Surprised?
“Our Father in heaven” Matthew 6:9
Our Father – If you spend any time with Christian commentaries on the Lord’s Prayer, you will soon discover the common assertion that this prayer is unusual because Jews did not address God as “our Father.” This idea seems to come from the work of a Christian German theologian nearly a century ago. For unknown reasons, many Christian teachers followed the declaration of this man, asserting that Jesus made a radical break from His Jewish roots when He taught this model prayer. Unfortunately, no one seems to have questioned this scholarship until recently.
Nehemia Gordon and Keith Johnson[1] point out that this common assertion simply isn’t true. Not only are there many references to “our Father” in the Hebrew Scriptures, Jews recite the prayer called Avinu Malkenu every day for ten days prior to Yom Kippur. In translation, avinu malkenu means “our Father, our King.” The prayer goes like this:
“Our Father, our King, favor us and answer us even though we have not done righteousness. Be kind towards us and save us for your name’s sake.”
This is particularly important because it is one more confirmation that Yeshua taught within the context of first century Judaism. He did not break free from Jewish tradition or interpretation to start a new faith. In fact, the more we look, the more we find that Yeshua was Jewish through-and-through. Gordon and Johnson take us on a journey into the Hebrew version of the Lord’s Prayer – and a few startling revelations occur along the way.
While this bit of scholarship might give you another element in the defense of the Jewish “Jesus,” the real message behind our shift of perspective on the Lord’s Prayer is its focus on community, not on the individual believer. If it was commonplace for the Jews to address God as “our Father,” then we must look to their understanding of the fatherhood of God if we are going to appreciate what Yeshua really taught. What we discover is the Jewish idea that God is the Father of all Mankind. That might not seem too startling to those who have embraced the universalism of Christian thinking, but it certainly shifts the usual Christian view of Judaism. Far too often Christians believe that Judaism is a religion of exclusion, drawing hard and fast distinctions between Jews and Gentiles. Far too often, Christians characterize Judaism as a religion of rule-oriented separation. What we have failed to see is the truth in God’s proclamation to Abraham, “through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.”
Yeshua called Israel back to its true purpose – to reach out to the nations. Abraham understood that message and is known for his hospitality toward others and his intercession for others. To be grafted into Israel is to be grafted into God’s plan to extend grace to all through some. The first words of our Lord’s prayer suggest that community is central to all thinking about God. We must put aside the Greek proclivity toward individual spirituality and look toward our Father, the person we find together.
Topical Index: Our Father, Avinu Malkenu, Matthew 6:9, community
[1] Gordon and Johnson, A Prayer To Our Father, 2009
“Our Father”. Such a blessing contained within two words. Yeshua has taught us to pray and to say- “our Father”. Above all things, G-d is our Father. “Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knows us not, because it knew him not.” (1 John 3.1)
Now for the “kicker.” Not only is G-d our Father, (we have been ‘adopted’ into His eternal family), but He is our Mother as well!) We are (all) made in the image of G-d and “male and female” were created. The fierceness of a father and the compassion of a mother incarnated into the perfect man, the G-d/man, the LORD Jesus (who is the) Christ. And then to think this incarnated Word, the Creator, would walk among us, breathing the same air and walking upon the ground He created, living among us and teaching us with His every attitude and action, the Author of the Torah, and the perfect Lamb (rachel) of G-d, our sin-bearer and sacrifice, would willingly surrender His life’s blood for us on the tzlav.
Amazing love. The love of the Father for His children. It is incomparable. It is incomprehensible. It is infinite. (and the best is yet to be!)
The LORD is like a father to his children, tender and compassionate to those who fear him. (Psalm 103.13) – How do we respond to love like this?
Today I have the opportunity to offer an opening prayer to a group of individuals from a variety of religious persuasions. What an opportunity to offer a prayer to “Our Father.” In addition, remembering that our duty is to be a blessing to Him, not ask Him to bess us. I just might turn a few minds (heads) at lunch today.
May your opening prayer brother be powerful and give HIM glory! 🙂
May Adonai let you “hit a home run”! 🙂
Thank you Drew, Do not know if I “hit a home run” but I do think I had their attention for the short prayer. Thanks for the support of your message to me.
Random thoughts:
1. Acts 17 – Paul speaking in Athens describes the “unknown God” as this God of all humanity (universally) and certainly this is true in a created, sovereign and sustaining sense. Without God no one would have an origin, no one would exist and no one would continue living. In that sense, I suppose, God is a “Father” to us all. And I suppose if one can say that they are a true descendant of Father Abraham and the only true God was Father Abraham’s Father then, I could probably say by lineage alone that my “Father” was Abraham’s God and therefore, my Father as well. And in that sense, I suppose, this is comforting to know and might even help me in saying my prayers, even if my prayers weren’t totally in keeping with belief in Jesus Christ.
2. Romans 8:15-16 – However, if I am reading this passage correctly, it is the Spirit of God that enables me to even cry out “Abba Father” in a way in which I am assured that not only are my prayers meaningful, but that they are received by the Father, accepted through the Son and answered (yes, no or wait). It is this confidence and purpose in prayer that no unrepentant unbeliever can ever have or experience. You can’t cry out “Father” and expect to be heard and answered if you have never received the Son….I don’t care if you are Gentile, Jew or any other “ish” or “ite”…no Son, no Spirit, no “Father.” How can I call Him Father if I don’t accept Jesus as His Son? Sounds like a dysfunctional “family” to me.
3. Community concept of prayer – really love this. I was studying Ephesians and you read through Ephesians and there is this wonderful flow to the book, describing wonderful things, promoting relationships and unity through submission etc. and then all of a sudden, like a slap in the face, Paul is talking about WARFARE and putting on armor, and shields, and belts, and swords etc. WHAT???? And then it dawned on me. Like our relationship with God and with others, Satan isn’t interested in just hand to hand combat or winning a wrestling match with me over some little pesky sin issue. Satan wants the effect of sin to be like napalm…and the object of his destructive forces is to discredit God’s glory by destroying relationships…me and Him and then me with others. This is why the passage on spiritual warfare begins with “our” – we are in it together, brothers and sisters. No lone rangers….which is also why, the thing Satan would love to do more than anything else, even within this cyber-community, would be to rip us apart by having us fight about even something that by all appearances is “right” or “righteous” and then stand back and watch us self-destruct in our relationships with one another. Something to think about seriously as we engage with another, to be sure.
How can I call Him Father if I don’t accept Jesus as His Son? Sounds like a dysfunctional “family” to me.
Hi David,
I remember the story you shared with us regarding your father’s illness; how your father called out to Jesus during his last days of excruciating pain.
And can understand how strongly you feel about your relationship to the Son.
But for me, there is one God and He can come to us in any form he wants; so I don’t think it is necessary to think others must believe in Jesus to have a relationship with the Father.
We play on two meaning of “Father” here. First, of course, God as creator is father of all. Every human alive has an ontological connection to God. But this is not the meaning behind “Our Father,” even though Jewish rabbis recognize the truth of the claim. The meaning of “our Father” is derived from the pronoun, not the noun. “Our” implies a collective consciousness. We are part of “our” when we share a relational connection, not just an ontological one. Our common expressions of inclusion depend on this meaning, drawing a distinction between “ours” and “theirs.” So, He is “our Father” because we share the same relationship to HIm.
If this is true, then the relationship establishes the basis of the use of the pronoun. Therefore, even though it is possible for God to come to us in any form He chooses, it is not possible for us to have a relationship to each other and to Him in any way we choose. The parameters of “our” are set by the required relationship. Yeshua clears articulates this relationship with the phrase, “No man comes to the Father except through me.” Now, that might not mean what contemporary evangelicals think it means (namely, a confession of belief in Jesus), but it does not allow a wide-open choice of how the relationship is established.
Hi Skip,
Hi Skip,
Yeshua seems to be issuing a categorical imperative: “to get to God, act like me.”
Makes me think of the The Great Santini, where Lt. Col. Robert Duvall tells the US Marine fighter pilots:
“If I say something, you act like it’s coming from the “Burning Bush.”
Michael:
Thank you for remembering my story about my father. I appreciate your sensitive heart and keen memory. He was a faithful and godly man and I miss him dearly. These attributes are the ones that I wish to emulate in my own life. I have been blessed in this regard.
However, please understand that my faith in Jesus Christ is not fundamentally based upon any beliefs that begin with what I or others might think, my or other people’s opinions no matter how strongly defended nor feelings I might hold which tomorrow could change if I “feel” differently. It is most certainly not foundationally based on how my father regarded Jesus in such a personal and present way during his illness with vertigo – though the strength of my father’s faith and faithfulness is and continues to be life-affirming for me (a testimony if you will). I have placed my trust in Jesus Christ alone because He is both True and Truth. He presents no other options. Truth doesn’t care if I believe it or not, have an opinion about it or not or have feelings about it or not….it doesn’t require or ask for a debate. It only requires a response of either trust and obedience or indifference and disobedience. God in His grace gives us these two alternatives; i.e. trust and obedience toward His Son as a measure of our love for Him and indifference and disobedience toward His Son as a means of choosing our own way rather than His. One choice exalts God; one choice exalts me. God freely allows us to choose and there is as much wonder in that fact alone to fill a library full of books. And looking at the entire landscape of religious and philosophical options that are out there to be explored as alternatives, Jesus is the only God-solution I see that can provide me with the true assurance of a Truth that is Personal and that then offers real Hope (hope being an assured anticipation of a future certain good, not I hope I win the lottery some day). This is what Jesus offers and I have taken God up on His Offer. It is nothing more than a choice and then living out that choice as if nothing else matters…
Hi David,
I did not mean to imply that your faith in Jesus was foundationally based on how your father regarded Jesus in any way.
My concern, as I recall, was based on your seemingly hostile view of other views or religious beliefs that do not include Jesus.
When you say that you have placed your trust in Jesus Christ alone because He is both True and Truth, what do you mean?
Hello Michael:
I am reminded that electronic communication is so restrictive and lacking when it comes to sharing matters from the heart….We write, we read, we interpret but we can seldom fully understand one another because our context of and with one another is limited to just these words.
So let me say at the outset that my purpose in clarifying the foundation of my faith and trust in Jesus Christ, was for clarification purposes only and not to somehow sound offended by your statement about my father as being the reason for my strong feelings about my relationship with the Son. I took no offense and I trust you didn’t either in my response. Just clarifying the basis for my faith; not the affirmations of my faith in an experiential way.
As to any hostility concerning other views or beliefs that do not include Jesus? Again, I trust that I have not communicated hostility in my words. Not my intent. I hold no such attitude in my heart. Maybe there are those in “Christianity” who “take up God’s cause” for Him and present themselves as hostile individuals to the views or beliefs of others (that do not include Jesus), but I am not one of them….God and His Son Jesus and the message of redemption through the Christ for all mankind is an open invitation to all, but only some will receive it. If God won’t force people to believe that Jesus is “the way, the truth and the life” and that “no man comes to the Father except through” Him (John 14:6), then certainly I am not going to force that person to decide that Jesus is Who He said He was and then be hostile toward that view or belief or even that person who freely chooses not to agree. In other words, don’t take it up with me! Take it up with Jesus – He is the One who claimed to be God and the exclusive way to have relationship with the Father.
As to your last statement about what do I mean when I say I have placed my trust in Jesus Christ alone because He is both True and Truth? Wow! What a great question and probably the seminal question to any discussion that begins and ends with placing one’s faith in Jesus Christ and Him alone. But, again, don’t take it from me…take the words of Jesus Christ Himself and what and who He claimed to be and then dig and keep on digging until you have determined whether He claimed to be True and Truth and whether that is consistent with the entire body of Scriptures. Like me, once you have fully evaluated His claims – including His claim to be True and Truth – then the only question left is one of choice. And that choice is personal….but if Jesus is truly Who He claimed to be, then the offer or invitation is one of faith and trust in Christ alone and not any other view or belief that might somehow exclude the One that when Jesus asked “Who do you say I am?”, Peter replied: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” (John 16:15-18). Jesus didn’t then chastise Peter for being wrong or misguided but rather told Peter that his proclamation came from the Father!
Looking forward to more opportunities to discuss all of this further. Trust I haven’t side-stepped your questions.
“Not only is G-d our Father, (we have been ‘adopted’ into His eternal family), but He is our Mother as well!)”
Hi Carl, great point!
In Jewish mysticism, at the level of the alphabet, there are Three Mothers: Alef (A), Mem (M), Shin(Sh), and from them are born The Three Fathers: Yud (Y), Heh (H), and Vav (V).
Just in case you are wondering, I don’t know much about the Hebrew alphabet, but the concept above, which I was reading about in Hawaii, resonates very strongly with me.
Surprise … Surprise! 🙂
Understanding from a Scriptural/Covenantal perspective eliminates our approach to “Father G_D” from the perspective of universal child to universal omnipotent BEING. Meaning that our approach to Father G_D is through the corporate entity Israel and secondarily as individuals!
Oh yes indeed – the elect as individuals will be changed in the twinkling of an eye but it is not as though all individuals being saved magically constitute Israel … but rather the elect have come through Israel by the Grace that is Yeshua Mashiach.
Yeshua did not preach a brand of universal spiritualism wherein all individuals can seek the “Forever One” on their own terms; but rather Yeshua preached the integrity of the collective revelation and this means that the irrevocable covenant with Israel remains!
Skip states: “We must put aside the Greek proclivity toward individual spirituality and look toward our Father, the person we find together.”
But this means traveling our paths in a communal fashion … traveling in a mode not defined by our own desires but through The Word …. through the Torah! Calling out for “Father” when we contemn His Righteous Ways will result in what …. favor?
It seems the world wants a tender loving and merciful Abba … without having to accept that HE is an all consuming fire … a terror!
The beginning of wisdom is fear of Adonai!
Good message Skip!
“Looking forward to more opportunities to discuss all of this further. Trust I haven’t side-stepped your questions.”
Hi David et al,
Thanks for your detailed responses. I don’t think you side-stepped my questions, but I’m probably not as comfortable applying the concept of Truth to Yeshua as you seem to be.
For some reason the capital “T” bothers me.
On the other hand, I find the reference to “truth” on p. 16 of Everyman’s Talmud to be very compelling and think it might apply to Yeshua as well:
“God’s seal is truth,” runs a Rabbinic maxim and it was pointed out that as the consonants for the word for “truth,” viz. AMT, are respectively the first, middle, and final letters of the Hebrew alphabet, they indicated that He is the first, middle, and last in time.” (Gen R LXXXI, 2)
My problem with your “Truth” is that it seems to me to be pure abstraction, a kind of empty signifier, whereas “God’s seal” above is very concrete.
The other difficulty for me is that based on my reading of the Bible, Jeshua seems to be the Messiah who referred to himself as the Son of God or the Son of Man, and was in fact a man with “magical” powers.
According to p. 368 of Everyman’s Talmud: “On one point the Rabbis were unanimous, viz. he (the Messiah) would be just a human being divinely appointed to carry out an allotted task. The Talmud nowhere indicates a belief in a superhuman Deliverer as the Messiah.
So I guess I’m not quite clear on whether Yeshua is the Son in the Holy Trinity as I was taught in catechism class and is basically what I tell my daughter and son, or is what the text itself seems to tell me; that Jeshua was the Jewish Messiah, not God.
Michael:
I like the fact that one answer leads to another question for you and then the answer leads to another question. In some respects, I suspect I am a lot like you (I was never satisfied with the “Sunday school” or as you might say, the catechism class answers); and in other respects, I suspect we are probably worlds apart…and that is okay. Like Skip says, we are all on a journey.
I have no “Everyman’s Talmud” to reference but I do believe that you have and I had a similar “stumbling stone” to either overcome or grasp before at least I could cry out in faith to the invitation of God to trust in Jesus and say to Him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
What stumbling stone was this? That Yeshua was in fact, as Jesus claimed and Paul later would affirm God Himself in bodily form (Colossians 2:9). If Jesus would say that He and the Father are one and that if you have seen me (Jesus) then you have seen the Father…and if Jesus would say things like before Abraham “I Am” etc., then it seems to me that when Jesus claimed that He was “The Way, the Truth and the Life” and that no one comes to the Father except through Him….it seems to me that this is not an abstract concept but very real. Maybe as real as it can get! If the very character and essence of God had condescended and taken on human form (obviously in perfection) as Jesus claimed, then Jesus’ claim to be Truth with a capital “T” was no longer an abstract concept but rather “flesh”.
Perhaps your Bible doesn’t have a concordance in the back but when I go to my Bible and I look up the word “truth”, the vast majority of the Bible references that I find there have something to do with God and Jesus (either that Jesus is truth – e.g. John 1:14, 17 or that what He said was truth – e.g. virtually everything that Jesus teaches begins with “truly, truly” or “verily, verily” or “I tell you the truth”.)
So when I say that Jesus is True (or Righteous) and Truth (capital “T”), I am not speaking of something mystical or something philosophical or something in the abstract, but rather I am describing Jesus as God Himself embodied in human flesh…and if that is so, then Truth is something I can actually take in with my finite senses – I can see, hear, understand, obey what truth is because Jesus WAS/IS GOD and because Jesus WAS/IS TRUTH. There simply cannot be any higher Truth than what is and emanates from God Himself. Wouldn’t you agree? And when it comes to discerning truth espoused by humans or Truth espoused by God…I’ll choose the God card everytime (Ps 116:11; Romans 3:4)
But your question is a good one and the same question Pilate asked (“What is truth?”) as Jesus, who claimed He was Truth and had come to testify to the truth and that everyone on the side of truth listens to Him (Jesus), was being led away to the cross. (John 18:37-38)
Hi David,
I tried to respond to your points in the following format:
David: I do believe that you have and I had a similar “stumbling stone” to either overcome or grasp before at least I could cry out in faith to the invitation of God to trust in Jesus and say to Him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” What stumbling stone was this?
Mike: My stumbling stone is probably the NT after Mark and Matt. But I have no problem trusting in Jesus and saying to Him: “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
David: That Yeshua was in fact, as Jesus claimed and Paul later would affirm, God Himself in bodily form (Colossians 2:9).
Mike: I just don’t know whether or not Jesus was God Himself in bodily form. But recent scholarship seems to indicate that Colossians is not a valid Pauline document.
David: When Jesus claimed that He was “The Way, the Truth and the Life” and that no one comes to the Father except through Him….it seems to me that this is not an abstract concept but very real.
Mike: I agree.
David: Jesus’ claim to be Truth with a capital “T” was no longer an abstract concept but rather “flesh”.
Mike: IMO Truth with a capital “T” sounds more like Plato than Jesus. When I think of Jesus speaking, I hear something like:
– For us, rulers are servants and commanders slaves.
– Forgive not sevenfold, but seventyfold sevenfold.
– Only the despised are blameless.
– You cannot, at the same time, serve two masters.