Mid-Lent 4 Sixth and Seventh
Petitions
3/22/23
We pray the Lord’s Prayer so often that we
probably fail to consider how sobering its ending really is. It concludes by warning us about the attacks
we will receive as Christians. Indeed,
by teaching us to pray in his way, our Lord instructs us about what we must
expect in our lives as Christians and about how much we need God’s help.
In the Sixth Petition we pray, “And lead
us not into temptation.” James tells us,
“Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God,’ for God cannot
be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.” God is never the source of temptation,
because temptation has as its goal to lead us into sin. Instead, temptations come from the devil as
he works through the world and our flesh – our sinful nature.
At the same time, we must grant that the
omnipotent God allows these things. God
does not tempt us in order to lead us into sin. But he does allow circumstances
that test us. A little earlier, James
wrote, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet
trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your
faith produces steadfastness.”
From our perspective
these certainly often look like the same thing.
The key difference will be how we choose to respond to them. Do we turn to God in faith because of what he
has done for us in Jesus Christ? Do we
ask God to sustain us in faith through his Spirit as we rely on his Word? Do we
look to God as the source of strength to resist temptation and endure the
attack we are experiencing?
In the Sixth Petition
we pray that “God would guard and keep us so that the devil, the world, and our
sinful nature may not deceive or mislead us into false belief and despair.” We
are praying for God’s help. Yet we also
need to realize that does not necessarily mean that the temptation comes to an
end. Luther says in the Large Catechism, “This then is what ‘leading us
not into temptation’ means: when God gives us power and strength to resist,
even though the attack is not removed or ended.
For no one can escape temptations and allurements as long as we live in
the flesh and have the devil prowling around us.”
We will never be free
from temptation. These temptations shift
and change over time. Luther notes that
young people are especially tempted by the flesh – by temptations to sexual
sin. Adults are tempted by the world – by
the allurements of wealth. Especially as
we get older, health problems become temptations to doubt God’s love and care.
There is no question
that we will experience temptations – we will experience attacks. The important
thing is that we resist these temptations. Luther says in the Large
Catechism, “To experience attack, therefore, is quite different from consenting
to it or saying ‘Yes’ to it.” We do not
consent to the sin of the temptation, for to consent “is to give it free rein
and neither resist it nor pray for help against it.”
God has promised that
he will not allow us to experience temptation beyond what we are able by his
grace to bear. Paul told the
Corinthians, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to
man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your
ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that
you may be able to endure it.”
In the petition, “And lead us not into
temptation,” Jesus teaches us to turn to God in prayer as we face any and all
temptations. We seek God’s help, and
trust his promise to give us the strength to endure. In fact, the petition itself becomes the
invitation to do so. As Luther comments about occasions of temptation, “At such
times our only help is to run here and seize hold of the Lord’s Prayer and
speak to God from the heart, “Dear Father, you have commanded me to pray; let
me not fall because of temptation.” In
this way we rely on God instead of our own thoughts and resources.
In the Seventh Petition we pray, “But
deliver us from evil.” More specifically
this is prayer for protection from the devil, because the Greek used her means
“evil one.” We pray that God will
protect us from the devil along with all the evil that he wishes to do to us.
We call this opponent by two different
names. The name devil comes from a Greek word that means “slanderer.” The name
Satan is from a Hebrew word that means “adversary.” These terms teach us that
the devil is our opponent – he is our adversary. He operates on the basis of lies. That is how he deceived Eve. He offered the
lies that she could be like God. The
devil is our adversary who seeks to drag us into the damnation that awaits
him. As Jesus said, “He was a murderer
from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is
no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he
is a liar and the father of lies.”
The devil desires to bring every kind of
harm upon us. As the Small Catechism
says in its explanation, “We pray in this petition, in summary, that our Father
in heaven would rescue us from every evil of body and soul, possessions and
reputation.” We pray that God would
deliver us from the many evils the devil wants to carry out against us.
We know that there are times when we do
not resist temptation. The devil lures
us into sin by what we do, and what we fail to do. We fall into temptations of thought, word, and
deed. Yet as we saw in the First Sunday in Lent, we believe and follow the Lord
who resisted the devil’s temptation.
Where we fail at times, he did not. Instead, he remained faithful to the
mission the Father had given to him.
Jesus resisted every temptation to turn
away from the cross. After Jesus told
the apostles that he
must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief
priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised, Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him, saying, “Far
be it from you, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Yet Jesus’ response
to was turn to Peter and say, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a
hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of
God, but on the things of man.”
Jesus Christ had his
mind set on the things of God in order to save us. In the Garden of Gethsemane
he prayed three times, “My Father, if it be possible, let this
cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” As he hung on the cross he ignored the
devil’s temptations hurled by the crowd as they said, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. He is
the King of Israel; let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe
in him. He trusts in God; let God deliver him now, if he desires him. For he
said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”
Jesus showed that he
is the Father’s true Son by suffering and dying for us. He defeated the devil by submitting to the
humiliating death of the cross. There he took our sins as his own and received
the judgment that we deserved.
The devil’s
temptation of Adam and Eve led to death.
But Jesus’ faithful obedience did not end in death. Instead, on the third day God vindicated
Jesus by raising him from the dead. In
his resurrection Christ began the life that the devil cannot touch. He is impotent against the resurrection life
of Christ.
In the Lord’s Prayer
we pray for faith and against unbelief.
Faith in the crucified and risen Lord gives forgiveness and eternal
life. Jesus promised, “Truly,
truly, I say to you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent
me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed
from death to life.”
Because this is so, death means that God
graciously takes us from this valley of sorrow.
As Paul contemplated the possibility of his own death he told the
Philippians, “For me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Death is gain because it means that safe with
our Lord, the devil can no longer tempt and attack us.
And the resurrection of Jesus means that
the final evil worked by the evil one will be overcome. Paul told the
Corinthians, “For as by a man came
death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all
be made alive. But each in his own order:
Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to
Christ.” The risen Lord will return to
raise our bodies and change them to be like his own – immortal and imperishable
bodies with which we will live in the new creation.
The Sixth and Seventh
Petitions warn us that life in this fallen world will be one of temptation and
attacks by the devil. Christ has taught
us to pray for God’s help in facing these things. We pray in the confidence
that through Christ’ death and resurrection God has given us the victory that
we now have by faith. In death, God
delivers us from the evil ones’ attacks. And on the Last Day he will give us
the final victory he began in Jesus’ resurrection on Easter.
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