Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.  (Mark 1:35)

It is notable that Jesus often sought solitude to pray, but what exactly did he do or say?  The Greek verb used in the verse above is προσεύχομαι proseuchomai, which derives from pros ‘towards’ and euchomai  ‘to wish’.  Thus praying is literally an interaction of wishes.

Jesus teaches that the most important element of prayer is focus on the God the Father, as a private and inward act:

‘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…(Matthew 6:5)

He doubtless had the Pharisees specifically in mind, as shown in this parable illustrating their hypocrisy:

To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else, Jesus told this parable: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed:

 “God, I thank you that I am not like other people – robbers, evildoers, adulterers – or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.”

 ‘But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner.”

 ‘I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.’ (Luke 18:9-14)

But such public display of piety is not the exclusive preserve of that sect, but a weakness in us all.

God is not fooled by disingenuous prayer.  He does not recognise dramatic performance but will reward honest and personal petition.

…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.  (Matthew 6:6)

Jesus also teaches that prayer is not about endless repetition.

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.  (Matthew 6:7-8)

It is a commonality of religious practice to say a prayers over and over, a hundred of this, a thousand of that.  Jesus is telling us that this pointless as God already knows your request; either God is omniscient or he is not and no god at all.  But there is another caution, too. God cannot be constrained by our efforts.  If a person asks for something ninety nine times, would rounding it up to one hundred convince God to accede to his demand?

But this begs an important question, as God’s purposes are set and He is sovereign, what then is the point of prayer?

Jesus helps us with this implicit question in the Sermon on the Mount teaching, for in the how is the why:

‘This, then, is how you should pray:

‘“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
  your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from the evil one.”’… Matthew 6:9-13)

This concise prayer is us much a teaching on the activity of prayer, as it is a model to recite.  We will consider this prayer in detail, line by line:

OUR FATHER…

First, we can notice that prayer, alone or together, is always corporate.  The preface of the plural pronoun necessarily locates the individual with the body of Christ.

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.  For we were all baptised by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.  And so the body is not made up of one part but of many…

 …there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.  If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honoured, every part rejoices with it.  (1 Corinthians 12:12-14 & 25-26)

…IN HEAVEN

But note Jesus would have us address God as the heavenly Father.  ‘Our Father in heaven’ speaks both to his imminence and to his transcendence.  The father/child relationship is tender and intimate but He is in heaven, a place no human will ever dwell.  God will descend from heaven in the new creation:

‘Look! God’s dwelling-place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God…’  (Revelation 21:3)

There will be a new heaven and a new earth that replaces the old, so heaven is not dispensed with in the new creation (ibid 21:1).

The intention of the opening address ‘Our Father in heaven’ places the supplicant in the right standing to the Lord of the Universe, who nonetheless is interested in the minutiae of his creation; His care in intimate and He does not lose sight of anything or anyone.  Later in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus demonstrates this care and tells none to worry:

 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? (Matthew 6:26-27)

HALLOWED BE THY NAME

So, while the supplicant speaks as an individual, in Christ he or she must necessarily want to align him or herself to God’s wishes.  But before that comes adoration and this for this it happen God most be ‘hallowed’.

A somewhat archaic word, ‘hallowed’ translates the verb ἁγιάζω hagiazó, which means to make holy, consecrate or sanctify.  The word is borrowed from the Greek borrowed via the Old English verb ‘halgian’.

So the prayer exhorts all to make holy the ‘name’ of God.  But, of course, God is given no name here.  Yet there is no confusion of identity for we all know our heavenly Father as God, so there is no excuse for those who would not glorify Him; ignorance is no defence at the final judgement:

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.  (Romans 1:21)

YOUR KINGDOM COME

The prayer continues with ‘your kingdom come’ and this can rightly be interpreted as the second coming of Jesus, in other words, as eschatological.  When Jesus said the kingdom of heaven (or God) is here, he spoke of himself.

YOUR WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN

Praying that God’s will is done in earth as it is in heaven, is the most obvious attempt to align the heart of the supplicant to God’s sovereign plan.  God’s will is clearly being ignored on earth, while those of heaven are obedient.  Yet heaven, like earth knew rebellion, because a third of angels (Revelation 12:4) who dwelt in heavenly realms refused to do God’s will – this is reminder that eternally speaking all insurgents are and will be contained within hell, visualised as a lake of fire.

And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulphur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever…(along with) anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire.  (Revelation 20:10 & 15)

Thus, Jesus teaches that prayer cannot progress to include request or petition before we are fully aligned, or to put it another way, those requests and petitions cannot proceed from selfish, individualistic and self-motivated desire.  It in this way, we can understand how Jesus can promise that all petition be heeded and granted:

‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened…’  (Matthew 7:7-8)

So Jesus does expect supplication, but on the correct footing; when we aligned with God and his sovereign purpose, we will only want what He wants, so as there is no disjuncture; therefore, God answers prayer.  To put it another way, in prayer the emphasis is never on God to concur, but on the supplicant to cohere.

There is are two qualities that are necessary for this alignment: humility and gratitude.  Paul highlights that all requests must come from and in the full knowledge that all prayer is based on gratitude:

Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  (Philippians 4:6)

All prayer must acknowledge that the activity would be futile with Jesus’ sacrifice and his continued intercession (Hebrews 7:25).

Job longs for such an intercessor:

‘How then can I dispute with him?
How can I find words to argue with him?
Though I were innocent, I could not answer him;
I could only plead with my Judge for mercy…’ (Job 9:14-15)

And why is his petition necessarily doomed?

‘…even if I were innocent, my mouth would condemn me;
if I were blameless, it would pronounce me guilty…’(ibid 9:20)

Only through, and with the benefit of Jesus’ imputed righteousness can any prayer be heard; that is the basis of intercession.   The first plea Jesus directs us to make is for the day’s ‘daily bread’, but we can note that Jesus says that his food is to do the will of the one who sent him (John 4:34) so this is no change of focus or tone on to personal need; moreover, like Jesus, the starting point for God’s will to be done, is with oneself.  The prayer ‘your will be done’ has scant credibility, if we do not keep Jesus’ commandments.

GIVE US TODAY OUR DAILY BREAD

So is the bread ‘food’, or the more general provision to sustain us?  Why not?  Without food all die.  Moreover, any that have gone hungry for any length of time will know that this hunger pangs are terrible and that the need to eat overtakes every other.  (Fasting subverts this and channels this through meditating on God in prayer.) 

The emphasis is therefore on the immediate need, not tomorrow’s.  Echoing Jesus’ teaching on worry, there is no need to care for any moment but the present:

 …seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own…(Matthew 6:33-34)

In this it is the deliberate echo of manna given to the tribes of Israel in the Sinai.  As God says to Moses:

‘I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions…’ (Exodus 16:4)

When we pray for the present day only, we necessarily place the care for tomorrow with God.  Trust is enacted faith.

But does Jesus speak of only of food?  When Jesus is tested through hunger, Satan says:

 ‘If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.’

 Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”(Matthew 4:3-4)

When Jesus fed the five thousand, the likely recipients of the Sermon on the Mount, they pursued Jesus thinking they would get another free meal.  Jesus rebukes the crowd and refers them to Exodus:

‘Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.’  (John 6:33-34)

And then declares himself the bread of life.  So the word and Jesus are one, and this we know from the prologue of John:

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.(John 1:14)

And we need to devour Jesus:

Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.  For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  (John 6:53-55)

Jesus speaks of the spiritual transaction but is misunderstood.  His disciples grumble that this is a hard teaching and Jesus answers:

The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you – they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.’ (ibid 6:63-64)

When we pray for our daily bread, we pray for this.

AND FORGIVE US OUR DEBTS AS WE ALSO HAVE FORGIVEN OUR DEBTORS

Having asked for what is completely necessary to sustain life, the blessing of being in Christ, to protect us from dearth, the model of prayer moves from what we might might or do lack to speak of what we have and must be rid of.

 Jesus implies we are encumbered by debt.  The word here is ὀφείλημα opheiléma and it means simply ‘that which is owed’.

Here then is a distinction between the prayer and the explanation that follows the prayer, one deals with debt and the other sin:

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (vs14-15)

The word for sin is παράπτωμα paraptóma, which means fall away or lapse, literally a false step or ‘slip up’, commonly translated sin or transgression.

In the body of the prayer, debt is a broader canvass than transgression.  This acknowledges that on a daily basis without any deliberate or even non-deliberate transgression, all will fall short.  How can any keep the Greatest Commandments to perfectly love God and others before oneself, for instance?

Paul covers both:

…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…(Romans 3:23)

Paul is not using repetition here; there is sin which is the product of we do, or knowingly fail to do, and accumulated debt which results from our lack of sanctity.  There is transgression and omission, fault and imperfection.

But while there is a difference in what Jesus would have present to God for his forgiveness, we must note that any forgiveness is conditional.  Jesus illustrated this with a parable of the unmerciful or unforgiving servant.  In the parable a servant owes an inordinate sum to his master, ten thousand bags of gold.  This represents a debt that is impossible for him to repay.  Yet, the master forgives him, and we should note that forgiveness, literally means to ‘give away’ to ‘let go of’.  The master gives away his right to demand repayment in full.  But consumed with relief but not gratitude, the servant turns on another who owes him a paltry sum by comparison.  The master witnesses this and reverses his decision:

‘Then the master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.  Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”  In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed…’(Matthew 18:32-34)

And Jesus concludes the parable with this comment.

 ‘This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.’ (ibid 18:35)

To be forgiven by God, we must forgive sincerely and meaningfully.

AND LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

The last part of the prayer that has come to be known as ‘The Lord’s Prayer’ – but might better be called ‘The Disciples Prayer’, because, as can be seen, this is for the follower of Jesus – is a plea to be protected, but from what and whom?

Now on first or fresh examination, this might confuse the disciple remembering:

When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.  (James 1:13-14)

Why would the heavenly Father wish to lead any into temptation.  Again, an examination of the Greek word that is translated ‘temptation’ can clarify matters.  The noun is πειρασμός peirasmos and it can mean, according to context, temptation, test or trial.

Returning to the letter from Jesus’ half-brother, James, we read this in the previous verse to the above:

Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.(ibid 1:12)

The word here for trail is peirasmos.  So what is the difference between a trial or test and temptation if the word is the same?  It is the purpose and outcome.  The test may be ‘testing’, that is not pleasant, something to be endured, for sure, but pass the test and one is blessed.  A temptation is a test that is failed and leads to sin.  This shows us that this is not so much about the origin of the peirasmos, as it is about the attitude and decision-making of the one subject to temptation/trial.  We overcome a trial but succumb to temptation.  And Paul reminds us that in every temptation, there is a way out – which means that conscious of his temptation the follower of Christ that surrenders, wilfully disobeys God.

No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Understood this way, Jesus says we should pray to see the sufferings, set-backs and frustration the correct way.  Remember also, that James never blames an external source for sinning as ‘each person is dragged away by his own evil desire’.

BUT DELIVER US FROM THE EVIL ONE

However, Jesus does expect us to pray for deliverance from evil, or as with this version has it, the evil one, i.e. Satan.

As we see from Job (1:6), Satan is available at a moment’s notice to accuse any believer (he does not need to accuse the unbeliever because their conscience is seared) or here, also in Zechariah’s vision:

Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him.  The Lord said to Satan, ‘The Lord rebuke you, Satan! The Lord, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you! Is not this man a burning stick snatched from the fire?’ (Zechariah 3:1-2)

At the last supper, Jesus says this to Peter:

‘Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail…’(Luke 22:31)

Of course, Peter was tested and denied Jesus thrice, but Peter was delivered from evil, because he repented and Jesus recommissioned him.

In conclusion, prayer is then a process that begins with seeking and listening, and only once attuned, asking for what is already on God’s heart.  If we simply bring a shopping list of desire, there is no guarantee God will pay attention, let alone be inclined to grant us anything.  The lesson that Jesus would have us learn is to earnestly seek our heavenly Father in the same way as Jesus did from the Galilean Hills to Gethsemane; he would have us hear and act on this byword:

‘Be still, and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10)