The Lord’s Prayer and Matthew’s Gospel: A Summary, Part 1

A number of years ago, in the hopes that I might learn a bit more about prayer, I began studying the disciples’ request in Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray,” and Jesus’s answer in Luke 11:2-4, the Lord’s Prayer. It wasn’t long before I felt compelled to reread the four Gospels in search of two things: 1) other instances of the Lord’s Prayer, and 2) other instances of Jesus giving his disciples specific directions. I was not surprised to find that the Lord’s Prayer only occurs in Luke 11 and Matthew 6, but I was surprised to find that Jesus’s response in Luke 11:2-4 is pretty much the only time Jesus ever gave his disciples specific directions about how to do anything. This intrigued me. I have spent so much time in life trying to figure my way through the process of prayer but never took Jesus seriously when he gave specific directions about prayer. I realize there are a great many ways to pray, as evidenced by the number of prayers in the Bible, but only one prayer in the Bible was ever given directly to believers from the Son of the living God. I figured it must be important.

After spending quite a bit of time in Luke 11 and then Matthew 6, I began a deeper study of the Sermon on the Mount where I found some uncanny correlations between it and the Lord’s Prayer. That was when I began writing about prayer on this blog site. After finishing those initial posts, I started searching Matthew’s Gospel for some passages I could use to illustrate each petition in the Lord’s Prayer, but then I found something even more uncanny than the correlation I saw between the Lord’s Prayer and the Sermon on the Mount: I saw that Matthew’s Gospel appears to have been constructed in such a way so that each petition of the Lord’s Prayer, in order, is the general outline for the entire book of Matthew. In other words, the content of Matthew’s Gospel expands and illustrates the meaning of each petition in the Lord’s Prayer in the order in which the prayer is constructed. The basic outline is as follows:

• Matthew 1-2: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
• Matthew 3-7: Your kingdom come,
• Matthew 8-9: your will be done,
• Matthew 10-14: on earth as it is in heaven.
• Matthew 14-17: Give us this day our daily bread,
• Matthew 18: and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
• Matthew 19-20: And lead us not into temptation,
• Matthew 20-27: but deliver us from evil.
• Matthew 24-28: For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.

If you look closely, you will notice there is some overlap between some of the sections (chapters 14, 20, and 24-27). These chapters seem to illuminate two phrases of the Lord’s Prayer, not just one. While I believe Matthew’s Gospel can be read in such a way to better inform us about the Lord’s Prayer, I cannot say with absolute certainty whether Matthew wrote his Gospel, or the Spirit inspired Matthew’s Gospel, with the Lord’s Prayer in mind. The test of one’s interpretation of scripture is how well it lines up with the whole of scripture. This way of reading Matthew’s Gospel — through the lens of the Lord’s Prayer — does not seem to harm the obvious and primary meaning of scripture, rather, I have argued over the last few years of writing, this way of reading Matthew’s Gospel helps us better understand scripture, prayer, and even the Father.

As such, the next few posts will be summaries of how I believe Matthew’s Gospel helps us better understand the Lord’s Prayer. Following that, I will return to the Sermon on the Mount to summarize the points made a few years ago about how it also sheds light on the Lord’s Prayer. Finally, I will conclude with a couple of posts looking directly at the Lord’s Prayer and discussing a number of ways in which we can engage with that simple prayer the Son gave his disciples so many years.

It is my hope that these summaries might encourage you to spend some of your prayer time with the Father in the way that Jesus directed his disciples to pray. If you do, and if you allow the Sermon on the Mount and the Gospel of Matthew to guide your thoughts and prayers, I think you will agree with me that there is much more depth to be found in the Lord’s Prayer than we often believe is there.

With that brief introduction now behind us, this week’s summary will look at how Matthew’s Gospel explores the depths of the first four phrases in the Lord’s Prayer.

Matthew 1-2: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

This first phrase focuses on revering the name of the Father. It is a call, not so much for the Father to make his name known, but for us to revere the Father’s name. Such reverence does not merely keep his name off our lips during inappropriate times but actively puts it on our lips when it should be there. We revere the name of the Father when we properly ascribe to him the works he has done, will do, and is doing. Matthew chapters 1 and 2 show us that the name of the Father is praiseworthy because the Father…

• controls history (Matt. 1:1-16),
• works his will using both men and women (Matt. 1:5, 6),
• works his will using both those who please him and those who don’t (Matt. 1:10),
• works his will using both successful people and failures (Matt. 1:8, 10),
• works his will using natural events and miraculous events (Matt. 1:1-16, 23),
• announces his plans through revelations, dreams, and nature (Matt. 1:20; 2:2),
• fulfills prophecies he made centuries before the events occur (Matt. 1:23; 2:6; 2:18),
• has the power to overcome adversaries (Matt. 2:7-18),
• is patient (Matt. 2:13-20), and
• comes to us on earth instead of requiring that we try to ascend to heaven on our own (Matt. 1:23).

These aren’t, however, the only reasons we praise the Father’s name, but they are a good start. Matthew tells us about how God has worked, but the Father’s work did not end in the past and with other people; the Father works now and for each of us. We are all part of the Father’s plan and the object of his love. For his work in the past, his work in the present, and his work in the future, we praise the Father’s great and holy name.

Matthew 3-7: Your kingdom come,

This second phrase is qualitatively different from the first; in fact, nearly all of the following phrases are qualitatively different from the first phrase of the Lord’s Prayer. The first phrase of the Lord’s Prayer offers praise to the Father, but this phrase petitions the Father to do or bring something into being. This first petition, according to the insights gleaned from Matthew chapters 5-7, asks for the Father to bring his kingdom to pass, a kingdom that

• was first preached by John the Baptist according to prophecy (Matt. 3:1-3),
• brings spiritual riches, not material riches (Matt. 3:4),
• begins when we confess our sins and repent (Matt. 3:6; 4:17),
• is for everyone, not only for direct descendants of Abraham (Matt. 3:7-10),
• comes through the submission, consent, and humility of the Father’s Son, Jesus (Matt. 3:13-17),
• is ruled by a king who conquered every sort of temptation we can experience through the help of the Spirit (Matt. 4:1-16),
• refreshes its weary citizens (Matt. 4:11),
• grieves over the suffering of its citizens (Matt. 4:12),
• reaches out and chooses its citizens (Matt. 4:18-22),
• preaches and teaches the good news of the gospel and heals those who need restoration (Matt. 4:23-25),
• includes, forgives, and loves others not yet in the kingdom (Matt. 4:23-25),
• is for the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, and the peacemakers (Matt. 5:2-10),
• results in persecution (Matt. 5:10-12),
• fills its citizens with more righteousness than the law can provide (Matt. 5:17-6:18),
• values heavenly treasures more than earthly treasures (Matt. 6:19-24),
• calms our anxiety about where our material provisions will come from (Matt. 6:25-34; 7:7-11),
• does not judge others (Matt. 7:1-5),
• treats others as we are treated (Matt. 7:12),
• is not easy to enter (Matt. 7:13-14),
• produces good fruit (Matt. 7:15-20),
• accepts only those who do the will of the Father (Matt. 7:21-23),
• is the stronghold upon which the wise person builds their lives (Matt. 7:24-27), and
• a kingdom that is authoritative (Matt. 7:28-29).

This first petition is not solely, or even primarily, an eschatological petition. This first petition is a prayer that the Father would bring his kingdom to pass now and in our lives every day until that day sometime in the future when his kingdom will be fully revealed in all its power and glory. For such a present and future kingdom we pray to come.

Matthew 8-9: your will be done,

This phrase is also a petition, a request made to the Father that he would do something. This request, however, is not solely for the Father to do his will, but that the Father’s will would be done by all of his creation. This means, at the very least, us. Furthermore, according to these chapters of Matthew the Father’s will is not some nebulous concept for which we pray. We learn the Father’s will by reading about Jesus’s actions while he lived on earth. When we pray for The Father’s will, we are not merely asking the Father’s directions about where we should live and work and who to marry. When we pray for the Father’s will to be done, we are praying that

• all people would follow Jesus (Matt. 8:1, 18-23; 9:9-13),
• the outcast in society would be touched and healed (Matt. 8:2-3),
• all people would have the faith to trust God in all circumstances (Matt. 8:5-13, 23-27),
• all people would serve Jesus and his mission in whatever way they can (Matt. 8:14-15),
• all people would continually give their burdens to Jesus (Matt. 8:16-17),
• no one would abandon Jesus even when times are difficult (Matt. 8:28-34),
• all people would place their trust in Jesus’s power to forgive sins (Matt. 9:1-8),
• God would receive glory and praise (Matt. 9:8),
• God would receive the credit due him for the works he has done, is doing, and will do (Matt. 9:32-34),
• the sick would be healed (Matt. 9:18-26),
• God would open our eyes, both physically and spiritually (Matt. 9:27-31),
• the lost and helpless would receive compassion (Matt. 9:35-36),
• believers would show compassion on other believers (Matt. 9:36), and
• the Father would send workers, like Jesus, to continue doing his will (Matt. 9:37-38).

We pray for the Father’s will, not so that we might know the path our lives might take, but that the work Jesus came to do on earth would continue. Such is the Father’s will and for such, we pray.

Matthew 10-14: on earth as it is in heaven.

This phrase is one of the phrases that is not actually a petition; it is a qualifier of the previous and first two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer. With this phrase, Jesus sharpens the focus of the petitions asking for the coming of the Father’s kingdom and the doing of the Father’s will: on earth as they are in heaven. Such a focus presumes that heaven exists, that the Father’s kingdom rules in heaven, and that the Father’s will is done in heaven. These claims may seem obvious, but they must be stated. We are not instructed to pray merely for a peaceful time on earth, we are praying for the emergence of heaven — a very real realm with a real king who has a specific will — upon the earth. Furthermore, Matthew’s Gospel clarifies that the Father wants us to become participants in the emergence of the Father’s heavenly kingdom. Thus, when we pray for the Father’s kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, we are praying that

• Jesus would call disciples to go into specific areas of the world with the message of the gospel (Matt. 9:37-38; 10:1-6),
• Jesus’s disciples would proclaim the gospel, heal the sick, and help the outcast (Matt. 10:7-8),
• Jesus’s disciples would trust in him for all their provisions (Matt. 10:9-10),
• the gospel would be proclaimed until such time that the people’s hardened hearts push it away (Matt. 10:11-15),
• Jesus’s disciples would fearlessly endure persecution while proclaiming the gospel (Matt. 10:16-33),
• the gospel message would divide the world between believers and non-believers (Matt. 10:34-39),
• all who minister to those spreading the gospel would be rewarded (Matt. 10:40-42),
• some disciples would be called great even though they receive persecution and death (Matt. 11:1-19),
• eternal judgment would be cast upon those who reject the gospel of the kingdom (Matt. 11:20-24),
• the Father would comfort and reveal his wisdom to Jesus’s disciples (Matt. 11:25-30),
• the Father’s laws would bring mercy, not judgment (Matt. 12:1-8),
• the kingdom of heaven on earth would not be divided (Matt. 12: 22-30),
• the Spirit of God would work and produce good fruit (Matt. 12:31-37)
• the world would have eyes to see the works of Jesus and that they would believe (Matt. 12:38-45),
• those who follow Jesus would become members of one family (Matt. 12:46-50),
• Jesus’s disciples would sow the seed of the gospel to all sorts of people (Matt. 13:1-9; 18-23),
• the eyes of believers would be opened to see and understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 13:10-17),
• those believing the message of the gospel would endure through difficult times and be rewarded (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43),
• the message of the gospel would multiply and fill the earth (Matt. 13:31-33),
• the message of the gospel would be seen as priceless and something for which we would give up everything (Matt. 13:44-46),
• the world would have eyes to see the eternal importance of the message of the gospel (Matt. 13:47-50),
• the message of the kingdom would always be received as something astonishing, not commonplace (Matt. 13:53-58), and
• the unbelief of others would not interfere with the growth of the Father’s kingdom on earth (Matt. 13:57-58).

We pray for the Father’s kingdom to come and the Father’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, not to impose Christian morality upon others, but so that the world might receive the grace and mercy the Father sent through his Son. However, we do not pray for this to happen without the use of human involvement. When we pray that the Father’s kingdom would come and the Father’s will would be done on earth as it is in heaven we are asking that God would use us now to accomplish those things Jesus accomplished some two thousand years ago during the three years he spent ministering to the world. For such we pray.

• Click HERE to go to the page containing all the posts for this study on The Lord’s Prayer and Matthew