Luke 11:1-13
1Jesus
was praying in a certain place, and after he had finished, one of his disciples said to him,
‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.’ 2He said to them, ‘When you pray, say:
Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. 3 Give us each day our daily bread. 4 And
forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to
us. And do not bring us to the time of trial.’ 5 And he said to them,
‘Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight
and say to him, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6for a
friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before him.”
7And he answers from within, “Do not bother me; the door has
already been locked, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot
get up and give you anything.” 8I tell you, even though he will not
get up and give him anything because he is his friend, at least
because of his persistence he will get up and give him whatever he
needs. 9‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search,
and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.
10For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches
finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 11Is
there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give
12
a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? 13If you then,
who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly
Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’
COMMENTARY:
In a certain sense, this Sunday’s Gospel can be subdivided into two parts: (1) the request of Jesus’ disciple
to be taught how to pray, and the teaching of the Lord’s Prayer (Our Father/Pater Noster) as a model, and
(2) a more general teaching on the importance of persistence in prayer, and on God’s goodness toward
His beloved children who come to Him in need.
1-4: There is no end to the comments that could be made (and have been!) on this most distinctively
Christian of prayers. Most of the great Fathers of the Church, the Reformers and most Gospel
commentators go into extensive detail about its component phrases, in far more detail than I possibly
could. It is the only prayer-formula ascribed to Jesus in the Gospels, and it has come down to us in two
distinct (but clearly related) versions, this one from Luke, and the other from Matthew 6:9-13 (which is
perhaps the better known version, since it is the basis for the liturgical version used by most Christian
churches; see comparison below)1.
A number of later manuscripts of Luke actually contain the same wording as Matthew for the Lord’s Prayer, but it is
almost certain that this is the result of scribes trying to assimilate the two texts, “filling in the holes” in Luke with the
appropriate words from Matthew.
1
“Descriptions of the Lord’s Prayer abound, but none of them are more penetrating than the very early
remark of Tertullian in his third-century commentary on the Pater: ‘a compendium [breviary] of the
whole Gospel’ [breviarium totius evangelii]. In perhaps the single most helpful contemporary
commentary on the Lord’s Prayer, Ernst Lohmeyer takes Tertullian one step further, by declaring that the
opening words, ‘Our Father,’ are a ‘breviary of the breviary’ [breviarium breviarii] … Thomas Aquinas in
the Summa Theologica (II, II, 83, 9) refers to the Paternoster as the perfect prayer. Peter Chrysologus
declares that the Our Father gives ‘the theme of praying, the subject matter to ask for, and the norm of
making petitions’. Augustine writes to Lady Proba about how personal prayer is related to the Pater
Noster: ‘Whatever be the other words we may prefer to say … we say nothing that is not contained in the
Lord’s Prayer, provided of course we are praying in a correct and proper way. But if anyone say something
which is incompatible with this prayer of the Gospel, he is praying in the flesh, even if he is not praying
sinfully’.” (Nicholas Ayo, The Lord’s Prayer: A Survey Theological and Literary, pp. 5-6)
As has often been pointed out, this most “Christian” of prayer actually incorporates many ideas and
phrases that are part of central Jewish prayers—particularly the Amidah or “Eighteen Benedictions,”
which are a key affirmation of Jewish faith. The Kaddish is another typically Jewish prayer whose
language seems to parallel some of that in the Our Father. A ninth-century version of the Kaddish
(actually called the “Half-Kaddish”) says:
Exalted and sanctified be His great name. In the world which He created according to His will, may
He establish His kingdom in your lifetime, and in the lifetime of the entire House of Israel, speedily
and soon. May His great Name be blessed for ever and to all eternity. Praised, glorified, exalted,
extolled, revered, highly honoured and adored is the name of the Holy One, blessed be He beyond
all the blessings, hymns, praises and consolations that are ever uttered in the world. (Kenneth W.
Stevenson, The Lord’s Prayer: A Text in Tradition, p. 26)
As Stevenson says, “The parallels with the first part of the Lord’s Prayer—the name, the kingdom, the
will—are obvious. They are more than linguistic, for they penetrate into the lifeblood of the Lord’s Prayer,
and demonstrate its Jewish setting … It is … fundamentally a Jewish prayer, taught by a rabbi to his
followers; indeed, when the Didache enjoins that it should be prayed thrice daily, there is a direct echo of
the Old Testament custom, continued in Rabbinic tradition, and taken over in the New Testament, to pray
three times each day (Daniel 6:10; Psalm 55:17; cf. Acts 2:15; 10:3,16)” (p.27). It is worth noting that, like
most Jewish prayers, the Lord’s Prayer is phrased in the first-person plural, “us/our”; it is a prayer rooted
in God’s relationship to the family of believers, rather than merely an individual.
Matthew’s version
Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And do not bring us to the time of trial,
but rescue us from the evil one.
Luke’s version
Father,
hallowed be your name.
Your kingdom come.
Give us each day our daily bread.
And forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.
And do not bring us to the time of trial.
Some have argued that Luke’s (the shorter of the two) is more likely to be original, and that perhaps
Matthew had added to the more primitive framework. Others argue that Luke, presumably writing for a
largely Gentile audience, might have chosen to omit some phrases which would have been more easily
understandable in a Jewish context (such as “Our Father in heaven,” to distinguish God the Father from
“Our Father Abraham,” a common expression in Jewish prayer). Luke’s version speaks of “our sins”
instead of “our debts,” and does not include the petition to be spared from the wiles of the Evil One.
As pointed out by many commentators, this metaphor [“Father”] plays a central role in the New
Testament as a whole. According to Hamerton-Kelly (1981:98), in the New Testament ‘God is
designated “father” 170 times by Jesus, and is never invoked by another name in Jesus’ prayers,’
whereas in the entire Old Testament (which is of course much longer) God is described as ‘Father’
only 11 times. (Anna Wierzbicka, What Did Jesus Mean? Explaining the Sermon on the Mount and
the Parables in Simple and Universal Human Concepts, p. 227)
The “hallowing” of God’s name can take place in many forms. It can mean that God’s name be spoken
with respect, reverence and love. But it can also refer to actions which cause God’s name to be reverenced,
especially positive actions by religious people, which “reflect well on God” (it is in this sense that the
Jewish tradition speaks of martyrdom as the ultimate “hallowing of the Name of God,” upholding faith in
God even at the expense of suffering and death). The tense used here (the Greek aorist passive) seems to
suggest a one-time hallowing of God’s name, which is perhaps to be understood as happening at the end
of time, when all nations will praise and worship God together, when His name will be fully “hallowed”.
The coming of God’s kingdom (perhaps “kingship” or “reign” would be a better translation) suggests an
eschatological (=end of the world) time when God will finally be recognized as the one true Ruler of the
world, and when all the nations will turn to Him with faith and worship, following His commandments
with love. “Before we can pray, ‘Lord, Thy Kingdom come,’ we must be willing to pray, ‘My Kingdom go’.”
(Alan Redpath)
“Give us each day our daily bread”: “Or ‘Give us bread each day for the coming day,’ or ‘Give us each
day the bread we need for today’. The term ἐπιούσιος (epiousios) does not occur outside of early
Christian literature (other occurrences are in Matt 6:11 and Didache 8:2), so its meaning is difficult to
determine. Various suggestions include ‘daily,’ ‘the coming day,’ and ‘for existence’.” (NET Bible notes).
St. Jerome believed that the underlying Hebrew expression was l=<^j^r, “for tomorrow,” meaning “the
bread to suffice us until tomorrow,” which Jerome saw as a reference to the manna in the desert. “By this
term, we should understand not merely material food, but also spiritual food, the true manna, which is
comprised of the Word of God (Matt 4:4) and the Eucharist (John 6:31-58)” (André Chouraqui, L’Univers
de la Bible, Vol. 8, p. 62)
“The seventh and eighth lines consider sins as debts against God, and forgiveness as the dismissal of that
debt. But we do not ask God to pardon us as we pardon others—for that would mean presenting ourselves
as the model. The meaning is that we can only ask forgiveness unhypocritically since we ourselves have
forgiven others [in Luke, the verb “we forgive” is in the present tense, suggesting something done
repeatedly or habitually]” (Chouraqui, p.62). The Old Testament contains an almost identical sentiment,
in Sirach 28:2: “Forgive your neighbour the wrong he has done, and then your sins will be pardoned when
you pray”.
The Lord’s Prayer … includes the following request: ‘remit us our debts as we ourselves have also
remitted them to our debtors’ (the verb is aphiēmi).Those numerous versions are in error which
translate: ‘Forgive us our offenses as we forgive those who have offended us’. Accurately, the word
opheilema of the Greek text signifies precisely a monetary debt, in the most material sense of the
term2. In the ‘Our Father,’ then, Jesus is not simply recommending vaguely that we might pardon
those who have bothered us or made us trouble, but tells us purely and simply to erase the debts of
those who owe us money, that is to say, practice the jubilee. It is remarkable that the verb most
used by Jesus is aphiēmi, which means ‘remit, send away, liberate, forgive a debt’ and which is
regularly used in connection with the jubilee [Aphesis, the noun form of the same verb, is the term
regularly used by the Septuagint for the jubilee]…
Thus the ‘Our Father’ is genuinely a jubilary prayer. It means ‘the time has come for the faithful
people to abolish all the debts which bind the poor ones of Israel, for your debts toward God are
also wiped away (for that is the gospel, the good news). Furthermore, this is the way Jesus’ listeners
understood this prayer. Jesus was establishing a strict equation between the practice of the jubilee
and the grace of God. He who was not legalistic on other any point, and who was ready without
2
It should be noted that the term opheilema is used only in Matthew’s version, not in Luke’s.
hesitation to pardon prostitutes and disreputable people, was nonetheless extremely strict upon
one point: ‘only one who practices grace can receive grace. The aphesis of God toward you becomes
vain if you do not practice aphesis toward each other’. (John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus,
pp. 62-63)
“The ninth line … does not mean ‘do not lead us into temptation’—as if God could induce us into evil!—but
more ‘Grant that we may not enter into temptation’; that is ‘prevent us,’ or ‘keep us from agreeing to it’…”
(Chouraqui, p. 62)3
“’Temptation’ is a psychological concept, suggesting a struggle within the individual between good and
bad impulses. But this kind of psychological analysis was not characteristic of Hebrew thinking. The
nearest corresponding Hebrew concept was that of ‘testing’. In the Old Testament, many of the afflictions
suffered by the people of Israel, and many personal catastrophes which befell pious individuals, were
understood as a ‘test’ imposed by God. How one would ultimately be judged would depend on how one
survived this ‘test’; and the more urgently that judgement was expected … the more reason there was to
dread any decisive moment which might bring out the true worth of a person, and so irrevocably
determine God’s final verdict.” (A.E. Harvey, A Companion to the New Testament, p. 34)
In many monastic rules, it was enjoined that the lay brothers, who knew no Latin, instead of the Divine
office should say the Lord’s Prayer a certain number of times (often amounting to more than a hundred)
per diem. To count these repetitions they made use of pebbles or beads strung upon a cord, and this
apparatus was commonly known as a “pater-noster”, a name which it retained even when such a string of
beads was used to count, not Our Fathers, but Hail Marys in reciting Our Lady’s Psalter, or in other words
in saying the rosary. (Herbert Thurston, in the Catholic Encyclopedia)
5-8: This particular parable, focussing on the need to be persevering in prayer, is found only in Luke. The
expression “Which one of you…” is used to introduce a rhetorical question, and will be used in other
Lucan parables as well; often, the expected answer is an emphatic “No one!”
“The scene is a Palestinian one-room house, with the family all in bed; the
conflict is between the rules of hospitality and mutual aid which would be
normal in village life in the east, and the trouble caused to a whole family by
such an appeal at midnight. The moral seems to be: a pressing request from
a friend, however importunate, will obtain whatever he needs. How much
greater the efficacy of even an apparently importunate prayer, given the
unconditional ‘friendship’ of God!” (Harvey, Companion, p. 247).
In verse 8, Jesus says that, for no other reason, the homeowner will get up
and offer something to his friend because of his ἀναίδεια, anaideia, which
the NRSV renders as “persistence”. Many Greek dictionaries suggest a much
stronger meaning, however: “impudence, shamelessness, effrontery,
insolence, gall”. David H. Stern (Jewish New Testament Commentary, p.
123) suggests translating it with the Yiddish term chutzpah, which is
probably as close to the real meaning as any other expression.
The type of argument used by Jesus here is called in Hebrew qal wa-homer,
“light and heavy,” or “from the lesser to the greater,” and was frequently
used in Jewish legal interpretation (in the Greco-Roman world, it was often
called a minore ad maius). Interestingly, Luke highlights this particular method of arguing, employing it
more than 30 times in Luke-Acts—far more than any of the other evangelists.
3 “Some translations add a very beautiful doxology here at the conclusion, inspired by I Chronicles 29:10-11: ‘Yours,
O Lord, are the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty’. Although this doxology is widespread in
the Eastern churches and has been adopted by many Protestants, it is not considered to be original. It is a liturgical
addition, probably originating in the region of Antioch in the third century.” (Chouraqui, p. 62)
9-11: “Does this justify the apparently unconditional promise, ‘Ask, and it will be given you’? As in
Matthew, the answer is found in the analogy of a human father, who will hardly refuse food to his
children, let alone give them a snake or a scorpion (a startling addition by Luke) instead of bread and
eggs: if God is your father—and that he is so is a premise of the Lord’s Prayer and of all Christian praying
that begins abba, ‘Father’—how much more will he grant the prayers of his children! But what prayers?
Luke may have been conscious of the obvious connection: surely God does not answer all prayers? In
Matthew’s version, the promise seems quite general: God will give ‘good things’ to those who ask him.
According to Luke, there is only one prayer which will certainly be answered, that for the Holy Spirit.”
(Harvey, Companion, p. 247)
“Luke 11:5-13 relates a parable to encourage the disciples to persistence and audacity in their prayers to
God. The relationship to God expressed in the application of the first parable (v.8) is not a bit subservient;
it is prepared to go almost to the point of embarrassment. Stories of such a relationship to God are also
told in the First Testament and by the rabbis.” (Luise Schottroff, The Parables of Jesus, pp. 189-90)
See also God’s words in Psalm 91:12-16: “Those who love me, I will deliver; I will protect those who know
my name. When they call to me, I will answer them; I will be with them in trouble, I will rescue them and
honour them. With long life I will satisfy them, and show them my salvation.”
“Verses 11-12 are meant to be interpreted symbolically: just as scorpions or snakes conjure up the idea of
death, so eggs and fish are sources of life.” (Chouraqui, p. 313)
Father John Kavanaugh, SJ (St. Louis University; online):
I ask God for everything I want but am nowhere near as successful as Abraham. I ask for health, miracles, Xray vision to find lost articles, and, interminably, to be a better person.
Why not? Jesus said we should pray for our daily bread. That covers a lot. How many times, late at night, have
I pounded on the door of heaven, remembering his words from Luke's Gospel: “Ask and you shall receive, seek
and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you.”
I have asked and sought and knocked so much, you'd think I would know better by now.
Either the problem is with me or it is with God: take your choice. For myself, as the years go on, I think the
problem is mine—or at least what I ask for and why I ask.
Behind most of my prayers is a gnawing fear of losing the loves of this life, so ephemeral and bittersweet.
Although most of the things I ask for are by and large good, I have come to think that my desire to secure them
suffers from a paradoxical dilemma.
In all my pleas, especially for what I love most, I am really asking that they never die, that they never be lost
irreparably. But clearly, if nothing we love could ever die to this world, we would all end up decrepit bags of
bones on a depleted earth. In fact, we would have to be made of non-biodegradable plastic; but then how could
we love, much less grow? That cannot be the answer.
Perhaps this is. Jesus teaches us to pray to our God as a father in heaven. And his promise is that, beyond this
earth, none of its goods we cherish will ever be stolen away.
The Venerable Bede (ca. 672-735):
Our Lord and Savior wishes us to attain the joy of the heavenly kingdom, and so he taught us to pray for
it, promising to give it to us if we did so. Ask, he said, and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock
and the door will be opened to you.
We should consider most seriously and attentively what these words of the Lord may mean for us, for they
warn that not the idle and feckless but those who ask, seek, and knock will receive, find, and have the door
opened to them.
We must therefore ask for entry into the kingdom by prayer, seek it by upright living, and knock at its
door by perseverance.
Merely to ask verbally is not enough; we must also diligently seek to discover how to live so as to be
worthy of obtaining what we ask for. We know this from our Savior's words: Not everyone who says to me,
“Lord, Lord” will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only those who do the will of my heavenly Father.
There is a need, then, for constant and unflagging prayer.
Let us fall upon our knees with tears before our God and Maker; and that we may deserve a hearing, let us
consider carefully how he who made us wishes us to live, and what he has commanded us to do.
Let us seek the Lord and his strength; let us constantly seek his face.
And in order to become worthy of finding him and gazing upon him, let us cleanse ourselves from all
defilement of body and spirit, for only the chaste of body can be raised up to heaven on the day of
resurrection; only the pure of heart can contemplate the glory of the divine Majesty.
If we would know what the Lord wishes us to ask for, let us listen to the gospel text: Seek first the
kingdom of God and its justice, and all these other things will be given you as well.
To seek the kingdom of God and its justice is to long for the graces of our heavenly homeland, and to give
constant thought to the kind of upright living that will deserve to obtain them; for should we chance to
stray from the path that leads there we shall never be able to reach our goal.
To ask God for the justice of his kingdom is to ask principally for faith, hope, and love. These virtues
above all we should strive to obtain.
Patience is the companion of wisdom. (St. Augustine)
I know the Lord will help but help me, Lord, until you help! (Hasidic Jewish prayer)
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying
when there seemed to be no hope at all. (Dale Carnegie)
Let me tell you the secret that has led me to my goal: my strength lies solely in my tenacity. (Dr. Louis
Pasteur)
Prayer may not change things for you, but it for sure changes you for things. (Samuel M. Shoemaker)
Practical prayer is harder on the soles of your shoes than on the knees of your trousers. (Austin O'Malley)
I cannot say OUR, if my religion has no room for others and their needs. I cannot say FATHER, if I do not
demonstrate this relationship in my daily living. I cannot say WHO ARE IN HEAVEN, if all my interest
and pursuits are in earthly things. I cannot say HALLOWED BE THY NAME, if I, who am called by His
name, am not holy. I cannot say, THY KINGDOM COME, if I am unwilling to give up my own sovereignty
and accept the righteous reign of God. I cannot say THY WILL BE DONE, if I am unwilling or resentful of
having it in my life. I cannot say ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN, unless I am truly ready to give myself
to His service here and now. I cannot say GIVE US THIS DAY OUR DAILY BREAD, without expending
honest effort for it or by ignoring the genuine needs of my fellow man. I cannot say FORGIVE US OUR
TRESPASSES AS WE FORGIVE THOSE WHO TRESPASS AGAINST US, if I continue to harbor a grudge
against anyone. I cannot say LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION, if I deliberately choose to remain in a
situation where I am likely to be tempted. I cannot say DELIVER US FROM EVIL, if I am not prepared to
fight in the spiritual realm with the weapon of Word and prayer. I cannot say THINE IS THE KINGDOM,
if I do not give the King the disciplined obedience of a loyal subject. I cannot say THINE IS THE POWER,
if I fear what my neighbors or friends may say or do. I cannot say THINE IS THE GLORY, if I am seeking
my own glory and recognition first. I cannot say FOREVER, if I am too anxious about each day’s affairs. I
cannot say AMEN, unless I honestly say, “Cost what it may, this is my prayer.” (Anonymous)
From the Center for Excellence in Preaching, Calvin Theological Seminary
(http://cep.calvinseminary.edu/thisWeek/index.php):
Where did the Holy Spirit come from? Until the final verse of this lection from Luke 11, there had been no
mention of the Spirit. Jesus says something in conclusion that we didn't necessarily see coming. The
model prayer Jesus gave was all about bread, forgiveness, and the avoidance of temptation. The
subsequent little parabolic examples he gave were likewise about common, everyday realities like bread
and eggs. So how arresting it is to then come to the capper of this teaching on prayer to hear Jesus saying
that God will give "the Holy Spirit" to those who ask for it. But where in the twelve verses that led up to
this last line is there any mention of the Holy Spirit? Jesus' model prayer doesn't mention the Spirit. The
people in the analogies aren't talking about the Holy Spirit. So why does Jesus conclude with mentioning
something that has not cropped up before?
Maybe the answer is that whether we know it or not, in all our praying, in all our asking and begging and
pleading with God, what we are finally asking for--and what we for sure will in the end receive--is nothing
less than the indwelling Spirit of the Living God. We pray in the power of this Spirit, who is our sacred
companion that brings to us the fullness of Christ Jesus in our hearts. And when we pray in the power of
the Spirit, we find that same Spirit living in us and assuring us that no matter what happens, we serve a
loving God who holds us tenderly every moment of our lives.
That is perhaps the best piece of news in Luke 11. This passage began with the disciples asking Jesus to
teach them how to pray. Jesus did that wonderfully but in and through all the specifics he laid out, these
final words tell us that it was the Holy Spirit we have been seeking all along. When Jesus tells us to ask, to
seek, to knock and then says that we will be answered, that what we seek will be found, that the door will
open, he's talking about the Spirit of God there. Anyone with much experience with prayer knows full well
that despite the blank-check appearance of verses 9 and 10, God does have to say no sometimes, the door
does remain shut sometimes, what we seek remains elusive sometimes. We know this.
But if it's the Holy Spirit we receive in and through all of our praying, then we can understand Jesus'
words here a little better without getting forever hung up on the counter-examples that just about every
person in a given congregation could mention. If God always gives the Holy Spirit to those who pray, then
even when a prayer goes "unanswered," God has provided a deeper answer after all. This is not an easy
truth. If someone in your congregation prayed for a husband to recover from cancer and he died, then that
person is right to come to you as a pastor to claim she didn't get what she prayed for. Period. And who on
this earth would dare to say he or she knows the why or wherefore of such a thing? But even still, as a
praying person, this woman received the Holy Spirit to help her even in the grief that came despite her
most ardent prayers that it would not come. The love of God is not less because something did not come.
The proof of that abiding love comes through the gentle ministry of the Spirit, assuring us all that the
gospel is still true, the hope of the resurrection is still real, and Jesus remains in our hearts by his Spirit …
Even at our most disappointed, the Holy Spirit is in us and we receive the further anointing of that same
Spirit every time we pray.
The Lord’s Prayer,
to the tune of Kum Ba Yah
(Words by James Seddon)
Father God in Heaven—Lord most high
Hear your children’s prayer—Lord most high
Hallowed be your name—Lord most high
O Lord, hear our prayer!
May your kingdom come—Here on earth;
May your will be done— Here on earth
As it is in heaven—so on earth
O, Lord, hear our prayer!
Give us daily bread—Day by day,
And forgive our sins—Day by day,
As we, too forgive—Day by day,
O Lord, hear our prayer!
Lead us in your way—Make us strong
When temptations come—Make us strong
Save us from all sin—Keep us strong
O Lord, hear our prayer!
All things come from you—All are yours
Kingdom, glory , power—All are yours
Take our lives and gifts—All are yours
O, Lord, hear our prayer!