peace.
This forgiveness from God also gives us the ability to “forgive everyone indebted to us” (v. 4). In fact, the two are not to be separated since they are part of the same heavenly package. If we genuinely want God’s kingdom to come, we are going to want to show the same mercy to others that the Lord shows to us. You might say that in the grammar of prayer, forgiveness from God is not a private possession you receive but has a link to the forgiveness you give to others. It is like a subject and a verb. We need both to make a proper sentence.
This petition looks to the great reckoning toward which the world is moving. The disciples of Jesus know that they are caught in gilt and sin and know that only pardon from God can save them. they request this gift today. In including a human action, it is a declaration of readiness to pass on the forgiveness of God to others. This readiness is the indispensable prior condition to forgiveness from God. where the readiness to forgive is lacking, the petition for the forgiveness of God becomes a lie.[18]
In the long history of God’s people, we know that there have been many times of testing — the testing of Job in the Old Testament and Jesus in the New, the testing of the Israelites in the wilderness and the church throughout its history. This petition is harsh and abrupt. It refers to the last great trial. A Jewish morning and evening prayer (b. Ber. 60b says: Bring me not into the power of sin, and not into the power of guilt, and not into the power of temptation, and not into the power of anything shameful. Do not let us fall victim to temptation. The point is not to be spared the trial, but a request for preservation from succumbing to the eschatological trial, and therefore protection from apostasy.[19] The prayer concludes with reminding us that the tests and trials of life will come, so we need to pray that we do not abandon our faith when they come.
Therefore, if asked, “Who is a Christian?” the best answer you can give is, “A Christian is none other than someone who has learned to pray the Lord’s Prayer.” It is the Lord’s prayer. This prayer is not for getting what we want but rather for bending our wants toward what God wants. This is the Lord’s Prayer. Our need for someone to teach us to pray sounds odd today. We worship individual autonomy and freedom. Our culture tells we are accountable to no tradition or to anything outside ourselves. The Lord’s Prayer is a lifelong act of bending our lives toward God.
11:5-8 Parable of the Persistent Friend (L)
Luke 11:5-8 (unique to Luke) is a parable without application of the friend aroused in the night by a request for help. It is an exhortation to prayer. Does it refer to a specific petition? Does it refer to a prayer for the coming of the rule of God?[20] I want to consider two ways of understanding the parable, both of which relate to prayer, one involving the point of the parable, and the other involving the context in which Luke has placed the parable.
One would best understand the parable in the context of the honor and shame culture. In the harsh land and the harsh times in which Jesus lived, the culture took the requirement of hospitality very seriously. Unexpected midnight visitors - who had traveled late to escape the desert heat - must be cared for correctly. Jesus uses an almost comic example of petitioning. 5 And he said to them, Suppose or can you imagine that, one of you has a friend, whom one willingly offers service, concern, and sacrifice, and from whom one can expect hospitality or neighborliness even when it is inconvenient,[21] and you go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.’ To seek to borrow a cup of sugar at such an hour and under those conditions might well have been a shameful thing. The friend risks shame and asks for help. 7 And he answers from within, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ The point is, can you imagine such a thing? The people hearing the parable would say it is unthinkable. Any refusal of hospitality would bring shame on him and his family. 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he needs. It depicts the custom of oriental hospitality. Thus, we find a sleepy neighbor, who realized that it would bring shame on him for refusing hospitality, even late at night, so he gets up and gives his neighbor what is required so that the neighbor can fulfill his obligations as host. The central figure is the friend roused from sleep. The point is the certainty that the petition will be granted. If the friend, roused from his sleep in the middle of the night, without a moment’s delay hastens to fulfil the request of a neighbor in distress, even though the whole family must be disturbed, how much more will God respond to the request of the children of the Father.[22] Behind this image is the implied thought that God is Friend of human beings and especially of the followers of Jesus. If even a true friend does not hesitate for a moment to meet the requests of a friend, how much more prompt will God be, implying that God is the best friend who grants the requests of a friend.[23]
The story is realistic in terms of life in a village in Palestine. The wife of the household had no way to store bread from day to day. She gets up before sunrise and bakes the bread for the day. It was also known who in the village usually had extra bread. Nor was it uncommon for a traveler to come late at night in need of hospitality. Thus, the person coming to the door is trying to fulfill the demands of the law of hospitality. When he knocks on the door, the neighbor has reasons for not responding to the request. The door was locked with a wooden or iron bar thrust through rings in the door panels. It would be noisy. Everyone in the one-room peasant house would have been disturbed. But when the neighbor says I cannot do this, this is a disguise for an I will not. The parable is cast in the form of rhetorical question. This question demands a negative answer. Jesus invites his listeners to reflect on the situation. Yes, it would be an inconvenience to be in the position of the neighbor, but if the listener was the neighbor, he or she would respond immediately, even under these conditions.
Jesus uses the metaphor of friendship to drive home the need for faithful assertiveness. On the human side, compared to a genuinely good friend, the persistent (from anaideia) friend falls short. He falls far short considering that a more literal rendering of anaideia refers to shamelessness, even irreverence. If those who are merely persistent receive benefits, then surely those who are faithful will have their petitions answered.
Even then, people may fall prey to varying moods and not respond as they should at a given time. The implied contrast is that God is not like that. God is the perfect friend who will readily respond to your needs. Thus, Jesus counsels persistence in prayer because God is far more likely than anyone else to hear the cry of the needy. God is the one who gives more than is asked. So, in all confidence, leave everything to God.
Yet, the context provided by Luke provides another way of turning the parable into a lesson in persistence in prayer. Many scholars think that Luke has adapted the original meaning of the parable, as it pokes around the honor and shame culture, by putting it in a context of prayer. The comic example of petitioning in the context of hospitality becomes a comic example of the attitude toward prayer Luke is encouraging. In that context, Luke is making an important theological point regarding who Jesus is. Jesus of Nazareth exhibited unity with God throughout his public ministry. The basis of this theological point is that in Jesus we see the nearness of the rule of God. In context, the point of this whole section is that if one is persistent in prayer, God will respond. It stresses persistence in prayer to God. [24] If the above paragraph is correct concerning the original meaning, Luke has used the parable for another purpose. The parable becomes an incentive to prayer. At one level, the context offers an implied contrast between God and the unwilling neighbor. At another level, the parable is an encouragement to go on praying even if there is not an immediate answer. The point is not that God will respond to persistence. We misunderstand the parable if we view it as emphasizing prayerful persistence. Rather, the point is that God pays attention to human need. For Luke, the situation to which the comic story regarding hospitality and petition speaks is whether it is worth praying because prayers go unanswered. In fact, the point Luke wants to make about prayer is precisely the opposite. In contrast to the friend who will give his persistent neighbor three loaves of bread at midnight only because the neighbor makes a pest of himself, God will simply give to those who ask, and not only will give, but give what is asked for.
11:9-13 Sayings on Prayer (Mt)
Luke 11:9-13 (Mat 7:7-11) contain sayings concerning encouragement to pray.
In Luke 11: 9-10, we find sayings regarding asking, seeking, and knocking. The saying is like a proverb. It contains the wisdom of the beggar. Jesus invites his followers to look at the beggars and notice how urgent they are, how they will not take no for an answer because they know that tenacity leads to success. The prayer of the follower of Jesus should be as constant as that, and as confident of a hearing.[25] A similar thought is in Deut 4:29, where the Lord promises that if the people seek the Lord with their whole hearts, they will find the Lord. This saying makes the assurance unconditional to those who ask, seek, and knock. This saying makes the assurance unconditional to those who ask, seek, and knock. As finding follows seeking, or the opening of the door follows knocking, so giving follows asking, although in Lk 13:25 some will stand outside the door uselessly knocking.[26] Such a promise is surprising and exaggerated. 9 So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. The emphasis is on persistence of prayer. It encourages the disciples to pray. The promise of response to each request is absolute: if you knock, it will be opened. Jesus may have given such assurances to those embarking on a life of itinerancy in which they would have to depend on human generosity for sustenance. He may have had in mind the generosity of his Father. James 1:5 affirms that his readers are to ask of God, reminding them that God gives generously, and God will give that for which they ask. The broad promise in John 14:13-14 is that Jesus will do whatever his followers ask in his name.
People who pray ask, seek, and knock. Here is an invitation to pray, because the believer has the assurance that the prayer will be answered. Once one asks, seeks, and knocks in prayer, God will give, all you to find, and open the door. A saying of R. Bannajah (200 AD) reflects a similar spirit: When he knocks, the door is opened for him (Pesikta 176a). You will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you; you will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart, I will be found by you (Jeremiah 29:12-14a). You will seek the Lord your God and you will find if you search with all your heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29). Seek the Lord while one can find and call upon the lord while the Lord is near (Isaiah 55:6). The Lord wants people to find: I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me, ready to be found by those who did not seek me, for I said I am here to a nation that did not call on my name (Isaiah 65:1). Jesus stresses the joy of prayer and the certainty of God granting requests. Beyond this notion of prayer may be the common experience of begging in the ancient world. Persistence in begging was essential for sustaining the life of one who begged, remembering that those who begged did so out of some necessity. There was some social responsibility to respond to the beggar, and this persistence reminded people of that responsibility.
In Luke 11: 11-13 (Matt 7:9-11),[27] we find sayings regarding good gifts. They contain two ironic and rhetorical questions about the way parents respond to requests from their children. The sharpness of the questions suggest that it is concerned with the vindication of the good news Jesus preached. Being a child of the Father is an eschatological gift of salvation and brings a share in future salvation.[28] The saying uses the image of the father and son relationship. Jesus uses the metaphor of parenthood to drive home the connection between prayer and results on the divine side. 11 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion?[29] 13 If you then, who are evil, yet your parental love dictates that you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit (good things in Matthew) to those who ask him!” The words are directed against the misinterpretation of his words and actions. Their eyes are closed against the fatherly goodness of God. If they would just consider how they behave towards their children. They are evil, but know how to give good gifts to their children, so why are they unwilling to believe that God will give the gifts of the new age to those who ask?[30] On the divine side, if merely mortal parents can do the right thing for their children, then how much more trustworthy is the providence of God? The argument moves from the lesser to the greater. The context is prayer. The saying assumes that God is good. Requests addressed to the Father will meet with positive responses. Jesus compares the capabilities and sensitivities of evil parents to the response we may expect from God. In response to our childish petitions for food or things, God gives nothing less than the gift of the Holy Spirit. For Luke, of course, Jesus invited his disciples to address God as “Father.” His instruction on prayer concludes with another reference to God as “the heavenly Father.” For Luke, the supreme gift God gives is the Holy Spirit. The stress is upon the good gifts God gives.
The universal nature of the response of the Father indicates once again that prayer is not a matter of the right person, saying just the right thing, in the right company, with the right words. For Luke, the prayer of petition has its basis in thanksgiving and adoration. In the prayer that Jesus taught us to pray, the petitions for daily bread, forgiving of debts, and protection against temptation to apostasy have their basis in the previous orientation to God and the consummating of the kingdom of God on earth. The believer has already decided to submit to the will of God, and petition occurs in that context. In this case, we see the relation of the promised hearing to prayer for the Holy Spirit. [31]Thus, God does not just want us to listen to God, to hear God, or even to worship God, thereby receiving strength and peace. God wants us to call upon God. God listens to the prayer of faith. People can call upon God in definite prayer for what they need, with the expectation that God will provide, with wisdom, of course, what they need.[32]
The faithful assertiveness of being bold in prayer (11:5-8) and confident in results (11:9-13) is a powerful spiritual reality. At the same time, we all know people of profound faith, hope and love whose most fervent and abiding prayers have not resulted in an end to suffering, consolation for grief, the slightest happy ending or even a new plotline that might redeem tragedy. Being bold in prayer and confident in results can and does happen -- but it is not a formula to wave around glibly.
Potentially underscoring that prayer is not a magic formula is a textual variant of 11:2 that reads: "Your Holy Spirit come upon us and cleanse us." (See footnote in the NRSV, v. 2.) Here, as the Holy Spirit comes upon us, we more fully encounter God's presence and solidarity with us. Moreover, as the Holy Spirit cleanses us we are renewed by a sacred source of forgiveness and restoration with God and one another. If this textual variant holds up, then the reference in 11:13 to God giving the Holy Spirit to those who ask connects more directly to the Lord's Prayer. Even if not, it is clear from the way Jesus frames the discussion in 11:9-13 that what we need most to ask, search and knock for is the gift of the Holy Spirit. Thus, the Lord's Prayer is not so much about any one personal petition as it is a matter of the community being drawn together and equipped for discipleship by the power and purposes of the Holy Spirit. For Luke, Jesus is encouraging us to pray with persistence, using the language of prayer to plead for what we need, assuring us that the Father will hear our prayer and answer us. Prayer is about a relationship with the Father first, and therefore gratitude and praise. Prayer is about a focus on what the Father wants in the coming of the kingdom. However, Jesus encourages us to come to the Father with our requests, confident that, Father in divine wisdom will grant the desire of our hearts. The language of prayer preserves this relationship and keeps it from extinction. The community of faith has the challenge of creating a healthy habitat for prayer, one in which we are not afraid to ask for the gifts we need for physical and spiritual health. We must not be afraid to search diligently for the will of God among the many competing agendas of contemporary life. We must not be afraid to knock repeatedly on the door to God’s kingdom, knock persistently through disciplined daily prayer, knock faithfully and forcefully with the full conviction that our Lord loves us and wants to meet our needs.
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[4] I did a paper in the early 1980s on “Jesus and Prayer,” I assume for a class, which I have adopted in the opening paragraphs here. I like the way the paper resists treating the Lord’s Prayer as an abstraction, but rather, sets it in the context of all that Jesus did and said regarding prayer.
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[7] I am working on approaching this prayer as expressing the aspiration and desire of the Christian life. I do so at the suggestion of Karl Barth in his Christian Life, lecture fragments on the incomplete Volume IV.4 of Church Dogmatics.
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[14] Seesemann, TDNT, VI, 30-31.
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[21] Stahlin, TDNT, IX, 161.
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[23] Stahlin, TDNT, IX, 164.
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[26] Bertram, TDNT, III, 955.
[27] Forester, TDNT, V, 579-80, where Matthew is the more original form.
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[29] Luke changes the similarity that Matthew had between bread and stone, fish and snake.
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