The Mysteries of The Lord’s Prayer Debated

Letter to Ephesians: If Easter is traditionally a time for converts to be “Born Again,” might it also be a good time for the faithful to ponder Jesus’ seminal “Lord’s Prayer,” which many scholars believe was taught to His disciples privately BEFORE His Sermon on the Mount?

In fact, the late Jim Bishop in his NY Times best seller “The Day Christ Died” is one who suggested as much. While NOT a consensus interpretation, it does jive with the two places the Great Prayer is recited in the Gospels. In Luke 11:2-4, Jesus is asked by a disciple, “Lord teach us to pray” and He does so it what certainly seems like a private setting. In Matthew 6:9-13, however, Jesus again recites The Our Father while delivering His famous Sermon on the Mount. In Luke, it might be noted the Our Father is a bit shorter than in Matthew, which is more nuanced, as if Jesus has enunciated it more than once and perfected if not built upon his original teaching … until Matthew, His Scribe, wrote it down for posterity.

Again, while many scholars have delved into explaining The Our Father, CHAP (reasonably enough for a machine) “zooms in on two influential voices – Joachim Jeremias and N.T. Wright – because they represent two different but overlapping ways of understanding the Lord’s Prayer historically.” Moreover, the scholars have “strongly shaped modern thinking” on the subject. Mid-20^th century Jeremias argued the prayer reflects Jewish “structure and rhythm” thereby supporting the idea Jesus’ prayer was taught in real time, not invented by someone later, including Matthew. Meanwhile 77 year old English scholar N.T. Wright makes the powerful argument that the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew … emphasizing “Your Kingdom Come …” is more than a prayer, but a fully developed “kingdom manifesto” on how to practically & spiritually live out one’s life in accordance with His Father’s plan for us; it’s “national and cosmic in scope.” Tomorrow, let’s break down further how each scholar interprets this & other key phrases in the Lord’s Prayer, thereby perhaps bringing it more to life, more into the present for us this Lenten Season.

Davd Soul