The Lord's prayer

A friend asked me awhile ago to explain the Lord's prayer. He asked that if Jesus has forgiven us all our sins, why did Jesus taught us the 'Lord's Prayer'?

I suppose the question points directly where Jesus ask to pray, "...And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us... "

I'll attempt to answer that question. To begin, I want to point you to a previous post I wrote on how to read the bible.

Now the Lord's Prayers are taught in these 2 occasions: Matt 6 and Luke 11. In both the context, Jesus taught the prayers as a way of praying rather than what we should pray specifically. The story of Matt 6 begain in Matt 5 where He was teaching his disciples. These disciples are most, if not all, jews.

Now, to the jews, everything that He taught in matt 5 is going to sound crazy. Jesus just 'shattered' all the core beliefs of a jew:

************
blessed are the poor in spirit, those who mourn...etc

For I tell you, unless your righteousness greatly exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!"

So if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one of your members than to have your whole body thrown into hell.

"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'
But I tell you not to resist an evildoer. On the contrary, whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well.
**********

Basically Jesus was telling them to do the opposite of what they are used to. By now these guys are in shocked! "What is it? Unless we mourn (ie someone dies) then we're blessed? IF you slap me I have to let you slap more?... How can ?!!!"

Yup Jesus says, in fact if your righteousness don't exceed that of the pharises - the religious professionals - you're dead (ie you will not have eternal life). All these are pretty scary stuff for the listeners - it's meant to shock. Because Jesus was trying to bring an end to themselves. The LAW is all about that.

So when He goes to Matt 6, He says: Mat 6:5 "And whenever you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. Truly I tell you, they have their full reward! Mat 6:6 But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. Mat 6:7 "When you are praying, don't say meaningless words like the gentiles do, for they think they will be heard because of their wordiness. Mat 6:8 Don't be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Mat 6:9 "Therefore, this is how you should pray: 'Our Father in heaven..... "

So you see, the Lord's prayer is taught as a way of praying and it's the 'anti-culture' of that time, to pray in private, to pray with little words. (Intereting note here is that Jesus say to pray with little words, why is it that sometimes in church when we were asked to 'pray strong' we utter with long strings of vocab? )

Now, in a bigger context of things, Jesus taught that while he is still alive. Obviously. That means that the New Covenant is still not in play yet. At that time, you must ask for forgiveness, burn your offerings...etc before your sins are forgiven. And he taught to forgive others who sins against us, which I think it's another 'anti-culture' thingy because they believe, even up to today, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

So you see how matt 5,6 and 7 all string together.

At the end:
Mat 7:28 And it came to pass, when Jesus had ended these sayings, the people were astonished at his doctrine.

The effect on the teaching was astonishment. Are you astonished? You should be.

That's why the Lord's prayer is taught as it is. Later on when Jesus died, the New Covenant which rendered the old one obsolete. The New Covenant includes the forgiveness of sins with Jesus' blood. Luke offers a similiar scenario and I hope your exergesis will yield many happy hours on that one :)

Something's not right..

As I'm waiting for the movers to come with my stuff, I went on facebook to find out about the latest gossips on my friends. You know, 3 of my best buddies from high school are gay now. I just found out that 2 of my closest girlfriends frmo that time are lesbian too.

A friend who's now a school teacher is telling me that in every class, there's about 3-5 kids from single parents.

The world is more 'sexual' and yet there's more sexual problems. MTV has shown a lot of skin and but the world has a lot less love.

We've got more communication but a gotten a lot more isolated.