Day #6: Historical Forms of Prayer – “The Lord’s Prayer” (MK)
Saturdays in our prayer blog are set apart for a slightly different perspective. While much of our blog will focus on prayer that is extemporaneous and highly personal – whether done alone or with others – we will commit Saturdays to looking at the rich Christian tradition of liturgical prayer. When I say “liturgical prayer” I am referring to prayers which are written in advance. Often this allows people to say them in unison. In many cases they are handed down through the ages. In Christian history, a large part of prayer has happened this way, and we include this type of prayer in our worship service each week.
For most of the following Saturdays Daniel Snoke will contribute on this day. Today, I (Matt) will write about the greatest liturgical prayer of all time, The Lord’s Prayer… but I’ll give Daniel a shout out at the end. This is the form of the Lord’s Prayer that we use in worship at City Reformed.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day 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 evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, Amen.
The title, “The Lord’s Prayer” (Latin = Pater Noster) is a fine and descriptive way to identify this prayer. But technically speaking, it was not a prayer that Jesus said himself. We have examples of Jesus praying, and we will look at those prayers later in our series. There are some things in this prayer that Jesus would not have prayed*, such as “forgive us our debts.” Instead of being a prayer of Jesus, it is really a prayer from Jesus. There are two places in the Bible where a form of this prayer is given. The most famous, and the one which most directly shapes the form of this prayer we use is from the Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt 6:9-13.) However, there is a second form of the prayer found in the Gospel of Luke. It is slightly shorter, excluding the lines “your will be done” and “deliver us from evil.”
What do we make of the fact that this prayer is not he same in both places? It is an incredibly important question and one which relates to our overall view of prayer and what Jesus intended with this prayer. Because the context of Matthew 6 is a warning against vain repetition in prayer (Matt 6:7-8) it seems clear that Jesus is after more than monotonous repetition. Don’t get me wrong, I am not suggesting that it is vainly repetitive to recite the Lord’s prayer with a group of people. In fact, it can be wonderfully unifying as it ties us to each other and to Christians throughout history and around the world. I am simply saying that we would be missing the point if we limited our prayer to repeating the exact words that Jesus used. Instead, the Lord’s Prayer should be viewed as a template for the types of things we pray.
If we think of it that way, the differences between Luke’s prayer and Matthew’s prayer reinforce that main point. In my view, it is likely that Jesus taught on prayer often and he didn’t feel the need to say the exact same thing each time. It is also possible that Matthew and Luke summarized his teaching differently, which still reinforces that main idea that repetition of the exact words are not the main idea. This approach informs the way the Lord’s Prayer is used in the Reformed theological tradition. While we certainly approve of using the Lord’s prayer as a liturgical element, the Westminster Smaller Catechism uses each part of the prayer as a springboard to discuss prayer (See WSC #99-#107.) We will cover one of the six petitions in our Sunday evening service between now and Easter, so if you want to learn more about the Lord’s prayer, stay tuned.
The final note to make relates to the way the words of the Lord’s Prayer have changed over time as the English language has changed. Because this prayer is so central to the church, it resists the changes that happen as the English language morphs over time. Many people, myself included, instinctively use the 17th century language of the King James Bible when we say the Lord’s Prayer. When we say, “Our Father who art in heaven”, we are inherently drawing on ancient Christian traditions. There is nothing wrong with that, and it can be helpful to be historically tied. We just want to remember that Jesus didn’t speak in the King James English and fancy language was not part of the prayer tradition that he encouraged. When we pray this in worship we usually print a version in the bulletin so that we can all be (literally) on the same page. Along with this we see a debate about whether to use “debts” or trespasses” in the fifth petition. Because William Tyndale used “trespasses” in his English translation, the first Anglican Book of Common Prayer used the word “trespasses” in their rendition. To this day, Catholics, Anglicans and Methodists go that route. Presbyterian and Reformed churches usually use “debts.” There are shades of difference in meaning, but I don’t think anyone intends to make a big theological deal of the differences. Finally, the King James Bible followed the lead of later Greek manuscripts when it included the closing “mini-benediction”, “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.” Because the earliest Greek manuscripts of the Bible do not include this line, the ESV Bible (and most modern English translations) do not include this line in the text of Matthew 6. But we still include this traditional ending when we say it at church. It is a great way to close the prayer, it links us to our spiritual forefathers, and it is a great summary of Biblical teaching found in places like 1 Chronicles 29:11.
In closing, here is a great musical version of the Lord’s Prayer on Spotify by Daniel Snoke.
* An argument could be made that Jesus identified with our sin on the cross, and so he could have prayed this, but that takes us down another path altogether.
