Our Father in Heaven (Matthew 6:9)
The Lord’s Prayer, as this prayer is usually called, is not a prayer that Jesus would have used about himself because he would not have had to confess any personal sins. Yet it is his prayer in the sense that it is the kind of prayer that he wanted his disciples to use. Obviously, as far as the number of its words are concerned, it is a short prayer. It can be used as it is, but it can also be used as a model for longer prayers.
An obvious detail about the prayer is that it is a family prayer for God’s people to use. Sometimes, people regard it as a prayer that anyone can say. Yet the petitions that Jesus includes are all connected to the growth of his kingdom and describe spiritual interests that appear in someone’s heart after they are converted. Even the petition about daily food has this family dimension because it expresses the conviction that the Father provides it. This is not so much a pray for conversion, but a prayer for the converted to use. At the same time, it is an incentive for people to become Christians because it reveals the range of things that they could start asking God for and receiving from him.
The context indicates why Jesus taught this prayer to his disciples. We see in verses 7 and 8 that he wanted their prayers to be meaningful and trustful. Their petitions were not to be composed of pointless words and their petitions were not to be attempts to persuade a disinterested Deity who had to be convinced of their devotion by the noise they made. Instead, their petitions were to be reverent, relevant and rational. If someone asked why they had prayed like that, they would be able to explain why.
A question that arises from the prayer is, ‘Who do we pray for?’ Jesus has indicated who we are to pray to, the Father. He has also indicated what things we should pray about when speaking to the Father. And he tells us who we should be praying for, and that is for God’s people. The petition, ‘Give us this day our daily bread,’ has different concerns depending on where some of God’s people are. So we can deduce that this prayer has a global perspective as well as a gracious one, a growing concern as well as individual concerns. We should not be surprised that Paul later says that he prays for believers all over the world, including some whom he had never met.
We can also see from the context that Jesus was teaching about three basic devotional activities – giving to God, prayer and fasting. Often, they were done together, although a disciple can have times of prayer that do not involve the other two activities. Yet, the other two activities cannot be done properly without real, genuine prayer.
Matthew Henry points out that this prayer, as with all prayers, is a letter sent to heaven. In verse 9 we have the name of the recipient and his address. Moreover, we have the date of sending the letter and the date of its arrival in verse 11 (this day). Millions of these letters are sent each day and all of them reach the destination. Indeed they are read by the receiver before they are composed by the senders.
The Father
The Sermon on the Mount was preached early in the three-year public ministry of Jesus. In saying that his disciples should direct their prayer to the Father, we can see that Jesus has already taught his disciples about the Trinity. Elsewhere in the sermon, he calls himself ‘Lord’, which is a divine title, and mentions his future role as the final Judge (Matt. 7:21-22). So we can see that Jesus was already giving deep instruction about God to the disciples.
By saying that the disciples should address the Father, Jesus was indicating the wonderful relationship they now had as the children of God. Although they had been born sinners, they had discovered that there was not a barrier preventing them from entering the heavenly family. And although they had been born into a community of religious sinners, they had discovered that religion by itself did not bring them into the family of God. They had discovered what one of them was later to write: ‘To as many who received him, he gave the right to be called children of God’ (John 1:15).
Although the word for Father could have been used by young children it does not mean that Jesus wanted his disciples to address God in a childish manner. Prayer involves recognising who we are speaking to. A grown-up son or daughter would use Father when speaking to their parent. The word points to intimacy and welcome.
Paul tells us in Romans 8 and Galatians 4 that God wants us to pray strongly – the apostle likens it to a cry. At what times would a child use this paternal title strongly? He would use it when he was expressing gladness, perhaps for a gift that the father had given. And we have many things to be grateful for from the gracious heart of God. Another time when a child would cry loudly to the father would be when he was afraid of danger, real or imagined. He did not cry loudly because he doubted the reality of the father’s help. Rather, he cried loudly because it was appropriate. A third time when the child would cry loudly would be when he was excited about something that the father was going to say or do.
Each day, we as God’s children have the great privilege of thinking about the Father and speaking to him. As we think about him, we can ask some questions in order to remind ourselves of truths about him. When did he first think about us? The answer is that he always has. What was the greatest action he did for us? The answer is found in John 3:16 which says that he gave his Son as the substitute for sinners, and since he gave his Son, how will he not with him freely give us all things? How many spiritual blessings has he given to his people? The answer, according to Paul in Ephesians 1, is that he has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Where will we go when we die? The answer, says Jesus, in John 14 is that we will go to the Father’s house. This is the Father to whom we pray.
His location
We know that God is omnipresent, so why do we pray to him as if he was only in heaven? One answer to that question is that while the same God is everywhere, he is not present everywhere in the same away. For example, in some locations, he reveals his anger at sin and punishes people; in other places, he reveals his love to sinners and pardons them. Here are five aspects of the Father that we can deduce from his location.
Heaven reminds us that the Father is above us, that he is transcendent, that he is superior to us, that we would not know anything about him if Jesus had not told us. The proper response to the Father is worship. So we should not be surprised that Jesus, when teaching his disciples about how to pray, informs them that true prayer is an expression of worship that recognises the greatness of God.
Heaven reminds us that the Father is pure. He is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity and his heavenly temple has no defects. How can I draw near to him? I can do so because he has pardoned me. When this prayer was first taught by Jesus, he was standing by his disciples. When we draw near to the Father in his pure temple, Jesus is standing by his disciples. They can enter the place of purity because he went to the cross in order to make it possible for them to be fit for the divine presence. He is our advocate with the Father at all times, including when we pray.
Heaven reminds us that the Father is powerful. In heaven is his throne and from there he governs the universe. The expression of his government is providence. Everyday we see the limits of human rulers, but there will never be a day that will show any limits in God. He has complete power, which is good to know in the context of prayer. Many of the things we will ask for could only be provided by someone with total power. We pray for conversions – only God can provide them. We pray for inner change – only God can bring that about. We pray for spiritual comfort in the midst of the storms of life – only God can provide such comfort repeatedly for millions of people simultaneously.
Heaven reminds us that the Father has a plan. Nothing in heaven happens by chance. Of course, nothing anywhere happens by chance. Nothing in heaven is thought up on the spur of a moment. When we approach the heaven, the Listener is not wondering if we are going to bring him a request that he has not thought of beforehand. We draw near to him because he has a plan, because we know that he is coherent, and not chaotic. His plan is the outflow of his eternal love for those petitioning him. Before they discovered the need to pray about a situation, his plan was in operation. We don’t pray to give him information about a situation, but because he knows everything about that situation and how it fits into everything else in his amazing plan.
Heaven reminds us that God has a people. Who is with God in heaven? There are the angels and there are the spirits of the redeemed. Who are praying on earth to the Father? Those who will yet be in heaven. What marks the redeemed in heaven? They prayed often to the Father when they were on earth. Now they are in the presence of the One who arranged for them to travel safely through life and reach the destination he had provided for them. While we do not pray to them, the knowledge that we have about them encourages us to pray to their Father and ours. Even here on earth, each time we use the words ‘our Father’ we are reminded that he has a special people, some in heaven and others not yet there.