LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

Unpacking the Lord's Prayer (Part 6)

Matthew 6:13; 26:36-42; James 1:12-16

Next Sunday we will conclude this sermon series on “Praying the Lord’s Prayer.” If you have questions about the prayer you haven’t asked, I hope you’ll post them on the blog. I am grateful for those of you who have shared your prayer experiences.

Two weeks ago, I suggested that the prayer for daily bread is not only a prayer for daily sustenance for ourselves but a plea for a “taste today” of the day when God’s will is done on earth and all people have enough to eat. Last week, I suggested that we are being taught to pray “daily” for the forgiveness of our sins and to forgive those who have wronged us, especially so that our guilt and hurt will not be obstacles to God’s will being done on earth.

This brings us to today’s petition, which is also connected to the prayer for daily bread and forgiveness by the conjunction “and.” When we pray the prayer, we say: “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” (Matthew 6:13) You have doubtless noticed the difference between the way we say the prayer and the way it is in Matthew: “And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.” In the shorter version in the Gospel of Luke, the petition is simply, “And do not bring us to the time of trial.” (11:4)

This petition may be the most difficult for us, not because it is so hard to understand but because we may be reluctant to think about “temptation” and “evil.” Let’s look at the two parts of this petition.

First, what does it mean to ask God to “lead us not into temptation”? Does God ever tempt us? In the passage we read this morning from the book of James, the writer may well have been speaking to some Christians who he believed misunderstood this petition of the Lord’s Prayer. He began by saying that anyone who endured temptation was blessed, but he rejected the idea that God tempts us: “God cannot be tempted by evil and [God] tempts no one.” He went on to say that we are tempted by our own desires. “Do not be deceived,” he concluded, presumably speaking about our tendency to blame God or others for our temptations. James would probably agree with that person who has said, “Lead us not into temptation. Just tell us where it is, and we will find it.”

But why are we instructed to pray that we not be led into temptation? The prayer as we pray it says, “Lead us not.” That is based on a later Latin translation, and not on the original text that actually says, “Bring us not” or “Allow us not.” When Jesus was in the garden of Gethsemane on the night he was arrested, he wanted the comfort and support of three of his closest disciples—Peter, James and John. He asked them to stay awake with him while he prayed. He went a few steps on fell to the ground and prayed that most difficult of all prayers: “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I want but what you want.” He returned to the disciples and found them asleep. He couldn’t believe it—“Could you not stay awake with me one hour?” Then, he asked them again to stay awake and “pray that you may not come into the time of trial [or temptation].” Perhaps he meant the time of trial he himself was undergoing? Maybe he also meant that their time of trial right then was the danger of falling asleep when he needed them to be present to him. In either case, he is not talking about their “being led” into temptation, but he asks them to pray that they not “come into” temptation, or the time of trial. Do you see the difference?

We will come back to this first half of the petition, but let’s go now to the second half, “deliver us from evil.” As the actual text in the Bible makes clear, Jesus was not talking about “evil” generally, but “the evil one.” This is where some of us get uncomfortable. Most of us are reluctant to think of evil as personified in Satan or as the Devil, yet this recognition of the autonomous power of personified evil is part of the Lord’s Prayer. I think we are right to be cautious about attributing evil to Satan or the Devil because most often in human history such attributions have been for very human acts of evil, sometimes with the plea, “the Devil made me do it.”

Reinhold Neibuhr, one of the greatest theologians of the twentieth century who was called a “realistic” theologian in part because he was such a careful social historian, defined “evil” the way that you found it in Centering section of today’s bulletin:

“Evil is always the assertion of some self-interest without regard for the whole, whether the whole be conceived of the immediate community, or the total community of humanity, or the total order of the world. The good is, on the other hand, always the harmony of the whole on various levels.”

Neibuhr’s seriousness about “evil” was born out of the horrors of World War I and II. He was quite explicit in his definition of “evil” in very human terms. Neibuhr was fond of saying, “the one Christian doctrine that is empirically verifiable [that is, “provable”] is the doctrine of sin.” Or, as the old comic strip character Pogo put it, “We have met the enemy and they is us.” But Neibuhr did not reduce all evil to human actions. There is more to evil than we can readily explain, he said. He put his finger on it when he said that the phenomenon of evil in the world is inadequately explained as simply the sum total of the individual evil acts of people.

That judgment is echoed by Professor Jose Miguez Bonino who until he recently retired was pastor of two small Methodist churches in one of the poorest sections of Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also one of the world’s foremost theologians. Professor Miguez has said that the Gospels portray the ministry of Jesus as a conflict, as a battle against the power of evil, or Satan. “Call it whatever best suits your ideology,” he said, “but don’t trivialize the struggle by considering it merely human weakness.” [1] Miguez says that this struggle is not fought outside history in some distant cosmos, but within ourselves and in the concrete issues we face in this world – in our interpersonal relationships, in our homes and communities, in social and political issues, and in how we vote at the ballot box. If we take seriously the concern of the Lord’s Prayer for God’s will to be done on earth, then this petition means that we are to be involved in just such issues.

So where have we come with this petition of the Lord’s Prayer? First, Jesus teaches us that we are to pray not to succumb to the temptations that will surely come. Second, Jesus teaches us to pray for deliverance from the power of evil. I think the connection between the two lines of this petition is that “ordinary” temptations are not petty or insignificant, but are manifestations of the ultimate power of evil. We are not to take them lightly. We are to view them as threats to faith and to pray for God’s deliverance from them.

Maybe there are two classes of temptations, or perhaps two levels. The first level we might call the “ordinary.” What would be on your list? Consider these:

a) Procrastinate by watching TV;
b) Think your work is so demanding that you don’t have time for your family and friends;
c) Put off doing a necessary task;
d) Avoid a painful situation that is important to confront;
e) Sedate feelings with drugs or alcohol;
f) Fall back into old prejudices (such as not liking somebody because of his or her color or sexuality or ethnicity).

Would any of these be on your list?

The second level we might consider as “soul” temptations, which may come from regularly succumbing to “ordinary” temptations:

a) Apathy—simply being unfeeling and uncaring;
b) Ignoring warning signs about physical, mental, or spiritual health;
c) Thinking, acting, and voting your self-interest without regard for the whole community or the total community of humanity;
d) Being satisfied with the status quo.

What would be on your list of “soul” temptations?

In the most important prayer we pray, Jesus urges us to take evil seriously. This seriousness is echoed in the vows we take at baptism. Two of the three baptismal questions focus on dealing with evil. If you don’t remember them, you can find them on page 34 of the Hymnal. The first question is this: “Do you renounce the spiritual forces of wickedness and reject the evil powers of this world, and repent of your sin?” The second question is stated positively: “Do you accept the freedom and power God gives you to resist evil, injustice and oppression in whatever forms they present themselves?

If we are right about the central focus of this prayer being for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, perhaps we could pray this petition with something like this in mind:

"Let us not be distracted, let us not be side-tracked by temptations? In this hour (today) keep us from the evil one, from the demonic powers, from corporate evil, from our preoccupation with success, security or popularity, that we might remain focused on what is most important -- doing your will on earth as it is in heaven."

This prayer reminds us that our most important prayers for God’s guidance are for the strength to resist temptation and not be swallowed up by evil; or as we will sing in that old spiritual, “Guide my feet, while I run this race, for I don’t want to run this race in vain.” We have been promised that when we ask for guidance, God, our loving parent, will provide it. Keep on praying!

[1] José Míguez Bonino, "The Two Fronts of Mission," Mission Papers, April 1991 (GBGM, 475 Riverside Drive, New York, NY 10115).