What's Missing in the Lord's Prayer

November 28, 2010
Matthew 6:9-13
More word studies from the Lord's Prayer

What's missing?

Jesus gave His disciples a prayer to help them (and us) connect more closely to God. The disciples already had several models of prayer from the Psalms and from traditions. The class listed several items that are sometimes included in prayers but which are not specifically mentioned in the Lord's prayer.

• "In Jesus' name" from John 14:13-14
• Holy Spirit
• Doctrines
• Vengeance, as in many of the Psalms
• "Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever" was not in the earliest forms of the prayer
• Health or safety, yet many of our public prayers concentrate almost exclusively on hospital lists
• Telling God what's going on
• "Teach me your word, teach me your way"
• Preaching or making announcements (sometimes a temptation when someone forgot to cover things earlier in the service!)

Of course, not having the words doesn't mean the ideas weren't covered. The prayer has been prayed in public settings for nearly two thousand years, and it was probably intended as a public prayer. But it has served as a model for private prayer just as long.

The phrases "Your kingdom come, your will be done" are perhaps another way of saying "In Jesus' name," and probably inspired "Thine is the kingdom, power, and glory." And of course, the words of the prayer are Jesus' words, so that praying them may indeed be considered "in Jesus' name."

Asking God for what is needed today is easily expanded to cover more than daily food, so may include teaching or health.

Vengeance may actually be forbidden by the prayer, though asking for God's will may be seeking His justice.

And preaching, teaching (even doctrine), and making announcements are focused on communicating with each other, not with God.

Last week, the class looked at "Our Father." We continued looking at specific phrases.

In heaven: Where is God? The Old Testament often focuses on God's presence in Jerusalem, and in the temple (Psalms 48, 123), though it also shows that God is not localized anywhere (Psalm 122, Isaiah 66).

In Roman times, there were different gods promoted, with a resulting fear among many that they may not be worshiping their own gods properly. This phrase, "in heaven," might have been a subtle declaration that Jesus' followers were acknowledging the one, true God. The God Jesus leads us to is not a localized deity, only in charge of the temple or city where He is honored. Heaven suggests overarching authority.

We reminded ourselves that God is not limited to a heaven "out there somewhere." We need to balance between "God is not the same as us; He is holy, and He is in charge" and "God is closer than a brother."

We talked about some of the ways we try to keep that balance. Some of us have pictured God sitting in a chair near us in prayer groups, to illustrate His nearness. Some have heard worship leaders who describe God as watching our involvement in the service and challenging us to be demonstrative to show God how much we care about Him. Both these can be helpful, but both have drawbacks. God is more than just another participant in the prayer session, and He is certainly more involved in our worship than as a spectator.

Hallowed be your name: Hallowed means holy, set apart, and sacred. Name becomes a description of who a person really is, including title, authority, and power. We were reminded that the Jewish people have been very cautious about misusing the name of God, refusing even to pronounce it carelessly. For Christians, to take God's name in vain is to live in contradiction to His holiness.

Do our own lives demonstrate the holiness and power of the Christ we are following?

Ancient Hebrew thought suggested that there was power in knowing someone's name. The attitude of Treebeard, in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings, was mentioned: He found the hobbits a bit hasty when they gave him their names right away, and was reluctant to do the same. (As Dale began to address a new topic, Elliott simply said "Dale," stopping the discussion for a moment and causing Dale to look at him. This was a deliberate demonstration of the power inherent in using a name to attract attention and to change what was going on.)

Thy will, debts and trespasses: Our discussions took us ahead to other parts of the prayer, without going into great detail.

When we are thinking of living holy lives, the phrase "thy will be done" can be a challenge to us. How completely do we mean that prayer? All of our life is to be centered upon God.

The class continues to wonder whether "debts" or "trespasses" is the better description of what Jesus was teaching us to forgive. The Greek phrase usually translated "debts" implies moral debts. The word "trespass" suggests crossing boundaries, whether known or unknown. And straightforward financial debts were a burden to many, if not most, people in first century Palestine.