“Lord, teach us to pray. . .” this one little phrase, simple as it might be, is profound.
For we conceive of God as far off, out there. In this one little phrase that often gets forgotten among the format of prayer that we are accustomed to, I hear an invitation: you and I asking God to come in close. We petition God. . . come close, be our teacher. In this one little phrase, we also infer that the lesson(s) that we are about to learn will contain something that we will take into ourselves. We will learn it; we will apply it.
For there is not one person here, or one who is watching or hearing this at home, who cannot testify that prayer has a meaningful impactful in your life.
Now that is not to say that prayer always mend what was broken. And prayer does not always drive away sickness and it does not always restore the body. Prayer does not always keep death always at bay. Yet we know for certain that prayer changes us as we interact with the Lord.
Our text today teaches us that as this unnamed disciple asks Jesus, “Lord, teach us to pray,” there is an intimacy in those words and there is also a persistence in lesson that Jesus teaches as well.
Today I want to explore Luke 11 with you and see if we can discover how deeply that intimacy runs and how hard the persistence must be on our part as we offer this formulation of prayer to God.
Move 1- intimacy
A first, quick, glance at this text causes us to link “Lord, teach us to pray,” to the next statement… “just as John taught his disciples.”
Yet to me the implication of this query of Jesus, is that if Jesus shows the disciples how to pray, as they have seen him retreat and spend time with God alone and presumably pray, then they will take that model or that lesson to heart, and they will follow it. This shows a level of intimacy in their request of Jesus—it is almost a profession of faith as well. It is like this person is saying to Jesus:
Jesus, we believe in what you will teach us so much, blindly so much, that what you about to say, is so important to us that we will hold it close to our hearts, even though we do not know what it is yet.
And we have a word for this type of blindly, accepting, action. . . we call it faith. The disciples have faith in the teaching of Jesus that they are willing to accept it without fulling understanding that nature of what he will teach yet as it is being taught. For over the years of walking with him, they have developed a rich intimacy with the Jesus. And that intimacy speaks in their request to learn how to pray, presumably as he prays.
Knowing this, Jesus gives them, and us, the right way to begin their prayer: Pah-TAIR. Father.
In Greek this is a word that indicates a depth of human relationship between God and humanity. Occurring over 400 times it spans the divine-human relationship and is far deeper than any human relationship we have.[1] Pater is intimate. Spanning all four gospels, Jesus uses this word, Pater, Father, whenever he wishes to indicate to us how deeply connected, we are to God.
It defines the nature of his relationship with God, and it is how He wants us to develop our relationship with God also.
While there is a time and a place for reverent, humble prayers, the prayer of Luke 11 is not that place. Jesus does not teach the disciples to begin their prayer with: “Lord of heaven and earth” language. Jesus does not say we are always to begin our prayer with: “All great and powerful, One who sees all.” And this is not “Creator God.” Again, there is a time and place for that type of prayer.
Instead, here Jesus teaches us that we are to begin our prayer intimately with our Father who does happen to live in heaven and away from us. The word opens the door to the intimacy that Jesus shares with HIS Father—the same intimacy that he finds when he retreats to be alone and, we presume, contemplate things one-on-one with God.
There is a closeness in this type of prayer. . . or there should be from us to God. In the day that we live in, and in the struggles that we face each day, Jesus wants us to begin our pray intimately with God.
Do you have that type of faith in Christ Jesus? Does your faith in Jesus manifest itself in that way? Does your relationship with Jesus run that deeply that you trust Him enough to speak in this way?
Move 2- persistence
The second thing that we discover in this text is what one author I read calls: the shameless persistence of prayer.[2] We find this concept in the illustration that Jesus offers after he teaches them the words to pray in verses 2-4.
You know the story. A man is tucked into bed with his children all safe and sound. But there is a knocking at his door. I imagine that the man tries to roll over pretending that he does not hear it. Pulling the blankets over his head. But there it is again. . . and again. . . and again. He does not want to answer it. He wants to let someone else do the work. But he cannot.
But something in his heart, Luke calls it friendship in verse 8, draws him out of bed and he helps the one at the door. That friendship is based, according to Jesus we can supposed, on two things.
Intimacy. He would not go to the door for a stranger for it is not safe. He would not want to end up in the ditch being beaten and robbed and needing the Good Samaritan to come and save him—a reference to two weeks ago now.
But it is also based more specifically now on a sense of shameless persistence. The friend won’t go away. This friend persists and keeps knocking. This friend keeps asking for help. This friend does not kick the door in. They do not shout profanities at the man asleep in his bed. The person outside the door does not demand anything or shake his fist at the locked door. Rather, they keep petitioning and keep pressing in relying on the depth of relationship to do draw the sleepy, groggy man out of bed.
Persistence.
Sometimes we have keep approaching God. Not brow-beating our Father in heaven. We just keep returning over and over to Him trusting in the depth of our relationship with him. For he is there. Our Father is there. And he is listening.
Do we persist enough before God… not to get an answer specifically, but because we trust God so much that we would not leave God’s presence? We persist and remain close to God in these moments.
Move 3- personal.
We end our text with a promise from Jesus. God our heavenly Father will respond to us when we pray. Then we held up with verse 10-12 which are transaction. Asking. Seeking. Knocking. Fish and bread being given to anyone who asks not stones or serpents. And we naturally come to think that if we pray, if we are intimately connected to the Father in heaven, then won’t he hear us and respond always to our prayer?
And the church, quietly, whisper… not always. For we have all prayed and it has not always worked the way we wished. We have all read verse 10-12 and believed, and persisted, and yet. . .
Yet this text says, if we carefully consider it says: Yes. God always responds.
But that response is not always what we think it will be. Because another thing that this prayer from Jesus is that it is quite personal. Go with me to verse 13. For in verse 13 we read:
“How much more will the heavenly Father
give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Yet in the personal nature of prayer, again, Jesus never says that we will get everything that we ask for. But instead, what are we given? What is the promise that all who prayer are given? The text ends with the loving Father, the one who intimately loves us, he gives us the Holy Spirit.
There is nothing more we can persist in hoping for because when we are in the ditch, when we struggle, when are faith is bleak, or when we look out into the community around the church and wonder what God is going, God says, “I will send the Holy Spirit to be with you when you feel the most alone because our relationship means that much to me.”
Conclusion
Yet another form and proof of the intimate love of God to us. When disappointment comes, and it will, and prayer seems not be answered, and it does, we fall back on the promised gift of the Holy Spirit.
How do we pray: we pray in honesty and we persist with God.
DM
[1] www.biblehub.com Strongs #3962.
[2] Cathy H. George. Lectionary article in the June 2024 Christian Century. Page 27.
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