This, then, is how you should pray: “‘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. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'” Matthew 6:9-13
“A schematic and literal translation follows: Our Father who is in heaven, Your name may it be sanctified (against idolatry), Your reign may it come to us (for life), Your will may it be done (against domination). Give us today our daily bread, Forgive us our debts, for we have already forgiven our debtors. Do not let us fall into temptation. Free us from the evil.
In summary we have seven elements: The concerns of God: God’s name, God’s reign, and God’s will. The concerns of the community: our bread, our debts. The threats: temptation and evil.
The community that prays the Lord’s Prayer is a poor community that needs its daily bread and is overwhelmed by debts, but it is also a community in solidarity with other poor people who are indebted to them. The taxes of Rome, of King Herod, and of the Jerusalem Temple were unpayable. Many lost their homes, their land, and even their freedom because of debts. The forgiveness of debts was therefore a significant liberating reality among the peasant communities of Galilee. the petition for the forgiveness of debts belongs to the tradition of the Sabbatical Year and the Jubilee. Therefore the Lord’s prayer is the Jubilee prayer par excellence.
The Lord’s prayer uses the same terminology and theology as the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:23-25). In this parable we have a king who forgave ten thousand talents to his servant, but the servant did not forgive another servant the miserable sum of one hundred denarii. This parable is found in Matthew’s discourse about the church (Matthew 13:1-35). In light of this ecclesiological parable and in light of the whole Sabbath and Jubilee traditions, we should interpret the petition of the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our debts” as a petition to God to proclaim a Sabbatical or Jubilee Year, a year in which all debts should be forgiven. The debt that is here requested to be forgiven is not a debt to God (a sin) but debts that the community has to other persons. It is a matter of real economic debts. The one who prays is a poor community overwhelmed by its debts (and also overwhelmed by the lack of bread, by temptations, and by evil in general).”
Pablo Richard in “Now is the Time to Proclaim the Biblical Jubilee” in God’s Economy: Biblical Studies in Latin America, edited by Ross and Gloria Kinsler (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2005) 51-52.
This exploration of Jubilee related to generosity has brought the theme to the heart of our Christian faith. The prayer that Jesus taught His disciples to pray emerges before our very eyes as the Jubilee prayer. It challenges us to care more about other people than money, to forgive debts because we realize that our debts have been forgiven, and to call for help to avoid temptation and evil.
While the social and economic factors of the Galilee setting differ from today, the troubles look remarkably similar. Most people have debt and lots of it. Some got it from poor decisions they made, a few had major crisis situations wipe them out, while others got there because the global economic system told them that everyone relies on debt to function.
So what does generosity look like in a world filled with debt and indebtedness? Followers of Jesus must proclaim Jubilee. We must acknowledge God’s name as Sovereign, that His reigns guides our lives, and that His will dictates our decisions. From there, we trust Him to supply, and we become a community that forgives debts realizing the forgiveness we have received from God and avoiding evil and temptation with God’s help.
The perfect picture of this community is the early church in texts like Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-35. God help us become people who care not for accumulating possessions but share everything we have to help brothers and sisters who are enslaved to debt, as C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, “even to the crippling and endangering of your own position” (87). Make us into a Jubilee community that shares generously, Lord.
Sharing in light of Jubilee is not you giving your money to me to help me because you are such a nice person, or vice versa. As God owns everything and since Jesus declared Jubilee, our openhandedness reflects submission to God’s name, reign, and will and results in restoration. This behavior is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit and sustained by grace, which is why the Scriptures describe “generosity” as a fruit of the Spirit.