Up until this point, it seems that Jesus’ disciples merely watched him as he prayed. On this occasion they longed to be able to do as he did – to pray.
But he said to them, “When you may be praying, state this! “Father, be made holy your already holy name!”
This first sentence – for them to pray – is absolutely amazing. They are to call on the one above using the word “Father” adding, immediately afterward that they know his name is “holy” and that their hearts prayer to him is for that “name” to be and to continue to be “made holy.”
“Your realm come!”
This second sentence – for them to pray – acknowledges that the world of their generation was not the “realm” of the “Father” above. They are to plead for the coming of that “realm”. That holy realm?
“Give us each day our daily bread!”
This third plea – is a prayer that they will be sustained daily by the Father. Those who pray this from the heart will know how reliant they are on him.
“And forgive to us our sins because we also ourselves forgive everyone owing to us!”
This fourth prayer – for them to pray – acknowledges unworthiness and evil in them as they pray to the one whose name is “holy.” At the very same time they themselves are to commit – and act accordingly – to “forgive everyone owing” whatever it may be - to them.
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| “And may you not bring us into testing.”
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This fifth sentence is phrased differently. It is not a firm black-and-white request like the previous four. Instead, it kind of asks with a deeper understanding that the Father above may not wish to grant the prayer. Nome of like to be tested by trials and troubles but metals are not purified without fire. A Father above knows what his son needs.
And he said to them, “Which of you who will have a friend and will go to him at midnight and may say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves! For my friend came to me from a journey, and I do not have anything I will set before him’. Responding from inside that one may say, ‘Do not provide trouble to me! The door has already been shut, and my children are with me in bed. I am not able to rise up to give you anything’. I state to you, although he will not, rising up, give to him through him being his friend, yet through, really, the persistence, arising, he will give to him whatever he needs.”
What is this all about? A disciple has two friends – one arrives at midnight from a journey; the other is in bed. The disciple has nothing to feed the journey-friend so he goes to the in-bed friend and asks for bread. Only because the disciple is persistent, does the in-bed friend “give.” Is the Father above (to whom they have been taught to pray) ever in-bed? Do disciples have to “provide trouble” to the Father when praying?
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“And I myself state to you, ‘Ask, and it will be given to you! Seek, and you will find! Knock, and it will be opened to you!’ For everyone asking receives, and the seeking one finds, and to the knocking one it will be opened. But what father among you, if the son will ask a fish, will in place of a fish hand to him a serpent and, if he will ask an egg, will hand to him a scorpion?”
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Jesus added his own three-fold commandment to his disciples. With three-fold promises. Before this, they may well have been afraid to ask, seek or knock - or afraid they might receive bad things from their Father above.
“If you then, evil belonging, knew to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Father, the one from heaven, give Holy Spirit to those asking him.”
What - on earth - is this “Holy Spirit” for which, above all, we may pray?
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