One of my struggles is with the repetition of the Lord's Prayer. I have been saying the words of that prayer since I was a small child, and know it utterly inside out, and yet I find it very difficult to mean it as I pray it – my tongue rushes away with itself before my brain can register the words!
The problem with repeating the same words and phrases is that the initial link between the meaning and the words used to express that meaning seems to degrade. In spontaneous speech, you start with the meaning you want to express and then attach the words you require to express it – but when you repeat the same words over and over again, the form becomes more prominent than the meaning. In fact, to retain the meaning in those words, you have to work very hard to re-establish the link.
I suspect that Jesus' prayer as recorded in Matthew and Luke was not supposed to be a mantra but a model.
Having talked about repetition in my last blog entry, it only makes sense to talk about variety now. In my eyes, the Bible always repeats itself in meaning, but varies its form. The poetry of the Psalms, the speeches of the prophets and the stories of Genesis can convey the same meanings through different words.
So what is the core meaning of Jesus' prayer? I think it is about putting things right.
Jesus was not a conformer to his contemporary Jewish culture – he was a radical. He came to put right the people of God, physically by his sacrifice and verbally by his words. In essence, Jesus' prayer turns our thinking from that of a sinner to that of the saved. You see, before Christ, the people of God were seeking constant mercy from an unapproachable Almighty God. Because of their sin and His holiness, they were appointed a representative – the High Priest – who by God's mercy was allowed to approach God and ask for atonement, and even he would die if he entered unbidden (see Leviticus 16). What a far cry from Adam and Eve walking with God in Eden!
It is Jesus' sacrifice that puts this right – and the first word of his prayer indicates this restored relationship. We, in Jesus' model prayer, are reminded that the Almighty God is now our Father: approachable, loving, forgiving, merciful, disciplining and just.
The model of the Lord's Prayer helps restructure our thinking to this new way of living – it puts right what sin put wrong. When we pray, we must start by remembering that we do not pray to a distant, justly angry God; through Christ, we pray to a perfect Father, who longs to give good things to His children. We bring our requests before God like a child to his Father, not like a servant to his master.
The problem with repeating the same words and phrases is that the initial link between the meaning and the words used to express that meaning seems to degrade. In spontaneous speech, you start with the meaning you want to express and then attach the words you require to express it – but when you repeat the same words over and over again, the form becomes more prominent than the meaning. In fact, to retain the meaning in those words, you have to work very hard to re-establish the link.
I suspect that Jesus' prayer as recorded in Matthew and Luke was not supposed to be a mantra but a model.
Having talked about repetition in my last blog entry, it only makes sense to talk about variety now. In my eyes, the Bible always repeats itself in meaning, but varies its form. The poetry of the Psalms, the speeches of the prophets and the stories of Genesis can convey the same meanings through different words.So what is the core meaning of Jesus' prayer? I think it is about putting things right.
Jesus was not a conformer to his contemporary Jewish culture – he was a radical. He came to put right the people of God, physically by his sacrifice and verbally by his words. In essence, Jesus' prayer turns our thinking from that of a sinner to that of the saved. You see, before Christ, the people of God were seeking constant mercy from an unapproachable Almighty God. Because of their sin and His holiness, they were appointed a representative – the High Priest – who by God's mercy was allowed to approach God and ask for atonement, and even he would die if he entered unbidden (see Leviticus 16). What a far cry from Adam and Eve walking with God in Eden!
It is Jesus' sacrifice that puts this right – and the first word of his prayer indicates this restored relationship. We, in Jesus' model prayer, are reminded that the Almighty God is now our Father: approachable, loving, forgiving, merciful, disciplining and just.
The model of the Lord's Prayer helps restructure our thinking to this new way of living – it puts right what sin put wrong. When we pray, we must start by remembering that we do not pray to a distant, justly angry God; through Christ, we pray to a perfect Father, who longs to give good things to His children. We bring our requests before God like a child to his Father, not like a servant to his master.
Father, help me to approach your throne with the confidence that comes from being your child – needing neither to fear you nor to grovel before you, but coming freely and intimately to talk to you.
1 comment:
There is of course the other side of the story.... the need to meditate on God's word to allow it to soak in and transform us. Is there something in the idea that the Lord's prayer (and any other scripture) could be used in both ways.
mom.
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