Matthew 6:5-13
Introduction: Moments of crisis can reveal our priorities. Our lives, church, neighborhoods, and world are facing circumstances that are showing us what really matters. God’s Word – and more particularly the Lord’s Prayer – offers incredibly relevant resources for facing questions of justice, sustenance, rescue, and evil.
1. What Do We Need?
The Lord’s Prayer teaches – and the global pandemic confirms – that we are needy creatures. At this moment, any notion that you are autonomous, independent, self-sustaining and in control seems either foolish or incredibly naïve. Everything about you is fragile. So don’t waste your pandemic. Reckon with and reflect on the reality that you are a weak, needy creature. Now is a moment when we all can consider whether we have engaged in the sin of too much confidence. The prayer for daily bread disabuses us of the lie that we are masters of our fate.
So, what do we need? Everything that makes life possible. Historically, the Protestant Reformers saw in this fourth petition the sum of everything we need for life. One writer said that by “daily bread” is meant all things the withholding of which gives pain to human nature. German pastor and theologian Martin Luther (who was well-acquainted with global plagues) says “daily bread” means: “food, drink, clothes, shoes, houses, farms, fields, lands, money, property, a good marriage, good children, honest and faithful public servants, a just government, favorable weather, health, honors, good friends, loyal neighbors.” Jesus invites us to bring all these needs to God in prayer. The encouragement from the Lord’s Prayer is that God not only made you with a stomach but also commands you to ask Him to fill it.
But the “daily bread” of this prayer while affirming our physical needs, also points beyond itself to something deeper. 20th century theologian Karl Barth said that the reference to “bread” in the prayer “contains a meaning far more simple, natural, and material, and at the same time far more profound and sublime, than we suppose.” What does he mean? Remember Jesus’ audience: Jews. People whose ancestors escaped slavery in Egypt and who were led by God in the desert for decades. In the accounts of their wilderness wanderings, we have indication that God provided them with special bread from heaven called “manna.” In Exodus 16 we learn that this manna was quite literally Israel’s “daily bread.” And the manna served a dual purpose. First, the manna put food in Israel’s belly. But in Deuteronomy 8 Moses told the people that “God humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” The daily bread of the exodus fed God’s people physically in order to awaken in them a spiritual hunger. It taught them (and us) that our lives (stomach and soul) depend on Someone Else.
2. What Does God Give?
To meditate well on the Lord’s Prayer, we need to see the interrelatedness of all its parts. Each phrase and stanza connects with what comes before and after. That means that when you pray for daily bread, you are praying to a Father. Good parents join their happiness to the happiness of their children (in healthy and beneficial ways). That’s why Jesus says in Matthew 7, “which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him” (Matt 7:9-11)! God is a Father who wants joy for us, is powerful to provide it, and generously gives in His sovereign wisdom.
But how can you trust this Father will give you what’s best? You must see Jesus.
The Lord’s Prayer is first and foremost a glimpse into Jesus’ character and mission. In Matthew 4, Jesus was hungry and in the desert (just like Israel in the exodus). He is tested to turn stones into bread, tempted to be self-reliant, independent from His Father, but Jesus refused. He waited for His Father, depending on Him in childlike trust. And this Jesus also knows what it’s like to pray to God for life, but receive death. You might say Jesus was the Son who asked for bread, but received a stone. Jesus was God in the flesh who hungered so you could be filled; His body broken and crumbled to make you whole. Our lives entirely depend on the good gift of Someone outside of us. The good news of Christianity is that your enoughness, satisfaction, righteousness have all already been met and given by Jesus.
REFLECT OR DISCUSS
What about the sermon most impacted you or left you with questions?
Where do you sense your needs most acutely right now? Is it primarily physical, or spiritual, or both?
For ancient Israel, daily bread meant seeing through their physical hunger to a deep spiritual hunger that all humanity shares. In what ways have you experienced a spiritual hunger in this season?
The Lord’s Prayer is primarily about Jesus. Explain.
This prayer invites us to pray for “our” daily bread, not “my” daily bread. What are some applications of this to your life and in our present crisis?
Jesus said, “I am the bread of life” (John 6). As you ponder Jesus and all His goodness, how does that give you hope?