The Lord’s Prayer

The Lord and Savior Jesus Christ not only taught many things about prayer, even giving us an example of a prayer, but showed how He Himself, the greatest of all, prayed to His Heavenly Father in all humility, sincerity and as a child praying to his dearest father. His last sacred 7 utterances on the cross of Calvary contained 3 prayers, all heart rending and inviting us to pray the same.

1. “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He asked us to follow Him, take up our crosses, and be like Him in whatever way we can. “Be ye therefore perfect, even as our Father in heaven is perfect.” But to forgive others who have injured us and not asked for forgiveness? To forgive our enemies as He asked us to do in the Beatitudes? To forgive 70 times 7 as He told Peter to forgive his brethren of the 12, all normal men with normal weaknesses rubbing on each other? This seems too much to bear for us mere mortals. But then there is the parable of the two debtors one owing the King 10,000 talents over 7 billion dollars in today’s money and the other owing the first servant who had just been forgiven 7 billion dollars, 11,000 dollars. So one person is forgiven by the king representing God a vast wealth of debt or sin, the other is not forgiven a minuscule amount or forgiven a minor sin by the newly forgiven king’s servant. The unforgiving man is cast into prison. We ask for forgiveness, we plead for help just like the rich servant, yet are we doing as Christ did, forgiving our enemies and doing good to them, praying for them even in the midst of our suffering from their atrocities against us? We are all children of the same God, our Father in Heaven. So forgiveness is the door to Heaven, where we can all love each other as Christ loved us, and forget the painful past when God will wipe all the tears from our eyes.
2. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” How many on earth have never felt alone, abandoned, neglected, without anyone to talk to but God? And when we talk to Him, He is not answering, and the heavens are like brass? In our terrible and unrelenting trials who of us can be like Job and never accuse God or turn our back on Him? The Father was always with Jesus Christ, always guiding Him, always supporting Him with His matchless power. Now there is nothing, no support, no help in time of need, no angel of support like in the Garden of Gethsemane. Our exemplar prays not to condemn the Father, but to ask Him why? So we now know how to pray in our hour of abandoment, our Christ-like trial of faith. We turn to God and not against Him, for answers that never seem to come, trying our faith and patience. We do not as those following Satan “curse God and die” in our sins.
3. “It is finished,” Jesus says when He passed the last test of obedience. Then He says the last prayer on earth, “Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.” So too can we endure to end, praying to the Father in the name of Jesus Christ, who not only told us how to pray, but showed us, and lived a life of prayer in communion with “my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.”

Explaining the hidden and not so hidden meanings of the simple yet profound words of the Lord’s Prayer in these blogs is a difficult task. I hope that my musings and meditations on these words will bring a little light to your lives and inspire heartfelt prayers that open your heart to God your Father in Heaven.