From The Back Porch

Pip: From The Back Porch, where the Sermon on the Mount gets a hub-and-spoke diagram and a three-times-a-day prescription — welcome back. Mara: Today Bob takes us deep into the Lord’s Prayer — what it actually is, where it sits in the Sermon on the Mount, and why the early church treated it as a daily discipline rather than a ceremonial recitation. Pip: Let’s start with the prayer itself and what it was always meant to be. The Lord’s Prayer as a Daily Framework Mara: The post opens with a pl

Halfway through His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus seizes the teachable moment to instruct his followers about prayer and how to pray. What follows is what has become one of most recognizable passages of scripture in all of Christendom – The Lord’s Prayer. For this study we use the term “Model Prayer” since Jesus seems to offer it as a “model prayer” in Matthew 6:7-9. There He gives a warning about repetitious prayers and then says, “Pray in this manner.” The Model Prayer is not only in the middle o

What must a nation do to regain God’s favor. That’s no a bad question for Americans to answer today, but it was also a good question for the Nation of Israel to be asking in the time of Jesus. In fact, the sages spent a great deal of time pondering this question as we note from the Jerusalem Talmud. There, in Ta’anit 2:1, we read, “Rabbi Eleazar said: Three things annul [or mitigate] a harsh decree, and they are: Prayer (Tefillah), Charity/Almsgiving (Tzedakah), and Repentance (Teshuvah).” Jesus

What must a nation do to regain God’s favor. That’s no a bad question for Americans to answer today, but it was also a good question for the Nation of Israel to be asking in the time of Jesus. In fact, the sages spent a great deal of time pondering this question as we note from the Jerusalem Talmud. There, in Ta’anit 2:1, we read, “Rabbi Eleazar said: Three things annul [or mitigate] a harsh decree, and they are: Prayer (Tefillah), Charity/Almsgiving (Tzedakah), and Repentance (Teshuvah).” Jesus

In Matthew 5:33-37 Jesus continues His expansion of Jewish law by addressing the issue of vows and oaths as seen in Numbers 30 and Deuteronomy 23. He reminds His listeners that it was said to the ancients that they were not to swear falsely and to always fulfill their oaths to the Lord. Then, in keeping with His previous discourses, He proceeded to expand what was said in the Law, by saying to not make any oath at all. In the legal discussions that became the Midrash, Mishnah, and eventually th

In Matthew 5:33-37 Jesus continues His expansion of Jewish law by addressing the issue of vows and oaths as seen in Numbers 30 and Deuteronomy 23. He reminds His listeners that it was said to the ancients that they were not to swear falsely and to always fulfill their oaths to the Lord. Then, in keeping with His previous discourses, He proceeded to expand what was said in the Law, by saying to not make any oath at all. In the legal discussions that became the Midrash, Mishnah, and eventually th