Forgive Us Our Debts

Pray then like this:

"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come,

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven out debtors.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."

For if you forgive others their trespasses  your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

- Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 6:9-15)

Edward Everett

Lincoln in 1863

It is a 35-minute drive from my house to Gettysburg, site of the most famous battle ever fought on American soil, and site of the National Cemetery which was dedicated November 19, 1863 as a final resting place for Union soldiers who fell in that battle.  At that dedication, a well-known orator by the name of Edward Everett delivered a two-hour speech consisting of 13,607 words, an oration which the world little notes nor long remembers.  Following his eloquent speech, the 16th President of the United States spoke 271 dedicatory words which the world has never forgotten.  Abraham Lincoln's little speech took just over two minutes to deliver, but it is noted as one of the great speeches ever given in the English language, or any language.  In just three paragraphs, Lincoln captured the essence of the American experiment and articulated the longing of all human hearts for freedom and equality.  It is appropriate that this speech has been memorized by millions of American school children in the years since; may it continue to be so.

What we commonly refer to as The Lord's Prayer (which may more properly be called "the model prayer," or "the disciple's prayer"), which Jesus taught to His disciples, is likewise a model of simplicity and brevity.  Jesus gave it to His disciples in response to their request that He teach them how to pray.  They may have been surprised when Jesus taught them not to heap up empty phrases, repeating them over and over, like many of the religious leaders of their day, but to pray simply, humbly and to the point.

In the centuries since, the Church has cherished the Lord's simple words far more than those of Lincoln, but we seem often to forget the rest of His instructions concerning prayer. We either repeat this prayer in an empty-headed, distracted kind of way as part of our formal or informal liturgies, or we ignore it altogether and ramble on in a cascade of words.  Worse yet, some pray this prayer in a rote way, hoping that the act of saying these precise words will merit them a blessing from God.  Would that we would use this prayer as the Lord intended, and teach it to our children and to those we disciple, as a model to follow - a model of both substance and simplicity!

Perhaps most egregious among our abuses of the Lord's Prayer is the glib way in which we speak the phrase, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors."  It shocked me when I realized that by praying this phrase, I am actually asking God to forgive me to the same extent and in the same way as I forgive those who have offended me!  What a horrifying concept!  To think that I become the example which I would have God follow in extending His forgiveness to me - one so desperately in need of His total forgiveness - causes my blood to run cold, and causes me to search my heart before I say the words.

It is instructive that this element of the prayer is the only phrase upon which Jesus gives commentary:  If you forgive others their offenses against you, your Father will forgive you.  If you don't, neither will He forgive your offenses against Him.  Very, very sobering indeed!  To be unforgiven by God is to be in the state which sends souls to hell - a very real place I never, ever want to see, let alone be confined for eternity.  

Jesus' model prayer is a profound motivation against holding bitterness or hardness of heart toward anyone, and should cause each of us to search our hearts to see if their is anyone from whom we might be withholding the very forgiveness we ourselves crave, and upon which our eternity depends.