Scripture
1Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.”
2So He said to them, “When you pray, say:
Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
3Give us day by day our daily bread.
4And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one. Luke 11:1-4
Observation
The disciples were all together with Jesus. As Jesus prayed they saw an intimacy with The Father that they longed to know. They had observed the religious leaders praying in the temple and it was full of pomp and circumstance. “The Rabbis had sayings like: “Whoever is long in prayer is heard” and “Whenever the righteous make their prayer long, their prayer is heard.” One famous Jewish prayer began: “Blessed, praised, and glorified, exalted, and honored, magnified and lauded be the name of the Holy One.” (Guzik) Yet, Jesus just starts with "Our Father." This was different. Jesus was talking to The Father just like he talked to them. Audibly, clearly, without vain repetition and straight from the heart. His example prayer was short and to the point. The disciples weren’t asking for another sermon on prayer technique, but they just wanted to pray with Him, to know The Father the way He did. There’s a slight difference between the prayer here and the one recorded in Matthew. That lets us know right off the bat this isn’t ritual, but relationship. It’s not a formula for getting God to answer our prayers like a divine slot machine, but rather a father and son talking together about anything and everything.
Application
Something beautiful happens when we stop talking about prayer and we actually just start praying together with Jesus. I can’t tell you how many Pastor’s Prayer Breakfast’s I’ve been to over the years where there was eating and talking and very little praying. Prayer is caught before it’s taught. When I would wake up in the morning as a kid getting ready for school I would often find my Pop on his face in the living room with his Bible open and his audible and raw. He would have been up for an hour or so before I even woke up praying for our family, for his landscaping business, for the needs he saw around him. Like the disciples observing Jesus I wanted to know The Father this way. I didn’t need Pop to give me a three point sermon on effective prayer, I just needed to start praying with him. It was like my life was made to be in constant conversation with my Father and that religion had put up a wall instead of building a bridge. It seemed you had to be a professional to get prayers answered when really The Father was here for any of His children who cared to talk with Him. It’s no accident that Jesus starts out the Lord’s prayer with “Our Father”. In fact on biblical scholar wrote of “There is no evidence of anyone before Jesus using this term to address God.”(Carson) This speaks to community and intimacy in prayer. “Our” means we are to pray in community and “Father” means we are invited to intimacy with The God of The Universe.
Prayer
This is such a precious and poignant reminder for me this morning. I’m preaching on prayer this weekend and I want to make sure I don’t fill the time together with teaching rather than actually doing it together. I’m also sitting with a group of guys and we all get to pray together before the start of the day. It’s just a bunch of disciples sitting with Jesus learning how to do life together! Prayer is caught before it’s taught and I pray that I would keep practicing and modeling this intimacy with You My Heavenly Father.
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