January 22, 2025
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
Some of you might be asking… What about the last part that we always say? Why don’t Roman Catholics say it… and why did you leave that out?
We’re actually gonna talk about that in a few weeks… You won’t wanna miss that video and bible study. I know, a bit of a cliff hanger, right?
The Lord’s prayer, in my humble opinion, is probably the most iconic prayer the world over. It is known by practically every Christian from the age of five and up, and probably even many more who are not processing Christians. It’s a simple prayer, and while this might sound strange, Jesus gave it to us as a formula and a foundation of how to pray.
In Luke’s Gospel account (Luke 11:1–13), Jesus’ disciples approached him one day and asked him if they’d teach them to pray as John (the Baptist) taught his followers. Let’s go ahead and read that super quick… because we’re gonna bounce that off another account.
Matthew’s gospel account doesn’t record this interaction per se, instead it’s one portion of Jesus’ longer sermon on the mount. But Jesus’ introduction to the prayer is interesting, and provides a stark contrast to what Jesus taught his disciples in Luke’s account.
Jesus said this to the crowds listening to his sermon (Matthew 6:5–9, ESV).:
n my mind, I imagine Jesus taught this prayer first to his disciples (when they asked him to pray, as recorded in Luke’s Gospel account, and then he taught the prayer to the
larger crowds that had gathered that day. It’s interesting to compare how Jesus said we should pray, in contrast to how NOT to pray.
Jesus’ teaching seemingly steers us to keep our prayers short, simple, and sweet. Moreover, he said His Father already knows what we’re going to pray for… so a question to tackle would be this….
If God already knows what we need, why does He want us to pray to him and make our petitions known?”
We talked a bit about God being our Father in our first session about the Nicene Creed. (Here’s a link to that video for a refreshed).
Jesus said that God the Father’s name is Holy. This word for HALLOWED in Greek, believe it or not, is actually a verb.
It means: to sanctify, to set apart, to consecrate and dedicate.
And of course, with this word being a verb, there needs to be one taking that action. It might seem that Jesus is saying, “Father, sanctify your name, consecrate it or set it apart from all other names.”
There is that, but it’s more likely Jesus was telling us that we’re to keep God’s name and person as THE GOD of the universe hallowed, to remember that He and His name are sacred and to be set apart/above.
Consider these passages that speak of remembering to revere God and his name:
But so often as people do, even us as the Children of God, sometimes we fail in showing total reverence for God the Father. Israel did, unbelievers do… well just consider:
God, speaking through Ezekiel wrotE:(Ezekiel 36:23, ESV).
And… every kid who grew up going to church learned this… I hope. God tells us we’re to keep his name holy and set apart. Moses said this to the Israelites: :
“You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain” (Exodus 20:7, ESV).
How do you think we should respond when we hear people profaning God’s name like that in public? That’s probably situational right… like if it’s our own kids / grandkids, etc… in public or private, I think it’s okay to tell them that’s not okay and that it bother’s God and us…. (perhaps we can teach them by asking how they’d feel if someone abused their name, made it into a by-word or cuss word….
But if we’re in public and we don’t know “the offender,” perhaps then that’s something different… Perhaps we just pray for that person and ask God to move in their hearts.
What do you think?
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