Pray in this Manner

Meditation May 28, 2020

Matthew 6

Jesus has set before us, in the beatitudes, the characteristics of His people, His followers, those who by the grace of God have been born from above and made new creatures in Him. He has show how, having been made this new person, we are to conduct ourselves with regard to fellowship, interaction, with our fellowman; not He is giving instruction for our conduct in our religious duties as they are comprehended under three heading; i.e., charity, prayer and fasting. We have seen that our charity, our giving, is to be done, as it were, in secret; the same also is true of prayer. In neither are we to draw attention to ourselves, The pharisees, when they prayed, liked to draw attention to themselves by a flourish of activity or words. Jesus said, don’t do that. It is reasonable that the people, having no example taught them but that of the Pharisees et al. whose prayers were always a flourish surely were pondering in their minds, ‘How then do we pray?’ Luke, in fact, tells us that his disciples, (pupils, learners) asked him specifically how they should pray. Some think Luke and Matthew are speaking of different occasions. It is possible his disciples (his students, followers, learners, for such is the meaning of disciple and we err to always only think of the twelve as we so inclined to do) were a different group on different occasions, or, given we are as we are, it is possible they were the same and had either forgotten what was taught them before or were paying so little attention they had to ask again. Whether the prayer as recorded by Matthew and Luke were on the same occasion or not, it is the same prayer and Jesus says to His disciples

9“This, then, is how you should pray:

Jesus does not mean we should pray these words and only these words. He is giving the pattern after which we should pray, the manner in which we should pray; not the very words we should pray. A mnemonic I learned for prayers is ACTS; i.e. adoration, confession, thanksgiving and supplication. You find those same elements of prayer in The Lord’s Prayer thought not in that order. It is a way of guiding our thoughts and words in prayer so that we are not wandering about in prayer, as a former pastor put it (in regard to another subject) like a drunken farmer following a cow. This is of particular importance in public prayers. Thus, after the following pattern, Jesus teaches His disciples to pray saying,

“ ‘Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

10your kingdom come,

your will be done,

on earth as it is in heaven.

11Give us today our daily bread.

12And forgive us our debts,

as we also have forgiven our debtors.

13And lead us not into temptation, ^a

but deliver us from the evil one. ^b ’

 

(Literal translation in parenthesis follows)

“Our Father (the Father of us) who is in the heaven (heavens)…” God has a unique right to be called the Father of every creature, the father of the beast of the field as well as man. All receive their life and bodies from Him. All, man and beast alike, are made by God and preserved day to day by God. “In Him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28) Thus, in that sense, every man may call God his Father.

Here, however, Jesus is speaking to his followers and thus I think Jesus is referring to that unique Fatherhood of God to those who in Himself have been given the right to be called the sons (children, descendants) of God. (John 1:12) Being adopted in Christ into the special relationship of being uniquely the sons and daughters of God, His peculiar possession and as such having given to us the special privilege of coming boldly to the throne of grace, we may call him Abba, Father.

Some erroneously think this is an entirely new concept; i.e. the idea of God as Father. In fact, as early as Exodus we find God referring to Israel as His son. In Malachi we find God referring to Himself as a Father (1:6) and in Isaiah we find Isaiah saying “O LORD, you are our Father. (64:8) Nonetheless, with the coming of Christ, there is a new understanding of the intimacy and access we have to God as our Father that the saints of the Old Testament seem unaware. David may be an exception for it is near impossible to read through the psalms without being impressed with the intimacy and freedom of speech David had with God. This is so much the case that some say one cannot pray well who does not well know the psalms. And we must not forget in regard to the Fatherhood of God, that at this point in the ministry of Jesus, it was – if we may put it this way – still an OT understanding the people had of God. They were still overwhelming ignorant of the Person and work of Christ.

It may be that the Pharisees had a way of praying that appealed to God as a Being to whom only those of particular righteousness (themselves) had special access and this as a way of reminding the people that it was they and not the  people who were Pharisees; thus, bringing honor to themselves, and Jesus in contrast is reminding the people that God is their Father in all that it meant to see Him as Father.

Thus, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray “Our Father, who is in the heavens….” Why in the heaves? Why not just leave it at our Father? I think it is likely a reminder of the transcendence of God. The God we serve is infinite and eternal and completely unlike the idols of men who gods are finite, made of wood, metal and stone and wrapped up in world, part and parcel with all that needs explanation as is the case with pantheism. At the same time, the God we serve is not like the God of the deists, the Great Watchmaker who put the world in order and left it to itself. Our God is indeed an infinite and eternal God whose ways are higher than our ways and whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts, wholly transcendent above all that we can attain; the one before whom Isaiah cried “Woe is me, I am undone…” when he came into God’s presence, and we must never forget this when we come to Him in prayer and worship. At the same time, He is the God who has made Himself wholly immanent as well, and being in Christ, having had our lips cleansed as it were (cf. Isa. 6) by the blood of Christ, we may come before the Holy One of Israel, not crying for the mountains to fall on us and hide us but saying, “Abba, our Father….”