Understanding Jesus through the Prayer He Taught His Disciples

Note: This article is not an exhaustive discussion of the Lord’s Prayer but an encouragement to know Him as the Joy of our Hearts.

Lest we forget our Friend Jesus right after a busy Christmas season, let us ponder afresh some aspects of His reality and nearness to us, His disciples and friends. Let us fearfully and cautiously read between the lines of the prayer He taught His disciples then, and us now, in our ever busy globalised 21st century Malaysia, Asia and world. May this reflection help us see a bit more of our Friend Jesus Who is full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

Let us ponder on the “Lord’s Prayer” and try to decipher why Jesus our Lord summarized the contents of this prayer for us as it is (Matthew 6:9-13). Using Scripture to pray, we will not go too far off His purpose for us, His children. It will also enable us to pray more secretly, sincerely and specifically (Matthew 6:5-8)…

Our Father in heaven
Jesus taught that, when in need, remember that your Creator Father already knows what we need before we ask Him. That is why we do not need to babble profusely like some do when they pray for some blessing or gift. We can come to our God with confidence and humility because He knows and cares for us. It is up to us to trust Him. In contrast, those who do not know the true and personal God feel the urge to keep repeating (as Jezebel’s prophets anxiously did) their prayers especially when they are unsure of their gods’ availability.

Jesus must have grown up like many local church believers who have been nurtured in God-fearing families. Learning about of God was a daily process of osmosis of godly influence through the lives of Jesus’s foster parents, Joseph and Mary to their children. Scripture reading and memorizing at home and at the local synagogues (especially for boys and men) were part and parcel of home life. Spiritual and natural functions merge, though yet imperfectly as both parents were imperfect humans seeking to love and honour the God of their fathers. God understands. It was also the responsibility of children to learn to obey God for themselves, not just because their parents say so. God holds them Christian children accountable to Him as far as parents have done their best for them (2 Kings 14:6).

Jesus must have figured this out in His relationship with God as He pondered on who God was to Him, naturally known as the eldest son of a commoner, Joseph the carpenter. Much of His faith education must also have been during those prolonged times alone with God whom He knew through the Old Testament Scriptures, tutored under the counsel of the Holy Spirit, just like us, except that we often ignore Him in our hectic local church or non-church activities. (O when will we ever learn?)

Birth and infancy
One of the most wonderful lessons we may learn through this stage of Jesus’ humanity is that His foster mother, Mary, kept secret what God had prophesied to explain to her about her pregnancy and to calm her down (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:26-38). She did not know the details of Jesus’s future but she humbly waited for God’s time to reveal Jesus’ divine identity when He would be ready for His public mission. Presumably, Joseph humbly did the same. (Contrarily, how many of us boast of our children’s giftedness?)

Adolescence
Luke informed us of Jesus’s precocious intellect as He must have attracted much attention at the temple (Luke 2;41-52). Curiosity urged Him to engage in serious discussions with the elders of the Jewish religious teachers to the point that He forgot to seek his parents’ permission for His change of plans. This incident got them worried sick as they searched for Him for three days and finally found Him still in the temple. They were not amused. But Jesus had to explain His action; He had to be in His Father’s house! (Typical adolescence, one may say.) We may thus deduce that, by then, Jesus must have realized that God was His larger and ultimate Father in heaven, just like we take time to do so. Growing up pains are not necessarily sins though they will lead to sin if we do not control them; self-control is a fruit of the Holy Spirit for both parents and children (Luke 2:50-51). When both look to Father God for forgiveness, reconciliation and a renewal of the mind and heart, peace will prevail.

For examples, having grown up in a CAC local church from birth till 18 years old, I was taught to address God as “Thi Peh Siong Teh” (God my heavenly Father). This is due to the strong Chinese concept of family relationships and the headship of the father. Our preachers and bible teachers must have picked up the biblical fatherly relationship with which God loves and cares for His children. Hence, if we honour our earthly fathers, imperfect though they may be, how much more we need to honour God as our perfect heavenly Father. Since the fully divine Jesus was incarnated as fully man, He must have gone through similar process of faith education at home and at the synagogue. Do we dare do less?

In harsh contrast, today’s secularized youth have chosen to reject the fatherhood of God and hence reject their parents also to the poverty of their own temporal and eternal destiny.

Hallowed be Your Name
Jesus knew the ten commandments and lived His young human life determined to honour and glorify His heavenly Father’s Name. He would not disobey Him at all since Moses’ 5th commandment, through Moses, clearly stated its demand (Deuteronomy 5:16; Mark 7:8-13).

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Jesus had learnt by then that to do God’s will was food to Him (John 4:34). Therefore, He wanted to do so and did so with zeal and joy! However, submission did not come easily to Him as it does not for us. Those who submit lightheartedly probably may not have really grasped what it means to love Him above all through serving Him gratefully or by sheer will when times are bad. Ponder on Jesus’ Gethsemane prayers and the night’s scenario; feel with Him as His sweat became like drops of blood, probably due to severe dehydration! That is how much He loves His Father through intentional uphill obedience (Hebrews 12:1-17). Note that His Father did not leave Him alone; He sent angels to uphold Him (Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 22:42-46) and the Son could change His prayer to “…nevertheless, NOT My will but Yours be done”! But for that change, we would still be in our sins on the way to eternal condemnation and die without reconciliation with God, now our Friend (John 17:3).

When we meet Jesus at Cana of Galilee, He had surrendered His life to Father. In essence, this was His determined prayer:

”Father, I want to do obey You by doing all of Your will for Me. I am ready now that my natural family has grown up and Mary is well taken care of. I am ready to be single, leave my earthly family and be identified with Your mission for Me.” 

It was time for Jesus leave home to serve God “full-time” (not necessarily as a Christian worker only but more to go where He sends, do what He wills, think and say what He thinks and says). Is it time for us to do so as well so that His ministry of reconciliation will be completed sooner rather than later?

At Cana, the fact that Mama Mary had to nudge Him to help a friend by performing a miracle hints at His having done so many times for their daily needs (John 2:1-12). Who says mothers are not meant to help their adult children obey God? Note the mother-child mutually submissive dialogue and mannerism where each could voice His/her opinion without stepping on each other’s toes. How does this family dynamic compare with that of our IT age behavior between parent and child?

Give us this day our daily bread
As the eldest child and son in Mary’s home, Jesus knew what it meant to feel hungry and in desperate need of daily food. He knew the guilt feelings of not being able to provide His family with sufficient food. He also knew the deep gratefulness to Father God for answering His prayers for food at meal times for Mary and her brood. Tradition says that Joseph died young.

Jesus most probably had learnt carpentry from Papa Joseph. As the eldest son and brother in this Galilean family, it was His role to earn an income to support the living nuclear family. No wonder Hebrew 2:10-12 records that He is not ashamed to call us His brothers! Brotherly loyalty had been real to Him for 30 years. It was a natural expectation that many of our youth have forgotten.

Jesus used His giftings (whether classified as natural or spiritual) well as the occasion arose.

Lead us not into temptation
There must have been times, after the wilderness at the beginning of His public ministry, when Jesus the carpenter was tempted to cheat customers when desperate for funds at home. Satan had not rested, resigned or retired yet. Further, when lacking in human companionship and understanding, the naturally human desire to get married could have haunted Him for days. He overcame that legitimate personal desire in obedience to Father. Therefore, when questioned by His disciples, He could quickly reply why anyone could stay single (Matthew 19:10-12). The significant difference between Jesus the Man and us is that though He had weaknesses, due to His being brought up by God fearing but imperfect parents He did not sin at all. We did and still do till He takes us out of the presence of sin (Revelations 21).

Deliver us from evil
Had the thought of revenge not entered His mind when all over His enemies tried their best to ridicule, slander and even kill Him out of a desire for status, money, sexual immorality and pride of life? In earlier days in Nazareth, was He not tempted to socially isolate Himself from those who called Him “bastard” because He was conceived by a young woman out of wedlock? Was He not tempted to use the spiritual gifts God had entrusted Him to hit back at His enemies? But if He were to practise the evil of revenge, how was He going to fulfill the Father’s mission through Him as the blameless Lamb of God who came to take away our sins?

Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us
Jesus had seen too much malice everywhere. That was why He did not trust in man (the human race; John 2:23-25). Even His siblings ridiculed Him for being overspiritual and single! That was why He commanded us to forgive as God has forgiven us. Forgiveness among fellow sinners, though saved by grace, has to be a lifestyle instead of an option, if we truly desire to live His life of joy on earth. Did He not call us to forgive our enemies 490 times (Matthew 18:21)? I believe this figure is only a symbol for the need to forgive till we lose count as He did for His enemies then and for us to forgive now.

For Yours is:
the kingdom – His rule, not of an earthly type like that of the Roman rulers then but of truth and grace (undeserved and un earnable mercy), justice, honesty, love, riches, compassion, peace and stability
the power – His ability to answer prayers and to keep promises over and over again, to create, protect and redeem…and
the glory - His nature in the universe which reveals Him in all His splendour (Job chapters 38-41; 2 Corinthians 3:18).

Jesus is indeed our:
• Joy (John 15:10-11; 16:16-24)
• First love (Revelations 2:1-7)
- Bridegroom who is patiently preparing us for His wedding banquet and waiting to hold us in His arms (Rev 19 and 21)
- Protector and Deliverer from temporal webs of the worldly order (John 17:11-21)
- Example of utter humility and gentleness, integrity and faithfulness (Galatians 5:22-23; John 8:1-11)
- Companion who sobers us by the reality of His sanity (Luke 24:13-35)
- Love Who constrains us by stooping down to bring us home to His eternal Father and now ours though we have all sinned and fallen short of His glory and have ignored Him for wasted years gone by (John 3:16-17).

Forever and ever…

AMEN!!

May the above reflection on Him move us to love Him more and more as we understand a little more of His cost of incarnation to save us from sin and its inevitable consequences. He came to be the scape goat for our sins in order to reconcile us with His Father and also ours now. May the realization of His amazing grace upon grace on us move us to a deepening gratitude to JESUS, The JOY Of Our Hearts!! The pen of a hymn writer almost says it all…..