One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.’” Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need. “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for Marka fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” — Luke 11:1-13
Mark’s gospel tells us that Jesus taught his disciples “many things by parables” (Mark 4:2). Our Lord used many different circumstances to use this method of instruction, and as we have learned in the past, they were not designed by our Savior to make his teaching easier to understand, but to make his followers think about the deeper truths of God’s word. “He who has an ear, let him hear,” Jesus often said, which was his invitation to us to dig deep and long and hard and wide—into his word. This is a parable on prayer. It is an unusual combination of a very short teaching on prayer, which Jesus combines with a parable and a short commentary. It could be called it a “Trilogy on Prayer.” A trilogy is a series of three dramatic or literary works related in subject or theme. Obviously the theme here is prayer, or how to pray, as requested by one of Jesus’ disciples. This is the first part of the trilogy.
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” He said to them, “When you pray, say: “‘Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come Give us each day our daily bread. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. And lead us not into temptation.'” — Luke 11:1-4
This is the only time in all of the gospels where we see a disciple come to Jesus and ask to be taught. It was a regular custom for a Rabbi to teach his disciples a simple prayer which they could use. John the Baptist had done this, so Jesus was requested by one of his disciples, who may have been one of John’s disciples also before his death—to do the same.
Jesus responded with a shorter version of his prayer than the one which is recorded in Matthew (Matthew 6:9-15). The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew was given early in his ministry as part of the Sermon on the Mount. His prayer in Luke comes much later in Jesus’ ministry, which leads me to believe that the Lord’s Prayer was not necessarily intended to be repeated verbatim, but is more of a model prayer. If it were, I would assume that the Lord’s Prayer in Luke would be identical to the one in Matthew—but it’s not. If you’re like me, you probably don’t feel comfortable reading the Lord’s Prayer from Luke because it’s not the one you memorized. It does, however, teach us all we need to know about how to pray and what to pray about. Notice these six precise elements:
1. Father . . . A personal relationship. This is obvious to us but to the Jew it was tantamount to blasphemy to address God in such an intimate way. It was closely equivalent to the use of the Aramaic word, Abba, which is close to our use of the word “dad.” Jesus was the first one to address God as his Father (Luke 2:49). Our God is personal.
2. Hallowed be your name . . . Literally, “let your name be holy.” The word, name in Hebrew means more than merely a name by which a person is called. Name means the whole character of the person as it is revealed and known to us. This is a request that God’s nature be manifested within us and all around us — that all men would reverence God.
3. Your kingdom come . . . A plea to God to establish his kingdom which is perfect and holy and righteous and free from sin. In one sense, it has come within the hearts of every believer. In another sense it is to come when God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:16).
4. Give us each day our daily bread . . . We ask God to meet our daily needs, not our daily desires. This request, in the continuous action in the Greek, asks God to keep meeting those needs every day. It shows our dependency on God for everything in our lives.
5. Forgive us our sins . . . This is a constant reminder of our need for repentance and forgiveness. We are sinners saved by grace. We need His forgiveness every day of our lives. None of us have arrived at perfection — we are all in need of God’s forgiving grace and mercy. Hopefully, we extend to others what we ask for ourselves.
6. And lead us not into temptation . . . Let our attitude and our conduct, as well as our discernment, be that of caution and total dependence on God to keep us from harm’s way and our own sinful nature. The disciple got his request for a prayer but he also received more than that — he received the second part of the trilogy.
Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ “Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs. — Luke 11:5-8
Now for the parable. A parable is literally a story that is “thrown alongside” something else for support or contrast. Travel was often at night in the first century culture, because of the heat of a journey by day. Hospitality was a sacred duty in that culture and friends were usually always welcome. Homes were modest and everyone stayed and slept in the same room. Unexpectedly, a friend was called upon to provide provisions for one who showed up at his door in the middle of the night. The host, not wanting to disappoint his friend, calls on another friend, possibly his neighbor, to ask for bread. Everyone there was in bed. Even the animals were bedded down inside the house, which was the custom. The door was locked and it was a big deal to get everybody up so that the friend could get some bread. So the reply was “Don’t bother me.” Jesus said that even in this case, persistency and boldness in a request would cause the friend to get up eventually to give the needed bread, just so everyone could go back to sleep.
It’s easy to misapply this parable if you don’t see it as a contrast. Jesus is not saying that we have to badger God and that He ever says, “Don’t bother me.” Quite the opposite is true. God never sleeps (Psalm 121:3-4) and he’s always ready to answer our prayers. The idea is that God is a friend in need but not like the friend in the parable. In fact, the opposite is true. Now for the third part of the trilogy, which is a short commentary by Jesus.
“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” — Luke 11:9-13
Now Jesus tells us how to pray. “Ask . . . seek . . . knock . . .” each with their corresponding results. The interesting part of this instruction is that all of these words are in the present imperative mood. They literally mean “keep on asking . . . keep on seeking . . . keep on knocking . . .” It puts no limitation on our prayers. The imperative mood creates a sense of bringing into existence something that wasn’t there before. It changes the way things are. The imperative mood reaches into the future and makes something new take place. Jesus tells us to pray like that. Just as a father would never purposely respond to simple requests of his children with evil, he makes it known that our heavenly Father loves to meet our requests through the Holy Spirit.
Some additional observations of this trilogy on prayer are in order. Jesus wants us to learn to pray like he did. That’s what attracted the disciple to ask him to teach them to pray. Choose a place to pray, away from the crowd and do it on a regular basis. Have many intimate conversations with your heavenly Father. Prayer is not complicated. It takes only a minute and a half to read Jesus’ thirteen verses of instruction. There are only thirty-eight words in the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus offered just enough commentary to get the disciple’s interpretative juices flowing. You don’t need to read another book on prayer, you don’t need another seminar—you don’t need me to teach you—you just need to begin praying. If you don’t know how, join prayer group and pray with people who know how to pray—and you’ll learn. Prayer does not begin in acquiescence. Prayer doesn’t begin with accepting the status quo. Prayer is action. Prayer does not give in to the things that are. The goal of prayer is to change things — asking the only one who can bring about that change — the one who loves to respond to His children who ask . . . seek . . . and knock on the door of heaven.
So what are you waiting for dear saint and child of God? Your heavenly Father wants to hear from you in prayer and Jesus told us how to do it. Isn’t that exciting? Maranatha!
Pastor Don Kimbro
