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- Analysis of each verse
v. 1 Now, one day when Jesus was praying somewhere, and when he was done, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John did with his disciples.
Literaly: And it happened to him to be in a certain place praying, as he ceased, he said someone of the disciples of him towards him, Lord (kyrie), teach us to pray just as also John taught the disciples of him.
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in a certain place praying |
Luke is the one who insists most on the fact that Jesus was a man of prayer, much more than the other evangelists:
- It is in a moment of prayer that he will have the revelation of his mission: "And it came to pass, when all the people had been baptized and Jesus, who had also been baptized, was praying, that heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form, as a dove. And a voice came from heaven..." (Lk 3:21-22)
- Lk 5:16: Large crowds gathered to hear him and be healed of their diseases. But he withdrew into the desert and prayed.
- Luke 6, 12: And it came to pass in those days that he went out into the mountains to pray, and he spent the whole night praying to God.
- Luke 9:18: And it came to pass, as he was praying, alone, having only the disciples with him, that he asked them, saying, "Who am I, according to the crowds?"
- Luke 9, 28-29: Now it happened about eight days after these words that he took Peter, John and James with him and went up the mountain to pray. And it came to pass, as he prayed, that the appearance of his face was changed, and his clothing became dazzlingly white.
- Luke 11: 1: the actual passage we are analyzing
- Luke 22, 41-45: Then he moved away from them about a stone's throw and, bending his knees, he prayed, saying, "Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me... Having entered into agony, he prayed more and more insistently... Rising from his prayer, he came to the disciples, whom he found sleeping with sadness
You will have noticed that Jesus prays at important and crucial moments in his life: at his baptism, when his reputation is spreading, at the time of choosing his 12 disciples, at the time of verifying the faith of his disciples, at the time of the transfiguration, and during his agony in Gethsemane. Our passage is somewhat of an exception, for the occasion of his prayer seems to be a way for Luke to introduce Jesus' teaching on how to pray.
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kyrie (lord) |
The title "Lord" (Greek: kyrios) may come as a surprise, since the disciples usually address Jesus as "Teacher" (Greek: didaskalos or epistrates). But Luke is very fond of this title, which is widely used in Greek circles and presents Jesus in the eyes of the faith, the one who belongs to God's world. Since Jesus is about to give a teaching on prayer, it is a way of giving him some authority.
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as also John taught the disciples of him |
This is a unique testimony that John the Baptist had taught his disciples to pray. We have here the indication that the group of Baptists formed a real community with undoubtedly certain practices and the use of prayer. What was the content of this prayer? It may have reflected his preaching, which was very much focused on the approaching end times, but in fact we may never know. Perhaps Jesus' prayer was influenced by John's.
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v. 2 He said to them, "When you pray, say, Father, May your person be recognized as holy, May your world come.
Literaly: Then, he answered to them, whenever you would pray, say, Father, be holy the name of you, come the kingdom (basileia) of you,
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Pater (Father) |
The Greek word pater, used in the vocative, translates the Aramaic Abba, which means father. This gives an idea of the intimacy Jesus was experiencing with God, and into which he invites us to enter as well. We are far from the idea of God as a distant and terrifying judge.
One might regret the identification of God with a male figure. But Jesus belongs to a Jewish culture where only the man has a social and legal status. Is it surprising that associating a female figure with God would have been unthinkable? On the other hand, if we recognize in Jesus a being who has fully assumed the human condition, and who has therefore discovered God through parental figures, we can guess that Joseph, his father, has contributed greatly to his discovery of God as a father, in the image of the one who loved him in Nazareth.
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be holy the name of you |
In English such a sentence is almost incomprehensible: what is meant by the word "name"? What does "to be holy" mean? In the Jewish world, when we speak of the "name", we mean the person in his identity. Holiness refers to God's being, what characterizes him: God alone is holy. In the traditional Jewish prayer of the Kaddish, we say, Magnified and holy be the great Name; here "magnified" and "be holy" are somewhat synonymous and convey the idea of recognizing the greatness and extraordinary quality of God. Thus, by translating "holy be your name" by "may your person be recognized as holy" I intend to translate this request of the Lord's Prayer as expressing the desire that God be recognized as a unique, extraordinary being, and not as an idol that we shrink in our image. There is a kind of tension between the affirmation that God is father and that he is holy: on the one hand, we emphasize the intimacy of God who can be called father, but on the other hand, with holiness we emphasize his mystery, the fact that he is unique, and therefore beyond our understanding.
Why is the first request of the Lord's Prayer to recognize the extraordinary quality of God? It is the foundation of all the rest. First of all, one cannot make this request without being inhabited by a deep love for the unique mystery that is God. Without this love, one cannot even move on to the second request and desire that the world of God come.
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come the kingdom (basileia) of you |
The Greek text uses the word basileia, which is usually translated as Kingdom or Reign, which takes us into the political world. It is not easy to understand what Jesus had in mind when he spoke this way. According to Joseph Meier, Jesus was looking forward to the final coming of God as king, a coming involving a reversal of the present unjust situations of poverty, affliction, and empty bellies, a coming that would initiate the arrival of the Gentiles, not as conquered slaves, but as honored guests, to share the eschatological banquet with the patriarchs of Israel. Today we would be talking about a new world, a world of justice, peace, compassion and love. But to be faithful to Jesus' perception, we must add that it is God who is the master of such a world to which we must open ourselves. This is the world that is part of Jesus' prayer and to which he dedicated his life. Moreover, this world was already somewhat present through the action of Jesus.
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v. 3 Give us each day the bread we need to live until the next day,
Literaly: the bread of us the sufficient (epiousion) give us according to the day
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lthe bread of us the sufficient (epiousion) |
The Greek expression ton arton ēmōn says literaly: the bread that is ours, or our bread. Bread represents the food we need. So when Jesus invites the missionaries to set out without bread, he asks them to set out without provisions and to rely on the generosity of the people: "He said to them, 'Take nothing for the road, neither staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; neither have you each two coats.'" (Lk 9:3) But the bread we need is not simply the bread that feeds the body. For during his temptation in the desert Jesus will say, "It is written, 'By bread alone shall no man live.'" In fact, bread represents the food we need in all its forms, physical, psychological, intellectual, spiritual. It represents life in all its dimensions, and probably also the fullness of life announced for the end of time. This prayer basically expresses our desire to live a full life.
The Greek word epiousion means literaly: sufficient. It is usually translated as "daily," which is correct insofar as it retains the idea of enough bread to live on until the next day. There are two aspects to this request. It expresses the desire to live, since to ask for bread is to ask for life, and a full life. But at the same time, the scope of the request is limited, as it were, to 24 hours: we only want what we need to last until the next day, not more. Here we think we hear Luke 12:24: "Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither cellar nor barn, and God feeds them. How much more valuable are you than the birds!" All of this emphasizes the idea that this life in fullness cannot be an object that can be possessed definitively, but is a gift from God.
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v. 4 and liberate us from our waywardnesses, for we ourselves forgive those who have debts to us, and do not drag us into the ordeal."
Literaly: and forgive us the sins of us, for also ourselves we forgive to all owing to us and carry (eisenenkēs) us not into testing (peirasmon).
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aphes hēmin tas hamartias hēmōn (forgive us the sins of us) |
The verb to forgive or abandon in this context conveys the idea of a debt that is asked to be forgotten or written off. For in the Jewish world, sin was seen as a debt to God, and therefore requiring repayment. Why was this so? Because, at the beginning, Yahweh took the initiative to free his people from Egypt and gave them a leader in the person of Moses. This loving action in favor of Israel was sealed by a covenant made explicit by the Law given through Moses. To sin is to be unfaithful to this covenant, to disobey this Law. Thus, every Jew is indebted to Yahweh for what he has done for him, and to disobey the Law is to incur a debt.
The term "sin" applies only to our relationship with God. To understand what it is all about, let us recall the parable of the prodigal son in the same Luke. The younger son asks for his share of the inheritance, leaves the family home to scatter his wealth; the relationship with the father is broken. When the son returns to the family home, he says, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I no longer deserve to be called your son." (Lk 15:21) And the father will cry out, "My son, whom I see, was dead and has come to life; he was lost and is found!" It is clear in this parable that the father figure represents God. To sever this relationship means to choose sin and death.
Having defined sin as this break in relationship with God, we are still left with a fundamental question: when do we break that relationship? For a Jew, the answer is pretty clear: anyone who does not obey what the Law requires is a sinner. For Jesus, it's a bit more complex. For example, the Law allowed a man to divorce his wife, provided he wrote a divorce certificate. By saying that a man who divorces his wife commits adultery, he is saying that a man who follows what the Law says about divorce is a sinner. Beyond the Law, he refers to the will of God who considered man and woman as equal beings and their union as a commitment of their whole being and for life. When we no longer refer to the Law, or to any law, but rather to the infinite mystery that is God, we no longer have a fixed point of reference. Discovering the mystery of God is a life's work. As we progress in this quest, many attitudes or actions that we once considered "normal" now become unfaithful to our condition as children of God, and therefore sinful. To put it another way, what is not sinful for one may be sinful for another. Teilhard de Chardin in The Divine Milieu said something similar when he compared life to two men climbing a mountain and where a hollow can represent a fulcrum to go higher for one, but a backward step for the other.
That which is good, sanctifying and spiritual for my brother below or beside me on the mountainside, can be material, misleading or bad for me. What I rightly allowed myself yesterday, I must perhaps deny myself today. And conversely, actions which would have been a grave betrayal in a St. Aloysius Gonzaga or a St. Anthony, may well be models for me if I am to follow in the footsteps of these saints. In other words, the soul can only rejoin God after having traversed a specific path through matter-which path can be seen as the distance which separates, but it can also be seen as the road which links. Without certain possessions and certain victories, no man exists as God wishes him to be. Each one of us has his Jacob's ladder, whose rungs are formed of a series of objects. The Divine Milieu, p. 108.
How to translate ephes ēmin tas amartias ēmōn (usually translated as "forgive us our sins"). Since we cannot objectively establish for everyone what a break-up with God or a sin is, and there is a risk of seeing them as objects that can easily be eliminated, I prefer to look at the subjective dimension of sin, i.e. the human being who becomes aware of his or her unfaithfulness to the call to become profoundly himself or herself, to walk towards authenticity and unbounded love, and thus to become a son of God. No one explicitly wants to be unfaithful. But in our journey, we go astray for many reasons. Let us think of the youngest son in the parable of the prodigal son: he went astray in a distant land before waking up and realizing his alienation.
The word "waywardness" takes into account our freedom (it is we who have chosen the wrong path), and also takes into account that there is objectively something wrong in our choice, that we are in a state of alienation, far from what we really are. Moreover, the word "error" carries a temporary note: it foresees the possibility of becoming aware of one's error and rectifying one's path. Luke puts into the mouth of Jesus on the cross this word: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Lk 23:34). So there are no fundamentally bad people, but beings who go astray. This is the interpretation that Luke gives to Peter's denial when he puts into Jesus' mouth: "But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. You, therefore, when you have returned, strengthen your brothers (Lk 22:32). By using the expression "when you have returned", Luke is clearly speaking of going astray.
I don't want to translate ephes ēmin as "forgive us." On the one hand, no one would understand the context of a debt with the word "forgive". On the other hand, the word "forgive" is trapped: it is too associated today with the almost magical sponge stroke of the confessional. When someone becomes aware and regrets his or her error, like the prodigal son, it is already God who abides the heart of a person, and therefore takes the initiative to restore the relationship. In other words, forgiveness has already begun as soon as one regrets one's fault; the sacrament of forgiveness is only the visible sign and confirmation of what has already begun. We are far from the sponge stroke. So how do we translate ephes ēmin? I prefer the expression "set us free" or "liberate" for the following reasons:
- The expression helps us to understand that our "waywardness" is an alienation from our deepest being, and therefore from our situation as sons of God; alienation is a real prison from which we need to be freed
- The expression also emphasizes the fact that we will not get out of this alone, we need God's help; we find ourselves saying: do not leave us to ourselves
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for also ourselves we forgive to all owing to us |
As we have seen, the fault committed against another, and God in particular, is perceived in Jewish tradition as a debt according to a juridical model: God has freed his people, and since that time Israel has the duty to be faithful to the covenant. Thus any unfaithfulness to the covenant becomes a debt to God the creditor. Now, to convince God to release us from our debt, we who have been unfaithful to the covenant put forward the fact that we have released others from their debt to us.
What is the meaning of the conjunction "because" or "for". This word translates the Greek word: gar, which means: because, indeed, it is that. This conjunction introduces a relationship of dependence between what precedes and what follows: the attitude of God is dependent on our attitude. Thus, we tell God to act towards us in the same way as we act towards others. This can be dangerous, because if we do not forgive others for their offenses against us and remain vindictive, we are accepting that God will do the same to us. In short, the measure of our relationship with others will be the measure of God's relationship with us.
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And carry (eisenenkēs) us not into testing (peirasmon) |
It is often translated as temptation. The term peirasmos has the meaning of trial, examination, verification, test that verifies the quality of a thing or person. Luke tells us that after his baptism Jesus underwent the test in the wilderness: "Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit through the wilderness for 40 days, tested ( peirazomenos) by the devil" (Lk 4:1-2). This allowed him to demonstrate the quality of his being. But then what is the meaning of a prayer that asks not to be drawn into the trial, when Jesus agreed to go through the trial? In Gethsemane, Jesus asks his disciples to pray not to enter into temptation: "When he had come to this place, he said to them, "Pray that you may not enter ( eiselthein) into temptation ( peirasmon)" (Lk 22:40). In fact, the prayer does not ask to avoid the trial, but to not "enter into" the trial. The nuance may seem subtle. But Luke presents the trial as a house of seduction: we cannot avoid seeing it, the important thing is not to enter it, because we will not get out. In Lk 11:4 we have the verb eispherō (Literaly: to carry into, whence to draw), in Lk 22:40 we have the verb eiserchomai (literaly: to go into, whence to enter). The Greek prefix eis has the meaning of "into". Thus, the prayer when facing the trial is to avoid the "into": it is to refuse to enter into the logic proposed by the trial.
Can we go further on the meaning of the test? In the parable of the seed, Jesus compares the seed that fell on the rock to people who welcome the word with joy, but they have no root: "They believe only for a moment, and at the time of trial (peirasmon) they defect" (Lk 8:13). Here, the trial results in the loss of faith. On the other hand, Simon Peter will deny Jesus when questioned about his relationship with him, yet Luke will not speak of entering into a trial but will write this about this event: "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has claimed you to sift you as wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail" (Lk 22:31-32). So, when we pray not to be drawn into the trial, we pray not to lose faith. And since Jesus was looking forward to the end times, his prayer is also about the final trial for which he asks that his faith not fail.
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v. 5 Then he said to them, "If ever you had a friend and went to his house in the middle of the night to say to him, 'My dear, lend me three loaves,
Literaly: And he said towards them, someone out of you will have a friend and will go towards him at midnight and would say to him, Friend, lend me three breads,
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v. 6 for my friend came to my house and I have nothing to offer him",
Literaly: since a friend of me arrive out of road towards me and I do not have what I will set before him.
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v. 7 and the latter from the inside answers, 'Do not bother me, the door is already locked and my children are with me in the bed, impossible for me to get up and give you them'.
Literaly: And this one from within having answered, would say, do not present to me trouble; already the door has been shut and the children of me with me into the bed are; I am not able, having risen up, to give you.
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v. 8 I assure you, if he does not get up to give because he is his friend, he will wake up because of his shamelessness and will give him what he needs.
Literaly: I say to you, if even he will not give to him, having risen up, because to be friend of him, yet because of the shamelessness of him, having woken up, he will give to him as much as he needs.
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Here we have a parable whose meaning is quite clear: even the most inappropriate requests will receive an answer, because of the very audacity of asking. In the parable, Jesus puts us in the shoes of the shameless asker who will eventually get what he wants. Having said that, we can observe that this word of Jesus seems out of context: we have left the request made at the very beginning by the disciples (teach us to pray) to enter into a new question, even if it is implicit: why is it important to formulate a prayer of request? Luke probably brings together here various teachings of Jesus given at different times in his ministry.
So why does Luke want to present here a teaching of Jesus on the importance of asking? First of all, the prayer taught by Jesus contains only verbs in the imperative tense, therefore only requests, either for God or for ourselves. Secondly, we must assume that the value of the prayer of petition was questioned in the Lucan community, hence the importance of insisting on it.
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v. 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it will be given you, seek, and you will find, and knock, and the door will be opened for you.
Literaly: And I also I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you.
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v. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and who seeks finds, and who knocks, the door will be opened.
Literaly: For everyone the (one) asking receives and the (one) seeking finds and the (one) knocking it will be opened.
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After the parable, we have an exhortation that is totally focused on action: ask, seek, knock. Basically, this exhortation is about faith: our action will bear fruit. It is only this faith that propels us forward and motivates us to change things.
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v. 11 Which of you in your role as a father, if he is being asked by his son for fish, will he give him a serpent instead of fish?
Literaly: Then, which out of you the father will ask the son a fish, and instead of a fish a snake to him he will give over?
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v. 12 Or, if he is being asked for an egg, will he give him a scorpion?
Literaly: Or also he will ask for an egg, he will give over to him a scorpion?
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v. 13 If you, who know how to be wicked, can give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father from heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?
Literaly: So if you being wicked you know good gifts to give to the children of you, how much more the father of [the] heaven will give holy spirit to the (one) asking him.
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Jesus changes the perspective here: he puts us in the shoes of a father who must respond to his son's requests. It is no longer a matter of convincing to ask, but of convincing that God's action can only be beneficial for the human being. The argument goes like this: if a father gives good things to his son, all the more so will God the father give good things to his children. This comparison attacks certain images of a God who scares or harms human beings. The emphasis is on faith in a loving God who only intervenes to support and grow the one who prays.
We most likely get a touch of the evangelist Luke when he presents the climax of the prayer as the request for the Holy Spirit. While the model proposed by Jesus included five requests around knowing God, the coming of his world, our sustenance until the next day, freedom from our wanderings, and avoidance of entering into trial, Luke now tells us to ask for the Holy Spirit. This is not surprising, because for him the Holy Spirit is the great actor of the time of the Church, which begins with his gift at Pentecost and which will guide the apostles throughout their mission (see the Acts of the Apostles where there are 42 mentions of the Holy Spirit). This Spirit was given to Jesus at his baptism and it is the Spirit who will guide him throughout his mission. When we make a comparison between the four evangelists, he mentions it the most: Mt: 11 mentions / Mk: 7 mentions / Lk: 17 mentions / Jn: 14 mentions. The Holy Spirit is therefore for Luke the gift par excellence.
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- Analysis of the narrative's structure
Our passage has a very simple structure: a question from one of the disciples about prayer and Jesus' answer.
Introduction
-Setting: Jesus prayed and finished his prayer v.1a
Question from one of the disciples:
-Teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples v.2b
Jesus' answer vv. 2-13
- Example of a prayer
-Address to a father God v. 2a
-Two requests for God: 1) that his person be recognized as holy; 2) that his world come v. 2b
-Three requests for us: 1) to have sustenance until the next day; 2) to be free from error; 3) not to be drawn into the trial vv. 3-4
- Parable of an untimely request vv. 5-8
- Exhortation to ask vv. 9-10
- Questioning based on our experience as fathers: the request and its response is focused only on what is good for us vv. 11-13
Conclusion:
-God will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him
- The moment the question is asked by a disciple leads us to believe that Jesus' answer will reveal something of the content of his personal prayer, since it follows a time of personal prayer (Introduction). But there are different aspects to this answer: there will of course be the presentation of a model prayer (A) centered on the figure of the father, but this prayer is followed by a parable (B) and an exhortation (C) which insist on the importance of asking and on the assurance that prayer is always answered. Finally, with a certain literary parallelism, Luke returns again at the end with the figure of the father (D), this time to filter the result of the request, and by implication what can be asked for: the result of a request cannot harm us, and so we can only ask for what makes us grow, and above all the Holy Spirit.
- A word on the model of prayer proposed by Jesus. It begins with a very intimate address to God perceived as a father. This prayer, focused on various requests, has two distinct moments, first requests focused on God, i.e. his person and his world, then requests focused on us, i.e. to live until tomorrow, to be helped when we move away from God, to avoid the pitfalls that could lead us away from him. Basically, the five requests revolve around God: 1) to discover him in his mystery of God; 2) to enter into this world that he proposes; 3) to continue to live each day as his son; 4) to return to him when we have lost our way; 5) to avoid the traps that lead us away from him This prayer is like Jesus, a crazy love for this father God.
- Context analysis
Our text belongs to the second part of the ministry of Jesus in Luke, which goes from 9:51 to 19:28. This part is characterized by the fact that Jesus sets out for Jerusalem and, on the way, he gives a series of teachings. It is difficult to find an order in this sequence as Jesus deals with different subjects in a heterogeneous way: the condition of the disciple and the missionary, love of neighbor, the primacy of the word, the role of the devil, the attitude towards money, the urgency of conversion before the judgment, openness to the poor, openness to sinners, etc. The only thread running through this teaching is the repeated mention that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem where he would be arrested and die (9:53; 9:57; 10:38; 13:22; 13:33; 14:25; 17:11). For Luke, the acceptance of Jesus' word takes the form of a journey, a journey that lasts a lifetime, a journey that involves the acceptance of the cross.
Let's take a closer look at the immediate context.
- Refusal of the Samaritans to welcome him 9: 51-56
- Conditions for following Jesus 9: 57-62
-No stable place to rest
-Following Jesus is more important and urgent than family events
- Sending the 72 on mission 10: 1-24
-Advice for the mission
-Prophecy about cities that reject missionaries
-Return from mission
-Impact of this mission
-Jesus' prayer
-Beatitude on the disciples
- Love of neighbor 10: 25-37
-The question of the jurist on eternal life
-His answer using the Law
-New question from the jurist about the neighbor
-Parable of the Good Samaritan
- The story of Martha and Mary: the primacy of the word 10: 38-42
- Teaching on prayer 11: 1-13
- Dispute about the expulsion of the demons 11: 14-28
-Jesus heals a mute and people marvel
-But some people accuse him of healing thanks to Beelzebub the chief of the demons
-Jesus' answer: 1) if it were by Beelzebul, Satan would be divided against himself; 2) other Jews also cast out demons; 3) it is rather the sign of the Reign of God that has just arrived; 4) in Jesus this new power has just arrived; 5) warning against the danger of relapsing into evil; 6) beatitude on the primacy of the reception of God's word.
When we look at the immediate context of the teaching on prayer, it is difficult to see a logical order. However, there is one point that recurs like a leitmotif: listening to the word of God. This is the heart of the scene about Martha and Mary that precedes it: the one who prefers to listen to Jesus' teaching rather than to serve the table (in the early Christian communities, serving the table meant providing for the needs of the poorest in the community) has chosen what is most important. And the scene about the healing of a mute man that follows the teaching on prayer ends with a beatitude that restores priorities: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and observe it!" (Lk 11:28) Thus, the precedence given to receiving God's word frames our passage where Jesus gives his teaching on prayer. What does this mean? In fact, prayer is a form of listening to the word of God. Prayer appears less as formulas to be repeated, than as an opening of the heart to what God wants to say, as Mary did (Lk 10:39), than as a welcoming of His person in us where He establishes His dwelling place, which prevents the devil from finding an empty dwelling place to live in (Lk 11:24).
- Analysis of Parallels
Recall that, according to the most accepted theory in the biblical world, Mark would have been the first to publish his gospel, Matthew and Luke would have reused much of Mark's work in their gospel, while incorporating another source, known to both of them and referred to as the "Q Document," as well as other sources of their own, and finally John would have published an independent gospel at a later date, with no knowledge of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, even though he seems to have had access to similar sources.
In this context, the study of parallels allows us to better identify what is specific to each evangelist. Here is our convention: We have put in blue what is common to Matthew and Luke only, which may be an echo of the Q Document. Please note that the translation from Greek is quite literal for comparison purpose, which may seem rough English.
| Matthew 6 / 7 | Luke 11 |
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| 6, 5 And whenever you would pray, you will not like the hypocrites, for they love in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets having been standing to pray, so that they would be visible to the men. Amen I say to you, they have back the reward of them. | |
| 6 Then, you, whenever you would pray, enter in the private room of you, and having shut the door of you, pray to the Father of you the (one) in the secret. And the Father of you the (one) observing in the secret will give back to you. | |
| 7 Then, praying, do not stammer like the pagans; for they think that in the many words of them they will be listened into. | |
| 8 So do not be like them, for he knows the Father of you what things you have need before the (action) to ask him | |
| | 1 And it happened to him to be in a certain place praying, as he ceased, he said someone of the disciples of him towards him, Lord, teach us to pray just as also John taught the disciples of him. |
| 9 So in this way pray you, Father of us, the (one) in the heavens, be holy the name of you, | 2a Then, he answered to them, whenever you would pray, say, Father, be holy the name of you, |
| 10 come the kingdom of you, happen the will of you as in heaven, also upon earth. | 2b come the kingdom of you, |
| 11 the bread of us the sufficient give us today | 3 the bread of us the sufficient give us according to the day |
| 12 and forgive us the debts of us, as also ourselves we have forgiven those owing to us. | 4a and forgive us the sins of us, for also ourselves we forgive to all owing to us |
| 13 and carry us not into testing, but deliver us from evil. | 4b and carry us not into testing. |
| | 5 And he said towards them, someone out of you will have a friend and will go towards him at midnight and would say to him, Friend, lend me three breads, |
| | 6 since a friend of me arrive out of road towards me and I do not have what I will set before him. |
| | 7 And this one from within having answered, would say, do not present to me trouble; already the door has been shut and the children of me with me into the bed are; I am not able, having risen up, to give you. |
| | 8 I say to you, if even he will not give to him, having risen up, because to be friend of him, yet because of the shamelessness of him, having woken up, he will give to him as much as he needs. |
| 7, 7 Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. | 9 And I also I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened to you. |
| 8 For everyone the (one) asking receives and the (one) seeking finds and the (one) knocking it will be opened. | 10 For everyone the (one) asking receives and the (one) seeking finds and the (one) knocking it will be opened. |
| 9 Or which is out of you a man whom will ask the son of him bread will not give over a stone to him? | 11 Then, which out of you the father will ask the son a fish, and instead of a fish a snake to him he will give over? |
| 10 Or a fish he will ask will not give over a snake to him? | 12 Or also he will ask for an egg, he will give over to him a scorpion? |
| 11 So if you being wicked you know good gifts to give to the children of you, how much more the father of you the (one) in the heavens will give good thinks to those asking him. | 13 So if you coming forth wicked you know good gifts to give to the children of you, how much more the father of [the] heaven will give holy spirit to the (one) asking him. |
- It will have been noted that only Luke and Matthew present us with this Our Father prayer. When these two gospels have a similar text that they alone seem to know, biblical scholars believe that they had in their hands a document that is called the Q Document. Thus, it was through this Q Document source that Matthew and Luke knew this prayer of the Lord's Prayer. But each of them has taken up this source in his own way. According to Joseph Meier, the original Q Document prayer had more or less this form:
Daddy,
hallowed be your name
Your kingdom come
Our daily give us today
And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors
And do not lead us to the test.
- A first observation about the Matthew and Luke versions concerns the context. In Matthew, Jesus' teaching is part of the Sermon on the Mount, very early in his ministry. Specifically, it is part of his discourse where he addresses the three great fundamental practices of the Jewish religion, almsgiving, prayer and fasting. In all three cases, he teaches how to give alms, how to pray and how to fast. In Luke, the teaching takes place towards the end of his ministry, when he is on his way to Jerusalem, and it is an answer to a disciple who asks him a question while watching him pray. Thus, in Matthew the Lord's Prayer is part of the great general charter that defines the Christian. In Luke, the Lord's Prayer is presented rather as the sharing of Jesus' intimacy with those who chose to be his disciples before he died.
- Matthew's version is introduced by a teaching on the right way to pray, i.e., not to be conspicuous but rather to be discreet, and not to speak unnecessarily, but to be brief, for God knows what we need. The Lord's Prayer is a sort of illustration of this exhortation on the art of praying well. In contrast, Luke's version is not an illustration of how to pray well, but his Lord's Prayer is presented for the value of its content in itself, as a prayer that Jesus and his disciples can share together.
- The content of the prayer takes different forms in the two gospels.
- First of all, the way of addressing God is direct and more intimate in Luke: Father / daddy; whereas the "Our Father who art in heavens" of Matthew is more ritualized and presupposes a community
- Matthew adds: "Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven". We have here a typical touch of Matthew who, as a good Jew, insists on action or orthopraxis. It is his way of taking up the Jewish Law, but Christianizing it. This insistence will recur throughout his gospel: "It is not by saying to me, Lord, Lord, that one will enter the kingdom of heaven, but by doing the will of my Father who is in heavens" (Mt 7:21); "For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother (Mt 12: 50); "Which of the two has done the will of the father" (Mt 21: 31: parable of the two sons). Addressing Greeks, Luke does not feel the need to take up the idea of a new Law.
- By changing the request for the bread "today" to instead say "according to the day" or "every day," Luke emphasizes the idea that the Christian life is a long journey that requires much perseverance, as he does repeatedly in his gospel: "And he said to all, 'If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross every day, and follow me'" (Lk 9:23); "And what is in the good soil are those who, having heard the Word with a noble and generous heart, hold it fast and bear fruit by their perseverance" (Lk 8:15); "It is by your perseverance that you will save your lives!" (Lk 21:19).
- Rather than saying "Forgive us our debts" as the Q Document probably indicated and which Matthew took up as it was, Luke writes instead: "Forgive us our sins". Why does this happen? Probably because the notion of fault seen as a debt, typical of the Jewish milieu, was more difficult to understand in its Greek counterpart, and that speaking of sin was clearer.
- Luke probably modifies his source which said: "as we also have forgiven our debtors", and opts for: "for we ourselves forgive everyone who owes us". Why? He continues the same idea developed with "every day": the remission of the debt is something that is done constantly every day, and cannot be simply something that has already been done in the past. Matthew for his part develops this last request further on the forgiveness of offenses to insist even more on action, as is his habit: our action toward others will be God's measure of us (Yes, if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; but if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses). For Matthew, forgiveness of trespasses is so important that he associates its rejection with the Evil One (but deliver us from the Evil One).
- The Lord's Prayer in Luke is followed by the parable of the shameless friend, which he takes from a source of his own, unless he wrote it himself. What is he trying to do here? He wants to emphasize the importance of praying and always praying by saying that prayer is always answered. Indeed, the parable gives the extreme case of a request where we would have all the reasons in the world to refuse, and yet this request will be answered. Then we have no reason to hesitate to pray.
- Luke's continuation is borrowed from the Q Document he shares with Matthew. But whereas Luke makes this text the continuation of the Lord's Prayer, Matthew inserts it after a series of moral exhortations that conclude the Sermon on the Mount. Let's take a closer look at this text.
- The text has three parts. First, there is an exhortation to ask, which in Luke naturally concludes the parable of the shameless friend and which he introduces with "And I say to you".
- The second part (whoever asks receives...) is the justification for the first part. We would not need this justification in Luke, for the parable of the shameless friend had already shown us that a request receives an answer. But since the Q Document did not have this parable, we understand the importance of this second part.
- Finally, in the third part, the development of the prayer of request is reoriented: it is no longer a question of convincing to ask, but of convincing that the answer we receive will always be beneficial. This may come as a surprise: how can we dare to imagine that God's answer to our prayer would be harmful? In fact, one can imagine a culture in which God is perceived as a force to be feared and whose intervention is feared. Thus, this third part concludes the general argument: not only will prayer be answered, but that answer will be beneficial to us.
- We will have noticed that in this third part, there are small differences between Luke and Matthew. First of all, Luke clarifies that this is a father-son relationship by putting us clearly in the shoes of a father, whereas in Matthew this is only presupposed since he speaks of a son without mentioning the word father; and for Luke this is a way of intensifying the link with the Lord's Prayer. Second, he places the request for fish first, which is second in Matthew, and eliminates the request for bread and replaces it with a request for an egg. Matthew is probably more faithful to the Q Document which is well understood in a Palestinian milieu where bread and fish were the staple of the diet and where bread in the form of a loaf could resemble a stone (cf Mt 4:3: If you are the Son of God, say that these stones become bread). So what is Luke's intention with all these changes? It's hard to say. Perhaps there is an intention to be more logical and coherent by putting forward only elements of the animal world (bread was not one of them), and by paralleling two evil realities, the serpent and the scorpion; and by introducing the scorpion he had to associate with it something that could be mistaken for it, namely an egg.
- The third part also shows a divergence between Luke and Matthew on the content of the request: Matthew certainly reproduces his source faithfully by speaking of good things that God will give, while Luke replaces "good things" with the Holy Spirit. This should not be surprising, since for him the Holy Spirit is the fundamental reality of the Christian life. As we have seen, throughout his gospel, he is the one who refers to it most often: Mt: 11 times / Mk: 7 times / Lk: 17 times / Jn: 14 times. The Holy Spirit is at the origin of the mission of Jesus and the Church. He inspires Elizabeth, Zechariah and Simeon to prophesy. He is the gift to be asked for in prayer (11:13). The Acts of the Apostles speaks of the founding role of the Spirit in the Church with the three Pentecost events (2:13; 8:18; 10:46). In short, asking for the Holy Spirit is the request par excellence in Luke.
- Intention of the author when writing this passage
Luke has at his disposal this prayer attributed to Jesus that Matthew also knows:
Daddy,
hallowed be your name
Your kingdom come
Our daily give us today
And forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors
And do not lead us to the test.
He wants this prayer to become the prayer of every Christian, and to be a way of walking in the footsteps of Jesus, and of identifying with him in some way. So he sets up this introduction where a disciple asks him how to pray in the manner of the disciples of John the Baptist. So, like the John-Baptist community, the Christian community will have its prayer. But he conceives this prayer as a form of listening to the word. This is why our story follows that of Martha and Mary, while Mary has chosen the better part: prayer becomes the moment when we leave all the space to a word that comes from the depths of ourselves, and that goes back fundamentally to God. It is the source that gives meaning to the whole of our life. It is in this sense that we must interpret the following account of the liberation of a demoniac: the man must now let the word take all the place in his being, otherwise his liberation will be short-lived.
Luke seems to respect quite faithfully the original content of this prayer transmitted by the Q Document. But the way he introduces it takes us into the intimacy of Jesus. For he presents us with a Jesus who is constantly praying. We do not know the content of this prayer except in Gethsemane and here, in this passage, when he seems to say: this is how I pray.
This prayer is made up of five requests, two that concern God, and three that concern us. But basically, the five requests revolve around God: 1) to discover him in his mystery of God; 2) to enter into this world that he proposes; 3) to have everything we need to live fully each day our life as sons of God; 4) to return to him when we have lost our way; 5) to avoid the traps that take us away from him. This prayer is the image of Jesus, a crazy love for this father God.
Whereas for Matthew, who is addressing Jews who are used to praying, and for whom the important thing is to learn to pray well, and thus to avoid repeating words as the pagans do, imagining that the weight of the words will exert an influence on God, for Luke, who is addressing Greeks who are not used to praying in the same way, the important thing is simply to pray, i.e. to dare to make requests to God and to be sure that this prayer will receive an answer. For him, God wants us to be active beings in the history of salvation, and this salvation will not take place without our active involvement, hence the importance of asking God for help. But in mentioning that prayer can only be beneficial, he specifies that the only thing we should ask for is the Holy Spirit. And in this he completes the circle: Jesus was guided all his life by the Spirit, and we, who follow in his footsteps, should desire the same Spirit.
- Current situations or events in which we could read this text
- Suggestions from the different symbols in the story
- Jesus was in prayer as he did in the great moments of his life. The gospel leads us to reflect on our prayer. How do we pray? When do we pray? Why do we pray? What do we seek in our requests? Does our prayer have the same importance as it had in the life of Jesus? What does prayer reveal about ourselves? What impact does it have on us? There is much to explore here. The point is not to make ourselves feel guilty, but to be real, and to tell it like it is. There may be a form of prayer that we have abandoned, and that is probably a healthy move. A prayer that does not reflect us is flawed from the start.
- Each request of the Lord's Prayer offers an avenue for reflection, starting with the initial question: Father or Daddy. Of course, we could just as easily say: Mom, or my dearest, or my great love. The important thing is not the formula, but the feelings we want to convey. There is no harm in admitting that "we are not there". Yet, this is what Jesus experienced and this is the treasure he wants us to discover. Without being carried by this love, all religion will become a stifling legal framework or even worse, fanatical fundamentalism. For the request "your kingdom come" will become a form of inquisition or a "sharia" that will be imposed.
- "May your person be recognized as holy". Personally, I find this request fundamental for any person who calls himself religious. For many well-meaning people seem to me to butcher the face of God by claiming to know him and by reducing him to the next-door neighbor: we reduce God to what we can understand of him and we make him the accomplice of our limitations. This request of the Lord's Prayer says: help us to open ourselves to your infinite mystery, that we may recognize in you this extraordinary quality from whom we can expect everything. This sentence can only be said by someone in love. This is what Jesus was. And what about us?
- "Let your world come." Of course, Jesus' vision was heavily influenced by Judaism with the gathering of the twelve tribes of Israel and the Gentiles who would join the same table at the end of time. But his many healings and his concern for the poor were a sign that this world of God had begun. In retrospect, this request allows us to dream a little and work for that dream: if God is infinite love and compassion, we can look forward to a world where there are no more poor people, no more exploited people, no more alienated people, no more forgotten people, no more desperate people, where evil and disease are an ancient memory. If this is not really our desire, why do we say "let your world come"?
- "Give us each day the bread we need to live until tomorrow". As we have already said, bread represents life and life in fullness. By taking up this request, we express our immense desire to live. But at the same time we acknowledge our dependence on God by saying to him: only you can give what can really fill us, so give us today what we need so that we can live until tomorrow, and tomorrow we will ask you again, because what we need tomorrow will probably be different from what we need today.
- "And free us from our waywardness." This line of thought leads us into difficult questions. For when human beings go astray, they do not know that they are astray. It is only when we become aware that we have suddenly realized that we have done something wrong, that we have gone astray. But this is not very frequent. Can you name some cases? I've already talked about Larry (from La Presse newspaper on June 16, 2012) who lived in motels with his girlfriend Chantal with whom he snorted powder, partied and undertook bank robberies. The realization of his misguidance came when Chantal became pregnant. When Islamists attack schools and slaughter people in the name of Allah, we know they are misguided. But without going that far, we all know that as we grow and mature, we discover that some of our attitudes are not really worthy of a follower of Jesus. Isn't it important to ask, "Mystery of life, I know there are many things I don't see that alienate me, that keep me from being fully that being you want me to be, so enlighten me to look at myself with truth and the world around me with truth, and give me the strength and courage to get back on my way in that truth."
- "For we ourselves forgive those who are in debt to us." Here is a very difficult point in the prayer of the Lord's Prayer. Every time I say these words, I confess, I get anxious. At the moment, I feel no animosity toward anyone. But I am aware that it wouldn't take much for someone to end up on my blacklist. So I ask myself: would I be able to love enough to truly forgive? Forgiveness is a complex reality. According to Matthew, forgiveness presupposes that someone asks for forgiveness (see the parable of the two debtors in Matthew 18:23-35). Luke, on the other hand, presents Jesus forgiving those who killed him without their having expressed any repentance: "Father, forgive them; they do not know what they are doing (Lk 23:34). I believe that modern psychology is right when it says that resentment or refusal to forgive does more harm to us than to the person who has offended us: refusal to forgive draws us into the same dynamic as the person who has offended us. Forgiveness is the only way to stop the sequence of evil: when we hear some Islamists say "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", we know that there will be no end to the cycle of revenge. The solution? The difficult forgiveness.
- "And do not draw us into the trial". We have already said that the issue of this trial was the loss of faith. Many biblical scholars believe that this trial in the Lord's Prayer referred to the final trial at the end of time. But for Jesus, that end time had already begun. Jesus had to experience several events that tested his faith. The clearest of these were the events surrounding his arrest and trial. Let's put ourselves in his shoes for a moment in Gethsemane when he knew he was trapped and it was only a matter of time before he was arrested. For someone who believed he was sent by God and had put his faith in this world of God about to happen, the denial was blatant: can we imagine a more difficult trial for faith? Really this God is incomprehensible. On occasions like this, one either stops believing or one's faith takes a giant leap. We can experience difficult situations: a divorce, a death, a loss of job, a break-up, a defeat of some kind, a priest who assaults a child, a bishop who launders money, in short, situations where we ask ourselves where God is in all of this? To let ourselves be drawn into the trial is to say: all that faith has taught us is rubbish. But if we want to make a giant leap of faith, we have to say: "And don't draw us into the trial".
- Parable of the shameless friend. For Luke, this parable has only one purpose: to lead us to dare to express prayers of request. In this, he is very different from Matthew who says: stop repeating words, because God knows what you need even before you say it. Instead, Luke says: go, speak up, say what you want with the confidence that you will be heard and receive what you have asked for. For us today, there is probably an important point that Luke reminds us of: the importance of speaking up and expressing our desire. Of course, God knows what we need. But it is as if God has such a respect for our dignity and freedom that he will not give us anything unless we want it. All of this sounds like love. We can feel a love deep inside for a person, but the fact of saying explicitly to someone: I love you, creates a new dynamic that transforms everything, so that there is now a before and an after. The same is true of the prayer of request. For example, for someone who is addicted to drugs or alcohol, the day he says: "I am living in hell, I want to get out of it" is the beginning of a new era.
- "Which of you, in your role as fathers, if asked..." For Luke, the thing par excellence to ask is the Holy Spirit. This presupposes a lot of maturity. We are far from praying for our home hockey or soccer team to win the trophy, or to win the lottery. Basically, this prayer says, "I'm not asking you to change events, I'm asking you to be able to live through them whatever they are."
- Current situations or events in which we could read this text
- The Vatican is shaken by the scandal of Monsignor Nunzio Scarano imprisoned for money laundering. Of course, this is the responsibility of one man. But what does this say about us and all those who claim to be followers of Jesus? How does it influence our prayer?
- Egypt is experiencing extreme tensions between anti and pro Morsi. How do we act when we deeply believe that a government or groups are wandering away from the common good? What form will our prayer take?
- Revelations about corrupt politicians or business people are spreading. What should our attitude be? Should we be disillusioned, not believing in anything anymore? To close our eyes? In Jesus' time, were Herod or Pilate blameless? What was Jesus' position? What happens to our prayer in such a situation?
- Disasters are always with us. A freight train with oil explodes in Beauce region, Quebec province. In San Francisco, a plane misses its landing and crashes. Can we ask that disasters never happen and believe that there will never be a disaster? So what can we ask for?
- The elderly are hard pressed to find a shelter where they will be treated with the utmost dignity and compassion. How can the Lord's Prayer help us work to make things better?
- Recently, a man was knocking on the door to collect money for poor children in the area. We know the vulnerability of children and how their situation will impact the rest of their lives. What can we do with our limited means? What place then for prayer? A moment of wishful thinking or an essential step in a long struggle?
- We may feel that we are living in a constant whirlwind, where it is difficult to stop and stress is omnipresent. What would be the impact of slowly repeating the Lord's Prayer?
- In a time of illness, what is the place of the Our Father?
-André Gilbert, Gatineau, July 2013
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