Small Catechism: The Lord’s Prayer

Sermon on the Third Chief Part of the Small Catechism

1 Chronicles 29:10-18  +  Matthew 6:5-15

In the Ten Commandments, we learn the will of our God for His children, the rules of His house, while we remain on the earth. In the Creed, we confess who our God is and what He has done and still does for us and for our salvation. In the Third Chief Part of the Small Catechism, we learn how to pray to our God in the Lord’s Prayer, and from what better place could we learn it than from the Son of God Himself?

It seems that the Lord Jesus taught His disciples this prayer on at least two occasions, maybe more. You heard the context of the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew’s Gospel just a moment ago. In Luke’s Gospel, where the Lord’s Prayer is also recorded, the context is much simpler. One of Jesus’ disciples came to Him with a request: Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And the Lord proceeded to teach them the Lord’s Prayer.

In Matthew’s Gospel, it’s given in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus begins by teaching His disciples two ways not to pray. Not like the hypocrites, who are more concerned about looking good before men then about approaching God with genuine faith and with sincere requests. No, don’t pray like that, Jesus says, not to be praised or honored among men. And not like the “heathen,” that is, the pagan Gentiles, who repeat little mantras or phrases over and over, as if their gods would only listen if they said the right words enough times. No, don’t pray like that, Jesus says, as if you had to inform God of your needs and then coax Him to help with endless repetitions.

Instead, He says, pray in this way:

Our Father, the One who is in heaven. We call this the “address” or the “invocation” part of the Lord’s Prayer. And right away, Jesus makes it clear who can pray in the first place. Only the children of God can pray, or at least, pray successfully. God is the Creator of all, but He is not the true Father of all, because all men are born in sin, born outside the family of God, hostile to the true God, unable to fear Him, to love Him, or to trust in Him, and, therefore, unable to pray to Him, even as He is unwilling to listen to the prayers of His enemies. But, to those who believe in the name of Christ Jesus, the Son of God, He has given the right to become children of God. When we come to the Father through Jesus, He wants us to know that our prayers are acceptable to Him, because we are acceptable to Him, through our faith-connection to Jesus, who is the most acceptable of all. He wants us to know that He claims us and loves us as His own children. And so, by teaching us to pray to “our Father,” Jesus is teaching us, as beloved children of God, to ask our beloved Father for certain things—seven of them, in fact, expressed in the seven petitions of the Lord’s Prayer.

The First Petition: Father, may Your name be hallowed or “sanctified” or “made holy.” Your name is already holy, already set apart from every other name. But we ask in this petition that it may be kept holy among us also, in two ways. First, help us treat Your name as holy and sacred by making sure that Your name is taught purely among us. Second, help us to treat Your name as holy and sacred by making sure that we, as Your children who bear Your name, lead holy lives according to Your Word. Our Father’s name is blasphemed and profaned among many who call themselves Christians, through false teaching, which keeps people from knowing God rightly, and through the openly wicked lives that some Christians lead, which also sends the wrong message about who God is and what it means to be His children. So it’s vital that we pray for our Father’s help, so that we may bring glory to His name by our teaching and by our living—glory, and not disgrace.

The Second Petition: Father, may Your kingdom come. It already comes, where and when the Spirit of God wills. It would come whether we prayed for it or not. But here we ask, Father, may it come to us also. Grant us Your Holy Spirit, to dwell in our hearts as individuals, to dwell among us as a church, so that by Your grace we may believe Your holy Word, and lead godly lives, here in time, and there in eternity. Help us to submit to the kingship of the Lord Jesus. Keep us in His kingdom. Use us to spread His kingdom in the world. And may His kingdom, His holy Church, prevail against the very gates of hell, so that the devil’s kingdom may finally be crushed to pieces as the kingdom of Christ fills the world.

The Third Petition: Father, may Your will be done here on earth, among us, Your children, just as it’s done above in heaven by our cousins, the holy angels, whose every thought, whose every intention is to serve You and do Your will, as You have revealed it to us in the Holy Scriptures. And, at the same time, break and hinder every evil plan and every evil will—like the will of the devil, the world, and our flesh. They would keep us from hallowing Your name, Father. They would prevent Your kingdom from coming among us through their lies and through their temptations. Hinder them, and strengthen us, and keep us steadfast in Your Word and faith until the end. And to all our prayers and petitions, Father, when we ask for things You haven’t promised to give, let it be understood that we ask not for our will, but always and only for Your will to be done.

The Fourth Petition: Father, we ask You, again today, for our daily bread. It’s a simple request to give us what we need to sustain our earthly life, whether it’s food or drink, or clothing, or shelter, or the people we need in our lives so that we can flourish. Father, You know what we need better than we do. You know what we need even before we ask. So take our petition for daily bread as a thanksgiving, because we acknowledge that all we have comes from You, and we trust in You to determine what we need and to give it to us each and every day. We ask only for what we need today, Father, trusting that tomorrow is in Your capable hands.

The Fifth Petition: Father, we know and confess to You that, even though You have made us our children and have forgiven us our sins in Holy Baptism, we are not worthy of anything for which we ask, nor have we earned it, for we daily sin much and surely deserve nothing but punishment. But as Your dear Son has instructed us, we ask again today that You would forgive us our trespasses and sins, only on the basis of Your grace and goodness. And since we know that You have commanded us to truly forgive from the heart those who sin against us when they come to us in repentance, we will do it. We ask only that You would forgive us in the same way.

The Sixth Petition: Father, lead us not into temptation. We know that You never lead anyone into sin, but we ask in this petition that You would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world and our flesh may not deceive us, nor mislead us into false belief, despair, and other great shame and vice; and although we are often troubled by these things, we ask that You would lead us safely through all the temptations and make us victorious in the end.

The Seventh Petition: Father, You know that we are surrounded by evil in this world. Some of it we see and feel, much of it happens behind our backs and without our knowledge. There are so many threats to our bodies and souls, such powerful forces, raging against us that we could not hope to survive on our own. And so we pray, deliver us from evil in this world, from every sort of evil of body and soul, of property and honor; and finally, when our last hour comes, grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this valley of sorrow to Yourself in heaven.

Some (but not all) Greek texts of Matthew 6 also include a beautiful doxology, a word of praise to conclude the Lord’s Prayer—words which we are happy to include, even though they aren’t included in the Catechism: For Yours, Father, is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. We know, dear Father in heaven, that these petitions are acceptable to You and are heard by You; for through Your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, You have commanded us to pray in this way and have promised to hear us. And so we conclude our prayer today, Amen, Amen, Yes, yes, it shall be so! And we’ll say the same thing again when we say this prayer tomorrow. Amen.