The Lord’s Prayer: Alert to Temptation!
Thursday February 2, 2023
In the survival show Alone, each person exists alone in a harsh environment for as long as they can. The latest season dropped the contestants in different locations in North Labrador. The season was called Alone Frozen. It got cold pretty fast and food was very scarce. Each contestant gets a satellite phone. All they have to do is push a button on that phone and the producers will come and get them out. When you’re starving and cold in a shelter you made in the frozen forest of nowhere, one call gets you out.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus was at His lowest and weakest place that He had ever been in His life. The pressure upon Him was immense; for He would go through hell in just a few hours, and with a word He could make it all stop. His go to strategy that prevented Him from “tapping out” was prayer. Three times He prayed the same prayer, some of which is recorded for us. He held on and prayer got Him through.
It is not the Lord’s praying that I’m drawing our attention to; but the three disciples that He brought out from the others to be close to Him in that incredible night in the Garden of the olive press.
Peter, James, and John were called out from the other disciples before, but unlike the other instances where Jesus was showing them something of His power and glory, this time was the first time that Jesus wanted them to help Him, which they could do by praying while He was a short distance away also praying. But we know what they did.
Mat 26:36-46
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to His disciples, "Sit here while I go over there and pray." 37 And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be grieved and distressed. 38 Then He said to them, "My soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me." 39 And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as Thou wilt." 40 And He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour? 41 "Keep watching and praying, that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak." 42 He went away again a second time and prayed, saying, "My Father, if this cannot pass away unless I drink it, Thy will be done." 43 And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. 44 And He left them again, and went away and prayed a third time, saying the same thing once more. 45 Then He came to the disciples, and said to them, "Are you still sleeping and taking your rest? Behold, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. 46 "Arise, let us be going; behold, the one who betrays Me is at hand!"
He asks them to keep watch with Him. He tells them that He is at the point of death. Knowing Jesus for as long as they did, they knew that this wasn’t hyperbole. After finding them asleep, He admonishes them twice. His words make it into Matthew’s and Mark’s gospels and become famous: “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” He even told Peter just an hour or so before this that Satan had asked heaven permission to “sift Peter like wheat.” None of it could overcome their sleepiness. Why are we told this?
“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1Pe 5:8).
And not only this, but also, we have to know who we are in Christ. Our beloved Lord crucified us and raised us. Paul, in Rom 6, makes a simple statement that makes the whole myriad of angels throughout the universe shudder with amazement.
Every believer has died to sin and has been made alive (raised and resurrected) to newness of life, Rom 6:2, 4.
What has become the main symbol of Christianity and in fact whole societies and some nations? The cross.
An instrument of torture for rebels and slaves has become the symbol of all power. The West has become so used to it, have seen so many crosses on so many buildings and key chains and t-shirts that it is difficult to convey just how absurd this is.
Who is Satan seeking to devour? The weak.
But who did Jesus tell us was the greatest and strongest among us? Who confessed that he discovered that when he was weak he was strong? How did the weak become the strong? The cross.
The weak know their complete dependence upon the Lord and they worship Him for it; petition 1. The weak know that their only home could not be made with human hands, and the thank and worship the builder; petition 2. The weak know that they are not wise and they adore the wisdom of God; petition 3. The weak know that they are dependent for their every need upon the Father and that they are too dumb to know how much or which kinds of things are good for them; petition 4. The weak know that they are sinners, committing more sins than they know and they thank the Lord every day that they are forgiven through the crucifixion of Christ; petition 5. The weak know that those who sin against them are also weak and they do not put unrealistic expectations upon them, forgiving them as God in Christ has forgiven them; petition 5.
This is the place of strength because it is the sphere of omnipotent God; the Trinity.
Satan’s schemes are designed to draw us out of that sphere, the narrow road, the new and living way, the newness of life, and deceive us through fear, lust, etc., to move back into the world’s sphere of flesh and sin.
He cannot move us himself. He can only tempt us to do it. And he has used his genius and understanding of each one of us to create an environment that catalyzes our flesh to revolt against the will of God. Satan has a demon army who do his will and they work and scheme to do whatever it takes to our environment to stimulate the desire for sin and the old world.
For those of whom the first five petitions are true, these temptations and situations that rise up temptation, are weaker than for those of whom they are not true. Hence, Jesus leaves this petition to last. “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”
You must keep plugging away with learning God’s word and living God’s word before these seemingly simple yet profound truths about the work of Jesus Christ become truly understood.
Rom 16:19-20
I want you to be wise in what is good and innocent in what is evil. 20 The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.
Satan is trying to ruin the precious truth of our death and resurrection with Christ by tempting us in various ways – to be under the Law or to fear a new life of freedom in righteousness and fear the openness and love of others that this life possesses.
The flesh desires isolation and exile from others through its love of self and love of sinful self-pleasure.
Even in prayer, it is not just for me but for others as well.
Prayer is for you and for others. Neither should be neglected.
One thing that I haven’t emphasized very much is the plural pronouns that the Lord uses.
Mat 6:9-13
“Pray, then, in this way:
‘Our Father who is in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done,
On earth as it is in heaven.
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.’”
The petitions (the verbs – all commands) are all addressed to the Father, and so they are in the singular. But the reference to the petitioner, or should I say petitioners, are all first plural pronouns.
In our petitions, we are to search out others in need as well as ourselves.
“Our Father,” “our daily bread,” “our debts,” “our debtors,” and “lead us.”
When I pray “Father, holy be Your name,” I am challenged with my own desire to see adore God as holy. And then I am also confronted with the pronoun, “our.” Whether in that moment or sometime after, this must force me to think of others that I know who I think are struggling to see and worship God the Father as holy (believers and unbelievers).
The same is true for all the other petitions. His kingdom and will have the “our Father” still in mind, “on earth as it is in heaven,” and the same for bread (material contentment), and debts (mental contentment), and successfully walking in the manner worth of our calling.