St. Luke 10:38-11:13: "10:38 Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. 39 And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. 40 But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, 'Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.' 41 And Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.'"11:1 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.' 2 So He said to them, 'When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one.' 5 And He said to them, 'Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, "Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him;" 7 and he will answer from within and say, "Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you?" 8 I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs. 9 So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 11 If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!'"
Our Lord teaches us two things in today's pericope. One, how the ministers of God should behave when they go into the homes of those who receive them. And two, how to pray to our Heavenly Father for those things we need.
Our Lord Jesus teaches us that when the ministers of God go into the homes of those who receive them, that they "should not remain idle, but should rather fill the minds of those who receive them with sacred and divine teachings."* That is, that they are tasked with preaching the Word of God at all times in the midst of those who receive them. They are to be the embodiment of the Word of God among the people of God. Our Lord does this, in that when He enters the home of Mary and Martha (and we learn in other places, that this is the home of Lazarus in Bethany) He sits down to teach and preach.
We also learn from the Blessed Mary how those who receive the ministers of God are to receive them and their words. Mary sits at the feet of Jesus. She didn't just sit nearby, but at His feet, that is, she shows her diligence, eagerness, and steadfastness in hearing our Lord's Word. She wants nothing more than to hear what our Lord has to say. Martha on the other hand is consumed with being a good hostess. And in her obsession, she misses out on the opportunity to hear what our Lord teaches.
This is true for us as well, when the ministers of God come into our homes, we may be tempted to be more concerned about being good hosts and hostesses, than hearing what he has to say. This is why the ministers of God visit people in their homes, they come to bring the Word of God, that is not to say that other things cannot take place, but both minister and hearers have an obligation to preach and hear, respectively. The danger that is being expressed, is the minister who never says anything about what God has done, or, the hearer, who doesn't want the minister to say anything about God and what He has done. Are you the type of person who doesn't want the minister in your home, because you don't want him to be "all preachy?" Then you should repent, for this is for your benefit. He has been sent by God, and to not receive him, is to not receive our Lord Jesus. A similar question can be asked of the ministers of God, are you the type of minister who goes into people's homes, and do not say anything about God, because you do not want to sound "all preachy?" Then repent, for you have been sent by God, to bring the good news of salvation to those people.
In this Mary chooses the better thing, for she shows how diligently we are to cling to the Word of God, and crave for it to be spoken to us. And our Lord Jesus, is all to willing to oblige.
The second thing our Lord teaches us, is to pray. And He teaches His disciples (and us) by giving them the Lord's Prayer. This gives us a good chance to look at the Lord's Prayer, and receive some catechesis on it. Afterall, being in Lent, this is the season for catechesis. Therefore let us look briefly at each petition.
Our Lord begins teaching us how to pray, by teaching us to Whom we are to address our prayers. We are to beseech our Heavenly Father. After the Lord's Prayer in the text, He even gives us examples of how we are to imagine our Heavenly Father, that is, as a father. When we ask our earthly fathers for something, and we are told by Jesus, that even the evil ones do this, our fathers, because of their love for their sons, give us good things. And we knowing how our earthly fathers give to us, we have no qualms about asking them for the things we need. Therefore, we should have the same relationship with our Heavenly Father, not afraid to ask Him for the things we need.
Our Lord then explains to His disciples what things are to be asked for from our Heavenly Father, and these can be broken down into two categories. One, is spiritual needs, and the other is physical needs. Our daily earthly needs are sandwiched in the Lord's Prayer, between our daily spiritual needs.
Like the Ten Commandments, where the first three deal with our Lord God, in the Lord's Prayer, the first three deal with our greatest needs. Our first need is that God would hallow His Name, that is, that He would make His Name holy among us. Now we know that God's Name is holy in and of itself, but we pray that God would make His Name holy among us. How is this done? God's Name is made holy among us when the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution, and we gladly and willing require and enjoy His Word preached in its purity. Therefore, those who don't care about such things, or do not think that preaching correct doctrine is as important as "getting the Word out" are profaning the Name of God among us. Of course, one is not actually "getting the Word out" if the Word that is being put out there is incorrect.
The second spiritual need we have is that our Lord's kingdom would come among us. Again, God's kingdom comes in and by itself, even without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come among us. So, how does God's kingdom come? It comes when He gives us His Holy Spirit. In other words, whenever the Word of God is taught in its truth and purity, and the Sacraments are administered according to Christ's institution in our midst, the Holy Spirit is give to us. And when that happens, He, through the outpouring of His grace upon us, creates in us faith and life, so that we may believe the Word that was preached, and believe that in the Sacraments we receive forgiveness, life and salvation. In short, in order for our Lord's kingdome to come to us, we need the means of grace given to us in their truth and purity. Wherever the means of grace are not given out, or are given out contrary to Christ's institution, the kingdom of God cannot come, nor can His Holy Spirit create and sustain faith and life in us by the outpouring of His grace.
The third spiritual need that we must ask for and receive before requesting any earthly need, is that our Lord's will would be done on earth, in the same way that it is done in Heaven. Again, we know that God's will is done without our prayer, but we pray that it may be done among us, or in other words, that we may gladly and willing receive His holy will. How is this done? Whenever God breaks and hinders every evil plan and purpose of the devil, the world, and our flesh, which do not want us to make God's Name holy among us, nor let His kingdom come among us. In other words, God's will is done when we make sure that the first two petitions are happening among us, that we do not become apathetic towards God's Word, and correct doctrine and practice, nor allow false teaching and practice to exist among us. For when we are apathetic, or allow false practice to exist among us, we are weakened in our faith. This is what the second part of the Blessed Martin Luther's explanation to this petition explains, that is, that when we are allowing God's will to be done, and His kingdom to come, He is strengthening and perserving us in the One True Faith. This is why the Word of God, and the right administration of the Sacraments in our midst are so important, for these are the means by which the Holy Ghost works to create and sustain, and strengthen our faith. Where these things do not exist, our faith is either weakened, or in grave danger of being wasted away.
Having learned how to ask our Heavenly Father to keep His Word and Sacraments pure in our midst, we are now ready to ask for those things which we need to sustain this body and life. For when we have the Word of God in its truth and purity, we learn to be content with the simple things that our Lord gives us, and we ask only for the necessities to sustain life. This is why the next petition simply states, "Give us this day our daily bread." For in daily bread is meant all that we need to support this body and life, or to say it another way, we are asking for only those things which we need to support our earthly life. God certainly gives daily bread without our prayer, and on account of His grace and love for His creation, He even gives it freely to all evil people. But when we ask our Heavenly Father to give us daily bread, we are acknowledging from Whom our earthly bread comes from, and we are by virtue giving Him thanks for it.
Having taken care of our spiritual and earthly needs, we now turn to those things that attack us in this life, and draw us away from our Heavenly Father, and that is sin. Both the sin that we commit, and the sin that is commited against us. This petition rightly follows the others, for part of our sin, is being lax in God's Word, and receiving and rejoicing in the Sacraments. We also daily have desires that go way beyond what we need to support this body and life, for we do become discontent with our lives, and chase after the things of this life. There are also those who commit sins against us, for we live in an evil world full of sin. Therefore in this petition we request our Heavenly Father to forgive us of our sins, and we also request Him to forgive those who sin against us, releasing them from the sins that they committed against us, so that we do not hold those sins against them. It should be pointed out that this petition does not require them to ask for forgiveness. It should also be said, that when we hold grudges, we are making the second half of this petition out to be a lie. This is dangerous, for we learn from our Lord Jesus, that when we refuse to forgive our neighbors who have sinned against us, our Heavenly Father, will not forgive us. This of course, does not apply to those who through Church discipline have publicly had their sins retained. This petition is probably best summed up in the words of the Blessed Apostle, St. Paul, who said, "Bear with one another."
The sixth petition request our Heavenly Father to give us the strength to resist temptation, so that we may not be led, or deceived, into false belief, despair, or other great shame or vice. This of course is done through the Holy Ghost, who dwells within us, by continued use of the means of grace. We may be assailed by the devil, the world, and our sinful flesh, but by the Holy Ghost, we may overcome them and obtain the victory over temptation.
Finally, our prayer to our Heavenly Father sums up our lost condition, and prays that we would be delivered from the evil one. This petition has to do with our last hour on this Earth. When we pray this petition we are praying that our Lord would keep us free from all evil that would remove us from receiving our eternal reward in Heaven. We are saying when we pray, "Deliver us from evil" that our Lord would grant us a blessed end, and graciously take us from this vale of tears to Himself in Heaven. This is why when this petition is prayed those who pray it make the sign of the Holy Cross at the word "deliver." For we are delivered from the evil one, and are granted a blessed end, and an eternal home in Heaven, by the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose suffering and death, won for us forgiveness of sins, eternal life and salvation.
We wrap up our prayer by saying, "Amen." That is to say, "We know that what we have just prayed for, You O Lord, will grant to us, and we believe that You will freely give us all that we ask for and more." Therefore, the Church has prayed this prayer daily and much. In the past it was prayed whenever the Church Bells were rung, announcing the time of prayer, and those who were unable to come to the Lord's house for prayer, would stop and pray this prayer in their stations in life. The Blessed Martin Luther suggested that this prayer should be prayed when we awake in the morning, before and after meals, and when we lie down to sleep. This prayer is also prayed in both Matins and Vespers, the morning and evening prayers, respectively. This means that we ask our Heavenly Father for all spiritual and earthly needs, about ten times a day (if one eats three meals a day). Ten being the number of perfect completion, we pray this prayer completely and perfectly every day.
May God be with you!
Deacon Dulas
* St. Cyril
