The Lord’s Prayer: Our Longing
Luke 11:1-4

This Sunday we begin a series of four sermons on the Lord’s Prayer as it is recorded in Luke’s gospel. Jesus must have given this prayer to his disciples on numerous occasions. Matthew’s record of the Lord’s Prayer (Mt. 6) is longer and more familiar. Mathew’s version is the prayer we offer together each Sunday. Luke’s version of the prayer is abbreviated with minor differences in language, but in substance Matthew's and Luke’s versions are identical.

It is important to note that Jesus’ prayer was not intended to be part of Christian liturgy on Sunday mornings. Neither did Jesus intend for the prayer to be simply memorized and repeated rote by his past or present followers. The prayer is a model for Christian prayer.

Often when we pray, our requests are petitions for things we need or for the needs of others. There is nothing wrong with such prayers. We should petition God for the things and people that are near and dear to our hearts. But we must also acknowledge that such prayers are parochial. They are limited in range and scope. They have a narrow focus. As we will see, the Lord’s Prayer broadens our prayer focus immensely.

Jesus himself was a man of prayer. He was a praying messiah. This aspect of Jesus’ life is very prominent in Luke’s gospel. Jesus prayed at his baptism (3:21). After curing a leper, Jesus withdrew to the wilderness to pray (5:16). Jesus prayed all night before choosing the twelve apostles (6:12-16). Jesus was praying alone when he asked the disciples, “Who do people say that I am?" (9:18-22). He took Peter, James, and John up a high mountain to pray where he was transfigured (9:29). Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith would not fail (22:32). Jesus prayed for his crucifiers and commended his spirit to the Father on the cross (22:34, 46). And in this morning’s opening verse, Luke tells us that “Jesus was praying in a certain place" (vs. 1a).

No doubt the content of Jesus’ prayer life is summarized in the prayer he gave to the disciples in response to their request, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples to pray"(vs. 1b). Jesus and the apostles, as Jews, would have been well versed in the prayers of Judaism. But the disciples sensed that something was different and new about the way Jesus prayed. They wanted to be like their teacher, to be men and women of prayer, to be apostles of prayer.

Jesus wanted the same for them, and so he granted their request. Jesus said, “When you pray say, ‘Father'" (v2a).This is something new. The name revealed to Moses at the burning bush was YAHWEH, I AM THAT I AM. Our English translations render that divine name as LORD. The LORD is described as the king of heavenly armies, of angel hosts. The Old Testament speaks of YAHWEH as a “man of war" (Ex 15:3), as “the LORD mighty in battle"(Ps. 24:8).

But Jesus says we should think of God and address God as “Father.” "Father" implies the giving and sustaining of life, just as our earthly parents give us life and keep us alive. "Father" is also a name that assumes a relationship. It is a relational word. We are God’s children; we are in a familial relationship with God.

The understanding of God as Father is difficult for some people, especially if the relationship they have or have had with their earthly father was difficult. Tragically, some children are abused by their fathers. Some are abandoned by their fathers. We need to be sensitive to that reality, but we must not lose the central importance of understanding God as Father.

We are all made in the image of God, and we are intended by God to reflect His goodness, wisdom, and love. But we are also fallen creatures. We regularly fall short of God’s intentions for us. This is true of fathers and mothers too. At their best, parents reflect God’s image, but God never reflects their fallen image. God is a loving father who gives life to his children and sustains their lives. God ever stays in relationship with us. He does not abuse us or abandon us. So, when you pray, begin by saying, “Father.”

After addressing God as Father, we offer our first petition. It has nothing to do with us, with our personal wants or desires. Instead, the prayer focuses all our longing on God and on God’s honor.

The name of God in the Bible is synonymous with the being of God. A good example of this is King Solomon’s prayer when he dedicated the temple in Jerusalem. Solomon prayed, “Regard your servant’s prayer and his plea, O Lord my God, heeding the cry and the prayer that your servant prays to you today; that your eyes may be open night and day toward this house, the place of which you said, ‘My name shall be there,’ that you may heed the prayer that your servant prays toward this place" (1 Kings 8:28-29). The name of God in the temple was the same as the presence of God in the temple. We might dynamically render the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer as “God, hallow yourself.”

The word hallow means to make holy, to respect greatly, to be set apart. John Calvin commenting on this word noted that God’s name is regularly profaned in the world. Although it is not part of our experience, it is quite common to hear people take God’s name in vain. The name Jesus Christ is sadly uttered by many as a curse word. Similarly, God’s name is invoked to curse things. God is invoked to damn this, that, or the other.

But God’s name is profaned not only in speech. God is profaned by His creatures when they fail to live like sons and daughters of the living God and instead live like children of the devil. The first petition of the Lord’s Prayer longs for the remedying of this profane reality.

Hallowed in the original language is a passive imperative. Imperatives are normally commandments. Do this or do not do that. We are not exactly commanding God in this petition. Instead, we are entreating God to act. We are entreating God to glorify himself. We might dynamically render the petition, “O God, act now to exalt yourself in all the earth.”

In a way, the first petition is a veiled prayer for the second coming of Jesus Christ. When the Lord returns, all on earth will honor God’s name in Christ. As the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore, God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father" (Phil. 2:9-11).

When Christ comes again, those who belong to him will gladly confess and bend the knee of fealty. But even those who refused Jesus previously will have no choice but to hallow his name as higher and more exalted than any other. Even those who rejected Jesus in this life will be forced to take his yoke upon them and bow before him.

When we pray, “Hallowed be your name,” we are longing for the end of this present evil age and the dawning of the life of the age to come. This first petition should be on our lips continually, especially in the times we are living through.

But in praying this petition we also include ourselves. We are praying in effect, “Do for me, O God, what I cannot seem to do for myself. Make me hallow you, O God. Bring my thoughts, words, and deeds under your loving fatherhood. May the desire, the longing of my life be to respect you completely in what I do, say, and think, and in what I refrain from saying, doing, and thinking.”

The Lord’s Prayer is a model for our daily prayer life. We should pray for the things and people who are near and dear to us, but we must not stop there. The Lord’s Prayer is primarily focused on God, who is revealed as a loving father who gives and sustains life and who is related to us as His children.

The first petition of the prayer entreats God to do what only God can do. It asks God to make human beings, including us, do what we are not willing to do voluntarily. It longs for God to act. It begs God to cause the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve to hallow God, to put God first in everything.

This is the starting point of prayer. When you pray say, “Father, hallowed be your name.” Amen.