As we continue in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus talks about generosity and then prayer. It is very fascinating that in his prayer to the Father he prays for the Father and what is no doubt heavy on the Father's heart. The second half of the prayer when the pronoun "you" is added it becomes a prayer of gratitude for what God is doing for us. This is a very inspiring perspective of prayer.
SHOW NOTES
C. Jesus’ teachings supersede Moses’ teachings continued
7. Generosity (6:1-4)
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Anonymous generosity is a discipline or a virtue because we all desire affirmation. Notice the assurance of reward in heaven in this passage. Salvation is not a reward but a gift (John 3:16; Ephesians 2:8-10; Romans 5), however there are rewards for the way we lived our saved lives.
8. Prayer (6:5-15)
5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
There is a place for public prayer. Secret prayer is about our secrets, what no one else needs to know about. It is dealing with out own selfishness and love of display. It is mourning our own frailty and failure. This is the emphasis Jesus is giving to real prayer.
7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
This statement by Jesus is ignored by devout believers. Believers feel it necessary to explain to God what he needs to do. The place and time of God’s action is also prescribed. God is apparently ignorant of who is ill or in difficulty and where they are. Not only these failings are God’s but we think we are kinder than God because we then beg, exhort, demand that he do something that we have decided he must do. To add to all these insults, we then keep reminding or asking God as if he has a poor memory. Luke 11:1-5 is used to justify this repetition even though this interpretation contradicts the advice of Jesus on this topic in verse .
Jesus protests this mistreatment of God by the rhetoric of this model prayer.
9 “This, then, is how you should pray: “‘Our Father in heaven,
The Jews claimed Abraham as their father (John 8:39) so Jesus had to make it clear that he was addressing his father, who was alive in heaven and not dead like Abraham. God is never referred to as a personal father in the Old Testament. He is the father of Israel, is like a father but he is primarily the Creator in whose presence you might die because of his glory and majesty. This is why we have the following statement.
That was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God (John 5:18)
hallowed be your name,
Name in the bible means character. When there is a character change a name change follows. Jacob to Israel is an example. “Hallowed” means honoured, respected, admired, to hold in awe. In Jesus’ day God was a resource to appeal to for rain, for victory against enemies, for prosperity. He was also to be propitiated by material gifts at the temple and repentance. Jesus came to change this view of his father (5:39-47).
10 your kingdom come,
Jesus came to announce the Kingdom of Heaven/God had arrived in himself. These teachings from the mount reflect the reality of this kingdom. He had come to establish a beachhead into the Kingdom of this World and to predict its overthrow. This is the kingdom of humble, mourning, thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure hearted, persecuted citizens who have the joy of Jesus and his gentleness in their hearts.
your will be done,on earth as it is in heaven.
God’s will is that all must be saved (John 3:16-17; 1 Timothy 2:4) and have abundant life (John 10:10). God’s will is to love and serve each person as if they were the only person in the universe. God’s will is that nothing is to much trouble to achieve his desires for us. He is willing to be executed by us if this will accomplish his will. This is the way it is in heaven and what it will be on the New Earth.
God is kinder than we are. If someone is ill God notices and sends his angels to care for the person. When we hear about the need of the person it is a call to action for us. It is not the time to roll back this responsibility on God but to call, message, visit the person because we are God’s arms, legs and mouth.
11 Give us today our daily bread.
In verses 7 and 8 Jesus admonishes his disciples not to babble and repeat their requests for his father knows what they need before he is asked. He cares for the birds and flowers, how much more will he care for us (6:28-30). We cannot allow this request to contradict “God knows what you need before you ask him.” What is missing in the verse is the personal pronoun, “You.”
Verse 11 then becomes “You give us this day our daily bread.”The request is thus transformed into a statement of thankfulness and praise. This is why we say “grace” before we eat. It comes from a time when having food was the exception and not the norm it is today. The personal pronoun is also missing in the next two sections of the prayer.
12 And forgive us our debts,as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Adding the personal pronoun means this verse becomes, “And you forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” This is the only conditional sentence in the prayer. If we do not forgive others, we lose the conviction that God has forgiven us. This is the unpardonable sin. Calvery is the guarantee that all sin has been forgiven by God. If we refuse to forgive others it means, we have not grasped the wonder of God in his forgiveness. How then shall we believe in Jesus Christ our Saviour? Jesus will come back to this situation in his only comment on the prayer in verses 14 and 15.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
James 1:13 categorically states that God never tempts anyone. If we allow this request to stand as it is we have a contradiction as the request implies that God leads us into temptation if we do not ask him not to do so. Adding the personal pronoun means it becomes, “And you lead us not into temptation.” The contradiction is then removed.
but deliver us from the evil one.
Finally, we add the pronoun one more time. We then have, “but you deliver us from the evil one.”
One may ask if it is permissible to add the pronoun. This is a great question because this addition changes the meaning as we have noticed. If we do not add it, we have three contradictions which must lead us to ask why this is so. Greek is not strong on pronouns. English is strong in this area of grammar. We can recognize translator bias and correct it.
Some modern translations have corrected the situation. Here are three examples. There are more.
13 (NLT) ‘And don’t let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one.’
13 (CEV) ‘Keep us from being tempted and protect us from evil.’
13 (ERV) ‘Don’t let us be tempted but save us from the Evil One.’
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
This comment may seem harsh and unmerciful until it is realized that God has forgiven all sin (Colossians 2:13-14; Ephesians 2:4-7). When we refuse to forgive another, it means that we hold ourselves in more authority than God himself. God has forgiven the person who we refuse to forgive. It is arrogance and leads to disbelief in God’s forgiveness of our own sin. Judas is an example of someone who came to the place where he did not believe he could be forgiven and took his own life. This after he had healed the sick and cast out demons with the other disciples.
Kommentarer