The Pulpit Commentary — Luke — Volume 1 — Section 307

HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-13.-C'hrist teaching hia duiciples to pray. "He was praying in a certain place." Might not he have d)spensed with the special sea.son and act of prayer? Was not Ma whole life one contmnous act of prayer? Did he not always realize that communion _with the Father t.o which praying is the means? Yes; but even he needed the time and the place of prayer. "Ma.de in all things like to his brethren" be too, required to recruit the energy; he, too, for power with God and men, must lift up hie eyes to heaven. Those who say that they can dispense with the particular form and the definite act ; that all places are their oratories, and all worcl..s and deeds the form of their conference with the Unseen; have realized a spirituality sublimated beyond Christ's, and, it may safely be said, beyond the truth and limits of our human nature. ls it private or is it social prayer of which the evangelist informs us? It would seem that the disciples heard the "strong crying" of their Master ; it may be that he and they were united in prayer-he speaking with them and for them, as the Father of the family, as the Head of the household. Be this as it may, one of his followers, impressed with the action, expresses the desire that such instruction should be given them as the Baptist ha.d given to his proselytes. And the request, by whomsoever proffered, occa- sions an answer which ill full of meaning. Notice its two points-what to pray for, and liow to pray. I. WHAT TO PRAY FOL Thie is set forth in the words which are so familiar to tne Christian ear. The same words, slightly modified, are fonnd in the sermon from the mount. There they are presented in opposition to the repetitions and much speaki11g of tlie Pharisees' prayers; here they are presented as the brief but comprehensive sum- n.rnry of the desires of a true disciple of Christ. ",vhen ye pray, say," etc. Notice ewo points. 1. A good deal has been made of supposed parallels between the Lord's Prayer and some devotional utterances in Jewish and even in heathen scriptures. Supposing, for the sake of e.rgument, that our Lord appropriated sentknces in use by his countrymen : what rnatters it? Did he not express his innermost feeling on the cross in the ·words of the Psalter? The affectation of novelty is one of the poorest kinds of affectation. What could have been more worthy of the Divine Teacher than the selection of that which Wll.'l fitted to nurture the soul-life from the devotional literature which his followers already had, or which had moulded the sweetest elements of the religious consciousneSI! of his nation? A.nd for the rest, if he is the Truth, I should expect to find traces of his thought, rays of the light by which he has lightened all men, in every quarter and age of his world. Truth is always Catholic. The finder of truth unites scattered fragments, and, a.s he unites, he creates a new thing, a new unity. 'l'he thought ■ of many generations might be gathered into the prayer which Christ taught his disciples; but not the lei;s on that account would it be a new and blessed fact. 2. Observe, further, there are slight differences in the form of the fourth and the fifth petitions in the prayer as rendered in Luke, and the prayer as rendered in Matthew. May we not infer from this that, whilst the prayer is to be used, whilst it is more than a mere outline, whilst it is indeed the Breviary of the Christian Church, it is not pressed on llil as a hard-and-fast rule. For the same reason that rendered it fitting that Christ should teach words, it may well be argued that it is expedient, so far, to prescribe words when the wants of many are to be interpreted, sometimes even when the wants of individual worshippers are to be expressed. But there is an elasticity, a freedom, which i.-; an essential element of spiritual worship. Christ'd prayer is not to mt. :u, 1-54.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO 81'. LUKE. 311