In the gospel of Matthew and in the gospel of Luke you will find what has been identified as “The Lord’s Prayer.” It is in Matthew 6:9-13 and Luke 11:1-13. The two scriptures differ somewhat from one another. Luke’s gospel tells us why Jesus gave this prayer in the first place. Luke’s gospel says that “one of the disciples saw Jesus praying and when Jesus finished that disciple said to him “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
We do not know who this disciple was but we do know that at least two of John the Baptist disciples became disciples of Jesus. Therefore, it would not be too far afield to surmise that this disciple in Luke probably had been one of John’s disciples based on his knowledge of what John taught his followers.
What also stands out is what this disciple actually asked Jesus. He did not say “Lord, teach us HOW to pray…” He said “Lord to us to pray…” We often rush in our recounting of this scene and add the word “how,” but that word is not there. The disciples never asked “how to pray.” That difference makes a world of difference.
If he had asked “teach us how to pray…” he would have been looking for Jesus to give him a lesson in how to frame words to have the best impact. He would have been looking for Jesus to teach him/them how to gain approval from others in his prayer by how fluently they prayed in Aramaic or Greek. If he had asked Jesus “teach us how to pray…” he would have wanted to know how to pray in a special way that would manipulate God to reward his wants.
This disciple however asked Jesus to “teach us to pray…” He wanted to know why prayer was so important to Jesus, after all he and the other disciples had watched Jesus on numerous occasions pull aside to engage in prayer, oftentimes for long stretches at a time. He wanted to know how to gain the disciple to pray often and deeper. He wanted to be able to make prayer a priority in his life. He wanted Jesus to help him draw nearer to God through prayer.
That is more important than just learning how to string words together.
The other saliant point here is that this prayer has been misnamed by most people. Nowhere in scripture does it say that this is “The Lord’s prayer.” Yet no one will understand what scripture reference you mean if you don’t say, “The Lord’s prayer. It is a classic example of repeating an inaccuracy for so long that it becomes the thing that it is not. Perhaps that is why we must be very careful about allowing the lies and made-up negative characterizations of people by a certain presidential candidate to become normalized. It is a severe danger in normalizing hate, bigotry and disrespect. No matter how many times the officials in Springfield, OH refute the hurtful and hateful claims about Haitian immigrants the former President and his VP keep repeating it in order to normalize rabid racism and hate.
The mis-naming of the prayer in both Matthew and Luke while not rising to the danger that we hear in the current political realm, still holds the problem of proper context in order to accurately understand its content. This prayer is the prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples. It is not His prayer. Jesus’ prayer is found in the gospel of John the 17th chapter. That is The Lord’s prayer. That is the prayer that Jesus prayed himself. It is not the only place in the New Testament where Jesus prays but it is the most extensive prayer that Jesus prayed.
In the prayer in Mathew and Luke that have come to be known inaccurately as the Lord’s prayer it is a sort of model that Jesus presents to his disciples so that they will understand the theme of sincere prayer. It is not something that Jesus wanted them to pray word for word but an example, a model, an ideal of a prayer. Therefore, let us examine the structure of Jesus’s model to ascertain its theme, its focus, its nexus.
What I want to conclude on is a portion of this prayer’s structure and then pick up next week on other insights of the prayer. Please notice that in this model prayer that Jesus gave to his disciples there are no first person, personal pronouns. There are no “me, my or mine.” It is not a prayer of “I.” The prayer however is composed of “Our, We and Us!”
This prayer is counter-cultural and it is revolutionary. I will examine its revolutionary nature next week but its counter-cultural nature is a refutation of a society that is individualistic in nature. It discredits any culture or society that idealizes the individual over the collective. Jesus offers his disciples a model of prayer that focuses on community and the welfare of all in that community. In other words, this prayer recalibrates the focus from me, to we and the welfare of the entire community regardless of economic status or position or privilege. This therefore is a powerful model that seeks to change the landscape of life for all but especially those at the bottom of society. The very frame of the prayer challenges followers to see life from God’s perspective which includes all people.
Be well, Be encouraged and Uhuru Sassa!
Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.” Contact the church by email at [email protected] or by phone at 219-944-0500.
Rev. John E. Jackson
Rev. Dr. John E. Jackson, Sr. is the Senior Pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ-Gary, 1276 W. 20th Ave. in Gary. “We are not just another church but we are a culturally conscious, Christ-centered church, committed to the community; we are unashamedly Black and unapologetically Christian.”