Matthew 6:9-13 … The Lord’s Prayer (05/06/17)
“Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed is thy name … Thy Kingdom comes, and thy Will is done on Earth as It is in Heaven … Thanks to You in this moment for today’s sustenance; for forgiving our trespasses even as we continue to forgive those who trespass against us; for leading us not into temptation but for continuing to lead us away from evil … For thine is the Kingdom & the Power & the Glory in this eternal moment … Amen.” ~ Jesus (Matthew 6:9-13)
As almost all Christians are already aware, this passage is known as “The Lord’s Prayer,” and as almost all Christians are already aware, it is normally read with a much different emphasis and it is normally translated with slightly different wording …
With regards to the latter, most Bibles transpose the Greek manuscripts in a way that emphasizes the future tense – which has the text reading more along the lines of: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our bread for tomorrow. And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. And bring us not to the time of trial, but rescue us from evil.” (compare to Luke 11:2-4) … Note the emphasis here on worshiping an external God “above” whose Divine Plan will come to fruition on Earth at some point in the future – seemingly regardless of whether or not humanity chooses to help or hinder the same.
Note as well that the traditional prayer asks that sustenance be provided to the one doing the praying, begs for forgiveness as a sort of trade-off for choosing to forgive others in return, and closes by asking God to prevent difficulty from arriving in life at all. While all of these emphases harmonize splendidly with the teachings of Paul and the modern-day dogma of the Christian church (which was built on and has been sustained by those same teachings – see Romans 3:21-25a & Romans 5:8-9; also Acts 9:20-22), they most certainly do NOT harmonize with the teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels – teachings that emphasized a Heaven that resides within us (Luke 17:20-21), a heavenly Father that resides therein as well (John 14:20 et al), and a Divine Will that wants us all to become active agents of perfect Love by Caring for our enemies (see Matthew 43-48) and the downtrodden in our midst (Matthew 25:35-40) in order to attain salvation in this lifetime (Matthew 7:21-24, Matthew 24:12-14 & John 13:15-17 et al) …
Not only that, but Jesus noted quite plainly that prayer was meant to be a private expression of gratitude (Matthew 6:5-6) and is definitely not meant to be a repetitive litany of droning dogma (like the Lord’s Prayer has ironically become today), much less a spiritual request for personal favors. Indeed, note that Jesus says as much directly in the two verses immediately preceding the Lord’s Prayer, when he states “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matthew 6:7-8) …
As such, especially in light of the verses just mentioned, it should be clear that Jesus was here not encouraging us to quote the Lord’s Prayer repetitively every week in church, but rather was giving us a general model of the basic contents that every spontaneous prayer should evince – namely the following characteristics:
A) Honoring the internal Father humbly (see John 14:20-26, Matthew 18:3-4 & Matthew 22:37-38) …
B) Noting the fact that Heaven is already potentially on Earth as it is in Heaven (see Matthew 10:7 et al) …
C) Stating that all necessary sustenance has already been provided (seeing as how “bread” for Jesus was the symbol of selfless service, and that selfless service was for him the greatest nourishment available – see Matthew 4:4, Matthew 16:5-12, Matthew 26:26, John 6:32-35 et al) …
D) Reminding us that his Father has already forgiven our sins (see Matthew 5:48 + 1 John 4:18, Matthew 18:21-22, John 5:22 et al) …
E) Noting that each of us has the power on earth to forgive others their sins (see Matthew 9:6 + Matthew 16:28) …
F) Re-emphasizing that the Father – as the essence of perfect Love – cannot lead anyone into temptation (see Matthew 16:23, James 1:13-17, Mark 10:18 et al) and always encourages us to turn away from evil and indeed towards actively Caring for those perpetrating evil upon us (Luke 6:27-36 et al) … and
G) Exclaiming that we are to use prayer to remind ourselves that we are here to do God’s Will, not to have God do ours (Matthew 26:39 et al).
And that is why the interpretation I have provided above has been shifted to the present tense; to allow these verses to better harmonize with The Way of Christ by turning them into a series of Here&Now affirmations of fact, as opposed to a list of selfish requests – by making them an open recognition of what is, as opposed to a future based desiring for what could be.
For true enough, we cannot Love others while desiring for self, and we cannot Faith-fully serve those in need while pining for future rewards or benefits. Indeed, we should “not worry about our life, what we will eat or what we will drink, or about our body, what we will wear,” (Matthew 6:25) for we have all been provided for, and thus all should pray to “be delivered from the wickedness” (the Greek “ponerou” in Matthew 6:13 – Strong’s #4190) of greed & fearful self-focus. We all have the ability to Live & Love, and we should all therefore focus on what we can do for others in our current moment of moments. For indeed, “today’s trouble is enough for today” (Matthew 6:34).
Amen … Let it be so.
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