Matthew 6:7–13, Praying Differently
7 “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. 9 Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
10 Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread,
12 and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.” Matt 6:7–13.
We are all thankful that the midterms and wall-to-wall campaign ads are over. But once the new Congress begins advancing their legislative agenda the bombardment of texts to our phones, robocalls, and endless mailers petitioning us to petition our elected officials will come roaring back. They will say either one of two things: “Call your congressman and ask them to vote yes!” or “Call your congressman and tell them to vote no!” These communications often include prepared remarks or speaking notes to better sway the official. Whether or not they do what you ask depends on their party’s platform, public sentiment, your constituency, and any other number of factors.
In other, more personal, situations we might call our elected officials to ask them to get involved on our behalf in straightening out Medicare or VA benefits, or even to ask for a recommendation to a military service academy. We agonize over trying to find just the right words to convince them to take an interest in our singular concern.
These types of situations, where we find ourselves compelled to petition an elected official to make a decision that will benefit us or our community, are often assessed by whether or not we “have a prayer” of them coming through for us. They also allow us an easily accessible reference point for what Jesus is about to say regarding prayer.
Praying as a Creature
The very act of prayer is an admission of a power differential. In prayer, we are saying that we have a need, are unable to fulfill it without some measure of assistance, and are petitioning another person to use their authority and power to bring about a positive outcome to our petition. In this case, the person we are petitioning is the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Further, God is completely transcendent from us because he lives, as the preface to the Lord’s Prayer makes clear, not on earth, but in heaven.
Prayer, despite the touchpoints mentioned in the opening paragraphs, bears little resemblance to the petitions of the public square directed to those serving and leading in the public square. In every prayer to God we are wholly dissimilar from a junior senator approaching a senior senator in hope of striking a deal. There is no correlation between prayer and a constituent asking their elected official or even an intern asking a Cabinet secretary for a favor. The power differential is one of infinite orders of magnitude. This is exactly why prayer is always the most one can do.
In prayer we pray to the One who spoke the universe into existence and brought forth life (Gen 1), who graciously placed mankind into the Garden and in relationship with himself (Gen 2), and continued to extend grace even after mankind openly rebelled against their Creator (Gen 3). We are also praying to the God who entered into a covenant of Abraham through whom all of the world would be blessed (Gen 12 and 15).
When his people cried out for deliverance from slavery in Egypt, and God chose Moses as his mediator between heaven and earth, this is how that conversation went:
God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. 16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days’ journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand. 20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians. Exod 3:15–22.
Prayer to God should always be done with reverence because we acknowledge that we are the creature and he is the Creator, who has the authority and power to help us. This leads us to an important question: even though he is able to help, is he willing to help?
Praying as a Child
The Jewish audience gathered on the mountain that day considered themselves the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This view is confirmed by the very words of the LORD to Moses.
21 And the LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt, see that you do before Pharaoh all the miracles that I have put in your power. But I will harden his heart, so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I say to you, “Let my son go so that he may serve me.” If you refuse to let him go, behold, I will kill your firstborn son.’ ” Exod 4:21–23.
Generations later, after bringing them through forty years of wandering in the wilderness, ensuring their conquest of the Promised Land, the rise of the united kingdom under David and its subsequent division and eventual fall after Solomon, God confirms this family perspective to the prophet Hosea.
1 When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 The more they were called, the more they went away;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Hosea 11:1–2.
Therefore, when Jesus instructs the crowds on how to pray, he directs them to use familiar terms — literally instructing them to pray as a child to a father. God is able to help us because he is the Creator and he is willing to help us because he is our Father. We must also remember that we are his children not by birth, but by adoption, which means that he chose us in the same way he chose Abraham out of all the peoples of the earth. What is most amazing is that Jesus, the one speaking, is the very instrument of all adoptions. This makes “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16) come into beautiful focus.
In prayer, there are no legislative assistants answering all incoming calls and no chief of staff making sure that only the right people get in to see the member. There are never any qualifying conditions for an audience such as political connections or money donated. There are not even long waits on hold or requests buried in an inbox. There are no midterms or new administration purging of all your well developed contacts. The Father wants to hear from his children because he created them and he loves them even when they have disobeyed. When Jesus says, “do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words,” his point is that a loving Father does not hear his child for their many words but because of his love for them.
The public square is marked by powers and titles. That is not, in itself, evil. It is simply the nature of the institution of our government. But, as Christians serving and leading in the public square, we would do well to remember the posture that Jesus takes toward us when hearing our petitions as we find ourselves in the position to hear the petitions of others. This is the point that Jesus makes later when his own disciples make a request that reveals how little they grasp the instruction of Jesus regarding prayer:
35 And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came up to him and said to him, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” 36 And he said to them, “What do you want me to do for you?” 37 And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.” 38 Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?” 39 And they said to him, “We are able.” And Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink, and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized, 40 but to sit at my right hand or at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom it has been prepared.” 41 And when the ten heard it, they began to be indignant at James and John. 42 And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. 43 But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. 45 For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Mark 10:35-45.
When the Father hears and answers our petitions, just like Jesus, he is motivated by a desire to serve us, not to elevate us. As we are about to see, the “us” in that sentence matters for fully understanding the purpose of prayer.
Praying as a Community
Every pronoun in the Lord’s Prayer that does not refer to the Father is in the first person plural, not the first person singular. We do not pray, “Give me,” or “Lead me,” or “Deliver me.” Instead, we pray “Give us,” “Lead us,” and “Deliver us.” As such, Jesus directs them to pray, “Our Father.”
This does something that our current cultural moment has almost erased — the ability to see ourselves as part of the whole. As Peter writes in his first pastoral letter:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. 1 Pet 2:9–10.
In writing these words Peter is drawing on numerous Old Testament passages that would have been well known to his readers. “A chosen race” comes from Deuteronomy 7:6, 10:15, and Isaiah 43:20; “a royal priesthood, a holy nation” from Exodus 19:6; and “a people for his own possession” is referencing Exodus 19:5, as well as Deuteronomy 7:6, 14:2, and 26:18, and Malachi 3:17. “That you may proclaim the excellencies” comes from Isaiah 43:21, and “called you out of darkness into his marvelous light” echoes Isaiah 42:6–7, 16 and 9:2. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people” is from Hosea 1:9–10 and 2:23, and “once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” is also from Hosea 1:6 and 2:23.
Jesus wants them to pray not as individuals, but as individuals who are part of a people. Jesus is not asking us to refrain from making personal requests such as a family member’s health, better working conditions, or a healthy pregnancy, but to make them mindful of his people, who, as Christians, are our people.
Perhaps the public square can, once again, help us here. Imagine that your request to your elected official is made for the benefit of an entire constituency or even the whole country. That seems quite laudable. But if you asked the member to take action that would benefit only members of their party, that would not only be selfish, it would run counter to true flourishing and would echo the error of James and John. True, we are called to pray for the Church, but only so that we can be a blessing.
What Jesus is offering is an antidote to the nature of petitions made in the public square: petitions that are made from creatures to a Creator, from a child to a Father, and from a person for a community.
Application questions
How does praying to a Creature who is willing and able instead of requiring negotiation change how you pray? What happens when you apply that change to your prayers for the public square?
How does praying to a Father instead of just God change how you pray? What happens when you apply that change to your prayers for the public square?
How does praying as a community of “us” and “our” change what you pray? What happens when you apply that change to your prayers for the public square?
Faithful Presence exists to provide whole-life discipleship in the whole of life for the whole of the public square. Join us as we seek renewal in politics and the public square by becoming a Supporting Partner.
Find Us On: LinkedIn | Instagram | Facebook | YouTube | Apple & Spotify