Meaningless Repetition: The Lord's Prayer

When you say things that you believe are biblically sound, but go against the traditions being taught by many Christian churches you can be guilty of, what my friend calls, "slaying Holy Cows." In other words, the truth can be offensive to people who would rather hold on to their church traditions then question them. Case in point is the following post I wrote regarding the so-called "Lord's Prayer." 

“And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words (Matthew 6:7).” How often is this verse, written just prior to the so called Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), mentioned when people say that prayer? The verse is Jesus Christ telling people not be like the Gentiles and continuously use meaningless repetition as you pray. Yet, what do we Gentiles (non-Jews) do? According to one Christian website, “Pray the Lord’s Prayer. You might like to use the whole prayer EVERY DAY - or you may like to focus on one section EACH DAY.” Therefore, rather than read the passage in context and heed the Lord’s instruction, we ignore what Jesus said and repeat the prayer every day or, at the very least, incorporated it as part of our weekly worship services.  Thus, the passage of scripture becomes a part of what we do as we go through the motions of our Christian experience. No attention is paid to the context or the meaning of the entire passage. The result is that something we do in an effort to honor the Lord and increase our faith is actually something He told us to avoid doing!

Furthermore, the actual prayer talks of things that actually do not apply to us as Christians today. For instance, Matthew 6:12 reads, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” Our debts have already been forgiven because of the death of Jesus Christ. There is no longer a need to ask Him to forgive us. Instead we are told to “Forgive as the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:13).” We do not forgive others in order for God to forgive us; we forgive others because God has forgiven us. Then there is Matthew 6:13; “And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”  Christians don’t ask God to deliver us from the evil one because “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Colossians 1:13).” Satan may try to deceive us, but he cannot have us. We are safe from him because God “has sealed us and given us the Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee (2 Corinthians 1:22).” We must learn what the New Covenant says about who we are in Christ, so as not to participate in rituals that take away from our walk with the Lord rather than enhance it."

A friend of mine responded with the following:

Matter of opinion there brother ... everyone prays in their own way and to say that it is "meaningless" is unfair and a little myopic ... example, if you think of the Lord's Prayer in the context of the Rosary you will know that in that context it allows you to go through the suffering that Jesus Christ went through for us and is a testament to His sacrifice. In reality, it is not "meaningless" at all but a way to honor Him and contemplate on how you can be a better human being in light of His sacrifice ... different strokes for different folks I always say, but please be careful in how you convey your "interpretations" of prayer ... hasta!! ;0)"

My response was short:

We will have to agree to disagree. I believe scripture is clear as I tried to point out. Jesus is the one that used the word "meaningless," it is not my opinion. I was raised Catholic, so I know all about the Rosary, etc. None of that is scriptural. If my "interpretation" gets people to test what they believe, then I can thank God for that. But, I thank you for your thoughts. If we can't have agreement, we can at least have clarity. God Bless.

As you can see, her objection and not so subtle warning to me, did not once address the scriptures I posted. Nor did she use any scriptures to support her own belief. In fact, she included another tradition of her church, the Rosary, as if that somehow legitimizes saying the "Lord's Prayer" repeatedly. Her entire response is based on church experiences and what she feels about saying the "Lord's Prayer." Sadly, she is not unlike a lot of people who see scripture through the prism of their denominations teachings instead of seeing those teachings through the prism of Scripture. "The Pharisees and the Scribes asked Him, "Why do your disciples not walk according to the traditions of the elders, but eat their bread with impure hands?” And He said to them, “Rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, But their heart is far away from Me. ‘But in vain do they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. He was also saying to them, “You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition. (Mark 7:5-9).” If it feels good, do it, right? Is not that the general idea behind holding on to tradition at the expense of truth? When you question traditions, what you risk is more than the loss of those traditions. You risk losing respect, friends and even a way of life because nobody likes finding out their wrong. The cost may be too high for them to bear.