Matthew 15:1-20
Lord’s Prayer: Introduction & 1st Petition
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
When Jesus teaches us to pray, He first teaches us to approach God—His Father—as our father. God is our father because He has created us. Malachi asks, “Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?” (Mal 2:10). While in Athens, St. Paul quotes the Greek poet Aratus’ saying of God, “For we are also His offspring” (Acts 17:28). God is the father of all mankind in the sense that we are His creatures. But this isn’t what Jesus means when He teaches us to pray, “Our father, who art in heaven.” He teaches us to pray, not as creatures of the Father, but creatures whom He has adopted as sons. He adopts us through the gospel. John [1:12] says, “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” Peter says that God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Ptr 1:3). He does this by created faith in us through the gospel and through baptism, the washing of regeneration, or rebirth (Titus 3:5). It is in this sense, as God’s adopted children, adopted for the sake of His only begotten Son, Jesus, in which our Lord teaches us to approach God as our father. This is why Luther teaches us in the catechism, “With these words, God would invite us to believe that He is our true Father, and that we are His true children, so that with all boldness and confidence we should ask Him, as dear children ask their dear father.
Believing God to be our true father, we know He will give us only those things that are good for us. Jesus tells us in Matthew 7[:9-11], “What man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being 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!” Only a sadistic man who hates God and himself will give his child something that could harm them. Sadly, such men exist in our fallen world. Generally, however, earthly fathers want to give their children good things. If earthly fathers—who are sinful men—know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more does God the Father—who has made us accepted in His beloved Son—give us good things? Or, as Paul says in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” This is spirit in which we pray: not as creatures, but as children who are dear to God as His only begotten Son is dear to Him. With this, Jesus teaches us approach God our Father in humble confidence and heartfelt trust that He hears us and will lovingly answer our prayer.
But Jesus doesn’t leave us to own devices. He teaches us what we should pray for as well. This reminds us that prayer is something we must be taught. It doesn’t come naturally to us because of the sinful nature. Jesus teaches us to pray in the Sermon on the Mount, while in Luke’s gospel He teaches the Our Father when one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). Jesus has mercy upon His disciples—then and now—and teaches them not only how to approach God in prayer, He teaches them the things for which they ought to pray.
For what are to ask our father who art in heaven? “Hallowed be Thy name.” To hallow something is to make it holy. And Luther gets right to the heart of the matter when he says, God’s name is certainly holy in itself; but we ask in this prayer that it may be made holy among us also.” Luther echoes Leviticus 22:32, “You shall not profane My holy name, but I will be hallowed among the children of Israel.” God’s name is holy, sanctified, set apart from all other names because He is the only God. His name remains holy whether Israel hallowed it among themselves or not. So that’s what we’re asking: that we hallow God’s name, that we sanctify God’s name, that we keep His name holy among us.
And what is His name? Jehovah in the old English translations, but that’s really a mistranslation of the Hebrew Yahweh. Yahweh is the personal name that God gave to Moses. When Moses asks for God’s name, He answers, “I AM WHO I AM. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’” (Ex 3:14-15). The name He gives to Moses is Yahweh, which means “I AM” or “The One Who Is.” He also says in Isaiah 42:8, “I am the LORD, that is My name.” It was translated as Jehovah, but in modern times it is simply translated as LORD in a smaller font size. The Jews were so afraid of taking God’s name in vain that they simply stopped using it, and that began the tradition of placing Yahweh with Adoni, or LORD, when translating the Old Testament into English. And while we hallow God’s name—Yahweh, Jehovah, God, Lord, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—we ask in this petition for more than simply keeping God’s personal designation set apart and sacred so that we use it lie, curse, swear, and the like.
God’s name is an extension of His person. It includes His entire reputation, characteristics, descriptions, and His teaching that He’s revealed to us in the Scriptures. God’s person, reputation, characteristics, and His teach is all holy in itself, but we ask in this prayer that it may be made holy among us also. How do we hallow God’s name? Since God’s name is His teaching, His Word, God’s name is hallowed “when God’s Word is taught purely and correctly, and when we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it.” God cannot be separated from His Word, since that is where He reveals Himself. To keep God’s word holy is to keep His name holy. The preacher hallows God’s name by preaching God’s word purely and correctly, and by living a holy life according to God’s Word. His hearers—you—hear that word purely and correctly taught and hold it sacred by believing it and living holy lives according to it. To teach or live differently from God’s word profanes God’s name. This is why it’s so important for us to flee false doctrine and fellowship with false teachers. How can we live according to God’s word if we don’t know God’s word or have a falsified interpretation of it? This can only come by God’s grace, so Luther writes, “Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven!” And since preaching and living differently from God’s word profanes His name, we pray in this petition as well, “Guard us against this, O heavenly Father!” As His baptized children, we do not want to profane His name.
Jesus shows us this very thing in the gospel we hear read earlier. The Pharisees had profaned God’s name by teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. They weren’t teaching God’s word purely and correctly. They added their own traditions and superstitions to God’s commandments, so that neither they nor their hearers could possibly live holy lives according to God’s holy word. Rather than teaching people to honor father and mother, they taught it was holier to donate money to the temple than use it to care for their aging parents. Like the ceremonial washing of one’s hands, they cleansed the outside so that it appeared clean, holy, and just, while the inside—their hearts and minds—were defiled with sin, especially self-righteousness. They couldn’t live holy lives, nor could their hearers, because they refused to recognize their hearts at the fountainhead of sin within them. Only by recognizing the sinful root seeking forgiveness and a new heart from God could they begin to live holy lives. But the external is always easier, and it allows the Old Adam to remain in command. Jesus tells His disciples precisely what do with them: Leave them alone. God will uproot them in His time and His way. Such is the fate of those who do not hallow God’s name in their preaching and life.
But to those who want to hallow God’s name among themselves, who want God’s word taught purely and correctly, so that they can live holy lives according to it, Jesus explains the parable. He teaches His disciples what the Pharisees refuse to admit: that what comes out of a man’s mouth is what defiles him, because those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart. And only God can give a new heart, and that only comes by the Holy Spirit’s working contrition, faith in the gospel. And faith in the gospel is what makes us new so that we begin to live holy lives according to God’s holy word. And that can only come when God’s word is taught correctly and purely. May God grant this to us all, as a body of believers and individually, that we hallow God’s name, so that God’s Word is taught purely and correctly, and when we, as the children of God, also lead holy lives according to it. Help us to do this, dear Father in heaven. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
