LENTEN WEDNESDAY 5, 2010 

“Give us this day our daily bread.” Well, the weekend storm has sure brought home the truth of Luther’s insight that with this request we are asking for far more than just food for the day. In the Small Catechism he says that daily bread not only includes food but also things like “good government, good weather,… good friends, faithful neighbors, and the like.” Did you realize that when you’re praying the Lord’s Prayer you are asking for such things? These past few days we have seen what a blessing such things and people are. 

I spoke with a woman the other day who not only had problems because of the storm but was upset because, on top of it all, she was having car problems and had to take her car in to the shop. “It would be far easier if we just had a horse and buggy, like the old days,” she said. “Then all you would have to do is feed it some hay.” Yea, I told her, but she then wouldn’t have the job she had, because she wouldn’t be able to travel the distance she traveled to work. In fact, things were much more difficult in the good old days. The money spent on buying and keeping a horse was a much larger percentage of one’s income than is the cost of a car. Yes, we have many things today – cars, electricity, heated and air conditioned homes, refrigerators, stoves, computers, phones, etc. – whose sudden loss makes life pretty difficult. But, they have made our lives far more prosperous and healthy and enjoyable than ever before. 

We need to expand our vision, not only with regard to the Lord’s Prayer, but especially when thinking about God. How greatly and abundantly He provides for us! Just consider the promises Jesus gives us in the portion of the Sermon on the Mount that we heard tonight. “Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.” He feeds them very well, apparently, for look at how many there are! The world’s bounty is incredible! “Your heavenly Father clothes the grass of the field,” Jesus says. How beautifully He does so! The bounty of nature and its creatures is incredible. And, “Are you not of more value than they?” So, “Do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For the pagans strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” He knows what you need. We don’t pray, “Give us this day our daily bread” to remind Him to give us what we need, but to remind ourselves that God provides what we need. But, as He reminds us that God is our Father who takes care of us, Jesus also teaches us humility and contentment. His focus in the Lord’s Prayer is the focus of Proverbs 30: “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need.” Contentedness, not the desire for more and more: that is what we need to learn, and that is one of the things God teaches us through things like storms. Be content, and give thanks to your heavenly Father for His provision! 

“Give us this day our daily bread.” When praying this petition we need to expand our view of God’s provision for this life. We also need to expand our vision beyond the needs and provisions of this life. Jesus points this out in His Sermon on the Mount, in words which follow right after His teaching of the Lord’s Prayer. “Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?... Your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Have you thought of your daily bread as including God’s kingdom and His righteousness? I hope so, for this is the most important provision of all. 

Did you know that the word translated “daily” in the Lord’s Prayer is a unique word, one which did not exist until Jesus used it? It is a combination of two words, one of which means “existence.” We are praying for the bread for our existence; hence, our daily bread. But, “existing above” is another possible meaning of the word, and so Jesus could also be teaching us to pray for the bread which exists above. What is that bread? Himself! “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” He says in John 6. And so, in the Lord’s Prayer He is teaching us to pray for the bread we need both for this life and for the life to come. Luther hints of this in His explanation of the Lord’s Prayer in the Large Catechism, for he says:

“Especially is this petition directed against our chief enemy, the devil, whose whole purpose and desire it is to take away or interfere with all we have received from God. He is not satisfied to obstruct and overthrow spiritual order, so that he may deceive men with his lies and bring them under his power, but he also prevents and hinders the establishment of any kind of government or honorable and peaceful relations on earth. This is why he causes so much contention, murder, sedition, and war, why he sends tempest and hail to destroy crops and cattle, why he poisons the air, etc. In short, it pains him that anyone receives a morsel of bread from God and eats it in peace. If it were in his power, and our prayer to God did not restrain him, surely we would not have a straw in the field, a penny in the house, or even our life for one hour — especially those of us who have the Word of God and would like to be Christians.” 

Not surprisingly, for centuries the worship and liturgy of the Church have also taught us that the bread we need above all is the bread that comes down from heaven, namely, Christ. Just think: when do we pray the Lord’s Prayer on Sunday mornings? It is right before we receive Holy Communion. “Give us this day our daily bread,” we pray; and God responds by giving us Christ in His flesh and blood! And so, just as we regularly and faithfully pray the Lord’s Prayer – what Christian would not do so? – let us also regularly and faithfully receive the fulfillment of that prayer by coming to receive our Lord in His Word and in His body and blood. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things” – the provision you need for your daily life – “will be given to you as well.”