The Prayer Jesus Taught Us. pt 2

The Prayer That Jesus Taught Us. pt2

Who’s your Daddy?

Matthew 6:9. “…Our Father which art in Heaven,”

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, he began and told them to pray in this way, “Our Father which art in heaven,”.  To call the God of the universe, Father was not something that was commonplace in Jewish culture. It is alluded to in metaphor. and in an allegorical sense in the Old Testament, but the main titles for God were, Yahweh, Elohim, Adonai. So, what was Jesus trying to show his disciples and us, by instructing us to address God as our Father? 

I think Jesus was trying to show them, and us that God is accessible, like our earthly fathers are or should have been (more on this later).  In the Greek the word translates as “pater” meaning father. In the Aramaic which is the language Jesus would have primarily spoken the word is “Abba” which means father, but also connotes a more intimate meaning, not just a title, not a pet name for father like papa, daddy, or poppy, but a name that we can call our God, our Father, our Abba who is in heaven. 

Calling him Abba, also shows respect, in Jewish culture when one would call someone Abba it meant intimacy but also obedience.  Abba is mentioned three times in the New Testament Mark 14:35-36, Romans 8:15, Galatians 4:6.  Specifically, in Romans 8:12-13 and Mark 14:35-36, the use of the term and the context is in the midst of submission in suffering.  Paul In Romans putting an end to sin in the flesh, dying to oneself, and Jesus praying at the garden of Gethsemane, in his most crucial hour coming to his Abba and asking for this cup to pass.  In Galatians 4:4-7, in context we see that by Jesus’ submission to the will of the Father, we now are co-heirs with Christ, sons and daughters born of the same Spirit, now inside us that now calls out in obedience like the first Son, Abba! The context of these three uses in the New Testament show intimacy and reflect an obedience to the Fathers will.

Jesus is showing us that we can have an intimate relationship with the creator and humbly submit to our Abba because he loves, we don’t have to be afraid we can come to him in our most crucial moments individually and collectively as a church and ask for his leading and guiding in our most challenging times.  We have a heavenly Father/Abba who is involved and cares, who fills in the gaps of our earthly fathers, who may not have been perfect, or even there, or who from their own hands some of us may have suffered by.  Jesus shows us in this one act of calling him Father, that God will redeem all these things. Healing all the Hurts, and restoring all that which was broken, showing us a better way.  Remember what Jesus said in the sermon on the mount, which one of us wouldn’t be there for our own children, and God is way better than us!

Matthew 7:7-11

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

So, as we take a moment to pray the Lord’s prayer today, pause and reflect as you call God your Father in Heaven, take a deep a breath and receive the comfort and peace that this simple truth brings.

And always remember,

Jesus loves you, and so do I!

Pastor Will