Call Me: Give Us

Intro

We’ve spent the past few weeks considering the Lord’s Prayer. The prayer that Jesus taught a crowd to pray. This crowd on the side of the mountain had gathered to hear this new guy, the new rabbi on the block. He’s healing people, he’s talking about the Good News of the kingdom. He is offering himself as the One who had been Promised in the Old Testament.

This prayer has everything about life in it. There’s nothing outside of its scope. If the crowd is interested in talking to their heavenly father, Jesus is telling them that their heavenly father wants to hear from them. He longs to hear from them. What is it that should be part of the cry for help? When there’s nowhere else to turn? When the enemy is closing in?

Jesus gives 7 requests that should be on their list when they go to their heavenly father in their cry for help. The first 3 are all about the heavenly Father. These asks have to do with the stuff of heaven.

Your name be honored as holy.

Your kingdom come.

Your will be done.

On earth as it is in heaven.

The cry for help begins with a request for God to be God. For God to do what God does. For God to do what only God can do… your name be honored as holy. Only God can create the faith necessary for people to call on his name for salvation. Your kingdom come. Only the Father can bring the kingdom to earth and make kingdom citizens. Your will be done. Only God can accomplish his will to save sinners from their sin.

As we come to the fourth big ask, there is a shift, a shift that is anticipated at the end of the third ask. On earth as it is in heaven. When all of this started in the garden of eden, heaven and earth met when the Creator had relationship with the creature, Adam and Eve. All of that changed when Adam and Eve rebelled. They were kicked out of the garden. Earth was separated from heaven. We pray for God to be connected to us on earth, through the calling on his name, through His kingdom being made visible, and for his will to be done. What has been done in heaven, we are asking for it to be done on earth in the same way.

In one sense, heaven will come to earth eventually. At the end of all things. It is what we look forward to in our resurrection at the last day. The New Heaven and New Earth will be heaven on earth. At the same time, the prayer is for that great hope to already begin now. And it has begun in the Person of Jesus. Jesus is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Jesus is God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus is the One who honors God’s name as holy when people call on His name. This isn’t just the sweet by and by. This is the here and now.

So the last 4 big asks are about life on earth. Physical and bodily needs. If the first 3 asks are about God doing something for himself, the last 4 are about God doing something for us.

We live in the here and now. We know God’s kingdom breaks in when we meet. We know his will is done as we receive his Word in faith. But we also know life is terrible. We know things aren’t what they should be. Our lives are a mess. Things happen to us that shouldn’t. We do things we shouldn’t. When there is suffering and pain and evil and when we are in the middle of getting our own way we know that God’s will isn’t being done on earth as it is in heaven.

What’s the temptation when God’s will is not being done on earth? What’s the temptation when things aren’t going the way that we think they should be going? When we don’t get what we think we deserve? We have all sorts of thoughts about God’s will when that will seems to be thwarted. But what we do is we are tempted to take matters into our own hands. We want to be self-sufficient. If God is not going to do his will on earth, well then, let’s do it for him. I have a better will, a better plan.

The next big ask, big ask number 4, pushes us toward something other than self-sufficiency. We pray for God’s will to be done on earth. And when that will is not happening, or taking a little too long, or is not to our liking, Jesus, the One who does God’s will perfectly suggests that we pray this:

Matthew 6:11 “Give us today our daily bread.”

This really is the stuff of earth. Daily bread. The stuff that keeps us alive. The stuff that are the building blocks of life on earth. But notice the first two words.

Give us.

Again, it’s easy to fly right past this when we say the Lord’s prayer. The phrase “give us” is grounded in the very reason Jesus wants people to pray to begin with. They have needs. Spiritual needs. And physical needs. Rather than Jesus giving them a pep talk on “5 great ways to take back control of your life” or encouragement to “just do it”, Jesus says they should be praying “Give us.” This means they turn from themselves as the answer to life’s suffering and they turn to the only one who can help. “Give us.”

We read the story moments ago about the Israelites being hungry in the desert. The language being used to described the bread or manna that was used to feed Israel is fascinating. There is absolutely no mistaking just who is responsible for this bread. It starts off with God telling Moses:

Exodus 16:4 “the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to rain bread from heaven for you.”

Moses isn’t going to deliver the bread. The people aren’t going to feed themselves. God says, I’m going to rain bread from heaven. Rain bread from heaven. There’s no mistaking where the bread comes from. There’s only one who can rain bread from heaven.

And this is repeated multiple times in the story:

The Lord will give you all the bread you want.

It is the bread the LORD has given you to eat.

On the sixth day he will give you two days worth of bread.

Preserve two quarts so that they may see the bread I fed you.

Bread raining from heaven. This is God’s doing. God rains bread. The people simply receive with open hands. God fed his people.

Matthew 6:11 “Give us.”

Give us. “Give us” means we look the only place we can for our life. The necessities of life. We cannot take credit for the bread we eat, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the roof over our heads. In our culture we talk about people being “self-made”. This big ask in this prayer throws that all out the window. There’s only one who can make us. All of life is a gift. It’s not just the food we eat. Our entire life. Our daily activities. Our jobs. Our houses. Our families. Our friends. Our government that provides protection for all of these worldly necessities.

We eat 19 “Billion with a B” loaves of bread every year here in the United States. Americans average a little more than a loaf a week. We have bread everywhere. We don’t lack for bread. If I want bread, so long as there’s not a COVID shutdown in the works, I simply go to the store and get a loaf. I went to Walmart a couple of days ago. The shelves were full of Nature’s Own. I only needed one loaf. I had my pick of a hundred or more. We’re not running out of bread any time soon. So… why would we pray for Daily Bread? Good question. We don’t think much of this prayer. This prayer is the most mundane of all the asks in this prayer.

It’s in the center of this prayer. And it runs to the heart of all of the requests. We are dependent on our Father to give us bread. Those hundreds of loaves at Walmart are God’s gift to you and me. We think we don’t need God’s help to purchase that bread. At the very least, it doesn’t occur to us. We grab the loaf, hit the self-checkout because we bought the bread. The farmer raised the grain, the factory baked the bread, I bought the bread, I made the sandwich and ate the bread. The most mundane of tasks. That happens all of the time in everything we do. From bread to homes to cars to jobs to what I do with my free time. Is it any wonder we start to think of God in the same consumeristic way?

Our heavenly Father wants to hear our cry for help. Over bread. “Give us” means we renounced our self-determination and our self-sufficiency, especially when God’s will on earth is missing. When there is suffering. When there is difficulty. These are also from God’s hand. He allows these into our lives. And instead of resolving to fix it all ourselves, we cry out for help, “Give us.” Give us what we cannot do for ourselves. Give us from your bounty. Give us your provision. Or else we die.

This big ask isn’t simply about Wonder Bread found on the shelves at Walmart. This isn’t simply about earthly provisions. Note that word “our”.

Matthew 6:11 “Give us today our daily bread.”

If this had simply meant Wonder Bread at Walmart, it would read “Give us today daily bread”. “Our” implies there’s more going on here. “Our” implies that this is talking about a bread that is shared. The bread we are praying for is bread that we share with each other. Spiritual bread. That kind of bread that comes down from heaven. Heaven where God resides.

Matthew has already talked about the bread being the Word, what we really need. Right before Jesus sits down for this talk with people he has very difficult conversation with the devil himself. In Matthew chapter 4, the devil tempts Jesus. And among the temptations is this: command these stones to be made into bread. Jesus was very hungry. He hadn’t eaten for 40 days. But Jesus responds with this:

Matthew 4:4 He answered, “Man must not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

The bread that matters is the Word that comes from the mouth of God. Bread from heaven, bread that feeds the soul.

When we are tempted to take matters into our own hands because God’s will isn’t being done on earth, instead of looking to ourselves, we look to the only place where God’s will accomplishes what it is supposed to on earth: The Word. The Sacraments. You want help from heaven? You’ll find it here in the Word. You’ll find it in the Sacrament. Bread from heaven.

Daily bread from heaven.

Give us today our daily bread. This need for Christ himself, the Bread from Heaven is an every day need. His Word is constantly working in our lives. It’s his Word, His promise that we are His, that He has us, that He died for us that makes the difference any given day. Are you tempted to give up? Tempted to give in to fixing stuff yourself? Tempted to do things your own way? Tempted to do something that isn’t in line with God’s will? What you need to remember in those moments is God’s Word. God’s Promise, Christ himself is your life, your meal, your well-being.

You know why we post a verse on Facebook and Instagram every day? Because we need daily bread from heaven. It’s not simply a good Word for the day. It’s a Word that is to be believed. A Word that gives life when received in faith. In the middle of the week. Where God’s will is still being worked out on earth in the mundane of life. In the decisions of life. This is where Jesus meets us. His Word on a daily basis for all of life.

We live in a world that is starving spiritually. All of us have been there a time or two. We have exactly what is necessary for that kind of starvation. The Word. The daily word. The Word from heaven, Christ himself. No matter the need, no matter the crisis, Christ promises us that He is food for our souls. So as he provides that daily Wonder Bread, and we thank him for that daily Wonder Bread and all the other provisions of life’s necessities, we once again place our faith in the Bread from Heaven who is all we need at any given moment… in suffering, in pain, in sickness, even in death. On our lips, we cry out “Give us Jesus.”

Let’s say the words of this prayer again with each other:

Matthew 6:9-13 “Our Father in heaven, your name be honored as holy. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And do not bring us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

Let’s Pray.

Give us our daily bread. Our bread. Ultimately that request lands here, because the request for God to give us bread is for God to give us Jesus. And God has given us Jesus. To live for us and die for us. Because we are sinners. We need His grace and salvation. And Jesus is our Bread for eternal life. Jesus is the bread come down from heaven. And that bread is His body broken for us. That bread, that broken body is right here, right now for us. This is our Bread from Heaven.