Luke 11:1-28

1 One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."
2 He said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come.
3 Give us each day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins,
for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
And lead us not into temptation.' "
5 Then Jesus said to them, "Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.' 7 And suppose the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.
9 "So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened.
11 "Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"
14 Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed. 15 But some of them said, "By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demons." 16 Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.
17 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. 18 If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. 19 Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. 20 But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
21 "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. 22 But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.
23 "Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
24 "When an evil spirit comes out of anyone, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, 'I will return to the house I left.' 25 When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. 26 Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first."
27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you."
28 He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."


Points of Interest:

• ‘Lord, teach us to pray’—his followers have seen Jesus go off alone to pray many times, and they’ve been invited to accompany him a couple of times now. It’s cultivated in them a desire to pray like he prays.

• ‘Father’—the prayer starts out very simple and direct, and it’s based on an intimate relationship with God. There are no flowery phrases and no flattery of God involved. This prayer comes out of a confidence that the ones praying are privileged children of the one to whom they are praying.

• ‘hallowed be your name’—in other words, ‘May your name be holy.’ Holy means, ‘set apart.’ I don’t think this means that God is not holy and we hope he becomes so. It essentially means, ‘May you be recognized for how special you really are.’ It’s an expression of hope that God gets the credit due him, but even more an expression of desire that others hear about the wonderful benefits available to them from this great Father.

• ‘Give us each day our daily bread’—a reference to the Israelites when Moses led them through the desert. There was not enough food for all of them; but each day God would send them manna (which, roughly translated, means, ‘What the heck?’), a sort of miracle flour out of which they made bread. Jesus is suggesting that we ask God to provide for us everything we need each day, just like he did for the Israelites in the desert. Three things strike me about this request:
1. God is willing to take care of our needs, even our simple daily ones—I can be tempted to think that God would not want to be bothered by such trivial things as my daily needs, but Jesus recommends that we bring them to God’s attention every day;
2. It’s a prayer we have to pray every day—Jesus doesn’t say, ‘Give us everything we need for the rest of our life,’ but, ‘Today, give us what we need today,’ Faith in God’s provision is a day-by-day venture;
3. It implies that we need something from God every day—according to Jesus, we, like the Israelites in the desert, won’t have enough to make it through the day unless God provides. I have to admit that it doesn’t always feel that way to me. While there are definitely some days I feel like I won’t survive without God’s help, much of the time I think I’ll do alright on my own. I’m not depending on God to come through every day. Is Jesus over-stating my need? Am I blind to the ways God is in fact mercifully providing for me? Or, am I going hungry without even knowing it? While I think it’s entirely probable that God is providing for me all the time in ways I don’t notice, I’m most intrigued by that last question: do I spend much of my life unknowingly hungry? It’s certainly not true physically; I definitely get plenty to eat every day. But perhaps Jesus isn’t only talking about our physical needs in this prayer. Every time Jesus mentions bread in the book of Luke, I can’t help but think of the first time it came up, when Jesus said to the devil, ‘People do not live on bread alone,’ quoting Moses, who goes on to say, ‘but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.’ While I know this is not true of everyone, I at least have plenty of actual bread each day; but perhaps what I lack is the spiritual sustenance of daily, life-giving words from God.

• ‘for we also forgive everyone’—as Jesus said earlier, ‘For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you’ (Luke 6:38). By forgiving others, we invest in an entire economy of forgiveness.

• ‘lead us not into temptation’—we can depend on God not only to forgive us our sins, but to give us the strength to avoid them in the future.

• ‘and I have nothing to set before him’—the man in this story is not asking for something for himself. He’s asking his friend to give him what he needs to show proper hospitality to another friend.

• ‘because of your shameless audacity’—a combination of wanting to shut his friend up and of recognizing the validity of the request eventually got the man up. If someone who’s predisposed not to help you can be persuaded through boldness and insistence, how much more is it true of God, who is eager for you to ask for what you need? I think Jesus is hinting, though, that willing as God is to hear our requests, it might take us looking a bit foolish or acting a bit audacious.

• ‘everyone who asks receives’—Jesus is particularly talking here of God’s eagerness to give us whatever we need to show generosity or hospitality toward someone else.

• ‘how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him‘—the Holy Spirit also is a good gift that God is always more than willing to give to people who ask.

• ‘a demon that was mute’—I thinks this means that the demon causes muteness in humans, but perhaps the demon himself is also mute. Who knows?

• ‘By Beelzebul, the prince of demons, he is driving out demon’—it’s unclear exactly who Beelzebul is. It could be another name for the devil, or another high-ranking demon. It seems that it’s even possible that they make him up right here on the spot as a plausible explanation for Jesus’ success (Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels 164). There’s also some disagreement about what the name means, but it might mean, ‘master of the house,’ an interpretation Jesus may be picking up on in his story about the house being plundered (Illustrated Bible Dictionary 154 ). These ‘others’ who are saying that Jesus is using demonic power to cast out demons are probably the Pharisees and the teachers, since in his answer Jesus refers to the ‘others’ as having disciples. Whoever they are, they’ve decided that Jesus does not come from God; but he has obvious spiritual power that has to be explained somehow. They figure: if not from God, it must be from the devil. Other people, perversely, suggest that Jesus perform some miracle to prove that the miracles he has already performed are heavenly, an endless loop Jesus chooses not to engage.

• ‘how can his kingdom stand’—Jesus is doing real damage to the devil’s kingdom. It makes no sense that he would be doing it with the devil’s own power.

• ‘when someone stronger attacks’—if the question is, ‘How is Jesus able to drive out demons?’ here is Jesus’ answer: he is stronger than the devil, and has tied him up. Therefore, he can take whatever he wants; and what he wants are the lives of those he who’ve been under spiritual oppression.

• ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it’—it’s true that Mary is blessed. Both the angel Gabriel and Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, exclaimed how blessed she is at the beginning of our story (Luke 1:28, 42). But here Jesus stresses that her blessing is not exclusive; it’s available to anyone who, like Mary, takes the word of God seriously. This is the second time Jesus has made a point of saying that his family doesn’t possess any special privileges.

Taking it home:

• For you and your family: Try praying Jesus’ prayer aloud today—if possible, with your family or roommates. For some of you, it might be a completely new experience. For others of you, it brings up bad memories of rote prayers you didn’t really understand or believe. For yet others of you, it’s a familiar, meaningful practice already. Regardless of your previous history with the Lord’s prayer, ask the Holy Spirit to give you a fresh and lively connection with God as you pray. Take some time to riff off of Jesus’ phrases, making the language your own and your requests more specific.

• For your friends: Are you aware of something that one of your friends needs? Ask Jesus to give you what you need to meet that need. Jesus loves to help us love our friends.

• For our city: Pray that Jesus’ kingdom would grow more and more in our city. Pray for more supernatural healing and provision, more freedom from spiritual oppression, more abundance, more joy, and more connection with God to spread.