If you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses

 "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,
As we forgive our debtors.
And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen.

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."

- Matthew 6:7-15

 We are currently reading through the Sermon on the Mount, which began with chapter 5 of Matthew's Gospel (The Beatitudes).  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught:  "Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them.  Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven.  Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.  And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites.  For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."  Yesterday's reading then skipped over the verses specifically on prayer that we are given in today's reading.  Jesus continued preaching about spiritual practices:  "Moreover, when you fast, do not be like the hypocrites, with a sad countenance.  For they disfigure their faces that they may appear to men to be fasting.  Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.  But you, when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that you do not appear to men to be fasting, but to your Father is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly."

 "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do.  For they think that they will be heard for their many words.  Therefore do not be like them.  For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.  In this manner, therefore, pray:  Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.  Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."  Jesus gives us the prayer of all Christians, often called The Lord's Prayer, or the Our Father.   We note the very first given in this prayer:  the phrase "Our Father."  My study bible says that the Father-Son relationship within the Trinity reveals our own potential relationship with God.  Christ, who is the (eternally begotten) Son of God, grants us the privilege of calling God Our Father by the grace of adoption (Galatians 4:4-7).   As a "son of God" (where sonship, applying to both male and female believers, confers inheritance), each Christian is called to love, trust, and serve God as Christ does the Father.  My study bible adds that it's important to note that God isn't our Father just because God created us.   Father confers a sense of relationship in that we are in a saving and personal communion with God, one that only comes by the grace of adoption (see John 1:14; Romans 8:14-16).   Let us take note that immediately coupled with the address to Our Father, the prayer emphasizes the theme of the Sermon on the Mount, the kingdom of heaven and its manifestation in us and among us "on earth as it is in heaven."

"Give us this day our daily bread."  Daily, my study bible tells us, is a mistranslation of the Greek word epiousios, which literally means "above the essence," or "supersubstantial."  The expression daily bread, we should understand, doesn't simply indicate bread for the present day, nor is it simply about earthly nourishment.  Rather, this phrase is about the bread for the eternal day of the Kingdom of God, the nourishment of our immortal soul.  The living, supersubstantial bread is Christ Himself.  We're not simply asking for material bread for physical health, but rather the spiritual bread of eternal life (John 6:27-58).  Again, we must note the seamlessness of the context of Jesus' preaching and message of the Gospel:  the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

"And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."  We note here that this request for forgiveness is plural.  My study bible says that we are directed, in other words, always to pray for the forgiveness of others.  Debts refers to spiritual debts, as does "trespasses" further on. 

"And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.  Amen." God tempts no one to sin (James 1:13); my study bible tells us that temptations are from the evil one, or the devil.  It notes that temptations are aimed at the soul's giving in to the sinful or selfish passions of the flesh (Romans 7:5).  None of us lives without encountering temptations, but we pray that great temptations, or tests beyond what we can bear (1 Corinthians 10:13), should not come to us.

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."  Jesus emphasizes mutual forgiveness between people as a precondition of God's forgiveness.  It's irreducible:  if we don't forgive, we're not forgiven.  Jesus repeats this teaching in the parable of the unforgiving servant (18:21-35), concluding with the same teaching.

What is forgiveness?  Jesus teaches us proper disposition throughout the Sermon on the Mount, giving us the blessings of the Kingdom in the Beatitudes, teaching us to be salt and light, giving us what it is to truly fulfill the Law and the Prophets (in this reading; and this one on murder, on adultery, divorce, and swearing; and on justice), teaching us about spiritual practices of almsgiving, prayer, and fasting (see yesterday's reading, above).  All of this is within the Gospel message of what it means that "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (4:17). In today's reading, we're given the central gem of the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord's Prayer or the Our Father.  In it, we're not only taught to pray, but the prayer also gives us basic general guidelines for what it is to live in and be a part of that Kingdom, even as we live in this world and practice our faith.  We are first of all under one Father, who is also Christ's eternal Father.  We become children of this Father not by birth or creation, but by the grace of adoption.  We pray for the manifestation of the fullness of God's kingdom -- and this is clearly linked to the will of Father being done "on earth as it is in heaven."  This is extending and claiming the world as the realm of God the Father and all that this means for us.  We ask for the daily bread that succors and gives us the true life of this Kingdom, the life in abundance promised by Christ (John 10:10).  We ask that our spiritual debts be forgiven, as we also pray for others to be forgiven and seek to practice that forgiveness ourselves, understanding the link between these things.  We pray that we may not be tempted, but also that we are delivered from the one who enslaves and causes pain (the root of the word for evil in Greek means "pain").  And our prayer is underscored with Jesus' clear pronouncement about forgiveness, which is linked to His earlier teaching in the Sermon to "love your enemies" (Wednesday's reading).  True righteousness is the practice of love.  (Let us recall that a rebuke can also be a form of love.)  So in that context we are given a strong warning, a certain maxim, that the failure to practice forgiveness will mean the failure to receive it or realize it.  Forgiveness, if we take it in the context of "debts," means to give up something.  A debt is something we owe to others, or they owe to us.  To give it up is not to demand payment.  We choose not to go after the pound of flesh, and find God's way for living through a difficult situation instead.  To forgive trespasses is similar; someone has gone where they shouldn't have gone, crossed an appropriate boundary of behavior.   But to give up that charge is to give it to God, not to trespass in return, but to seek God's way instead for moving forward and for righteousness in our lives.  This doesn't mean we leave justice behind (we may take the example of Zacchaeus as one who restores what he has taken from others), but it does mean we move forward into concepts about justice we may not have considered before.  It means we go forward into our faith, and forward into deeper dependence upon God, and life in the Kingdom.   While forgiveness may not necessarily mean full reconciliation, it does mean that we seek His way for our lives, we seek to walk in the ways of the Kingdom, and we give up thoughts of personal vengeance; justice and righteousness still apply.  Repentance is still a part of this life (Jesus gives a formula for discipline in the Church later on in Matthew 18:15-20, after which Peter asks how often he must forgive a brother who sins against him in verses 21-35.)   The fullness of the kingdom is an active, growing, inter- and intra-relational love, one that must flow through us and within us, with God as mediator.  It is a method for life in the Kingdom, one in which we live and move and have our being in this love that is the true fullness of the Kingdom, and permeates every moment if we but turn to it.  We may find that in the fullness of this citizenship, we come to understand a wisdom that isn't possible otherwise, learning discernment, prudence, and forms of love we may have thought were not available to us nor possible for us.  Let us continue to learn, His way, and pray for help for our growth in His Kingdom.  We always have prayer to turn to for help to do so.