April 28, 2016
The Lord’s Prayer

“What does this mean?–Answer.
We pray in this petition, as in a summary, that our Father in heaven would deliver us from all manner of evil, of body and soul, property and honor, and at last, when our last hour shall come, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale of tears to Himself into heaven.
Amen.

What does this mean?–Answer.
That I should be certain that these petitions are acceptable to our Father in heaven and heard; for He Himself has commanded us so to pray, and has promised that He will hear us. Amen, Amen; that is, Yea, yea, it shall be so.” (Small Catechism)

So, we are to pray that the Father will deliver us from evil. How does G-d do this? Well, the true rendering of this petition is to deliver us from the “evil one”. Jesus prays the same thing in the prayer that probably should be called the “Lord’s Prayer” where he expands it and answers the question. If you compare John 17 to the Lord’s prayer (John 17) Jesus says: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one…Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Now that should not be a surprise to us that he says to the Father, “There is an evil one out there. His primary strategy is deceit. Please, guard them from that evil one. And here is the way I think you should do it.”

In the words of Jesus, and in Jesus who is “The Word Incarnate” we have a truth in his life and in his teachings that show us how to live, how to love, and how to be one with the Father. But it is not something that we should take lightly – or a word that we should only read occasionally. To be protected from evil and the “evil One”, we need to be immersed in the Word and seeking a daily relationship with the “Word Incarnate”, Jesus. This is the best way we can keep evil at bay in our lives, and to keep the evil one as far away from us as we can.

Pastor Dave