What Does The Lord's Prayer Say About Bread and Debts?
by: KalindaRoseStevenson,PhD |
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Perhaps the most well-known words from the Bible are the "Lord's Prayer." Versions of the prayer occur in both the "The Sermon On The Mount" in Matthew 6:9-13 and "the Sermon on the Plain" in Luke 11:1-4. Although it is not immediately obvious to most people who pray this prayer, this prayer is deeply concerned with economic issues.
Even though every Christian church uses the Lord's Prayer, following Matthew's version rather than Luke's, there are variations in the exact wording.
Some churches use the archaic English, "thy" and "thine." Protestant churches usually end the prayer with the words, "For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory." Roman Catholics do not recite this ending.
The most significant difference between various churches is that some churches use the language of "debts," some use "trespasses," and some use "sins."
When Jesus taught his followers to pray for daily bread and forgiveness of debts, it was more than a prayer for spiritual sustenance and forgiveness of sins. He was first of all referring to real bread and real debts.
The most basic meaning of the Greek word for "debts" is financial. This meaning is consistent with the approach of Jesus to the social and ethical injustices of his society against the poor and dispossessed. In the prayer, he makes explicit the need for real bread and for payment of debt.
The prayer cannot be understood without also seeing it in terms of the Kingdom of God, which does not refer to an afterlife in Heaven. It refers to the expectation of the rule of God, in which God will end oppression, poverty, and suffering on earth. "Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
The economic foundation of the prayer is lost when the words "bread" and "debts" become spiritual metaphors with no connection to real food and economic debt
For Jesus's audience, bread and debt were much more than metaphors. Hunger and debt were constant realities of life for an underfed, overtaxed population. Much of the misery of the peasants and beggars in Palestine resulted from debt. The peasants had to turn over much of what they grew to the king or other members of the urban elite class who claimed proprietary rights to whatever the peasants grew on the land. As a result, many of the peasant farmers were hopelessly in debt. Many of the beggars had been forced off their land by failure to pay their debts.
Jesus condemned the society, which had created such a vast gap between the haves and the have-nots. He criticized the rich for exploiting and oppressing the poor. He also criticized the religious system for judging so many groups of people in the society to be "unclean" and unworthy of God's blessing.
Jesus saw hunger, poverty, sickness, and suffering endured by most of the population. He saw how the rich landowners grew rich at the expense of the poor. He saw people who were homeless because they had been driven off their land by high rents and taxes. He saw the result of high taxes on the people who had to turn over most of what they grew, made, or caught. He also knew what it was to live under Roman occupation. Roman soldiers could force people to do whatever they wanted. He saw how the Temple system collaborated with the Roman occupiers to bleed the people of their money and their power.
It is also true that Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer preserves an Aramaic idiom. Aramaic writings show that the language of "debt" and "debtors" was used regularly for "sin" and "sinners." Jesus spoke Aramaic and clearly intended that the word "debts" in the prayer refer to both money debts and sins.
In Luke, the financial reality behind the metaphor is lost because Luke uses the word "sin" rather than "debt." This obscures the underlying concern with real bread and real debts.
To pray as Jesus intended, Christians need to retrieve the original meanings of words that have been treated as spiritual metaphors. The cost of daily bread is especially significant in an era of global food shortages and rising prices for basic staples such as wheat, rice, and corn. And forgiveness of debts has particular meaning for those facing foreclosure and bankruptcy because of debts they cannot repay.
Jesus meant his words to address suffering and injustice in his own society. His prayer for bread and debts referred to real bread and forgiveness of real financial debts.
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About the Author
Kalinda Rose Stevenson, Ph.D. What if much of what you learned about Jesus and money is not true? Get your copy of Going Broke With Jesus at www.GoingBrokeWithJesus.com to see how frequently Christians misunderstand what Jesus taught about money.
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