One feature of the writings of Luke is his emphasis on prayer. From his first appearance as an adult, at his baptism, Jesus is shown as praying at significant points in his ministry, as well as regularly, as in our Gospel reading today.
The disciples have noticed him spending time communicating with God and ask him to instruct them how to do this themselves. They are not asking Jesus simply as an individual teacher, but one with the authority of a prophet, someone in the line of John the Baptist.
Jesus the prophet is another theme running through Luke’s version of the Good News. Luke’s presentation of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter, less detailed than Matthew’s (the one we normally use). It consists of five requests: the first two refer to God and the coming of God’s kingdom; God’s name being held holy and the establishing of God’s kingdom are, in some ways, the same thing.
The other three petitions concern the reader and reflect important themes of Luke’s Gospel. These are, firstly, asking for our daily needs to be met: the second request is that God forgives us our sins, but we might note that God’s forgiveness depends on our willingness to forgive those who have offended us in some way or other; the third and final appeal asks that we may not be put to the severest test, which means standing up for what we believe in in the face of persecution, because we might well not pass the test.
The second part of our Gospel extract today emphasises the importance of keeping on praying and not giving up, even if we seem to be receiving no answer.
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REFLECT
Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer is shorter than the words we usually use, for example, in the Communion Rite at Mass. We might consider some of the lines which we hear today – to think about the prayer in modern speech may give us a different understanding of what we say automatically when we start off “Our Father, who art in heaven”. Sometimes, archaic language, sometimes described as “traditional” or “sacred/sacral” can obscure the real meaning of the text.
In Luke’s version, we ask God to “forgive us our sins, for we forgive each one who is in debt to us”. Does this make more sense than talking about “trespasses”? It emphasises that the forgiveness we hope for from God depends on our willingness to forgive other people who have offended us. There is no cheap grace in the Christian life.
“Do not put us to the test” is perhaps a better translation than “Lead us not into temptation”: we will see that testing is to find out what Jesus is all about, as at his baptism and then the testing scene at the beginning of the Gospel narrative – this theme returns at Gethsemane.
The Lord’s Prayer has greater significance – and consequences – than perhaps we realise, and which may fade as a result of constant repetition.
learn
- Jesus spent special time in prayer, in communication with God, throughout his life and ministry.
- There are two versions of the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel tradition: that of Matthew and that of Luke.
- God’s forgiving us of our sins is in direct proportion to our forgiving other people. “Temptation” in the Lord’s Prayer is better understood as “test”: the test is to be faithful to our beliefs, just as Jesus was, and which led him to the cross.
do
Learn Luke’s version of the Lord’s Prayer from today’s Gospel: use it for a few days and see how it influences your understanding of the teaching of Jesus.