would you turn away
what if it knew you by your name
Finally, we come to the last sermon in our series on the Lord’s Prayer.
Thus far, we’ve taken our time. Covering only eight words in total. But now, for our last sermon, we’re covering three petitions in one shot!
Abrupt as this shift may be, it makes sense. The first part of the Lord’s Prayer has dealt with God: God’s name, God’s holiness, and God’s kingdom.
Each one of these final petitions, though, deal with us: “Give US this day our daily bread.” “Forgive US our sins, for WE ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.” And, “do not bring US to the time of trial.”
…The first thing Jesus tells us to pray for, after praying for something as exalted as the hallowing of God’s name and the coming of God’s kingdom, is mundane. “Daily bread.”
For those who imagine God’s holiness and God’s kingdom looks anything like the world defines it, this petition seems like a left turn! Nothing about bread seems especially holy or kingly. But this is to fail to see the kind of God Jesus reveals.
A God who is holy, who rules by taking care of you and me! And doing so, so entirely as to include even in the little, seemingly insignificant details of your and my lives! Daily bread.
There’s nothing in your life that’s too insignificant for God!
…But, that’s not all that’s baked into these words. There’s nourishment in them yet! And to get that sustenance, we do well to go back to Scripture.
Consider mana.
You remember mana, don’t you? That gift of daily bread. The bread God rained down from heaven new every morning. The bread you could only store enough for one day. Otherwise, it would rot.
To illustrate this, let me point you to another passage. Perhaps an unexpected one; the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve have eaten of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There, God confronts everyone to tell them what life will be like now that the thread of trust has been frayed.
Part of Adam and Eve’s consequences is that now they will have to toil for their daily bread. The serpent, on the other hand, will now have to eat the dust of the ground. And while dust may not seem like a very tasty meal, it’s certainly an easier one get. Which is the consequence!
Now the serpent will be self-sufficient! The serpent will have no need for God!
But, God has refused to let Adam and Eve, and their offspring, us, exist in such a state! Even in our disobedience, God will not allow us to live independently of God!
And in this prayer, Jesus teaches you and me to pray for as much! That we would never be self-sufficient. That we would always need God. Even for something as apparently trivial as daily bread!
God can cook with your need—your dependence! In fact, it’s one of God’s favorite ingredients!
…Now, though, we come to a petition that does sound right and proper to our pious little ears; “forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.”
Hearing these words through the filter of piety, however, will distort them every time!
The temptation is to hear these words as a to-do, YOU had better forgive, otherwise GOD won’t forgive YOU.
Frankly, there’s a tiniest kernel of truth to this logic. After all, if you’re still caught up in that old game of scorekeeping, it’s unlikely you’ve been swept up into Jesus’ great victory. Jesus’ victory, where ALL tallies are buried at the foot of the cross now and forever!
But, trying to cajole yourself into forgiving because you want to be forgiven, will never work! For starters, it’s not a strong enough of a motivator. More importantly, though, it’s not actually forgiving! It’s just the same old game of bean-counting! Quid pro quo; I get forgiven, because I’VE forgave!
…The forgiveness Jesus teaches you to pray for, though, is so radical it gets to root of all record-keeping. And there, it dashes the whole ledger to pieces upon the solid rock of Jesus Christ and his righteousness!
In this prayer, you pray that God’s forgiveness would break so totally upon you, that you would die to all accounting of rights and wrongs.
Because in Christ, you most certainly have!
On the third day, when Jesus rose from the dead, he left all our trespasses in the tomb! And trying to count them anymore is like using outdated software; it just won’t work!
All those old trespasses no longer have any power. You can’t count on them! Not in your standing with God. And not in your grudges with others, either!Trying to count trespasses never worked. And at the cross, God discontinued the whole endeavor once and for all!
In this prayer, Jesus teaches you to pray you would be swept up into this new reality. And swept up so thoroughly, you’d be incapable of ever counting your’s, or anyone else’s, trespasses ever again!
…Finally we come to the last petition, “Lead us not into the time of trial.”
Which sums up everything we’ve been praying for thus far perfectly.
There’s two places in Scripture you can look to help you glimpse what Jesus has in mind with these words. And both of them include Jesus, too.
The first is the very first thing that happens to Jesus after his baptism. He’s driven into the wilderness. He’s driven there to be, yup, tested for forty days. The second is in the Garden of Gethsemane. Right before Jesus faces his trial by the authorities, and his ultimate trial of the cross. And there he tells the disciples to pray that they wouldn't come into the time of trial! To pray that what’s happened to him, wouldn’t happen to us.
So often, we think Christianity is a matter of acting like Jesus. But, at this pivotal point. Where the rubber of faith hits the road of being tested, Jesus teaches to pray for, not the gas, but the brakes!
Instead of teaching you to pray that we would remain steadfast in the time of trial like he did, Jesus teaches you to pray that we would be delivered from the time of trial. Because by Jesus’ faithfulness through his trials, you and I have been delivered through ours!
Faith is not a matter of mimicking Jesus. It’s a matter of running to him! Running to him in the midst of our trials. In Jesus you have so much more than an example. You have a savior!
This is what it means to be a Christian! Not to mimic Jesus. But to worship him! Worship him as God in the flesh!
Which brings us right back to the beginning of the Lord’s Prayer all over again. And this is how true prayer always works! Once you get to the end, you realize you’re right back at the start!
You don’t grow in faith. You live by it.
God’s name is hallowed when you use the name God has given you, Jesus Christ! Use it to call upon God in every need, even something as mundane as daily bread. When you call upon Jesus to give you his best gift, forgiveness. In your own life, and others too. When you call upon Jesus to deliver you from the time of trial!
God’s kingdom comes when Jesus himself becomes your daily bread. When his rule of grace and mercy reigns among you, and your dealings with others. When Jesus himself routes the final foe for you. And, ushers you into his eternal kingdom!
You’re totally ready to pray this prayer. And not because you’ve finished the series. You’re ready to pray this pray because you have everything you need. You’re dependence, and a God who can work with that.
Amen
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