Understanding the Lord's Prayer

This month, we’ll look closely at the Lord’s Prayer, taking it line by line in order to find some deeper meanings in this familiar petition to God. We’ll ask what it means to us today, and what it may have meant to the first Christians. When it was first taught by Jesus, it was unlike other Jewish prayers in that it was short, simple, private, and spontaneous. Notice that the first half of the prayer is about God, and the second half is about our needs; placing God first in our lives means the rest will follow.
1. (NRSV translation:) Our Father in Heaven… Jesus began by connecting us to each other and to God. Notice there is no “I”, “me”, or “mine” in the prayer. God is Father to us all; we pray as a group of brothers and sisters who share a personal relationship with a loving God, like a child and a parent. God is approachable, yet we are also aware that he is in Heaven and is unlike an earthly human father.

2. Hallowed be your name… God’s “name”, meaning his very nature, is “Holy”, meaning different and set apart from everything else. Jesus wanted us to revere and honor God’s name by our actions, our words, and our worship.

3. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven. Jesus’ message was that the Kingdom of God on Earth had begun, and was yet to be completed in the future. God will do his part, yet there is a part for us to play as well. As this line tells us, the “Kingdom” will be fully realized when we all submit to God’s will for our lives, instead of our own will. We do God’s will by loving God and one another, bringing about justice and peace, and having faith, humility, and mercy. When we all do our part, it will bring the Kingdom of God to fulfillment among us.

4. Give us this day our daily bread… This line may be translated “our bread for tomorrow”. Jesus wanted us to ask God for our basic needs for the coming day. Bread was the main food at every meal, and the symbol of other necessities, like shelter, clothes, a job, and our health. Asking God for them reminds us of where they all really come from. Asking only for what we’ll need tomorrow reminds us to live in trust, one day at a time. The Manna given to the Israelites lasted only one day, and then it spoiled. But the next morning there was more. Like the Israelites, we should live simply, in daily dependence on God’s grace.

5. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors… Another need we have is forgiveness from God for our debts (also translated as sins, and trespasses.) “Debts” mean the obligations we have to God to make amends for what we have done wrong or failed to do right. We need God to cancel these debts, to forgive our sins. But in this line, Jesus let us know that God will forgive us in proportion to how much we forgive each other. We must forgive, and release others from their “debts” to us.

6. And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from evil. In this last line, Jesus prepared us for difficult tests of loyalty, obedience, and strength of faith that God may have in store for us, tests that will shape us into better servants of God. We should not ask God to make us face the temptations or tests of evil, but if that is God’s will, we ask God’s help in overcoming them.

In early Christian worship, a doxology was added to the prayer; “For yours is the Kingdom, and the Power, and the Glory forever. Amen.” Note that “Amen” means “truly, so be it.”

Finally, it is worth thinking about the original context of the Lord’s Prayer, back when the followers of Jesus who recited it believed that the apocalyptic Day of the Lord was near. Viewed in that light, the whole prayer seems to have an End-Times character. Hallowed be God’s name anticipated the response of the whole world to God, once the Kingdom was complete. Praying for the Kingdom to come stressed the urgency felt by the believers in its immanent arrival. Asking that God’s will be done emphasized the goal of the Kingdom. Our bread for tomorrow was a reminder of the temporary nature of the world. Repentance and asking God to forgive were both necessary and urgent. The time of trial was the final test, the tribulation before the Day of the Lord, and evil was the “evil one”, Satan, the Adversary of man.

The Lord’s Prayer has lost this sense of urgency for us today, because the Day of the Lord hasn’t arrived…yet. Instead, the words of Jesus have taken on new meaning to guide us through our lives while we do our part to bring about the Kingdom. As it says in Second Peter, “The Lord is not slow about his promise…but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance.”