Our Father Teaches Us That, Yes, It Will Be So :: Matthew 6:9-13
In the Ten Commandments, we learned how holy we should actually live our lives ... and most importantly, how we have failed in that, thus leading us to recognize our need for a savior. In the Apostles’ Creed, which confesses the Gospel of God … the one who created us and redeemed us and sanctifies us to grant us the holy life he requires of us.
Now in the third chief part of the Catechism, the Lord’s Prayer, we will learn how this life of holiness, which we live by faith, is readily made available to us by our gracious God. It comes in prayer. True prayer is the act of faith by which we acknowledge the presence of the gracious God. It’s an act of faith by which we receive the good gifts he has promised and is eager to deliver. It’s the act of faith by which we permit the Gospel to express itself in our lives. Prayer is the act of faith in which we acknowledge that we have a new relationship with the Father and with each other. Prayer is not an act of faith by which we can force God to act on our behalf, but it is the act of faith by which we discover that our holy and mighty God is willing to do this because he has already made us his own.
Luther discovered all of these features of the Lord’s prayer, and for this reason he made this prayer the model prayer for the third chief part of the Catechism.
8. The privilege of prayer is no more obvious than when our Lord taught us to begin prayer by saying, Our Father in Heaven.
We have to start here. To whom else would we pray. God doesn’t hear the prayer of those who don’t believe in him.
In his explanation of the Lord’s introduction to prayer, Luther says that this introduction is the gracious and tender invitation to turn to our Lord ... Go to him in this way, he says, just like dear children go to their dear father, trusting. In prayer, we don’t cower in fear. We don’t say there’s nothing to talk about. We pray knowing he will be ready to listen. We know this is true because God has spoken to us in the most tender, gracious, and beautiful way he can ... coming to us in the person of Jesus, the Word made flesh, who in a word, teaches us that his gracious Word ultimately leads us to forgiveness, life, and salvation.
7 Now we can begin praying in faith, confidence, and hope because ... he is not only inviting us to pray ... he is urging us to pray, hallowed be thy name.
Luther noted in his explanation of this petition that God’s name is certainly holy in and of itself, but what we are praying here is that God’s name may be kept holy among us also. When Luther goes on to explain how we do this, he’s thinking of the prohibitions of the second commandment ... You will not misuse the name of the Lord. That commandment forbids us to curse, swear, use satanic arts, life, or deceive by God’s name. In other words, don’t lead people astray by saying that you are a Christian but refusing to live as a Christian. Don’t say you will pray for someone and then not do so.
False teaching about God dishonors his name. Those who do violence to God’s Word ... or who ignore it ... don’t hallow his name. We keep God’s name holy when we rely on it, and listen to it ... praying, praising, and giving thanks. We hallow God’s name when we trust him. God’s name is never more honored than when we then hear the Gospel preached and receive his sacraments.
6 In short we are to live by God’s name knowing by faith who he really is ... and thus, let his kingdom come.
To be sure, God’s kingdom comes even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that we allow it to come among us, that is, that we allow God to rule our kingdom. We are praying for the rightful use of God’s Word. We are praying that God’s Word might bear fruit in our lives. We are praying that we may have true faith in our hearts, making him the Lord of our life.
That’s exactly what Daniel did in our Old Testament reading. Daniel agreed with what Peter and John would tell the Sanhedrin centuries later: We must obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29). Daniel knew it was his duty to pray regardless of the consequences. When he was thrown into the pit with lions, he may have believed he was going into his tomb. But he trusted God. And when they rolled the stone away, we found Daniel was alive ... just like our Lord Jesus. Daniel knew it was his duty to pray regardless of the consequences.
5 God’s command gives us confidence rather than a burden that His Will will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
There are enemies of the kingdom of God that don’t want to allow this to happen. The world is filled with obstacles to the rule of God, and the demonic forces ... yes, demons are real ... are still loose trying to hinder and frustrate God’s rule at every turn. However, we cannot discount our own stubborn wills which can so easily resist the good and gracious will of God.
So what we pray in the third petition is that the good and gracious will of God is done ... that God breaks our sinful will and that we may learn to submit. By this petition we pray that our faith may be an act of trust in God’s will, which we know in Christ is always the best.
4 He gives what he knows we need every day.
Our prayer habits tend to concentrate more on the things we need for daily sustenance than on the spiritual concerns this petition brings. But Luther understood that this petition is for more than what you can eat or what you can wear. We are praying for all that God gives to sustain life, including good government and peace ... and lest you don’t hear me say it, even the sacraments.
This petition is not only for good gifts of natural life but is against those things that hinder God delivering his bread of life to us. We are praying against shortages, famine, bad weather, bad government, and evil men who disturb and disrupt God’s economy that delivers our daily bread out of the goodness of his hand.
3 In the fifth petition come our very lives.
Here we are remembering our greatest need of all: forgiveness.
God is perfectly willing to do that. Above all, he paid the full price for them when our Lord Jesus lived without sin, and then died for our sin. He ensured our sin died on the cross with him. He did this to shed his all-atoning blood for us. On account of his perfect sacrifice, we have the forgiveness of yesterday’s, today’s and tomorrow’s sins. And because our sin died with Christ, we can now walk in the newness of eternal life with him.
He knows we need this daily. No matter how pious we may feel, we are still reminded that we must confess we need him to forgive us our trespasses. This petition is given both to arouse our consciences to our need for God’s forgiveness and to calm our hearts when we do confess.
To this, we then add, as we forgive those who trespass against us. When we do, we have the sure sign that our God has also forgiven us. Because he loved us first, we can love. Because he forgave us first, so too can we now forgive.
2 And know that he will not lead us not into temptation.
To be sure, those temptations are not from God. Temptations are of the devil. That’s why we pray that God would protect us from the devil, the world, and our sinful nature; keep us in his word, and give us the understanding and power to overcome them. He becomes our defender against those things that would destroy us. He knows we will pass that test, at which time …
1 He will deliver us from evil.
What a power our Lord has placed into our hands and on our lips and in our heart with this gift of prayer. Everything that God has asked and required of us he has made known in his Law. What he has accomplished for us we learned in the creed. And now in the prayer he has given us, he shows how we can solicit his help and gain the full benefits of his grace and power. In all the petitions we learn that we can bring all of our needs and cares to him.
There is much in life we shall never understand. However, we can take comfort in the fact that ... because Jesus taught us God’s Word, we know he loves to hear it.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, our Lord himself invites us to rely on his heavenly Father to deliver us out of every trouble and, when our last hour comes, he grants us a blessed end and takes us from the valley of sorrows to himself in the heavens.