The Kingdom Movement

A Literary & Pastoral Study Guide to the Gospel of Matthew

The Inspiration of Matthew,

by Caravaggio

On the King's Errand

Devotional Reflections on Matthew's Gospel

From Self-Awareness to Other-Awareness:  Mt.6:6 – 13

⁶ But you, when you pray, go into your inner room, close your door and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you…⁹ Pray, then, in this way: ‘Our Father…¹¹ Give us this day our daily bread. ¹² And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. ¹³ And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil…

         I can understand why Jesus tells us to pray in secret, since prayer is not a show.  But then he tells us to pray using the first person plural:  ‘Our Father…give us…forgive us…as we also have forgiven our debtors…do not lead us…but deliver us…’  How strange.  When I pray, I usually use the first person singular.  I pray for me and my needs.  I don’t usually pray for the whole church.  But Jesus wants us to do exactly that.

         When you pray for all of God’s people, not just yourself, you play a role in cosmic battle.  It is hard work.  It is unseen by all except God Himself.  Yet Jesus tells us to do this to make us more aware of others.

In The Lord of the Rings, Aragorn gives a beautiful statement about how he has fought many battles that are less-often seen but still vital:  ‘And this I will say to you, Boromir, ere I end.  Lonely men are we, Rangers of the wild, hunters – but hunters ever of the servants of the Enemy; for they are found in many places, not in Mordor only.  If Gondor, Boromir, has been a stalwart tower, we have played another part.  Many evil things there are that your strong walls and bright swords do not stay.  You know little of the lands beyond your bounds.  Peace and freedom do you say?  The North would have known them little but for us.  Fear would have destroyed them.  But when dark things come from the houseless hills, or creep from sunless woods, they fly from us.  What roads would any dare to tread, what safety would there be in quiet lands, or in the homes of simple men at night, if the Dunedain were asleep or were all gone into the grave?  And yet less thanks have we than you.  Travellers scowl at us, and the countrymen give us scornful names.  ‘Strider’ I am to one fat man who lives within a day’s march of foes that would freeze his heart, or lay his little town in ruins if he were not guarded ceaselessly.  Yet we would not have it otherwise.  If simple folk are free from care and fear, simple they will be, and we must be secret to keep them so.  That has been the task of my kindred, while the years have lengthened and the grass has grown.  (J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring, Ballantine Books, 1965, p.326)

         I desire to be that kind of person spiritually.  Let’s pray not just for ourselves, but for all Jesus’ followers, ‘Our Father…’