Luke 11:1-4
“Notice what you notice.” Luke’s “Our Father”… It’s natural to compare Luke’s “Our Father” with Matthew’s. I saw three distinct differences and one other possible item:
- “Lord, teach us to pray…
- “…this day…” vs. “…each day…” or “…day by day…”
- The Matthew ending, “But deliver us from evil…” and following…
I’m surprised that I did not notice a few days back in Matthew 6:7-13 that there is no introductory “Lord, teach us to pray.” To me, that was always part of the introduction to the “Our Father”, that the disciples wanted to learn how to pray. Matthew includes the “Our Father” in his “Sermon on the Mount”, where praying is one of the three disciplines to which Jesus was speaking (in addition to giving and fasting). Luke has the disciple’s request in no particular location – it simply begins chapter 11 where the end of chapter 10 is the “Martha and Mary” story. (NOTE: Chapters and verses in Scripture were added much later.)
Matthew has Give us this day our daily bread…, whereas Luke has “each day” or, more emphatically in the NKJV, “day by day”. Thank you, Godspell, for this last phrase standing out so vividly!! Reflect a bit on “this day” vs. “day by day”. The former implies our daily needs requests coming before God, whereas the latter has a longer-term ring to it, almost like we don’t need to pray for our daily bread every day. A very different perspective…! The former is manna in the wilderness; the latter is our weekly shopping trip to Kroger’s. Strange…!
Finally, But deliver us from evil… I’m sure we all appreciate Matthew adding this deliverance line! Why is it not included in Luke? Who knows?? Also, the NKJV in our Chronological Bible adds For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. Our local radio station when I was growing up, KMOX in St. Louis came online and began its daily broadcast at 6:00 am with a glorious rendition of the sung “Our Father”. I couldn’t imagine the “Our Father” being sung without that glorious ending. It’s a real glory sighting for me to have it now in my head!!
Slava Bohu!