This message might very well be entitled “How to be humble,” for humility is a quality we must exhibit if we are to embrace the petition from Jesus to forgive. One of the hardest things we’ll ever have to say to another person may be “I was wrong. I made a mistake. Please forgive me.” And to experience God’s forgiveness? Martin Luther says this: “in the presence of God, everyone must duck their head and come into the joy of forgiveness only through the low door of humility.”

Historically, many scholars want to make The Lord’s Prayer, in fact all of the life of prayer, a highly spiritual affair; spiritualizing even this request for bread. Some even think that it’s desirable to be entirely spiritual and they are critical of any who would ask for “things” at all. The historical movement called Gnosticism sought to separate the body and the spirit—explaining that the body was in fact evil and only the spirit was good and therefore connected with God. As a result of this idea, gnostics believed that anything done in the body has no meaning, because real life exists in the spirit realm only.
Christianity of course, rejects this belief. Jesus taught of wholeness, of the human body AND the human spirit as precious to him.

And the Father is in heaven; that place where we believe God is exalted. What if we see heaven and earth as two interlocking arenas of God’s good world? Heaven is God’s space; earth, the world is our space. And God’s design is that one day earth and heaven will be one. God will bring the new creation, the new Jerusalem, where Jesus reigns as king and all is put to rights. Where earth and heaven will be one. The book of Revelation speaks of this new creation: this new heaven and new earth—where earth and heaven will be one. Our Father in heaven…

We address God as Father. God was Jesus’ Father, but Jesus gives us as his followers the great privilege of also addressing God as our Father. Theologian Dale Bruner says this” “Jesus passes on to us his own priceless relationship with God.” OUR Father—Jesus’ Father and our Father too; we are joined with Jesus is confessing God as our Father...The scriptures tell us that we are the adopted sons and daughters of God—God chose us before the foundation of the world to be his; to be in this loving relationship of Father to child with him. “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us that we should be called children of God. And that is what we are.” 1 John 3:1. That’s my favorite verse in the Bible. It’s amazing: that God sees us as his.

Jesus is not just giving the people a new set of rules to live by. This is not just another set of commandments that outlines a 1-2-3 step by step set of guidelines for living. Instead, Jesus is introducing his disciples, and those who were ready to hear on that day to a whole new way of living, a completely new heart attitude. A different way of kingdom living: a way of focusing not inward, but outward.

These are very determined friends! They believed that if they could just get their paralyzed companion to Jesus, that Jesus could heal him. We have a glimpse here of a real, active faith of these people. Friends and faith intersect here; way before they even get to Jesus. For it is the faith of these men that motivates them to actually bring their friend to Jesus. We don’t know if the man on the mat has faith at all! These are really amazing friends. I wonder how many friends WE have that would go to such lengths for us to make sure that we get what we need. Are you that kind of friend? I wonder if I am. For these men make some significant sacrifices, take some real risks and show some bold faith by taking apart or digging up the roof of a stranger’s home to get their friend to Jesus. Friends and faith intersect in this gospel story.