April 19, 2016

On a hillside overlooking the Sea of Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth was asked by his disciples for instructions on “how to pray”. In response, Jesus recited a short prayer. This prayer is recorded in the Gospel of Luke (Ch. 11:2-4), and the Gospel of Matthew (Ch. 6:9-13) and possibly both the version from Matthew and Luke were in circulation among the early Christians.

The longer version of this prayer from the Book of Matthew has become the standard in our liturgy and should be a part of everyone’s daily prayers. Most Christians are taught the “Lord’s Prayer” at a very early age, either through attendance in the church or they will learn it in confirmation. And a lot of people will continue to recite it throughout their lives either privately, at churches, schools, or social events. The recital is automatic and flows from the mind and tongue with robotic familiarity. But that is part of the problem, it becomes too robotic and automatic that we forget what we are saying.

The authors of Luke and Matthew were writing over a half century after the prayer was composed and delivered by Jesus. What was their source other than it was spoken by Jesus? Possibly the whole was taken over from the “Didache”, which in its original Jewish form may have contained the prayer exactly as “the disciples of John” were wont to recite it. From the Talmudic parallels (The Talmud is a huge collection of doctrines and laws compiled and written before the 8th Century, A.D., by ancient Jewish teachers. The Talmud, which often cites the Old Testament, is the basic book of Jewish law. There are two versions, The Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds. One was composed by Babylonian Jews and one by Jews who lived in ancient Jerusalem. Generally a citation from the Talmud refers to the Babylonian version, which is considered authoritative. The Jerusalem Talmud is not generally taught in even the most Orthodox Jewish schools today, though advanced Talmud scholars sometimes study it.) we can discern that it was customary for prominent masters to recite brief prayers of their own in addition to the regular prayers; and there is indeed a certain similarity noticeable between these prayers and that of Jesus.

So, even though many may say this prayer should be called “The Disciple’s Prayer”, and John 17 should be called “The Lord’s Prayer” (look it up and read it), we will look at this prayer more closely, and see what Martin Luther had to say about each petition.

Pastor Dave