The Ultimate in Prayer
Matthew 6:11-15 May 16, 2021 Tajiri Church
The following verse from the Gospel of Matthew 6:11 is a prayer about human beings. The first prayer is, "Give us this day our daily bread, which we need" (v.11). The word translated as "necessary" is "epiousios," a word that is difficult to interpret because it is only used here and in the Lord's Prayer in Luke 11:3. In a note, Ken Sato writes, "The most likely interpretation is 'tomorrow' or 'the coming day' (meaning today), assuming the morning prayer" (Goro Maeda, Franciscan translation), but this is semantically problematic. The colloquial translation is, "Give us this day our daily food. The Lord Jesus recommends that the first thing we pray for in regard to human beings is to ask Him to give us food for each day.
This is a very important thing. The best commentary on this prayer is the following verse from the Gospel of Matthew 6:25. Do not be anxious about what you will wear or what you will eat. Look at the birds of the air and the flowers of the field... "Seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Ask for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you in addition. Therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow. Tomorrow is here, and tomorrow itself will be troubled. The hardships of the day will suffice for the day itself. (vs. 33, 34) It is as the Lord Jesus said. What a lot of things we worry about! How many things bother us, how we can't work with that person, how we hate just being with that person, and so many other issues. But God is the one who prepares the way for the best. Therefore, we should be grateful for being alive in the here and now. You can live your life believing that the hardships of the day are enough for that day.
The second is, "Forgive us our trespasses, for we know not what we owe. Forgive us our trespasses, as we have forgiven those who trespass against us. Forgive us our trespasses, as we have forgiven those who trespass against us; and save us from temptation, and deliver us from evil. If you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you your trespasses. (vs.12-14) How did the 12 disciples hear these words? When the cross of the Lord Jesus was at hand, Peter and the other disciples abandoned Him and fled. The words "forsake" and "forgive" are the same word. The Lord Jesus was resurrected from the dead on the third day and went to the disciples. Isn't this an amazing thing? It is not the disciples who followed the Lord Jesus' advice to the end. How about us? Do we trust someone who has betrayed us once, twice, three times? I'm not so sure. But the Lord Jesus used such unworthy disciples again for the work of preaching the kingdom of God. Everyone, please think about Paul and see what happens. Paul could not forgive the first Christians who believed that they were equal to God. He was persecuting them for idolatry. God chose Paul to evangelize the Gentiles. It is unbelievable.
So were the disciples. They were Jews. Betrayal has a different weight than we think. But the Lord Jesus used those abandoned disciples to do the work of preaching the kingdom of God. I want to pay attention to the words that the Lord Jesus spoke when He was crucified. He said to the people who abused and ridiculed Him on the cross, He offered redemptive forgiveness, saying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing" (Luke 23:34). The same is true for the disciples. I believe the disciples were shattered by the depth of the Lord.