Matthew 6:5-8
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward. 6 But whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. 7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
Matthew 6:9-15
9 “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. 10 Your kingdom come. Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. 11Give us this day our daily bread. 12And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one. 14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you; 15 but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Many years ago, I was in a bible study class when someone asked the question “Why do we pray for God not to lead us into temptation. Would God actually do that?”
You might have heard the story of a mother who told her son not to go swimming. But when he came into the house later, his mother noticed that he was wearing a bathing suit and his hair was wet. "His mother scolded, "I told you not to go swimming." "I couldn’t help it, mom," he defended himself. "The water looked so good." "But why did you take your bathing suit with you?" "Just in case I was tempted."
And then there’s the man and his wife who were shopping at a mall when a rather shapely young woman in a short, form-fitting dress strolled by. The man’s eyes wandered. Without looking up from the item she was examining, his wife asked, "Was that look really worth the trouble you’re in?"
Temptation. It’s something each of us wrestles with and what Jesus asks us to pray about in the Lord’s Prayer. It’s possible that the entire human story could be summarized as the story of human temptation, how we often succumb to temptation and God’s efforts to save us from the tragic consequences of temptation. In Genesis, with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God says you can eat anything in this Garden that I have created and given to you. There’s only one rule: don’t eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. So, one day the snake sneaks in. Are you sure that’s what God meant; he says? Did he really say you couldn’t eat of that tree? Is that what He meant? Surely, He won’t let you die if you eat that fruit. Look at how beautiful it is and think about how wonderful it must taste.” And so, they obsessed over the beauty of the fruit for days until temptation consumed them and they took that fruit and ate it.
Now you know that the power of that story is, that it’s OUR story. It is the story of our lives from the earliest time we can understand. We have two voices in our ears: one is the voice of God who calls and beckons us to live in his love and pursue his will, and the other is the voice of self, saying “It doesn’t really matter what you do, especially if it doesn’t hurt anybody else.” You want it. You deserve it. You’ve earned it.” I picture the cartoon image of an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other. We hear these two voices every day and in every situation we face. And the question is: “Which voice will you listen to?”
I think that today’s passage may be the most perplexing part of the Lord’s Prayer. “Lead us not into temptation.” When we pray these words, it sounds like the Lord might actually do just that. Why would we pray for God not to lead us into temptation when we don’t really believe that he would ever do that? For God can’t be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. If God doesn’t tempt us then why do we need to pray, “Lead us not into temptation”? Some people have tried to solve this dilemma by saying this should refer to a time of trial and testing. So, the NRSV says, “Do not bring us to the time of trial.” But then why do we need to pray for God not bring us to the time of trial? If God wants to do that, shouldn’t that be OK with us? But what happens when you simply move the comma? You see, the passage reads like this: “Lead us not into temptation “comma” but deliver us from evil.” Have we ever considered that it’s a typo? Of course, I’m being facetious. But if we move the comma and put it here: Lead us “comma” not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” That says, Lord, let me listen to your voice, lead me in a way so that I won’t go into temptation because I really have a natural tendency to do just that.” God doesn’t have to lead us into temptation because we’re pretty good at doing that ourselves.
God throughout the Scriptures is continually trying to lead his people. He leads the Israelites in the wilderness by a column of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night. God gives them the law and the 10 Commandments and says, “If you listen to my commands and obey them, I will bless you.” Yet we know that the people often strayed. God sends prophets when the people have strayed to call them back to the law and God’s will, “No it’s this way. Follow my voice.” The psalmist says, “He leadeth me beside still waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” In the New Testament, Jesus defines what it means to be a disciple as those who are followers of His: “If any would be my disciple, they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” “I am the Good Shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep follow me…” So, to be a Christian is to be a follower of Christ and that means to be led by him. That‘s what it means to follow Jesus and call him Lord. And so, each day, we need to pray, “Lead me Lord, help me to hear your voice and to choose to do your will.”
Next, we can pray for direction. This is a prayer for God to lead us away from temptation. The reason we have to pray for that is we need God’s guidance and help. Our problem is that we have a real nose for temptation. Years back, I was trying to lose weight, but came into my office one day with 2 enormous jelly donuts. My co-workers asked me why I bought them if I was trying to diet. Well, as I came to the corner where the donut shop was, I told God that if He wanted me to buy some donuts, he’d open a parking spot right in front of the door. I had to circle the block ten times, but suddenly there it was! The same thing happens to us when we hear people spreading some juicy details about someone’s life and we’re just drawn to that gossip. We have a real talent for falling victim to such temptation. We tend to be drawn in, which is why we need God to deliver us from it. When we pray for guidance, a door opens in our heart for God to steer us even more and it becomes the desire of our hearts not to look toward temptation. We need God’s intervention.
My eight-month-old puppy, Lucy, is fairly obedient when we walk in the woods behind my house. But let a deer show up and it’s ‘all dogs for themselves’. She chooses to become deaf to me and succumbs immediately to the temptation to chase. Part of what we’re praying in “Lead us not into temptation” is Lord, please close the door so I don’t find myself in a place where I can’t resist. And God can show us how to close the doors to temptation but God doesn’t lock them. In the end, you still have to decide. You see the roadblock and hear the voice of God and you still have a decision to make. If you decide to go forward, he will let you. There are always two voices which speak to you; which voice are you listening to?
Lastly, we are to pray for deliverance. Jesus goes on to tell us we are to pray for God to deliver us from evil. Evil, that’s a strong word, isn’t it? The evil one, by any name that you call him, is that one who can destroy us. Fortunately, evil can’t make you do anything. But evil delights in tempting us and testing us, trying to convince us that the truth is a lie and the lies are truth, twisting things around and trying to coax us to do things that hurt us, things that diminish our impact and our witness in the world and can shorten our lives. So, we are to pray to be delivered from this one. Evil continues to whisper in people’s ears and ask them to do things against God’s will, to be tempted by our own desires. When we listen, we find the voice very seductive. Then, once desire has been conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
Our Catholics brothers and sisters distinguish between menial sins and ordinal sins. Menial sins are the garden variety sins. These are some sins that are not that big of a deal, right? The problem is that when we look at sin this way, we think that can we start small but then we pursue a little bit bigger sin and then even bigger sins as long as we can get away with it and nobody gets hurt. It quickly becomes a very slippery slope. I worked for a man in my early banking days that began an embezzling scheme. It started small, not hurting anyone, but then it began to consume him. He paid the price of sin with shame, fines and incarceration. Sin has a way of luring us and leading us. And in the end? Paul said it this way: “The wages of sin is death.’ It could be the destruction of our character, our dreams, our influence, the people around us or our relationship with God. Later in Matthew, Jesus said sin was so serious that if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.
Deliver us from evil, the evil one, the tempter, the adversary, Satan. The problem with sin is that it can sneak up on and knock us out of the game. The Hebrew word for deliver is the word from which our word rush is derived. If you think of a pass rusher in football, their goal is to rush the quarterback and to knock him down. That’s the word that Jesus uses when we are to pray to be delivered from evil, rush it, knock it down and out of our lives. Evil things and sin can eat us from the inside out. We look fine spiritually to everyone else until one day we fall, which is why Jesus is telling us to pray this prayer. By doing so we are being empowered to listen for the voice of God and to pray, Lead me! Lead me where you want me to go, lead me away from temptation into the paths of righteousness for your names sake and deliver me from the one who would destroy my soul. Help me, Lord, to follow you. This is a prayer if you pray it daily that if you will find that it will help you in combating the sin and evil in your life.
God invites us to ask for God’s forgiveness. God is a god of second chances. The Bible is a story of us falling into temptation but it is also a story of God picking us up afterwards and making us whole. Let’s pray for God’s forgiveness and ask for God to lead and guide us. Amen