Form follows Function follows Form

One thing that should be readily apparent to anyone who reads the Bible is its depth. New shades of meaning can be found each time you read a single passage. For instance, a few years ago I spent nearly an entire year reading just Psalm 51, and even to this day, I feel like I’ve just started to scratch the surface of that psalm. I don’t mean to say that new meanings are found each time a passage is read, rather, the passage’s depth and subtle truths come more into focus with multiple readings. It is more like finding new shades of light from a gem than it is like pulling old layers of wallpaper from a wall to find new layers completely different from the previous ones. Unveiling scriptural nuances are one way I believe the Spirit reveals the Father’s truth to us.

Another way of understanding this is to think about someone you love. The more time you spend with them the more you begin to see depths which you had not imagined before. Certainly, every once in a while it is possible to find something totally unexpected, but that usually only happens because we weren’t seeing clearly before or our preconceived notions of the other person have shown themselves to be incompatible with what is actually discovered. Most of the time, however, the more time we spend with a person the more those depths previously unseen are unveiled.

It is the same with the Lord’s Prayer. Prior to beginning this study my understanding of the Lord’s Prayer was incomplete—in fact, it still is. But now, depths I hadn’t seen before have come to light. For instance, I never considered the connection between the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’s temptation, the Garden of Eden, and John’s description of sin; but now that connection seems obvious (See the post titled “For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory. Amen.”). It would be redundant to recap every such insight, suffice it to say that I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of the Father’s truth through this current study of the Lord’s Prayer.

Most of our focus thus far has been directed toward the pieces and parts of the Lord’s Prayer, not the prayer in its entirety. When we step back and widen our focus something about its structure seems to appear. (I say, “seems to” because I must admit that I might be seeing things that aren’t there. But, as Alistair Begg often says, “You are reasonable people, you can work this out for yourselves.” So, I’ll let you decide the truth of the matter yourselves.) A clearer structural understanding of the prayer’s form doesn’t change the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer, it merely reveals a subtle beauty that seems to highlight its function. To see the prayer’s form, however, we need to look at it again, but laid out in a different format (not a changed order), and with some extra notation as you will find below:

A – Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
….B – Your kingdom come,
……..C – Your will be done,
…………D – On earth as it is in heaven.
…………….E – Give us this day our daily bread,
…………….E’ – And forgive us our debts,
…………D’ – As we also have forgiven our debtors.
……..C’ – And lead us not into temptation,
….B’ – But deliver us from evil.
A’ – For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.

Some reading this will notice that I’ve organized the prayer in what is commonly referred to as a chiastic structure. This form of chiasm consists of layers—connected phrases at the beginning and the end (e.g. phrase A with A’). Inside the first layer are often found other layers of connected phrases (e.g. B through E). This form of chiasm utilizes connected nested phrases to direct our focus to the middle of the writing where the main point can be found. This is intended to highlight the importance of the central phrase, or phrases, without diminishing the importance of the outlying layers.

The First Layer – [Phrases A & A’]
The Lord’s Prayer begins with reverence for the Father’s name and his works (A). The prayer concludes with praise for the eternality of the Father’s kingdom, a kingdom coming as a result of the Father’s works (A’). Thus, this first layer of the Lord’s Prayer (A & A’) recognizes the powerful and glorious kingdom of the Father brought about by his hand; it is a kingdom that will last forever.

The Second Layer – [Phrases B & B’]
Peeling back the first layer we encounter an acknowledgment of two kingdoms that have battled since the beginning of time. The Father’s kingdom comes first (B) and then we read of the kingdom of evil (B’). The Father’s kingdom is the only thing that can banish the darkness of evil; his is the only kingdom that can free us from the grasp of the evil one.

The Third Layer – [Phrases C & C’]
The third layer of the Lord’s Prayer juxtaposes the will of the Father (C) with our own will (C’). The Father’s will, despite popular sentiment, is primarily a moral and holy will. We enter the kingdom of the Father when we follow his will and deny any temptations consistent with our own sinful will. Following the leading of our sinful will—giving into temptation—leads us to sin and to death, but following the Father’s will leads us to life and the kingdom where temptation, sin, and death have been conquered.

The Fourth Layer – [Phrases D & D’]
Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is in the midst of us; it is here and now; it is on earth. By this, he means that the Father’s kingdom comes on earth (D) when we, as citizens of the Father’s Kingdom, act as citizens of that kingdom. The Father’s kingdom on earth comes when we forgive others (D’), here and now, not there and then.

The Inner Kernel of Truth – [Phrases E & E’]
At the center of the Lord’s Prayer, we find two things the Father does for us; he provides for us our daily needs (E), and he offers forgiveness for our sins (E’). This is the heart, the living portion of the Lord’s Prayer for us as citizens of the Father’s kingdom—continual gratitude for what he does for us each day to sustain our physical life and to grant us spiritual life. These two works of the Father are intertwined and are the lifeblood of our prayers to our Father in heaven.

When confronted by the paralytic, Jesus told him his sins were forgiven (E’), but he also told to him take up his bed and walk (E). The Father’s kingdom thrives on forgiveness of sins (E’) and the Father’s provision for us (E). If we ever begin to wonder if the Father forgives our sins we need look no further than the fact that the Father provides us with all that we need for each day. The Father’s provision proves his forgiveness.

The Father’s kingdom comes about by his hands and is eternal (A, A’). It is a kingdom that will deliver us from evil (B, B’), and a kingdom that is essentially holy and moral in its nature, (C, C’). The Father’s kingdom arrives on earth as we forgive others their sins and debts (D, D’), and grows within us as we acknowledge the Father’s daily provision and his forgiveness of our sins (E, E’). But it doesn’t end there. The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t only acknowledge these truths, it teaches us to become participants in the Father’s work. We are to provide others with their daily needs and to forgive others their debts. In so doing, we reveal that we are citizens of the Father’s kingdom and active participants in the Father’s work here on earth. This is what the Lord’s prayer is about—subjecting our will to the Father’s as he works to bring about his Kingdom here on earth. Or as Jesus said in the garden…

“Not my will, but yours, be done.”

Read the Next Post: The Father’s Kingdom on Earth