John Fischer The Catch

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For Thine is the kingdom

And the power

And the glory,

Forever.

Amen.

Forever. Do you know how long that is? Nobody does. It is so long that we cannot possibly grasp it. We cannot comprehend anything never ending. It is almost frightening to imagine. We are so conditioned to endings that it is impossible to imagine forever. There is no mechanism in our brains that can click on eternity.

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Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For Thine is the kingdom

And the power

And the glory

Glory goes to the winning team. When the winners take the podium in the Olympics, the ones with the most glory are wearing gold around their necks. In sports we call someone the Greatest Of All Time, or G.O.A.T.. But humanly speaking, this is a temporary post, because there is always someone just a little better coming down the pike. For every Babe Ruth there is a Shohei Ohtani coming. But with God, there is no other. It is the highest level of praise. For God, it is His identity; His glory is Who He is. He is the Highest. Gloria to God in the highest!

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Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For Thine is the kingdom

And the power

Power, a coveted prize in today’s world, often leads to polarization and conflict. This struggle for power is evident in many countries today, where rival factions fiercely compete to control the laws and direction of their nations.

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Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

But deliver us from evil

For Thine is the kingdom

[Note: The earliest manuscripts of the New Testament do not include, “For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen” (Matthew 6:13). We will include it for the following reasons:

1. We learned it this way.

2. We sing it this way.

3. It’s true. (His IS the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.)

4. Some biblical authority in the first century thought it was important.

5. “But deliver us from evil,” is a bad ending.]

So the prayer ends where it started, with praise, and a statement of how great God is. We will never outlive praise to our God. We will be singing and proclaiming His praises forever.

The kingdom is the realm over which a king rules. So where is that realm? It is everywhere. Think: the universe.

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Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

This may be the most important part of the prayer. All of the newer translations agree that this should read, “but deliver us from the evil one,” so that tells us there is some level of personification there in the original language. The gist of what is being said here for us, then, is basically, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one who is behind it all.”

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Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors

And lead us not into temptation

This is a tough one to understand. We know that God does not tempt anyone (James 1:13), but we also know that temptation is all around us; we face it every day.   Shut your eyes and temptation plays with your imagination.

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Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be Thy name.

Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread

And forgive us our debts

As we forgive our debtors

Or as Luke 4:11 has it, “and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.”

Pairing this portion of the Lord’s prayer with 1 John 1:6-10 helps us understand how we are to live together in community with Christ. A requirement of life with Christ includes an open acknowledgment of our sin. John says, “But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). (These are all present tense, continually happening verbs, by the way.) Living in the light means living where our sin is being continually revealed and forgiven.

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