The Lord's Prayer, Phrase by Phrase, Part 10: Deliver Us

 

Our Father in heaven,

hallowed be your name,

your kingdom come,

your will be done

on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today our daily bread.

Forgive us our debts,

as we have forgiven our debtors.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from the evil one.

 

Is there an "evil one"?

According the Jesus, there is an evil one. In fact, Jesus speaks clearly and directly of who the "evil one" is. We'll get to that in a minute.

Jesus lived the among regular, everyday people of his time. He saw the injustice, pain, and suffering experienced by the regular people of his day. Jesus was and is God, and Jesus knew the plan and purpose of creation was not suffering or injustice.

Jesus explained evil and the evil one in many ways. During a confrontation with the religious leaders of his time, Jesus said this:

"If God were your father, you would love me for I came from God and am now here. I have not come on my own but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell you the truth you do not believe me! Can any of you prove me guilty of sin? If I am telling you the truth, why don't you believe me? He who belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is you do not belong to God." --John 8:42-47

God created the world and gave it to humans. Due to personal failings and believing the wrong things, we've messed it up. We're not able to fix the world on our own. To compensate for and cancel our mistakes, God offers us a way back. This way is known as salvation, rescue, snatching away from harm or danger.

For this reason, Jesus teaches us to pray "deliver us from the evil one."

We haven't ruined so much of the world on our own. We've had help. When Jesus teaches his followers to pray "deliver us from the evil one", Jesus is teaching us we need to be saved or delivered or rescued from that "one" who has led creation into the pain, sadness, and self-destruction we cannot escape on our own.

God knows we cannot escape without help. We should know this, too, because if we could escape without help, we would have safely escaped a very long time ago. Human history would be completely different.

We can be delivered if we ask. We can be delivered from "the evil one" into the care of our Father, who is in heaven.

 

Next week: a summary and review of the prayer Jesus taught.