Sermon on the Mount

The Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come – Matthew 6:10

In the next line of the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus teaches his disciples to pray for God’s kingdom and rule to come in this world and for his will to be done in this world. This part of the prayer acknowledges the world is not as God intended it to be but also that God will do something in the future to extend his rule to this fallen world. As Craig Keener says, this is a “prayer for the desperate . . .for the broken to whom Jesus promises the blessings of the kingdom (5:3-12)” (Keener, Matthew, 220). The first disciples were desperate because they lived in a world that did not appear to be ruled by God at all. Their world was dominated by the Roman Empire, ruled by men who claimed to be divine saviors of the world.

For other posts in this series on the Lord’s Prayer:

The first disciples who heard this prayer would have understood something quite real in the prayer for God’s kingdom to come. As biblically literate Jews living under Roman rule, they really did look forward to God’s breaking into history. They passionately looked forward to God rescuing his people from the hands of Gentiles and ending Israel’s long exile.

Although we cannot know for sure, it is likely that many of Jesus’s followers, especially those who acknowledged him as the Messiah, knew the prophecies from Daniel 7, which describe a coming “son of man” who will be given authority to rule by God himself. So, the first disciples knew exactly what kind of kingdom they were hoping for. They may have prayed something like this every time they paid taxes to the Roman Empire!

There was a “tension” between the belief of a future ultimate vindication and the present vindication enjoyed because of Christ’s death on the cross. Jesus has conquered the ultimate enemies, sin and death, but he has yet to judge the world. He already rules, but he does not yet fully rule (the classic “already/not yet catchphrase). The disciples cannot they cannot bring God’s kingdom into existence by their own efforts, as Donald Hagner says, “yet they are to reflect the good news of its inauguration in and through Jesus” (Hagner, Matthew 1-13, 148).

The Lord's Prayer

For Christians living some 2000 years after Jesus, there is still a future aspect of this prayer. Jesus is going to come back at some point in the future to set things right. Jesus will judge righteously, vindicate his people, and punish those who have flaunted his Law. Just as Christians in the first century closed prayer with maranatha, “Come Lord” (2 Cor 16:22b, Rev 22:20), so too should we have a clear expectation for the soon return of Jesus to judge this world. Although there are a range of views on how this return will happen, this belief in the return of Jesus was at the very core of early Christianity.

But this prayer is not entirely future. When Jesus rose from the dead, he did indeed begin to rule as king. When we pray for God’s will to be done, we do so because Jesus rose from the dead and is reigning in our hearts right now.

If we pray like Jesus, then we are praying that God’s rule will be established on earth. While this may take the future hope of the second coming, it must also be active in the present: We must live our lives as submissive to God’s rule here and now. The radicalness of this prayer is that Jesus prayed for God to replace the kingdoms of this world with his ultimate kingdom.

What does the Lord’s Prayer say about Christians praying for secular rulers today? How can we incorporate our hope for the future into our prayer life? This may involve praying for the government God has set over us. But is this a “prayer for their salvation”? Or are we to pray they be replaced by people we like better? If prayer is to be God-focused, how do we orient our prayer for the future toward God and his will?

The Lord’s Prayer: Our Father in Heaven – Matthew 6:9

The pattern Jesus offers is traditionally called the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus does not command his disciples to repeat these words; rather, he gives this as a pattern for prayer. The words are your own, but typically, these are the sorts of things that are part of regular prayer. It cannot be emphasized enough: this is a pattern for prayer, not a list to be memorized and repeated. Nor is the Lord’s Prayer a complete “theology of prayer.” This pattern differs somewhat from the Psalms and other prayers of Jesus in the Gospels. Paul’s letters almost always begin with prayers that do not follow the pattern of the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus is simply offering his disciples direction to avoid the babbling of the hypocrites (whether Pharisees or pagans).

For other posts in this series on the Lord’s Prayer:

The first line of the prayer focuses on God and God alone. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Addressing God as the father is consistent with Jewish prayers of the first century and radical at the same time. There are many examples of Jewish prayers that address God as a father, although, for the most part, they are prayers that describe God as the father of Israel, or the creator, “Father of All,” not a personal yet divine “father” figure.

The Lord's Prayer

The basis for this in Jesus’ prayer is that Jesus creates a new family consisting of his disciples, a family that persists into the present age as well. Paul uses family language to describe our new relationship in faith. We are brothers and sisters to each other; we are co-heirs with Christ, sharing the same father who is in heaven (Romans 8).

For Paul, this means that regardless of our real family (or lack thereof), we have a new family with bonds running deeper than a physical family. This is the radical element in Jesus’ prayer—the sovereign God of heaven can be addressed as father. We are within our rights to call him father, and we are expected to do so.

This prayer is God-centered, beginning with worshiping God for who he is. Hallowed means “holy, revered,” or perhaps even “blessed.” This is quite consistent with the Psalms, which often “bless the name of God,” and the Jewish expression after referring to God, “may his name be blessed.” This is a brief adoration of God and a statement that we revere his name – this can and ought to be expanded! A prayer intentionally focused on God will begin by worshiping God for who he is.

This is where good theology enhances prayer and worship. The more one studies the attributes of God, for example, the more one can worship God in prayer because of his holiness, justice, or mercy. What we learn in a classroom or Bible study ought to inform our prayer life and our worship. I have occasionally joked about this, but I am quite serious. It may not be the case that after lecturing on the arguments for God’s existence, I lead the class in worship, perhaps raising our hands and reciting the ontological argument for God’s existence. But the more we come to know God, the more we can focus our prayer on who is is (as opposed to our immature mental image of who he is).

Unlike this clear focus on God in prayer, popular Christian prayers tend to focus on the needs of the person praying. Anyone who has gone to an evangelical “prayer meeting” can attest to the self-centeredness of the “prayer request time.” This is not wrong; Paul tells his readers to bring their requests to God (Phil 4:6-7).

The opening to the Lord’s Prayer focuses on God’s will to be done in this world. For many Christians, tagging “if it be your will” onto a prayer allows some wiggle room in case their prayer goes unanswered. But that is not Jesus’s point here. Since the prayer calls for God’s kingdom to come,

Does Jesus say we are to pray for God’s will as if it is the complete opposite of “our will”? It is possible to think that God’s will is for us to all be missionaries in Africa and that not to be a missionary is somehow out of God’s will. This is not the case.

God’s will is for us to respond properly as his dearly loved children, with obedience and respect, to love him, and to live out our lives as a dearly loved child of God. Jesus is the ultimate model of submission to the Father’s will. Even during the crucifixion, he prayed “not my will but thine” (Matt 26:39). This prayer does not imply that Jesus’ will was to not die on the cross and that he was grudgingly submitting to the will of the Father. The will of Jesus and the will of the Father are the exact same thing in this case.

If we are praying for God’s will to be done, then we will want to know God’s will and commit ourselves to doing that will. Knowing and committing are really two different things since knowing God’s will is fairly easy; doing God’s will is much more difficult. Beginning our prayer with a clear focus on who God is and what God’s will is a daily commitment (or re-commitment) to being what we are: children of God.

For some Christians, there is a serious problem with using father terminology. It may appear patriarchal, implying God is a “big man in heaven” everyone must obey. Not everyone particularly likes their human father, and in far too many cases, the metaphor of “God as Father” evokes horrible images of people whose earthly father has hurt. How do we make this work in the modern world?

The Lord’s Prayer: Praying Like The Pagans – Matthew 6:5-8

In Matthew 6, Jesus begins to teach his disciples about prayer. This well-known section of the Sermon on the Mount is usually called the Lord’s Prayer.

For other posts in this series on the Lord’s Prayer:

In my first semester of Bible college, an older student stood up to prayer in a chapel and began by addressing God as Father, Lord, el-Shaddai, Jehovah Jirah, and every other name of God he could think of from the Bible (or from the latest Amy Grant song). This went on for several minutes and became increasingly awkward as this student oiled on the names of God and showed off their preaching skills in their public prayer. Looking back on this, I wondered if the student realized they were drawing attention to themselves by praying this way. I imagine they were genuinely trying to worship God in the prayer and would have been horrified to find out that his overly flowery prayer distracted people from authentic worship.

This first kind of prayer Jesus addresses is the long, flowery public prayer, which draws attention to the person praying. For many people, Jewish and Greco-Roman prayers were ritualized. While it is impossible to know the exact wording in the first century, there are some remarkable parallels between these prayers and the prayer of Jesus in Matthew 6. Roman public prayers were read precisely as they were written, “if one syllable or one ritual gesture was performed incorrectly, the prayer might well be invalid” (Stambaugh and Balch, cited in Keener, Matthew, 213).

Benediction 6 Forgive us, our Father, for we have sinned against You. Blot out and remove our transgressions from before Your sight, for Your mercies are manifold. You are praised, O Lord, who abundantly pardons.

Benediction 9 Bless, O Lord our God, this year for us, and let it be good in all the varieties of its produce. Hasten the year of our redemptive End. Grant dew and rain upon the face of the earth, and satiate the world out of the treasuries of Your goodness; and grant a blessing to the work of our hands. Exalted and hallowed be His great Name in the world which He created according to His will. May He establish His kingdom in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the whole household of Israel, speedily and at a near time. And say, Amen. (From Petuchowski and Brocke, The Lord’s Prayer and Jewish Liturgy)

But the other extreme seems also to be a problem. For some (in Matthew, the Pharisees), long, flowery prayers were common. Although we cannot know what they prayed, these hypocrites likely wanted to demonstrate how spiritual they were. As with his comments on giving, Jesus uses hyperbole: the hypocrite loves to stand on the street corners or in the Synagogue to pray for all to see.

Not all Jewish prayers were like this. Rabbi Simeon advised caution when reciting the shema and in prayer. “Be meticulous in the recitation of the shema and the Prayer. And (2) when you pray, don’t treat your praying as a matter of routine” (m.Abot 2.13).

The Lord's Prayer

A second problem Jesus addresses is “pagan babbling.” Jesus is directly attacking memorized prayers that are repeated over and over again to gain favor from a god. This kind of prayer was likewise condemned in Sirach 7:14: “Do not babble in the assembly of the elders, and do not repeat yourself when you pray.”

Christians babble in their prayers as well. We waste lot of words, whether because we don’t know what to say or we run out of things to say. While it is good to thank God for everything, offering God a daily weather report is probably unnecessary. Christians use certain words that have no meaning outside of a prayer. What does a Christian mean when they say “pray for this….” Are we asking God to pray for this or abbreviating our prayer? Think about how often some people say “just” and “really” during their prayers. Why do we close prayers with the quickly spoken word injesusnameamen? Is that a Latin word for “open your eyes now”?

It is important to understand how the original Jewish audience would have understood Jesus’s words here. He is saying that when Jews pray in public and focus their attention on themselves, they are praying “like the pagans.” They might as well be pagan Roman priests reciting the prayers like magic spells. This is shocking and quite likely very insulting!

For Jesus, the solution to the problem of self-serving prayers is to keep prayer private. Just as giving is a private spiritual discipline, prayer should also be. Jesus says to go into your room or closet, close the door, and pray privately. He recommends finding a hiding place, a small room where no one can hear you pray. If no one will hear your prayer, there is no need to impress people. The problem is with the attitude behind the prayers. They want to be seen by men. Just as with giving, these people want everyone to know they are praying and how spiritual their prayers are.

Yet public prayers are often needed. Leading a congregation in corporate prayer is not necessarily a violation of the spirit of Jesus’s words here. But as is often the case in the Sermon on the Mount, the internal motivation for the public prayer must be carefully examined.

  • If a politician participates in a “national day of prayer” and publicly leads a group in prayers for our country, are they genuinely praying, or do they need to be seen as a “Christian Person” by their constituency?
  • When a Christian sits down to a meal in public, why do they bow their head and offer a short prayer for their meal? Are they genuinely thankful, or is there a Christian peer pressure to at least appear to pray for a meal?

How can a careful examination of our motives re-invigorate our prayers?

When You Give, Give in Secret – Matthew 6:2-4

Jesus tells his followers to do their spiritual disciples in private. He assumes they will give to the poor, pray and fast, but he does not want them to draw attention to themselves in these spiritual disciplines. Instead, Jesus says, when you pray, go into your closet, when you fast, do not tell anyone, and when you give, “do not even let the left hand know what the right hand is doing.”

The reason for this is that the hypocrite calls attention to themselves when they give. Jesus tells his followers to “sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets” Did anyone actually make a public announcement by blowing a shofar when they gave?

Giving on Camera

Contrary to popular teaching, there is no evidence anyone in the Second Temple Period announced their giving with trumpets. Imagine someone in the Temple blowing on a shofar to get everyone’s attention and loudly announcing they were about to give their offering to the Lord, maybe even announcing how much they are giving and what percentage of their income it represents.

The image Jesus creates here is intentionally ridiculous, it is a parody of how people draw attention to their wealth and generosity. John Nolland calls it “grotesque exaggeration” (Matthew, 274). Before objecting that Jesus would not exaggerate, a bit later in the Sermon he will say some people complain about a speck in someone’s eye even though they have a log in their own eye. This is a clear exaggeration! In Matthew 5:30 Jesus said “if your right hand offends you, cut it off,” a clear example of exaggeration.

Although Jesus intentionally exaggerates the activity of the hypocrites, people did in fact boast about their giving in the ancient world. There are examples of ancient synagogues with the names of the donors engraved on the walls. Ever Greek and Roman city had dozens of statues donated by some wealthy patron in order to demonstrate their benevolence and draw attention to their name in order to increase their honor and status in the city. Even ““do not even let the left hand know what the right hand is doing” is hyperbole, since it is physically impossible for a hand to know anything. Jesus’s point is simply “keep your alms giving private.”

If someone does boast about what they give, what are they actually boasting about? Potentially it is their piety, the depth of their commitment to God, or how spiritual they are. But it is also likely someone who boasts in their giving is boasting about how wealthy they really are. If someone boasts about a large gift, they are really saying, “Look how wealthy I am, I can afford to give this huge gift!”

Who are these hypocrites? Based on parallels between the Sermon on the Mount and Matthew 23, most agree Jesus has the Pharisees in mind when he describes the activity of the hypocrites in Matthew 6.

As with other elements of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus focuses on the attitude behind the action. If someone gives in order to be recognized as a generous person, or to appear to be spiritual, or to be thanked publicly for their gift, then they have “received their reward.”

This desire for recognition is certainly common in contemporary culture. A huge mega-corporation may fund some public philanthropic program, but it is not a completely an act of kindness since the company name is prominently displayed. Perhaps a company gives to deflect criticism, like an oil companies running TV ads about how much they care about the environment and how they make the world better for harp seals and snow crabs (without mentioning the thousands of tons of oil spilled into the environment every year). They are trying to build goodwill with people and show that they are a good a gracious company.

How does the follower of Jesus live out this teaching of Jesus? Christians are certainly going to support charities that help the poor, but how can that be done “in private”? If your name appears on a list of donors, are you violating Jesus’s ideal in Matthew 6:2-4? What if you take a tax credit for charitable giving? Jesus is focused on the internal motivations for giving: how should the Christian evaluate their motive for giving?

Almsgiving in Second Temple Judaism

Pirqe Abot 5:10 E “What’s mine is yours and what’s yours is yours”—this is a truly pious man.

Pirqe Abot 5:13 A–E There are four traits among people who give charity: (1) he who wants to give but does not want others to give—he begrudges what belongs to others; (2) he wants others to give, but he does not want to give—he begrudges what belongs to himself; (3) he will give and he wants others to give—he is truly pious;  (4) he will not give and does not want others to give—he is truly wicked.

Care for the poor was considered virtuous in Second Temple period Judaism.The Law had provision for the poor in Israel. For example, Leviticus 19:9-10 commanded farmers to leave food behind for the poor (the gleaning law, recall the story of Ruth in Boaz’s field). The prophets regularly condemn both Israel and Judah for failing to care for the poor. In fact, the prophets often condemn Israel for preying on the poor. Micah 3:1-3 vividly describes the leaders of Israel and Judah as chopping of the people like meat for the pot! Amos 8:4-6 describes merchants as “buying the poor with silver, the needy for a pair of sandals.” After the return from exile, Nehemiah must address care for the poor (Nehemiah 5:1-13).

The wisdom literature considered care of the poor as a responsibility of the wise person. Proverbs 3:27 (ESV) “Do not withhold good from those to whom it is due, when it is in your power to do it.” Proverbs does occasionally link poverty with foolishness. The Second Temple wisdom text Sirach says “almsgiving atones for sin” (Sirach 3:30) and he describes almsgiving as storing treasure in order to escape affliction (Sirach 29:12) and almsgiving like a thank offering (Sirach 35:2).

Sirach 4:3–6 (NRSV) Do not add to the troubles of the desperate, or delay giving to the needy. 4 Do not reject a suppliant in distress, or turn your face away from the poor. 5 Do not avert your eye from the needy, and give no one reason to curse you; 6 for if in bitterness of soul some should curse you, their Creator will hear their prayer.

A Jewish wisdom text known as Pseudo-Phocylides, written between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200 describes the wise person as ready to give to the poor:

Ps-Phoc 1.22–26 Give to the poor man at once, and do not tell him to come tomorrow. You must fill your hand. Give alms to the needy. Receive the homeless in (your) house, and lead the blind man. Pity the shipwrecked, for navigation is unsure. Extend your hand to him who falls, and save the helpless one.

In the Sibylline Oracles, the writer praises the Jewish people saying “they care for righteousness and virtue and not love of money, which begets innumerable evils for mortal men, war, and limitless famine” (3.234-236). In the Testament of Job, “When any stranger approached to ask alms, he was required to be fed at my table before he would receive his need” (10.4), and he goes on to boast he had “fifty bakeries from which I arranged for the ministry of the table for the poor” (10.7).

There is nothing in the Law, prophets or wisdom literature which implies care for the poor was to be practiced publicly. If you passed by a beggar on the way to the Temple, it was your duty to share something to that beggar.

It was simply assumed a Jewish person would give to the needy. This is why Jesus says “when you give…” He isn’t commanding his listeners to give, he knows that they will. It is the attitude behind the giving that is the issue.

 

Bibliography: Lee, Kyong-Jin. “Almsgiving” pages 324-325 in The Eerdmans Dictionary of Early Judaism.