Teach Us to Pray: A Meditation on Luke 11

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place,

when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

And he said unto them, When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

And he said unto them,

Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at

midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me,

and I have nothing to set before him? And he from

within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut,

and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend,

yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;

knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth;

and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone?

or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children:

how much more shall your heavenly Father

give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

There is something very mysterious about prayer. To the outside observer, it seems a one way communication between a person and something or someone else who isn’t really there.  To a skeptic it might seem almost delusional, like the outworking of an inner desire or even schizophrenia, which so badly wants someone to hear their pleas that they make up an imaginary friend—or god—to hear them in their angst.  The Materialist of our age might acknowledge some general medical catharsis which people feel when they pray in times of trouble, perhaps a chemical reaction of dopamine or endorphins which at least provide some physical comfort.  The Scientist might look upon prayer as a dubious pursuit, recognizing that the results of experimentation with prayer can’t be reliably duplicated in the laboratory.  To the unbelieving world, prayer may appear anything from pious poppycock to mental illness to rank fantasy.

Of course, the disciples who were walking with Jesus were not unbelievers.  They had been raised up in the traditions of the Old Testament Prophets, the Word of God given and preserved in the Scriptures, and they knew that their God was both present and attentive to His people’s prayers.  They knew that God both spoke and listened from the beginning of His creation, maintaining a fellowship with His people who abided in His Word by faith.  In addition to their catechesis in the faith of Abraham, Moses, David, and the Prophets, they now found themselves in the presence of the Word of God made flesh—the very God who spoke on Sinai was present with them in the person of Jesus Christ.  From this crucible of faith comes the disciples’ request of Jesus, that He teach them how they ought to pray.

Jesus obliged them, and gave to them the form of the Lord’s Prayer which has been on the lips of faithful Christians ever since.  It begins with an acknowledgment of who God is, His paternal relationship relationship to His people by grace through faith in Jesus, and the holiness of His Name; it then acknowledges God’s Kingdom and His will (known to His people by His Word) in both heaven and earth.  Only then does Jesus teach His disciples to ask their God for their daily bread which would satisfy their daily needs, the forgiveness of their own sins in the context of having already forgiven those who sinned against them, and the plea for not being led into temptation to evil, but rather to be delivered from the evil one.  Matthew’s Gospel adds a doxology to the end of this prayer which parallels the beginning:  For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever.  Amen. 

After He taught His disciples to pray appropriately, which is what they asked for, He then taught them why they should pray.  Jesus showed His disciples that God was their loving Father for the sake of the Son, and that He was always willing and ready to give the good gifts of His Holy Spirit to His children.  Jesus taught His disciples that God wanted them to pray, wanted them to ask Him for His good gifts, and wanted to give His good gifts to them, all for Jesus’ sake.  Unlike the pagans who thought they had to bargain with their gods to get things out of them, or manipulate their gods through incantations and witchcraft, or appease their gods who were either angry or malevolently inclined toward them, Jesus taught His disciples that the true God already loves and cares for them, and is always ready to give them exactly what they need.  The Father revealed by the Son is a good and gracious King, ever desiring the good and salvation of the people whom He created and loves, and ever ready to pour out the blessings of His Holy Spirit upon them that their lives may be full of His love, mercy, compassion, and joy.  He goes so far as to draw the example from fallen and sinful human fathers, who despite their own evil hearts still are inclined to do good for their children, and to ask rhetorically how much more the all powerful, all loving, all good, and ever present Father is inclined to give His children all the good gifts of His Kingdom.

But of course, only faith can rest in such promises, and only faith can really pray to God our Father, trusting in Him for Jesus’ sake.  Far too often, sinful people are quick to pray for wicked things, for selfish desires, and to bend God to their own will.  When God fails to give them the desires of their darkened hearts, they become angry with God or reject Him altogether.  In their sin and unbelief they think God has failed them by not obeying them, when in fact it is they who have walked away from their good and gracious God.  Jesus never taught His disciples to pray for wealth, or prosperity, or political power, or the satisfaction of their appetites—these kinds of prayers begin with the worship of one’s self, and are not prayers of faith in, through, and under God’s Word.  The kind of prayer Jesus taught His disciples is first and foremost a prayer of faith—one that begins in the revealed knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, acknowledges the sinfulness of the person and the graciousness of their saving Lord, and then rests in the Gospel promise that their Father loves them and will give them everything they need in both this world, and the world to come.

What do the answers to such prayer look like?  They may raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out demons, and work miracles.  They may heal broken hearts, restore broken relationships, and salve burning communities.  They may bring individuals and entire nations to repentance before the Law of God, and to faith in His saving Gospel.  They may pierce the darkness of man’s political machinations with the pure light of His Eternal Word.  And they may be the simple bread upon our tables, the roof over our heads, the work given to our hands, and the strength to meet each day’s duty as it is given to us in our callings.  The answered prayers of faith can take many forms in this fallen world, according to the will of God in any particular moment and place.  But the most remarkable and wonderful answer of the prayer of faith is the gift of His Holy Spirit, which comes to us through His Word and seals us by grace through faith in Jesus Christ unto life everlasting—a gift which gives us the new birth from above by Water and Spirit, and the daily faith and repentance to walk with our Father in the reconciliation of Jesus’ Cross forever.  That holy and most precious gift of eternal life is something that cannot be washed away by flood or burned away by fire; it cannot be taken by criminals or tyrants or persecutors; it cannot be wrenched away by the powers of wicked men or the terrors of demonic hordes.  That great and eternal gift of forgiveness, life, and salvation in Jesus Christ is the gift we always and only need, and it is the gift our loving Father is most anxious to give to everyone who will repent and believe in Him.

Hear the Word of the Lord coming to teach you to pray this day, and receive the wondrous gift of eternal life your Father has always intended for you through the shed blood of His Son.  Hear Him, believe, and live.  Amen.